Ripple backs $25m round for crypto platform Bitnomial

Ripple led a $25 million funding round for Bitnomial, a US-based and regulated digital asset derivatives exchange and brokerage platform.

Bitnomial announced on October 15 that Ripple, the company behind XRP (XRP), led the funding round. This comes as the platform prepares for the public launch of Botanical, the startup’s perpetual futures trading platform.

According to details in a press release, Botanical is designed to offer users access to perpetual futures, traditional futures and options trading. The platform will remain in closed beta, but its public launch will provide users with products that comply with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulations.

Bitnomial is a CFTC registered platform operating as a futures commission merchant through Bitnomial Clearing, LLC.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said Bitnomial is pioneering a new era for the regulated derivatives market.

“Bitnomial’s approach to bringing offshore trading models to the US derivatives industry presents a significant market opportunity as it creates a compliant derivatives market for digital assets such as XRP.”

Brad Garlinghouse.

Garlinghouse added that Bitnomial plans to leverage Ripple’s soon-to-launch stablecoin RLUSD for the swap. Notably, Ripple has listed various exchanges and platforms as RLUSD launch partners.

On the regulatory front, Bitnomial recently filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the agency’s continued reference to XRP as a security. After the SEC filed its own notice of appeal in the Ripple v. SEC case, Ripple filed a notice of cross-appeal.

In July 2023, a judge in the United States ruled that XRP is not a security and that secondary sales on exchanges alone do not constitute security investment contracts.