Axis, a quantitative yield protocol bridging institutional trading strategies with onchain transparency, today announced a $5 million private funding round led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from FalconX, OKX Ventures, CMT Digital, Maven 11, GSR, CMS Holdings, and Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative, among others. The round was 4x oversubscribed, underscoring growing institutional demand for real-yield infrastructure that operates on public blockchains.
Alongside the raise, $100 million in private capital from existing limited partners has been deployed through Axis’s closed beta, powering the protocol’s delta-neutral arbitrage engine. This live capital is stress-testing market-neutral strategies that have already achieved a Sharpe ratio of 4.9, demonstrating robust risk-adjusted returns. By design, large price swings in Bitcoin, ETH, or gold do not impact fund performance, allowing Axis to deliver sustainable, market-independent yield to institutional and retail participants alike.
The digital asset market still lacks reliable, transparent ways to earn yield that work for both institutions and everyday users. Most existing products rely on speculative activity or opaque strategies, making returns unpredictable and hard to verify. Axis solves this by bringing market-neutral, institutional-grade strategies fully on-chain, so performance is measurable, consistent, and built for scale.
Axis is building what it calls a “multi-asset yield hub,” a single platform designed to provide uncorrelated, verifiable returns across the world's primary stores of value: USD, Bitcoin, and gold. The protocol will launch first with USDx, a dollar-linked digital asset designed to hold its value while earning yield through Axis’s arbitrage engine, with Bitcoin and gold based yield products to follow. By combining automated trade execution with verifiable transparency, Axis is creating a diversified ecosystem where users can earn sustainable yield across major stores of value. This positions Axis as a future-proof yield layer aligned with the growing global demand for USD-backed digital assets and onchain dollar dominance.
"We started Axis to offer competitive yield with the transparency needed for real institutional adoption," said Chris Kim, Co-Founder of Axis. "What began as an idea has grown into a world-class team from quantitative trading, DeFi, and traditional finance. With Galaxy’s backing, we’re raising the standard for yield protocols and building transparent financial services at scale."
“Axis brings the precision and transparency of institutional trading to decentralized markets,” said Will Nuelle, General Partner at Galaxy Ventures. “Axis brings the precision and transparency of institutional trading to decentralized markets,” said Will Nuelle, General Partner at Galaxy Ventures. “Their delta-neutral framework represents a risk-managed yield infrastructure built by a team with a strong track record, designed to support real adoption.”
Axis will launch on Ethereum and Plasma, a blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins, to ensure high efficiency and low operational costs.. This infrastructure builds on the team's proven experience, having historically processed billions in monthly volume with similar strategies. Supporting infrastructure partners include Veda, which will provide vault infrastructure and custody for the Origin Vault; Accountable, which offers independent verification of reserves and performance data; and Chainlink, which provides onchain Proof of Reserves and data feeds for USDx and sUSDx.
Axis will open its Origin Vault in Q1 2026, giving early users access to the protocol’s yield engine and participation in its governance token allocation program. The Origin Vault, targeting up to $1 billion in deposits, will be followed by a public token sale, and full protocol launch
