Vest Labs Raises $13M to Expand Live-Market Prop Trading

| cryptobriefing.com
Vest Labs has raised $13 million in a seed round led by Portal Ventures to expand its live-market proprietary trading business. The New York startup provides qualifying traders with company capital to trade perpetual futures tied to cryptocurrencies, equity indices and commodities around the clock. Vest shares trading profits with traders instead of relying on fees for simulated-account challenges; traders can keep up to 80% of profits, or as much as 95% on some account types. By late September, Vest reported about 27,000 traders, with roughly 26% having received payouts in USDC. Monthly active traders and trading volume had each risen by more than 300% month over month. Vest plans to use the funding to develop a mobile app, expand its team and add more tradable assets. Its exchange uses the zkRisk risk-pricing engine. Executives from Citadel Securities, BlackRock and KKR also invested in the round in their personal capacities. The company had previously raised about $10 million from investors including Jane Street, Amber Group and QCP Capital. The funding supports Vest Labs’ growth but does not, by itself, signal a broad shift in cryptocurrency prices.
Neutral
The $13 million financing is positive for Vest Labs’ ability to develop its trading platform, add assets and attract users, but it does not directly change the fundamentals or supply of any specific cryptocurrency. The reported growth in traders, payouts and volume is company-specific and is not evidence of a broad increase in crypto-market demand. In the short term, the news may draw attention to crypto perpetual futures and funded-trader platforms, but it is unlikely to create a sustained price move in a particular token. Over the longer term, Vest’s expansion could modestly support derivatives-market activity if it brings in more participants. However, that effect is indirect and depends on adoption, trading volumes and risk controls; the funding announcement alone offers no clear directional signal for crypto prices or market stability.