Axis raised $5 million in a private funding round led by Galaxy Ventures, with other participants being OKX Ventures, FalconX, GSR, Maven 11, CMS Holdings, DeFi advocate Marc Zeller, and other prominent institutions. Axis aims to provide transparent, market-neutral yield in decentralized ecosystems. Investors participating in the round, which was oversubscribed by almost 4x, illustrate the unprecedented demand for risk-adjusted yield solutions in crypto.
Axis aims to build the infrastructure interweaving professional strategy execution for active trading with accountability on the blockchain. This recently secured investment will enable Axis to provide yield offerings on DeFi products to the retail and institutional market, which will provide access to investment opportunities within multi-strategy hedge funds and proprietary trading desks.
Building Fully Onchain, Market-Neutral Yield Systems
Axis aims to build a fully onchain yield engine to achieve multi-asset yield in USD, bitcoin, and gold. Axis focuses on market-neutral strategies — strategies that achieve returns regardless of the market’s movements — as opposed to other crypto yield platforms which leverage volatile assets, provide speculative returns, or make directional bets.
A Quantitative, Market-Neutral Yield Framework
Axis employs arbitrage and delta-neutral strategies at Centralized and Decentralized Exchanges, in the Derivatives Market and across Spot and Futures Spreads, and aims to capture profit from pricing inefficiencies. This model limits the exposure to volatility. Performance is not correlated to whether prices go up or down, even if BTC, ETH, or gold experience pronounced moves in value.
Strong Beta Performance and Testing on $100M
During private beta, Axis achieved notable success. The team currently claims to have deployed an arbitrage engine that achieved a Sharpe ratio of 4.9, which is a sign of obtaining solid risk-adjusted returns of that magnitude on stable risk.
To stress test under live conditions, Axis deployed $100M of capital from private partners. The system was observed in the episodes of: BTC volatility spikes, macro uncertainty, large exchange liquidity voids, stablecoin de-peg, spikes in Derivatives funding.
Of all the adversities Axis was able to deliver, it kept stable the performance of the yield engine and so reinforced the confidence in the model to work for a reasonably long stretch.
Transparency as Axis’s Core Differentiator
Axis claims that the greatest competitive edge is radical transparency. Most Yield products in crypto operate closed trading desks and provide little visibility on execution, risk, or capital use and allocation. Axis is the reverse.
Visible Performance on the Blockchain
Users are provided with up-to-the-moment yield performance data issued on-chain.
- Users of the system receive:
- Verified proof of gains
- Supervision of utilized strategies
- Real-time asset movement
- Transparent risk exposure
This strategy lowers the amount of blind trust required and provides the protocol with real-time accountability. This kind of responsiveness is required more than ever in the wake of failures like FTX, Celsius, and opaque CeFi lenders.
System USDx and Multi-Asset Yield Suite
Axis brings USDx to the market, the first of its kind, a dollar-linked asset that provides:
- Stable unit value
- Fully on-chain
- Sustainable yield through an arbitrage engine
Unlike traditional stablecoins, USDx utilizes a market-neutral strategy and, therefore, does not assume price risk.
New Bitcoin and Gold Variants
Axis will first focus on USDx and continue to expand its product offering:
- BTCx – Market-neutral yield on Bitcoin
- GOLDx – Yielding gold-linked digital asset
- Vaults that yield and combine USD with BTC and Gold for diversification
This tri-asset suite provides end users diversification while continuing to smooth market cycles, protecting with volatility.
Optimized Deployment on Plasma
For surplus profits, Axis made the decision to deploy on Plasma, a blockchain backed by Bitfinex and tailored to super-efficient stablecoin settlement and mini-rollups. The advantages Plasma has to offer include:
- Lower gas fees
- Faster settlement
- Fewer operational costs
- Narrow operational margins
- Tight compliance frameworks
- Institutional grade underpinning
Lower operational costs incurred by Axis yield directly to higher net yields dispersible to the users, a quintessential element for yield-centric yield farm.
Partners of Axis for Security and Audit
Axis enlisted top tier specialists for the safety and clarity of the operations:
- Veda – Custody for institutions
- Accountable – Audits of portfolio in real-time
- Chainlink – Proof-of-reserves by
These alliances act to help secure the fundamental element of transparency and risk control in the yield markets by DeFi: the trust of the users.
Before Launch in 2026, $1 Billion in Deposits Targeted
Axis is working on the Origin Vault, a yield vault of the next generation for the massive scale of liquidity expected. Building up to $1 Billion in deposits is the aim for the 2026; for the full protocol which is expected to be launched in early.
Axis will also be selling a public token expected to act as a utility and governance tool in the ecosystem aligned with the mainnet launch.
Thanks to its excellent roster of supporters, its verified infrastructure, and its accountability, Axis is setting itself up to be a serious player among new emerging DeFi yield protocols.
The Bigger Picture: Why Axis Exists
As institutions begin to tap into onchain finance, the demand for consistent, reputable, and transparent yield has grown greatly. Axis has a hand in the intersection of:
– Trading sophistication from the institutions
– Trustless verification onchain
– Diversification across multiple assets
– Managed returns with reduced risk
If it comes to fruition, Axis will be one of the first in a new generation of DeFi that unlocks market-neutral, institutional-level strategies for the average user. This is a significant development in the DeFi space.
