- The investment round included several venture capital firms that will play a key role in the network’s planned mainnet launch
- Proceeds will be used to advance Maverick’s proprietary Automated Liquidity Placement algorithm and to strengthen its position in the DeFi derivatives market
Decentralized derivatives protocol Maverick announced on Tuesday that it has closed an external funding round, raising $8 million.
The round was led by California-based crypto fund Pantera and included participation from Circle Ventures, Coral Ventures, Altonomy, Tron Foundation, Gemini Frontier Fund, Jump Crypto, LedgerPrime and Spartan Group.
Maverick says it will use the capital to accelerate delivery of its Automated Liquidity Placement (ALP) model and to expand its open asset-listing functionality to a broader market. Consistent with the company’s mission, a portion of the proceeds will also support initiatives aimed at transforming the DeFi derivatives landscape.
Maverick well positioned to meet demand in DeFi derivatives
Commenting on the investment, Pantera CIO Joey Krug said Maverick is well situated to meet growing demand for derivatives built on mid-cap and long-tail assets—segments that are currently underserved by existing exchanges.
“DeFi needs someone to answer the demand for derivatives built on the mid-cap and long-tail assets that are underserved by existing exchanges. Pantera believes Maverick is the protocol to accomplish this. Its innovative market structure is poised to capture a significant chunk of the market by offering low slippage to traders and low-maintenance, capital-efficient staking to LPs.”
Maverick’s operating model addresses common challenges traders face when trading high- and mid-cap tokens on perpetual markets. Traditional perpetual exchanges often struggle to list new assets quickly because creating a healthy, sustainable market typically requires substantial capital and active management.
The Gaussian Automated Liquidity Placement enables the creation of markets that deliver comparable trading experiences while using fewer resources. The ALP placement algorithm provides two primary benefits.
First, it allows traders to use any ERC-20 token as collateral, enabling trading activity beyond the limited set of high market-cap coins. Second, it reduces slippage and improves the efficiency of liquidity placement, helping markets remain attractive to traders and liquidity providers alike.
“With Maverick, we are here to change that paradigm by leveraging ALP. Markets can now be created by the community with way less capital, but still offer a great experience to traders,” said Maverick co-founder Alvin Xu.
By combining community-driven market creation with capital-efficient liquidity mechanisms, Maverick aims to expand access to derivatives for a wider range of digital assets while offering lower cost and better execution for traders. The new funding will support product development, algorithm enhancement and the broader rollout of the protocol’s features as it moves toward mainnet launch and broader adoption in the DeFi derivatives sector.