Variational

Variational is a decentralized on-chain derivatives infrastructure protocol that enables fully customizable, peer-to-peer trading of any derivative contract. Built on Arbitrum, the protocol automates the complete lifecycle of bilateral trades — from pricing and margining to funding, settlement, and liquidations — without requiring a central order book or market maker intermediary. This RFQ-based (Request for Quote) architecture allows traders to create contracts on virtually any asset, from major tokens to exotic structures and thinly traded underlyings. The protocol supports multiple applications: Omni provides simple perpetual futures trading with a clean interface for retail users, while Pro serves advanced traders and institutions with fully customizable OTC derivatives capabilities. Variational charges zero trading fees, with only a minimal 0.1 USDC fee on deposits and withdrawals for spam protection. A unique "Loss Refunds" feature gives traders up to a 5% chance to have losing trades fully refunded. Founded in 2021 by Lucas Schuermann and Edward Yu — who previously co-founded and sold a quantitative hedge fund and led the engineering team at one of crypto's largest market makers — Variational has raised $11.8 million in seed funding co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India), with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, HackVC, Brevan Howard, North Island Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Caladan, and Zoku Ventures.

Variational currently has $111.01M in Total Value Locked (TVL).