Paradigm Leads $11.6M Series A for Fully-onchain DEX Kuru on Monad

On July 7, Monad-based decentralized exchange Kuru announced a successful $11.6 million Series A funding round, led by Paradigm. The investment aims to support Kuru’s vision of delivering a high-performance, fully on-chain order book exchange on Monad’s Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain.

"This funding will give us the resources we need to continue scaling our team and bring the vision of a fully on-chain orderbook to life on Monad mainnet," the Kuru team stated in their official press release.

The round also saw participation from several notable angel investors, including Viktor Bunin (Credibly Neutral), Zagabond, Tristan Yver, Alex Watts, Jordan Hagan, 3nes, Will Price, Shreyas Hariharan, Auri, and Joe Takayama, among others. Earlier in July 2024, the team had also secured $2 million in seed funding, led by Electric Capital.

Kuru is building a fully on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) exchange on Monad. The protocol aims to bridge the gap between decentralized and centralized exchanges, offering users the best of both: low slippage, self-custody, and composability.

Unlike traditional AMM-based DEXs, Kuru uses an order book model, which gives traders more control over price execution. The platform is tailored for market makers, with contracts optimized for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling limit order placement and cancellation at a low, consistent gas cost.

Paradigm’s Dual Investment in CLOB Exchanges Draws Attention

Paradigm, one of the most prominent crypto venture firms, led funding rounds for both Kuru (CLOB on Monad) and GTE (CLOB on MegaETH) within just a few weeks. This dual backing of projects, both developing central limit order book (CLOB) exchanges on different chains, has sparked discussion within the crypto community.