Crypto Exchange Startup Rails Launches Trading Platform After Raising $14 Million

Crypto exchange startup Rails announced on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, that it has launched its trading platform after securing millions in funding from investors including Kraken, CMCC Global, Slow Ventures, Round13 Capital, and Quantstamp. The company's latest $14 million raise brings its total funding to $20 million to date, following a $6 million equity round completed in March of last year.

Rails offers what it describes as a hybrid model, aiming to combine the execution speed of centralized platforms with the asset control and transparency typically associated with on-chain custody. The company states its platform utilizes a centralized matching engine for performance, while settling trades on-chain through cryptographic techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs and Merkle trees. Satraj Bambra, CEO of Rails, told Decrypt that "All transactions are rolled up and posted on-chain to ensure transparency and verifiability." Zero-knowledge proofs and Merkle trees are cryptographic techniques that allow entities to verify account balances and trades without exposing user data, thereby ensuring both privacy and tamper-proof transparency on-chain. Bambra added that the on-chain components are designed to allow for greater user control over assets without compromising execution speed.

The exchange states that this approach, combined with Rails' market maker structure that uses transparent dedicated capital, implements "traditional finance safeguards while maintaining the benefits of decentralized asset control." Sam Lessin, General Partner at Slow Ventures, commented in a statement, "As someone who's watched this industry wrestle with performance versus self-custody for years, Rails is the first exchange I've seen where neither security nor speed is compromised."

Rails will initially support perpetual futures contracts collateralized with stablecoins, rather than spot trading. The exchange currently does not plan to expand to assets outside those supported on Ink, a layer-2 blockchain developed by Kraken that will exclusively host the platform. Rails was founded in 2023 by the team behind BlockEQ, a crypto wallet that was acquired by Canadian exchange Coinsquare in 2018.