Ali ImranSINGAPORE, May 21, 2026 (ZEEST MEDIA) — Building a usable trading product on-chain is one thing. Building one that traders return to, while a regulatory framework is still being written around them, is another. IOTrader, the BNB Smart Chain protocol that has spent the past 11 months stitching perpetual futures, prediction markets, custom event markets and AI-assisted trading into a single wallet experience, has secured $3.8 million in strategic backing from a roster of seven new investors: Animoca Brands, ViaBTC Capital, Everwood Capital, CANDAQ, WAGMI Ventures, Credit Scend and Web3 Labs.
Animoca Brands leads the new entrants alongside ViaBTC Capital, the investment arm of one of the longest-running Bitcoin mining operations. CANDAQ, Everwood Capital, WAGMI Ventures, Credit Scend and Web3 Labs round out the group, bringing coverage across institutional finance, consumer Web3, infrastructure and gaming.
The platform itself crossed $1 billion in cumulative trading volume earlier this year and currently sits inside the top 20 perpetual DEXs by activity, per aggregator data. Its active user base reaches into the tens of thousands of monthly traders, a number that has grown organically through partner campaigns rather than aggressive token incentives, since the IOI token has not yet launched.
The protocol’s smart contracts have completed third-party security audit. The IOI token whitepaper has been notified to the Central Bank of Ireland under the European Union’s MiCA framework, and the token carries an assigned Digital Token Identifier for institutional reference.
What separates this round from the steady drumbeat of crypto funding press releases is the underlying engagement profile. Most pre-TGE projects raise capital first and build product second. IOTrader appears to have done the reverse, building a working product with measurable volume before stacking the cap table. The seven new backers, Animoca Brands, ViaBTC Capital, Everwood Capital, CANDAQ, WAGMI Ventures, Credit Scend and Web3 Labs, are joining what aggregator data already describes as an operating business.
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