What it does
Ostium combines onchain derivatives with an offchain hedging layer. Collateral and position settlement use Arbitrum contracts, while institutional partners manage corresponding exposure in external markets. This differs from a conventional book of resting buy and sell orders.
The newer architecture places a junior loss buffer beneath senior liquidity capital, with reconciliation between the two books. That structure changes how market exposure is managed; it does not insure vault deposits against an exploit. Trading and providing OLP liquidity therefore need separate evaluation.
Security history is material here. Ostium’s July 29 post-mortem reports that an attack on offchain infrastructure removed 23,752,746 USDC from the public OLP vault on July 15. The report says trader margin was not withdrawn through that attack path, and trading resumed on July 23 after an infrastructure migration. Resumed trading should not be confused with completed recovery for liquidity providers.
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Which network does Ostium use?
Ostium’s trading and vault contracts are deployed on Arbitrum, with USDC collateral and onchain position settlement. Institutional partners hedge risk offchain. An Arbitrum transaction therefore confirms a protocol action, not that every part of pricing, hedging and reconciliation is performed by the chain.
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Where it stands out
- One venue covers several asset classes, which makes it possible to compare currency, commodity and crypto exposure without treating all markets as interchangeable.
- Oracle-based execution provides a different route to prices from a perpetual order book; the public market reference specifies hours and risk parameters.
- Verified contracts and published audit reports make parts of the settlement implementation inspectable. Audit scope does not extend to every offchain dependency.
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What you can do
- 01USDC-collateralized leveraged positions across stocks, ETFs, commodities, indices, FX and crypto.
- 02Market-specific trading hours, leverage limits and opening fees; traditional markets are not all available continuously.
- 03A documented points program with trading contributions and a referral score boost, separate from any realised trading return.
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Who’s behind it
Ostium Labs was co-founded by Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro. Its financing announcement identifies General Catalyst and Jump Crypto as Series A co-leads. Market-making or hedging relationships are operational arrangements and should not automatically be classified as venture investments.
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Funding and investors
In December 2025, Ostium disclosed $24 million of new capital comprising a $20 million Series A and a $4 million strategic round. The combined announcement names additional investors without unambiguously assigning each participant to one component. It reports $27.8 million raised in total at that time.
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- 2025-12-03$20 million
Series A
Reported investorsGeneral Catalyst · Jump Crypto
Co-led the Series A. The combined announcement also names Wintermute Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Crucible Capital among new backers, without a complete round-by-round allocation.
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- 2025-12-03$4 million
Strategic round
Disclosed alongside the Series A; individual strategic-round allocations were not specified. Avoid counting the $24 million combined headline as an additional third round.
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Referral benefits and conditions
The points guide documents a 5% score boost for a referred user. This is a scoring benefit, not a 5% rebate on trading fees or a guaranteed token allocation.
The referral must be applied under the points program rules. The referrer’s score share is separate from the trader’s boost. Campaign multipliers and selected-market discounts have their own windows and should be checked individually. No ArbuzDAO code is configured.
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Fees & availability
Fees and costs
Opening commissions vary by market, generally 0.03%–0.10%; a normal close has no separate closing commission. Oracle actions incur a documented $0.10 charge subject to the refund rules. All markets now use rollover charges, including crypto. Profitable exits within 15 seconds can incur an early-close charge capped by realised profit. Always inspect the specific market.
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Eligibility and availability
The interface terms exclude the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Philippines and other restricted territories. Market hours, rollover and liquidation affect positions. Audit coverage does not remove oracle or offchain hedging risk. Before providing OLP liquidity, check current vault availability and security or recovery notices separately from trader access.