Polychain, FBG lead investment in Republic’s cryptocurrency ‘dark pool’

Republic Protocol, an anticipated decentralized ‘dark pool’ for cryptocurrency trading that raised 35,000 ETH in its public crowdsale, has been backed by an all-star lineup of cryptocurrency investors, including Polychain Capital, FBG Capital, Signum Capital, Huobi Capital and more. The outpouring of institutional support perhaps signifies the need for a large order marketplace in cryptocurrency to combat volatility.

Republic is building a decentralized dark pool protocol for the trading of cryptocurrency pairs across the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. Trades on Republic will be placed on a hidden order book and are matched through an engine built on a multi-party computation protocol. The big potential upside for Republic is that it could potentially bring a measure of price stability to cryptocurrency markets by allowing large orders to be executed without creating market fluctuations.

“We are truly humbled to have such an outpouring of support, not only from the legendary digital asset investors who invested into Republic but to everyone who has participated in our crowdsale and has supported our project,” said Taiyang Zhang CEO of Republic Protocol. “We have an amazing team and technology that we will be building over the coming months and we look forward to providing a real, tangible product that will be a lasting fixture in cryptocurrency trading for years to come.”

“We are extremely excited by the possible use-cases for decentralized dark pools to offer more tailored liquidity solutions,” said Ryan Zurrer, Principal, and Venture Partner at Polychain Capital. “Republic represents a really compelling technical approach using MPC order matching for this critical infrastructure. This initiative is led by a very talented technical team and we are excited to support their growth.”

“There has been a strong demand among OTC traders for a decentralized dark pool exchange to execute large orders,” said Gordon Chen, Partner at FBG Capital. “We couldn’t wait to be the pioneer user of Republic Protocol and help expand this alternative liquidity network with such a talented team.”

A dark pool is a type of private exchange, which are common on Wall Street and are operated by almost every major institutional investor from JP Morgan Chase to Goldman Sachs, where financial assets and instruments are traded and matched by an engine running on a hidden order book. Dark pools are estimated to represent approximately 10-15% of the trading volume of all US stock trades.

“Republic is taking a common financial tool from wall street, decentralizing it, and applying that to the world of cryptocurrency,” said Stelian Balta, Founder of Hyperchain Capital. “The dark pool being built by Republic Protocol will utilize the trustless nature of decentralization which is a crucial feature because people placing large orders would not have to put their trust into a centralized exchange. They have an experienced team and I’m confident they will build an amazing product in the months to come.”