Axis raises $5 million in round led by Galaxy Ventures to launch onchain yield protocol for USD, bitcoin and gold

Axis, a quantitative yield protocol aiming to bring institutional trading strategies onchain, has raised $5 million in a private funding round led by Galaxy Ventures.

The round was four times oversubscribed, signaling what the team describes as increasing institutional demand for yield infrastructure deployed on public blockchains. OKX Ventures, FalconX, GSR, Maven 11, CMS Holdings, and Aave Chan Initiative founder Marc Zeller also participated in the round, though no valuation was disclosed.

In a statement on Wednesday, the project also announced that $100 million in private capital from existing limited partners has already been deployed through Axis's closed beta. The funds are stress-testing its arbitrage engine, designed to produce market-neutral returns. According to the team, the strategies, aimed at both institutional and retail participants, have generated a Sharpe ratio of 4.9 to date, with large price swings in bitcoin, ether, or gold not affecting performance.

"Axis brings the precision and transparency of institutional trading to decentralized markets," Galaxy Ventures General Partner Will Nuelle said. "Their delta-neutral framework represents a risk-managed yield infrastructure built by a team with a strong track record, designed to support real adoption."

Building an onchain multi-asset yield layer

Axis said it aims to address gaps in existing digital asset yield products, which often rely on "opaque or speculative" strategies. The protocol brings market-neutral models onchain, allowing performance to be tracked and verified in real time, via what the team describes as a "multi-asset yield hub" to provide uncorrelated returns across USD, bitcoin, and gold.

The protocol's first product, USDx, is a dollar-linked digital asset intended to maintain its value while earning yield through the arbitrage engine, with bitcoin- and gold-based offerings to follow. 

"We started Axis to offer competitive yield with the transparency needed for real institutional adoption," Axis co-founder Chris Kim said. "What began as an idea has grown into a world-class team from quantitative trading, DeFi and traditional finance."

Axis will launch on Plasma , a new Bitfinex-backed stablecoin-focused blockchain, to keep operating costs low and enable higher yields, according to the project. Infrastructure partners include Veda for vault infrastructure and custody, Accountable for independent reserve and performance verification, and Chainlink for onchain Proof of Reserves and data feeds.

The team said it plans to open its initial Origin Vault this year with a target of up to $1 billion in deposits ahead of a public token sale and full protocol launch in early 2026.