Ostium Hits $10 Billion Trading Volume Milestone

Ostium, a decentralized perpetuals exchange built on Arbitrum, has officially surpassed $10 billion in cumulative trading volume. This marks a major milestone for the protocol’s growth and user adoption.

Key takeaways

• Ostium Labs surpasses $10 billion in cumulative trading volume on Arbitrum.
• Platform offers synthetic perpetuals for forex, commodities, indices, and crypto.
• Shared Liquidity Layer ensures deep liquidity and reduced LP risk.
• Event-driven trading sees 550% volume surges during major macro news.

About Ostium Labs

Launched in 2022 by Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium enables permissionless trading of synthetic assets. These assets include forex pairs, commodities like gold and oil, global stock indices, and cryptocurrencies. The platform distinguishes itself by combining TradFi-style exposure with DeFi efficiency. It is offering 24/7 trading access, self-custody, and low fees on Arbitrum’s scalable infrastructure.

At the heart of Ostium’s architecture lies its Shared Liquidity Layer (SLL), which features a Liquidity Buffer and Market Making Vault (MMV). This setup helps mitigate risks for liquidity providers while supporting deep liquidity during volatile trading conditions. With price feeds powered by Chainlink and custom oracles, traders on Ostium enjoy precise market data for synthetic assets which is an essential element for derivatives platforms.

The protocol’s rise was accelerated by a $3.5 million funding round in October 2023, led by General Catalyst and LocalGlobe, with participation from Balaji Srinivasan. More recently, its March 2025 Points Program incentivized trading and liquidity provision, pushing TVL from $5.5 million to $63 million in just one month.

Macro catalysts drive real-world asset volumes on-chain

The platform’s ability to respond to macroeconomic events has set it apart. Following China’s QE policy in September 2024, Ostium witnessed a 550% surge in trading volumes for FX and commodity perpetuals. On high-volatility days, real-world asset volumes even outpaced crypto trading by a factor of eight, indicating growing demand for event-driven DeFi products.

For a minimum deposit of just $10, users gain access to up to 200x leverage across a variety of markets. It is something typically reserved for institutional traders in TradFi. With trading fees as low as 2 bps for forex and other RWAs, Ostium has emerged as a cost-efficient, high-performance venue for global traders.