Rails Raises $14M for Hybrid Crypto Exchange & Self-Custody

June 4, 2025 – Rails, a pioneering crypto exchange platform, today announced it has successfully raised a total of $20 million in funding, including a recent $14 million token sale completed in April 2025, following a $6 million seed round in January 2024. This substantial capital infusion, backed by industry leaders such as Kraken, Slow Ventures, CMCC Global, Quantstamp, and Round13 Capital, positions Rails to launch its innovative trading platform that seamlessly integrates high-speed execution with unmatched on-chain custody.

The cryptocurrency market has long faced a fundamental trade-off: the speed and liquidity offered by centralized exchanges (CEXs) versus the security and self-custody provided by decentralized solutions. Centralized platforms often require users to relinquish control of their assets, introducing counterparty risk, while many decentralized exchanges can suffer from slower transaction speeds and higher costs. Rails was founded in 2023 to solve this core dilemma.

"Our hybrid model delivers the best of both worlds," said Satraj Bambra, Co-founder and CEO of Rails. "Users get the transparency of on-chain custody without giving up speed." Rails aims to empower traders by allowing them to retain full custody of their assets while accessing the performance traditionally reserved for centralized exchanges.

Rails pioneers a new era of trading through its unique architectural design, purpose-built to deliver:

🔐 User-Controlled, On-Chain Custody: User funds are held securely on-chain in audited smart contracts. This ensures users always maintain control of their assets, providing transparency and eliminating reliance on third-party custodians.

⚡ Centralized Execution Speed: The platform features a blazing-fast, sub-millisecond order processing and matching engine. This proprietary technology ensures lightning-fast settlements and real-time balance updates, allowing traders to capitalize on market movements instantly.

✔️ Verifiable Transparency: Transactions are cryptographically aggregated and posted on-chain using Merkle trees, ensuring user privacy while allowing for cryptographic verification of all trades via the Rails Explorer.

🛡️ Enhanced Security: Rails leverages zero-knowledge proofs to securely validate trades and ensure the integrity of the system. The platform will deploy exclusively on Kraken’s Layer-2 network, Ink, further boosting transaction speed, reducing costs, and enhancing security.

The $14 million token sale, alongside the earlier $6 million seed round, reflects strong investor confidence in Rails' innovative approach and its potential to redefine the crypto trading experience. The backing from prominent names like Kraken, a leading global crypto exchange, underscores the industry's recognition of Rails' solution to a critical market need.

"Since raising our initial round in 2022, we’ve been heads down building our platform to deliver the performance of a centralized platform without sacrificing the principles of crypto—self-custody, transparency, and security," stated Rails in a recent update. The company will support trading for major crypto assets, providing a robust and secure environment for perpetual trading.

Rails is set to launch its platform, inviting traders to experience a new standard where performance and security are no longer mutually exclusive.

About Rails:

Rails is a perpetual trading platform that seamlessly integrates centralized order processing with on-chain custody, offering users the best of both worlds: instant trade execution and unmatched self-custody. Founded in 2023, Rails is dedicated to solving crypto's core trade-off by providing a transparent, fast, and secure trading environment.

About Kraken:

Kraken is one of the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its security, liquidity, and diverse range of digital assets.

About Slow Ventures:

Slow Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies, with a focus on supporting founders building innovative solutions across various sectors.