BlackRock Leads $5 Million Investment in Perpetual Protocol DEX, How Does Vest Fight Back Against the "Crypto Scythe"?

Recently, the cryptocurrency community was once again thrown into chaos, as the GPS token liquidity provider was suspected of malicious selling, causing a sharp drop in the token's price and investors to suffer heavy losses. The RedStone project was also accused of last-minute changes to the airdrop rules, leaving countless long-awaited community members empty-handed.

These events inevitably bring to mind the chronic issues of the crypto world: asymmetric information, arbitrary rule changes, and the strong "harvesting" the weak. As Twitter user @maik2hello lamented in a post: "The current coin market is so 'bad' that the word itself is insufficient to describe it."

The traditional financial markets have long set a precedent for chaos: market makers manipulating prices, rampant insider trading. In the unregulated crypto market, these problems are exacerbated, leaving retail investors with virtually nowhere to escape.

It is against this backdrop that the Vest project emerged, carrying a clear mission to reshape fairness through technology and mechanism.

Seeing Injustice from a Market Collapse, Vest's Mission

Vest is a quantitative research firm committed to building real-time, universal risk pricing financial infrastructure. Its core product, Vest Exchange, is a decentralized perpetual contract trading platform.

Vest's Core Product—Vest Exchange

Unlike traditional CEXs or some DEXs that rely on order books and market makers, Vest Exchange utilizes cutting-edge cryptographic technology to ensure the transparency and fairness of trade pricing. It's like fitting a "firewall" to the crypto market, precisely addressing the liquidity issues and market manipulation commonly seen in traditional markets.

In traditional order book exchanges, traders are often squeezed by institutional and high-frequency traders' "predatory strategies"—such as front-running or price manipulation. However, on Vest Exchange, each trade directly matches against a unified liquidity pool and is priced in real-time by the zkRisk engine, eliminating unfair competition.

zkRisk: A Transparent Risk Pricing Engine, Vest's "Brain"

zkRisk is the core pricing mechanism of Vest Exchange, acting as the platform's "super-intelligent steward." It continuously monitors individual positions, account risk exposure, and system-wide risk, adjusting pricing based on market dynamics with the goal of minimizing risk rather than maximizing profit.

Through zkRisk, Vest has established a "fair playing field": no one can unfairly "front-run," market impact on trades is minimized, and liquidity remains stable.

Most importantly, zkRisk makes transaction fees fully transparent. Fees are directly linked to the introduced risk, eliminating the hidden and confusing costs seen in traditional markets. This design not only protects users but also ensures privacy and security through zero-knowledge proof technology, avoiding common issues like Miner Extractable Value (MEV).

Vest's technology is like the "supercar" of the blockchain world—fast, efficient, and smart enough to navigate complex market environments.

Funding and Backers

In a report by BlockBeats, on March 12, the trading protocol Vest announced a $5 million funding round, with participation from BlackRock, Jane Street Group, Selini Capital, Amber Group, QCQ Group, and Big Brain VC, among others. This investor lineup demonstrates Vest's role as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem.

Although the specific identities of the Vest team have not been disclosed, attracting interest from BlackRock and Jane Street indicates the team likely consists of top talent from blockchain development and traditional finance.

The support of several heavyweight institutions not only provides financial backing for Vest but also potentially brings strategic guidance and market credibility. Additionally, the involvement of crypto-native firms like Amber Group will support Vest's product implementation and ecosystem expansion.

From Ondo to Vest, BlackRock's On-Chain Strategy

As the world's largest asset management company, BlackRock has been making frequent moves recently, and its ambitions in on-chain infrastructure are evident from tokenized funds to RWA positioning. In March 2024, its tokenized fund BUIDL (tokenizing traditional financial assets mainly cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements) launched on Ethereum, quickly attracting $5.2 billion in assets, occupying nearly a third of the tokenized government bond market.

Subsequently, BlackRock, through partnerships with institutions like Securitize, has driven the RWA market from $100 million in 2023 to over $1.3 billion. Looking at the other side of the chessboard, Ondo Finance, with its OUSG token directly pegged to BUIDL, provides retail investors with a channel for investing in tokenized government bonds, while Vest's participation completes BlackRock's positioning in the on-chain derivatives market.

The prosperity of the RWA market will undoubtedly bring greater liquidity to the Perp DEX market. Vest Exchange, with its zkRisk engine and zkps, aims to build a fair and efficient Perp DEX, aligning with BlackRock's goal of transparency and liquidity.

It can be foreseen that if Vest can combine a Hyperliquid-style high-performance architecture (zero gas fees + on-chain order book), it may become the next inflection point in BlackRock's on-chain strategy. From Ondo's asset tokenization to Vest's trading innovation, BlackRock is using technology as a pawn to lay out a grand strategy of deep integration between traditional finance and crypto.

As BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said: tokenized securities are the "next generation of the market."