Zürcher Nachrichten - Ekiden Launches Canton Network’s First Order Book-Based Derivatives Exchange

The launch adds a professional execution layer to Canton’s growing financial ecosystem, enabling market participants to trade and settle derivatives on-chain using infrastructure designed around the requirements of institutional markets. 

Ekiden is built for professional trading firms, market makers, funds, banks, and institutional trading desks that require execution workflows closer to traditional capital markets than to retail-focused decentralized finance venues. 

The platform combines a central limit order book, or CLOB, with request-for-quote execution, PropAMM integration, a professional trading terminal, and API connectivity for market makers, algorithmic trading platforms, aggregators, exchanges, and funds. 

Ekiden also provides a streamlined entry point into the Canton ecosystem, allowing professional market participants to onboard, connect through its API, and begin trading without having to build their own Canton-native infrastructure.

Canton Network provides a privacy-enabled and interoperable environment for regulated financial markets, allowing institutions to coordinate transactions without making commercially sensitive information publicly visible. Ekiden extends that environment into derivatives trading by bringing execution, liquidity, and settlement together within a single venue. 

"Ekiden's mainnet is a notable addition to Canton's application layer, bringing order book execution, privacy, and settlement into a single venue designed for professional trading," said Viv Diwakar, Head of the Canton Foundation. "Launches like this act as a catalyst as the network broadens its offerings in on-chain derivatives, and we look forward to seeing a range of venues and participants contribute to that growth over time."

According to a 2026 Coinbase and EY survey, 73% of institutional decision-makers plan to increase their digital asset allocations. Supporting this growth requires reliable execution, liquidity, price discovery, privacy, and infrastructure capable of handling institutional order flow.

“Tokenization alone does not create institutional markets,” said Vitali Dervoed, founder and CEO of Ekiden. “For tokenized assets to trade at scale, institutions need execution quality, liquidity, privacy, and workflows that reflect how professional trading actually works. Canton provides the institutional environment. We add the trading infrastructure layer for on-chain derivatives.” 

Existing on-chain trading venues have largely developed around retail participation, passive liquidity pools, and public execution environments. Professional trading firms have different requirements, including deterministic execution, low-latency API access, configurable privacy, and the ability to manage positions and capital movements without exposing commercially sensitive information to the wider market. 

Ekiden’s architecture is intended to address these requirements while preserving the operational benefits of on-chain settlement. The platform allows the lifecycle of a derivatives transaction from price discovery and execution through to settlement to take place within Canton’s privacy-enabled environment. 

During its first week on the Canton testnet, Ekiden recorded 1,502 active users, more than 72,000 trades, and approximately $8.9 million in trading volume. The company is working with 11 integration partners and has integrated 12 market makers ahead of its expansion on mainnet. 

Initial liquidity is supported by market makers, including Keyrock, Kappa Lab, and Flowdesk. Ekiden plans to add further liquidity providers, onboard more institutional participants, and expand the range of derivatives available through the platform. 

In May 2026, Ekiden raised $2 million in seed financing to develop institutional-grade infrastructure for on-chain derivatives. The round included investors and strategic participants connected to GSR, Flowdesk, Pyth, Aptos, G20, DCF God, Curiosity Capital, and Keyrock. 

The mainnet launch strengthens Canton Network’s position as infrastructure for institutional digital markets by adding a dedicated venue for derivatives execution and settlement. It also broadens the range of financial activity that can take place across the network while maintaining the privacy and workflow controls required by professional market participants.

About Ekiden

Ekiden operates an institutional derivatives exchange on Canton Network, combining central limit order book and request-for-quote execution with on-chain settlement, privacy controls, and institutional custody workflows. The platform is live and open to proprietary trading firms, funds, market makers, and bank trading desks.

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Onboarding information and API documentation are available at ekiden.fi

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Source article: https://financewire.com/2026/09/09/ekiden-launches-canton-networks-first-order-book-based-derivatives-exchange/

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