eToro Pours $12.5M Into Extended as DeFi Derivatives Race Heats Up

TLDR

• eToro spearheaded a $12.5 million investment round in Extended, a platform for onchain perpetual futures trading
• This investment complements eToro’s previous $70 million purchase of Zengo, a self-custody crypto wallet
• Extended’s founding team includes ex-Revolut staff and the platform has recorded trading volumes exceeding $245 billion
• Integration of Extended’s perpetual futures technology into Zengo wallet is planned by eToro
• Competitors including Robinhood and Coinbase are simultaneously expanding their onchain and perpetual derivatives capabilities

eToro has taken the lead in a $12.5 million investment round for Extended, an emerging platform dedicated to onchain perpetual futures trading. The funding round also attracted participation from Jump Crypto and Alber Blanc.

The company behind Extended was established by Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, who previously served as Revolut’s crypto division chief, alongside several other former Revolut team members. Extended made its debut in the final months of 2024, utilizing StarkWare’s StarkEx scaling technology as its foundation.

By June, the platform had facilitated more than $245 billion worth of trades and offered access to over 100 different perpetual contract markets.

How This Fits eToro’s DeFi Strategy

This strategic investment comes on the heels of eToro’s $70 million deal to acquire Zengo, a self-custody cryptocurrency wallet service, which was revealed in April. Zengo operates using multi-party computation protocols, eliminating the requirement for conventional seed phrase backups.

eToro’s roadmap includes incorporating Extended’s perpetual futures infrastructure directly within the Zengo wallet interface. This integration would enable users to execute onchain derivative trades while maintaining full custody of their digital assets.

Elad Lavi, who serves as eToro’s executive vice president overseeing corporate development and strategy, noted that user appetite for DeFi capabilities continues to grow. He characterized both the Zengo purchase and Extended backing as fundamental components of the company’s strategic direction.

Looking ahead, eToro also aims to incorporate DeFi offerings into its primary brokerage service.

During Q1 2026, eToro generated $13 million in cryptocurrency-related profits, representing roughly 5% of its overall net trading profit of $258 million. This marked a decline from the $46 million recorded during the comparable quarter in 2025.

Brokers Race to Build Onchain

eToro’s initiative is part of a broader industry movement. Coinciding with this announcement, competing brokerage Robinhood unveiled its proprietary blockchain network, broadened its tokenized equity products, and revealed intentions to introduce perpetual futures contracts for commodities such as gold and crude oil.

Coinbase has similarly moved into the perpetual futures arena. Even Kalshi, a prediction market platform, has recently ventured into this segment.

Perpetual futures contracts, once considered specialized crypto instruments, are now being adopted for equities, commodities, and various real-world assets by trading venues.

Extended has outlined plans for its upcoming development phase, which includes launching spot trading services, tokenized real-world assets, and support for multi-asset collateral options.

Ouriel Ohayon, serving as managing director at Zengo, observed that traditional capital markets are merging with digital asset technology, predicting that future trading ecosystems will function around the clock.

The concurrent moves by eToro, Robinhood, and Coinbase signal an industry-wide shift toward building unified platforms capable of supporting both conventional financial instruments and cryptocurrency products under one roof.

The post eToro Pours $12.5M Into Extended as DeFi Derivatives Race Heats Up appeared first on Blockonomi.