Merkle Trade, a decentralized trading platform, has raised USD 2.1 million in seed funding led by Hashed and Arrington Capital, with participation from Morningstar Ventures, Amber Group, Aptos Labs, Re7 Capital and Dorahacks.

The company plans to use the funds to improve the gamification and social aspects of their platform. This includes development of an NFT items marketplace, trading battles, and copy trading features. The company also plans to improve its onboarding process by allowing non-web3 native users to access the platform without the use of custodial wallets.

Merkle Trade offers a blockchain-based derivatives platform that enables users to trade a range of cryptocurrencies, forex and commodities. The platform integrates a number of gamified features including level-up systems which provide trading benefits, as well as loot boxes which include NFT items as rewards. Users can trade across a range of blockchains including Aptos, Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Binance Smart Chain, with up to a 1000x leverage.