Pre-IPO Perpetuals: Trade Private Companies on Cardano

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Pre-IPO Perpetuals: Trade Private Companies on Cardano

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

65000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

3

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Cardano investors can’t access fast-growing private tech. Most value accrues pre-IPO to insiders; price discovery is opaque, illiquid, and slow.

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

No Dependencies

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

MIT License

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal.

DeFi

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously funded (whether by you or others).

Current Cardano DeFi products focus on spot swaps or crypto-native derivatives. No project has brought synthetic exposure to private-company valuations on-chain. Our approach is innovative because:

Introduces a new asset class Pre-IPO Perpetuals tracking transparent valuation indices for private companies.

Event-driven pricing: Markets respond to funding rounds, credible secondary trades, and product launches instead of waiting for IPO events.

Eliminates insider-only access by enabling anyone to long/short valuations without owning shares or navigating private cap tables

Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.

The MVP will demonstrate a live testnet market for at least two private-company valuation indices (e.g., OpenAI, SpaceX) on Cardano, featuring:

Cardano Pre IPO Perps for opening/closing positions and funding-rate settlements.

A minimal web UI published on a publicly accesible domain.

The MVP will be deployed on Cardano testnet and fully open-sourced via a public GitHub repository, allowing community members to test the MVP

Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.

Consistent oracle updates visible on-chain and trusted by community testers.

Active participation in testnet markets from a broad set of community wallets.

Positive feedback from early users on usability, clarity of data, and market transparency.

Social traction shown through discussions, reposts, and demos shared across Cardano channels.

All outcomes will be openly trackable through on-chain activity, public dashboards, and community feedback threads.

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

The problem is clear: most of the growth in high-potential technology companies happens before they go public, when access is restricted to insiders and institutions. For everyday investors, opportunities are limited, price discovery is slow, and valuation data is opaque. This creates an uneven playing field and limits what blockchain-based finance can offer.

Our solution brings Pre-IPO Perpetual Markets to Cardano a first-of-its-kind derivatives framework that tracks the implied valuations of private companies such as OpenAI, SpaceX, and emerging AI/robotics leaders. Just as commodities have futures and crypto has perpetual swaps, breakthrough private technology should have native, transparent, and liquid derivatives accessible to all.

How it works:

• Event→Oracle Pipeline: Off-chain indexers capture verifiable events funding rounds, credible secondary share trades, major product releases, and regulatory approvals and translate them into a valuation index. This index is published on-chain with a Time-Weighted Average Value (TWAV) for consistency.

• Pricing & Funding Engine: Deterministic libraries calculate fair pricing, funding rates, and risk parameters such as caps, clamps, and rate floors/ceilings.

• Cardano Reference Contracts: Plutus-based contracts manage oracle updates, funding settlements, and position accounting.

• Front-end & SDK: A minimal, open-source UI allows users to open/close positions, provide stablecoin liquidity, and read oracle/state data, while the SDK makes it easy for third-party apps to integrate.

Why this matters:

• Democratic Access: Anyone can take long or short positions on valuations without needing to own shares, join cap tables, or pass insider gating.

• Transparent & Verifiable: All pricing inputs and funding calculations are on-chain and auditable.

• Real-Time Price Discovery: Markets react to actual business milestones rather than delayed IPO events.

• Yield Opportunities: Stablecoin liquidity providers earn fees, creating more use cases and velocity for stable assets on Cardano.

• Composable Infrastructure: The open oracle feeds, pricing logic, and contract templates can be reused by other teams for structured products, vaults, or alternative index markets.

Who benefits:

• Traders gain a new speculative and hedging tool.
• Liquidity providers earn yields in a transparent, rules-based system.
• Developers access reusable infrastructure to build new DeFi applications.
• The Cardano ecosystem benefits from higher stablecoin utility, transaction volume, and developer engagement.
• By turning private-market headlines into open, tradable instruments, we expand what’s possible in DeFi and position Cardano as the chain where novel markets are born.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

A new asset class on Cardano by offering synthetic exposure to private tech valuations. We turn headline events such as funding rounds, major product launches, and credible secondary prints into tradable on chain indices, which expands what users can do beyond spot swaps and yield farming. This onboards everyday people, turn curiosity into action, growing daily active users, volumes, and developer interest around a distinctly Cardano native product.

The protocol also increases stablecoin utility. Positions and liquidity pools use stablecoins as collateral, creating persistent demand from both traders and liquidity providers. That boosts velocity across the ecosystem while fee flow and funding payments create new revenue streams for wallets, analytics platforms, and DeFi integrators. In effect, we convert passive stablecoin balances into productive collateral and liquidity that power a new market.

Finally, the project ships reusable open source primitives including oracles, funding libraries, and contracts, along with clear data schemas and governance standards for event driven indices. Teams can adopt these components in structured products, vaults, index funds, and risk engines, which accelerates time to market and reduces duplicated effort. High quality documentation, SDKs, and reference implementations lower the barrier for contributors, foster shared standards, and improve interoperability across the wider Cardano DeFi stack.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Dextr Labs – https://dextrlabs.com/ – is a team of 25 experienced blockchain engineers and DeFi specialists with a proven track record in building and deploying high-performance decentralized finance products, including derivatives and perpetual trading systems. Over the past two years, we have launched multiple production-grade DeFi protocols with a 100% delivery rate, consistently meeting performance, security, and user experience goals.

Our expertise spans:

Perpetual & Derivatives Design: Building leveraged trading markets, funding rate mechanisms, liquidation engines, and real-time pricing oracles.

Liquidity Infrastructure: Designing and deploying AMMs, stablecoin-based collateral systems, and LP incentive structures.

On-Chain Risk Management: Implementing circuit breakers, margin models, and parameterized safeguards for volatile markets.

Cross-Chain DeFi Deployments: Delivering trading, lending, and staking platforms across Cardano, EVM, and appchain ecosystems.

Our delivery approach ensures trust and accountability through:

Public, open-source repositories with milestone tracking, detailed documentation, and developer guides.

Transparent communication via Cardano forums, social media updates, and developer community engagement.

Independent testing and audits alongside incentivized testnets to validate product-market fit before mainnet deployment.

By combining our deep technical experience in perpetual markets with Cardano-native tooling, we are confident in delivering a secure, composable Pre-IPO Perpetuals protocol that matches the reliability and performance of the most respected DeFi platforms in the space.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Technical Architecture & Initiation

Milestone Outputs

Prepare initial technical documentation outlining architecture, planned functionality, and development approach.

Draft full initiation document covering project scope, objectives, and high-level roadmap.

Acceptance Criteria

Technical documentation and initiation document are complete and aligned with project vision.

Scope, features, and architectural approach are clearly described at a high level.

Content is in a shareable format suitable for public feedback.

Evidence of Completion

Final technical documentation and initiation document published in public GitHub repository.

Files available in PDF format with version tags marking completion.

Delivery Month

1

Cost

13000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

MVP Development

Milestone Outputs

Produce technical documentation detailing MVP architecture and planned core features.

Prepare integration and deployment guidelines for the MVP phase.

Document high-level workflows for key functions (trading, oracle updates, liquidity).

Outline testing approach and technical dependencies for MVP readiness.

Acceptance Criteria

MVP technical documentation is complete, accurate, and consistent with project vision.

Core workflows and integrations are described at a high level in the documentation.

Documents reviewed internally and approved for MVP build stage.

All outputs are in a shareable, public-ready format for early feedback.

Evidence of Completion

Final MVP technical documentation and guidelines published in public GitHub repository.

Files provided in PDF format with tagged version marking completion.

Commit history shows documentation development from draft to final.

Public links made available for open review and reference.

Delivery Month

2

Cost

13000

Progress

70 %

Milestone Title

Testing, Launch & Close-Off

Milestone Outputs

Prepare final technical documentation covering testing outcomes, launch procedures, and operational guidelines.

Document post-launch processes, including monitoring, maintenance, and governance approach.

Compile a close-off report summarizing key deliverables, lessons learned, and next steps.

Acceptance Criteria

Final technical documentation reflects the complete and tested state of the project.

Launch and operational guidelines are clear, accurate, and aligned with the agreed vision.

Close-off report is suitable for public release.

Evidence of Completion

Final technical documentation, launch guidelines, and close-off report published in public GitHub repository.

All files provided in PDF format with final version tags.

Commit history shows the progression of documents from draft to final state.

Public links shared for transparency and permanent reference.

Delivery Month

3

Cost

39000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Milestone 1 – Technical Architecture & Initiation

Lead Protocol Architect – 6,500 ADA

Senior Smart Contract Engineer – 6,500 ADA

Subtotal: 13,000 ADA

Milestone 2 – MVP Development

Lead Protocol Architect – 4,300 ADA

Senior Smart Contract Engineer – 8,700 ADA

Subtotal: 13,000 ADA

Milestone 3 – Testing, Launch & Close-Off

Lead Protocol Architect – 13,000 ADA

Senior Smart Contract Engineer – 26,000 ADA

Subtotal: 39,000 ADA

Total Budget Requested: 65,000 ADA

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

This project delivers a unique Cardano-native market Pre-IPO Perpetuals that does not currently exist in the ecosystem. For 65,000 ADA, we provide open-source infrastructure including oracles, funding libraries, perpetual contracts, and SDKs that other teams can reuse in future products.

The cost is focused entirely on experienced protocol architects and smart contract engineers, ensuring efficient delivery with no unnecessary overhead. The resulting product will:

Increase stablecoin utility and on-chain transaction volume.

Attract traders, liquidity providers, and developers to Cardano.

Provide reusable building blocks that reduce time-to-market for future DeFi projects.

By converting a modest one-time investment into a self-sustaining market with composable infrastructure, the long-term network effects and transaction growth will outweigh the initial cost.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes