Imperial Raises $1.5M in Seed Round, Bringing 7x Deeper Liquidity to Solana Perps Market

Imperial, an emerging Solana perpetual futures trading venue, has raised $1.5M in a seed round led by Foundation Capital.

Pioneering a new perp AMM design, Imperial’s Armada combines Solana’s unrivaled performance with cross-chain DeFi liquidity, offering traders a 7x deeper orderbook at an industry-leading 1bps fee.

Imperial’s $1.5M raise comes as the venue launches Season 2 of its rewards campaign, which has teased a 30% token allocation for the platform’s loyal traders.

Foundation Capital Leads $1.5M Round 

After its strong debut earlier this year, Imperial is levelling up its product suite and attracting investment from one of Solana’s earliest backers. Led by Foundation Capital, a Day-Zero Solana investor via GP Rodolfo Gonzalez, Imperial has successfully completed its seed round, raising $1.5M at a $15M valuation.

“What drew us to Imperial was the team’s ability to think independently about how markets work. Their approach to prop AMMs tackles Solana’s liquidity challenges with deep technical expertise and a clear understanding of what traders need: deeper markets and better execution. We’re excited to back the team as they bring that thinking to perpetual futures on Solana.” - Rodolfo Gonzalez, Foundation Capital GP

One of the tech world’s more diverse early-stage capital allocators, Foundation Capital’s existing portfolio includes iconic crypto firms like Solana, Helius, and Opensea, as well as household names like Netflix and Cerebras.

Proceeds from the raise will be put towards expanding Imperial’s unique product suite, including the existing perps aggregator, prime lending platform, and its new flagship endeavor, Armada: Solana’s first ‘perp AMM’.

Imperial’s Perp AMM - 7x Deeper Liquidity, 1bp Fees

Coinciding with the announcement of its $1.5M Seed Round, Imperial has unveiled its new flagship product, Armada. 

Where prop AMMs have revolutionized onchain spot trading to outcompete centralized exchanges, Armada applies the same concept to perpetual futures. Imperial’s perp AMM sources liquidity from DeFi titans like Hyperliquid, giving traders access to the deepest order books in the market, without leaving Solana. 

Market data suggests that Armada’s book depth is almost 7x deeper in BTC markets than leading venues on the Solana Layer-1. For traders, Imperial’s market depth enables takers to take larger positions without losing value to slippage, wide spreads, and poor fill execution.

Beyond offering Solana’s deepest order books, Imperial’s fee structure is among the most competitive across all perps venues. Armada charges just 1bps taker fees, meaning traders only pay $1 in fees per $10,000 in notional trade size. 

In practice, this means traders can save a considerable amount of fees simply by bringing their existing trading activity to Imperial. In the example above, one user saved $179 on ~$750k in trading volume, saving 73% on fees when compared to competitive Solana perps venues.

In another network first, Armada intends to list pre-IPO assets like OpenAI and Anthropic, giving Solana’s traders leveraged exposure to some of the financial world’s most elusive private assets.

Season 1 Points Continues

Alongside the rollout of Armada, traders can still participate in Imperial’s Season 1 points campaign. Based on activity, traders can climb the ranks and unlock higher points multipliers.

As is often the case in crypto, early users may reap the benefits of their curiosity. In Season 1, traders that joined during Imperial’s ‘Romulus’ Era enjoyed a stronger points multiplier than those who joined in the ‘Remus’ Era.

While still unconfirmed, this mechanic could continue in future seasons, enabling early adopters to maximize their Imperial points allocations.

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