eToro invests $12.5M in Extended as brokers race into onchain derivatives

Integration into Zengo and the Core Platform

Jump Crypto and Alber Blanc also participated in the round. eToro acquired Zengo for $70 million in April, and now plans to integrate Extended's perpetual futures engine directly into the wallet. This gives users access to onchain derivatives without leaving the self-custody environment.

The strategy doesn't stop there. Over time, eToro plans to bring broader DeFi products into its core platform. The company is betting that traditional retail investors want decentralized finance alongside their conventional trading.

Competitive pressure from Robinhood and others

Traditional brokers are accelerating into onchain markets. Robinhood rolled out its own blockchain and expanded its tokenized stock offering. The firm also plans to extend its perpetual futures business beyond cryptocurrencies into commodities such as gold and oil.

The perpetual futures market is now a mainstream battleground. Perpetual futures, once a niche crypto product, have become one of the industry's fastest-growing markets. Coinbase has expanded into perpetual futures, and prediction market operator Kalshi recently entered the perpetual futures business.

Extended's scale and roadmap

Extended itself is substantial. The platform had processed more than $245 billion in trading volume as of June and supports more than 100 perpetual markets. Led by former Revolut crypto head Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, the firm is expanding its ambitions. Extended plans to expand into spot trading, tokenized real-world assets and multi-asset collateral.

eToro's move is part of a larger trend: traditional finance is building infrastructure for onchain trading, not just talking about it.