Decentralized derivatives exchange dYdX has announced that it has raised an equity seed round led by Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz and Olaf Carlson-Wee at Polychain Capital.

The funding round also saw participation from Fred Ehrsam, Brian Armstrong, Elad Gil, Scott Belsky, Avichal Garg, Kindred Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and 1confirmation, among others.

“This is a big step on dYdX’s journey to create the first ever decentralized derivatives exchange,” dYdX founder Antonio Juliano said. “We’re grateful to have the investor and advisor support of experienced entrepreneurs and operators who share our vision of building more open, transparent, and secure financial products through decentralization.”

Juliano said that the amount raised will be used to appoint engineers, designers, and business operators; undergo security audits on dYdX’s open protocol to ensure it is the most secure platform to trade derivatives; and design and develop a regulation-compliant approach towards building the first decentralized derivatives exchange.

Founded in July, dYdX is a decentralized exchange for derivatives on cryptoassets. It is built on Ethereum and 0x, and uses smart contracts to power an open protocol for derivatives.

“With dYdX, anyone can take an option or short position without ever trusting their funds to a centralized exchange. In the past few months, we’ve built an open protocol and trading interface that are live in a private beta on the Kovan Testnet. We plan to launch on the main Ethereum network in mid-2018,” Juliano added.