Sonic Labs co-founder raises capital for Flying Tulip, a new on-chain trading platform 

Flying Tulip, an on-chain trading platform founded by Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje, has begun raising capital to support its launch and expansion.

In an Aug. 14 post on X, Cronje invited U.S.-based funds to contact the team, marking the project’s first public fundraising effort.

According to details shared by Cronje and the project, Flying Tulip is built entirely on the Sonic (S) layer-1 blockchain and will deliver a high-performance, full-featured decentralized exchange. Its liquidity model is powered by a synthetic delta-neutral pool backed by staking yield, enabling features like spot and perpetual trading, lending, and options.

With leverage options up to 1000x and adaptive liquidity that lowers impermanent loss and boosts capital efficiency, the platform’s architecture aims for centralized exchange-level performance.

Use of funds and token model

Cronje explained that the funds raised will go toward Flying Tulip’s yield strategies and that only the yield will be utilized for marketing, token liquidity, launchpad incentives, and buybacks. The project’s native token, FT, will have a fixed supply split evenly between investors and the foundation, with no inflation or incentive-based issuance.

Holders will have a perpetual right to sell tokens back at the original investment rate in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), Ethena USDe (USDE), USDS, or ftUSD. The FT token has not yet launched, and the team warned against scams using its name.

Market ambition and competetive edge

Flying Tulip’s adaptive curve AMM switches between two pricing models based on market volatility, giving traders better prices and increasing returns for liquidity providers.

Other features include non-custodial wallets for user control, dynamic loan-to-value ratios to reduce liquidation risks, and hybrid compliance features like tax reporting and Office of Foreign Assets Control screening.

The community has responded with a great deal of optimism, with many comparing Flying Tulip’s goals to a decentralized version of GMX and Binance, one that does not have the centralized custody risks. However, its reliance on accurate and resilient oracles for real-time pricing and volatility data will be a critical factor for its success.