An Australian team working to create a decentralised derivatives platform has raised US$4.5 million from crypto institutional and sophisticated investors.

Tracer DAO sold 10 per cent of its governance tokens during the capital raise and plans to hold an auction on Gnosis for retail investors later.

Canadian startup Framework Ventures was the biggest participant in the capital raise, contributing US$1 million in USD Coins.

Sydney-based Digital Asset Capital Management and Melbourne-based Apollo Capital also contributed, DAO documents indicate.

When launched on the Arbitrum Ethereum rollup, the project will enable users to place leveraged bets on any market in the world using perpetual swaps, the contract pioneered by crypto exchange BitMEX. Perpetual swaps have enabled customers to invest with up to 100x leverage – although if the market moves against them, traders risk being quickly liquidated.

The project is being developed by Brisbane-based Mycelium, which has 34 employees and is hiring more, according to Linkedin.