Liquid Compute has closed a $15 million seed round and submitted applications to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) status to build a regulated order book for computing power contracts that can be cash-settled or physically delivered.
Liquid Compute’s regulatory push and market design
Liquid Compute said it aims to create the first regulated market for computing power, noting that computing power is heterogeneous and non-storable—more comparable to electricity than to oil. The company plans to first establish an efficient short-term market for compute capacity and then layer a cash-settled derivatives market on top, operating in a manner the company likens to regional electricity markets such as PJM or ERCOT.
Funding, partners and target customers
The $15 million seed round was co-led by Chemistry and FirstMark Capital, with participation from K8 Cap, Night Capital, UFO Holdings, TrueBridge CP, Brainchild Holdings, Y Combinator, and angel investors from CoreWeave, Jane Street, OpenAI and others. Liquid Compute has partnered with financial firms including Susquehanna International Group, BGC Group and Wintermute to provide liquidity for over-the-counter trading, targeting AI startups, neocloud providers and lenders.
Market observers have noted growing attention to alternative assets; according to the source report, Liquid Compute’s move has been framed as signalling a potential new asset class. The report also states that the Fear & Greed Index remains neutral, and suggests that infrastructure innovation could influence market sentiment.
