Marble announced its launch on Nov. 10, 2026, and an $11 million seed round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Maven 11, Ripple, Susquehanna Crypto, Lattice, Blockwall and other venture and strategic investors and a select group of AI-focused angels. Founded and co‑led by Matt Ballensweig and Leon Marshall, Marble aims to give institutions a single platform to trade frontier markets and to unlock institutional credit for the AI compute buildout through two businesses: Marble Compute and Marble Markets.
Marble Compute
Marble Compute is building institutional private credit rails and financing products for independent neoclouds and GPU operators. The business connects institutional lenders with mid‑market operators that are supplying AI infrastructure and intends to offer both traditionally structured and on‑chain credit opportunities. Marble plans to originate, underwrite and structure financing for these operators and to bring the opportunities to lenders.
Marble said its underwriting will assess the equipment, the creditworthiness of contracted customers and the operator’s ability to service its debt. The company described compute forwards as a tool that lets operators agree on a rental price today for capacity they will deliver in the future. Subject to applicable regulatory approvals, Marble intends to finance these opportunities through a series of single‑opportunity funds and to build toward multi‑opportunity funds on one asset management platform.
Marble Markets
Marble Markets is developing an institutional trading platform that spans digital assets, real‑world assets, prediction markets and compute. The platform will offer spot trading, lending and derivatives for digital assets, block trading in prediction markets and over‑the‑counter forwards on compute capacity. Marble said its longer‑term plans include tokenized equities and equity swaps, subject to applicable regulatory approvals.
The platform is designed to improve capital efficiency by allowing clients to use eligible digital and traditional assets held with participating custodians and brokerages as collateral, reducing the need to prefund trades separately with each counterparty.
Matt Ballensweig and Leon Marshall serve as co‑CEOs. Ballensweig was most recently Global Head of Trading at BitGo, where he built and led the institutional trading business, and previously co‑headed trading and lending at Genesis. Marshall was CEO of Galaxy Digital’s European business and previously held roles at Genesis, Apollo and Trafigura. Marble said it is actively expanding its team with senior hires from leading trading firms, exchanges and AI infrastructure companies.
Investors and industry figures provided endorsements in the announcement. “Matt and Leon have built and run institutional trading and lending businesses at scale through multiple market cycles, and they understand market structure from the inside,” said Angelo Goepel, Partner at Polychain Capital. “That experience positions Marble to compete in two of the largest opportunities of this decade: bringing institutional trading to frontier markets and building the credit markets that AI infrastructure needs. We’re excited to lead Marble’s seed.”
Leon Marshall said: “Two GPU operators can buy identical hardware and raise very different amounts of debt against it. A lender wants to know who’s buying the compute, at what price and for how long. We’re bringing buyers, operators and lenders together so operators can secure customers for their capacity, lock in pricing on the share they want to hedge and raise financing against those cash flows. That gives lenders a clearer basis for deciding how much they can lend and operators a clearer view of how much equity they’ll need to build the next cluster.”
Matt Ballensweig added: “Institutions want exposure to the markets that will define the next decade, from prediction markets to AI compute, but the liquidity and credit in those markets are still fragmented. Marble brings the trading and financing infrastructure institutions rely on to the markets they actually want to be in.”
“As a liquidity provider across the digital asset ecosystem, we see every day how quickly market structure is evolving,” said Chase Lax, CEO of Susquehanna Crypto. “Matt and Leon see that evolution the same way we do, and they’ve spent their careers operating through it. We’re looking forward to seeing what Marble builds.”
“We’ve worked and traded with both Matt and Leon over the years through BitGo and Galaxy, and few people have a clearer view of where institutional markets are headed in a continuously changing environment,” said Balder Bomans, CIO at Maven 11 Capital. “The market needs a more nimble, dynamic player to bring these frontier markets together on one platform, and we’re confident Marble can be that firm.”
Institutions can register interest in Marble Markets or Marble Compute at marblegroup.xyz.
About Marble
Marble is a capital markets firm founded by Matt Ballensweig and Leon Marshall. Marble Markets is building an institutional trading platform spanning digital assets, real‑world assets, prediction markets and compute. Marble Compute is developing private credit financing for independent AI cloud providers and GPU operators. Marble is backed by Polychain Capital, Maven 11, Ripple, Susquehanna Crypto and other venture and strategic investors.
