Fomo, a New York-based crypto trading application, has secured $75 million in Series B funding, led by prominent venture capital firm Index Ventures. The investment values the company at $550 million, marking a significant bet on the consumer-facing crypto space amid a broader slowdown in venture capital flows into the sector.
Funding Details and Investor Confidence
Union Square Ventures and Benchmark also participated in the round, alongside angel investors including Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, and Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz. This strong backing underscores continued investor appetite for platforms that aim to bridge the gap between complex blockchain technology and everyday retail traders.
The funding round comes at a time when crypto startup funding has cooled. According to Galaxy Research, crypto and blockchain startups raised approximately $4 billion across 355 deals in the first quarter of 2026, roughly half the amount raised in the previous quarter. Despite the overall decline, trading, exchange, investing, and lending businesses continued to attract the majority of capital.
User Growth and Platform Metrics
Since its launch, Fomo has amassed over 625,000 users and generated $4 billion in trading volume, along with 110 million social interactions. Notably, 68,000 users made their first crypto purchases using Apple Pay, accounting for $25 million in transaction volume. These metrics suggest the platform is successfully lowering barriers for new entrants to the crypto market.
Simplifying On-Chain Trading
Fomo's core value proposition is making on-chain trading more accessible. Typically, trading on decentralized networks involves navigating wallets, chain bridges, and gas fees—a process often described as daunting for newcomers. Fomo's platform aims to abstract away these complexities, allowing users to discover assets, copy other traders, share trades, and move seamlessly between different blockchain networks from a single account and balance.
Paul Erlanger, co-founder and CEO of Fomo, stated that most trading products are “dull, hard to understand.” He emphasized that the company's goal is to enable users to share market perspectives without needing to grapple with technical intricacies. The app features leaderboards, social feeds, and real-time trade alerts, putting community-driven insights front and center.
Expansion Plans and Market Positioning
Fomo has announced plans to expand beyond crypto into equities, perpetual futures, and prediction markets. This move positions the company to compete more directly with established platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood, which are also seeking to become primary entry points for blockchain-based assets. Index Ventures partner Julia Andre described the investment as a consumer-finance play rather than a pure crypto bet, highlighting a shift in how consumers interact with blockchain technology.
Risks and Regulatory Challenges
While Fomo's social trading features can enhance user engagement, they also carry risks. Social trading can amplify herd behavior in volatile tokens, and the platform's push into perpetual futures contracts—futures without expiration dates—introduces additional risk, particularly for users outside the U.S. where leveraged crypto products face increased regulatory scrutiny.
Future Outlook
Fomo plans to use the new capital to hire more engineers and explore potential acquisitions. The Series B brings the company's total disclosed equity funding to approximately $94 million, providing substantial runway. However, the company still faces the challenge of winning over mainstream users from larger, better-capitalized competitors with more robust compliance teams and established brand trust.
Founded in 2025 by Paul Erlanger, Se Yong Park, and Prashan Dharmasena—all former employees of decentralized exchange dYdX and Deutsche Bank—Fomo is headquartered in New York and continues to focus on building a user-friendly, socially-driven trading experience.
