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§ Private Profile · Road Town, British Virgin Islands
Blockchain infrastructure for on-chain expense markets, enabling trading and hedging of transaction costs for Web3 businesses and traders.
Hedgehog Protocol, headquartered in Road Town, British Virgin Islands, develops specialized blockchain infrastructure for creating markets around on-chain expenses, primarily gas fees. Operating as a Blockchain-as-a-Service protocol, the platform enables participants to actively trade and hedge against fluctuating transaction costs, moving beyond passive acceptance. This infrastructure is designed to serve businesses managing significant on-chain cost volatility, traders seeking novel market exposures, and speculators interested in blockchain activity within the broader Web3 and decentralized finance sectors. While the company aims to address a critical pain point in blockchain operations, specific financial metrics such as funding rounds, valuation, employee count, or user adoption figures have not been publicly disclosed. Hedgehog Protocol was established in 2023 by co-founders Esko Koivula, who holds the CEO position, and Ilyaz Velemeev.
Hedgehog Protocol has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round.
Hedgehog Protocol has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Hedgehog Protocol has raised $2.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Hedgehog Protocol's investors include AlleyCorp, Bankless Ventures, FMFW.io, Kindred Capital VC, LAUNCHub Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Meta Change Capital, Octopus Ventures, Outlier Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Plug & Play Ventures, Speedinvest.
Hedgehog Protocol has raised $2.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $2.0M Seed in March 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 1, 2024 | $2M Seed | — | AlleyCorp, Bankless Ventures, Fmfw.io, Kindred Capital VC, LAUNCHub Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Meta Change Capital, Octopus Ventures, Outlier Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Plug & Play Ventures, Speedinvest, Target Global, IAN Hogarth, Jeff Clarke, Tyler Scott Ward, Banteg, Danish Chaudhry, Ivangbi, Mike Lobanov, Vasiliy Shapovalov, 3Commas Capital, Marshland Capital, Nothing Research, Prometeus Ventures, Tenzor Capital | Announced |
Hedgehog Protocol is a decentralized binary options protocol on blockchain that enables users to predict and bet on the direction (up or down) of on-chain metrics like base fees, priority fees, and funding rates over short, recurring intervals.[1][4] It serves DeFi users, traders, aggregators, and projects impacted by blockchain costs, solving the problem of opaque and volatile on-chain variables by turning them into transparent, liquid prediction markets with real-time odds and modular architecture for any measurable metric.[1][4] The protocol emphasizes fast, fluid usability—depositing any token from any chain or fiat without pop-ups—and focuses exclusively on blockchain-native data, unlike traditional prediction markets tied to external events.[1]
Growth momentum includes a recent pre-seed funding round of $1.5M in October 2025 from investors like Marshland Group, Tenzor Capital, Prometeus Ventures, 3Comma Capital, ZB Capital, and Research Nothing, with Outlier Ventures joining as a strategic investor.[3] This positions it as an emerging player in DeFi derivatives for gas and fee hedging.[3][4]
Hedgehog Protocol emerged as a blockchain-focused DeFi innovation, with its core development tied to hackathon showcases like ETHGlobal, where an early version demonstrated hedging impermanent loss in Uniswap pools via tradable NFTs funded by a HEDH token bonding curve.[2] The idea evolved into a modular scheme specifically for trading BaseFee, hedging gas costs, and enabling derivatives for aggregators, account abstraction, and high-risk ("degen") traders.[4]
No specific founders are named in available records, but the project gained early traction through technical integrations like Chainlink for price feeds, Cartesi for insurance premiums on optimistic rollups, and WalletConnect for seamless web3 interactions.[2] Pivotal moments include the October 2025 pre-seed raise and strategic partnerships with ecosystem builders, marking its shift from prototype to funded protocol.[1][3]
Hedgehog rides the DeFi prediction and derivatives trend, capitalizing on volatile blockchain economics where gas fees and funding rates directly affect traders, aggregators, and dApps.[1][4] Timing aligns with 2025's maturation of layer-2 scaling and account abstraction, where hedging on-chain costs becomes critical amid high network activity.[4] Market forces like rising Ethereum fees and cross-chain liquidity favor it, transforming systemic risks into tradable assets and boosting ecosystem efficiency.[1]
It influences the space by fostering liquid markets for native metrics, aiding projects in risk management and enabling "degen" speculation, while collaborations with leading builders amplify adoption in modular DeFi stacks.[1][3]
Hedgehog is poised to expand its modular markets to more metrics like L2-specific fees or MEV signals, leveraging fresh funding for mainnet launches and integrations.[1][3][4] Trends like AI-driven oracles and perpetuals in DeFi will shape it, potentially evolving into a core primitive for gas derivatives amid bull market volatility. Its influence could grow by powering aggregator tools and abstracting costs for retail, solidifying its role in on-chain finance—turning predictions into the backbone of blockchain economics.[1][4]