Cega
Acquired4 known investors
Cega was a DeFi protocol offering exotic options and structured investment products; it was acquired and sunset at end-2024.
Also known as Cega Finance · cega_fi
Investors · 4
Also in the syndicate · 2
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Cega (Cega Finance) was a decentralized finance protocol that built exotic derivative contracts and consumer-facing structured/staking products for retail investors. Its first product was a fixed-coupon note designed to combine yield with downside protection and compounded returns. The protocol described itself as the first to bring exotic options to DeFi, launching on Solana in June 2022 and later expanding to Ethereum and the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum [1][5][7].
The company was founded in 2020 by Arisa Toyosaki, a former UBS derivatives trader who also headed marketing at Bitcoin.com, together with co-founders including marketing head Winston Zhang. At the time of its 2022 seed round the team consisted of four full-time employees (all co-founders) plus three part-timers, including a quant trader with a PhD in stochastic volatility and traders experienced in pricing exotic options. Press coverage in 2023 described the company as Singapore-based [0][1].
In November 2024 Cega announced it had been acquired by an unnamed "leading platform," with the acquirer and price kept confidential, and said it would discontinue its product suite by the end of the year. The platform stopped accepting deposits and users were directed to withdraw. CEO Arisa Toyosaki said the mission would continue elsewhere [3][4][5][7].
Founding story
Arisa Toyosaki began following the crypto market in 2016 while working at UBS in Hong Kong, where she considered launching a crypto derivatives platform but was advised by others in the industry that it was too early. She returned to the idea in 2020 during the "DeFi summer," first exploring a vanilla crypto options platform before deciding to focus on exotic derivatives. Her stated motivation was that many existing crypto derivative yield strategies exposed users to principal loss on 10% market moves, so she sought products with high yield plus downside protection. Cega was founded in 2020 [1].
Business model
Cega operated an on-chain protocol through which users deposited assets into structured products and exotic option strategies, such as fixed-coupon notes, that aimed to generate yield with built-in downside protection [0][1][5].
Traction
Cega stated it processed over $500 million in volume and protected user funds over three years of operation [3][5][7].
Latest developments
On 27-28 November 2024, Cega announced its acquisition by an undisclosed "leading platform" and said its products would sunset by the end of the year; deposits were halted and users urged to withdraw. Terms and the acquirer's identity were kept private at the acquirer's request. CEO Arisa Toyosaki said the team might "pop back up somewhere else" [3][4][5][6][7].
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Cega positioned itself as the first protocol to bring exotic options to DeFi and was described by press as a leading on-chain exotic options and structured investment products protocol; its acquisition was characterized as part of consolidation in DeFi, with larger entities absorbing niche protocols [1][5][7].
The company claimed to be the first-ever DeFi exotic derivatives protocol, differentiating from vanilla call/put option platforms through customized, condition-attached payoff structures and downside protection, backed by a team of former derivatives traders and quants [1][5].
Technology
Cega built a decentralized application initially on Solana, with a beta on the Solana devnet planned for March 2022 and a mainnet launch in June 2022, later expanding to Ethereum and Arbitrum; the company also said it aimed to become compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine ecosystem. Pricing exotic options required stochastic simulations across 10,000-20,000 scenarios rather than a closed-form Black-Scholes calculation, which the company cited as a core engineering requirement, and it hired engineers familiar with Rust for Solana development [1][5][7].
Go-to-market
Cega grew primarily through its online protocol and community engagement, with much of it taking place in the project's Discord channel and via word-of-mouth; the founders also described plans to educate users about exotic derivatives trading and to let the community influence which products launched. The CEO also appeared on industry podcasts such as Blockhead's Blockcast [1][7].
Retail and beginner-to-intermediate DeFi users seeking yield with lower risk, alongside a community of derivatives experts engaged via the project's Discord [0][1][7].
Geography
Reported as Singapore-based in 2023 coverage; the protocol operated across the Solana, Ethereum and Arbitrum blockchains [0][5].
History
Founded in 2020 by Arisa Toyosaki, Cega announced a $4.3 million seed round in March 2022 at a $60 million valuation, planning a beta launch on the Solana devnet that month, and launched on Solana in June 2022. It later expanded to Ethereum and Arbitrum. In March 2023 it raised an additional $5 million, bringing total funding to $9.3 million, at a valuation reported as north of $60 million. In November 2024 it announced it had been acquired and would sunset its platform by year-end [1][0][5][7].
Risks & controversies
The acquirer's identity and the acquisition price were not disclosed, and the protocol's wind-down required users to withdraw funds before products ceased operating at the end of 2024 [3][4][5][7].
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsCega stopped accepting deposits and said its product suite would cease operations by the end of 2024, urging users to withdraw funds.
Cega announced it had been acquired by an unnamed "leading platform"; the acquirer and the acquisition amount were not disclosed, with the team saying the acquirer chose to keep it private.
Coverage of the acquisition noted Cega operated across Solana, Ethereum and the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum after its initial Solana launch.
Cega Finance raised $5 million led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Pantera Capital and Robot Ventures, bringing total funding to $9.3 million. Funds were earmarked for expanding the product catalog, developing new DeFi primitives and building a trading team of exotic derivative specialists. The Block reported the valuation was north of $60 million, which the CEO declined to confirm.
$5M source ↗
Cega launched on Solana, described as the first protocol to bring exotic options to DeFi; a beta on the Solana devnet had been planned for March 2022.
Cega announced a $4.3 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital Partners with participation from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Solana Ventures and others, valuing the company at $60 million.
$4.3M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Cega Raises $5M in Fundingfinsmes.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cega do?
- Cega was a DeFi protocol offering exotic options and structured investment products; it was acquired and sunset at end-2024.
- Who are Cega's investors?
- Cega's investors include Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital.