Rhea Finance

What Rhea Finance does

Rhea Finance (legally Ref finance Ltd, headquartered in London, United Kingdom) is a multi-chain decentralized finance platform built on NEAR Protocol that provides chain-abstracted liquidity solutions across decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregation, cross-chain lending, cross-chain bridging, and liquid staking. The platform supports trading, lending, borrowing, and asset management across eight blockchain networks — BTC, Base, Arbitrum, BSC, Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, and TRON — enabling users to interact with multi-chain liquidity through a single interface without directly managing bridges or multiple wallets. It serves primarily DeFi traders and liquidity providers (primary segment), multi-chain DeFi users seeking unified access, and DeFi protocols/projects looking to deploy token utility via modular infrastructure (e.g., Margarita Finance's NEAR20 yieldcoin).

The platform's product suite includes a Cross-Chain DEX Aggregator, a Cross-Chain Lending money market (positioned as the first cross-chain money market on NEAR), a Cross-Chain Bridge for asset transfer to NEAR, liquid staking products ($rNEAR and $xRHEA), and a JavaScript/TypeScript SDK (ref-sdk) for developer integration. Underlying technology leverages NEAR Protocol's chain abstraction architecture to abstract cross-chain complexity. Revenue is generated through transaction fees on DEX swaps, interest spreads on lending/borrowing, and fees from liquid staking services, with no publicly disclosed fee schedule.

Rhea Finance operates with a lean core team of four (CEO Zero, CTO Marco, COO AescoBar, Advisor Bowen) plus NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin as a contributor, pursuing a product-led and community-led go-to-market motion via its web app, developer SDK, and NEAR ecosystem channels. The company raised $4.5M in July 2025 in a round co-led by Dragonfly Capital and Jump Crypto, with additional participation from OKX Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, Alameda Research, SevenX Ventures, D1 Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, Kronos Research, and MOVE Capital. RHEA tokens trade on Gate.io and MEXC. In April 2026, the platform suffered a $7.6M exploit through a vulnerability in its Margin Trading feature involving fake token contracts and oracle manipulation, representing a material operational risk event.

Name

Rhea Finance

Legal name

Ref finance Ltd

Website

https://rhea.finance

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Rhea Finance is a multi-chain DeFi platform built on NEAR Protocol that provides chain-abstracted cross-chain DEX aggregation, lending, bridging, and liquid staking services to DeFi traders, liquidity providers, and protocol partners across eight blockchain networks.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

NAICS

Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321), Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities (523), Securities and Commodity Exchanges (5232)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)

akta.pro primary industry

DEX Aggregation & On-Chain Execution (routing, RFQ, intent-based trading) (FSAPAEAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Decentralized Lending Protocols (DeFi Money Markets) (FSADAFAB), Credit Marketplaces, Aggregators & Loan Routing (FSADAFAJ)

Keywords

• Decentralized exchange
• Cross-chain lending
• Chain abstraction
• Liquid staking
• Defi aggregator

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. DEX Trading Fees: Revenue generated from trading fees on the cross-chain DEX aggregator. Fees likely apply to each swap transaction executed across aggregated liquidity pools.
2. Lending Interest Spread: Revenue earned from the spread between lending and borrowing rates on the cross-chain money market platform.
3. Staking/LST Fees: Revenue from liquid staking services ($NEAR to $rNEAR, $RHEA to $xRHEA), potentially capturing a portion of staking rewards or protocol fees.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Rhea Finance is a multi-chain decentralized trading and lending platform built on NEAR Protocol. It aggregates cross-chain liquidity across BTC, Base, Arbitrum, BSC, Ethereum, Solana, and NEAR, offering a chain-abstracted DEX aggregator, a cross-chain money market for lending and borrowing, a bridge to NEAR, and liquid staking products ($rNEAR and $xRHEA). Users access trading, lending, and asset management through a single interface without managing multiple wallets or bridges.

Product overview

Rhea Finance is a multi-chain decentralized trading and lending platform (DEX & lending) built on NEAR Protocol, offering a platform-plus-modules architecture. The platform aggregates cross-chain liquidity across major networks including BTC, Base, Arbitrum, BSC, Ethereum, Solana, and NEAR, enabling seamless trading, lending, and asset management through four core product modules: (1) the Cross-Chain DEX Aggregator for borderless multi-chain trading and liquidity provision, (2) Cross-Chain Lending as the platform's money market for lending/borrowing, (3) the Cross-Chain Bridge for transferring assets to NEAR, and (4) a flexible staking suite supporting $rNEAR (NEAR liquid staking) and $xRHEA (RHEA liquid staking with APY boosting). The platform also provides a developer SDK (Rhea SDK) for building on top of its infrastructure, and is backed by a set of investors including DragonFly Capital, Jump Crypto, and OKX Ventures.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cross-Chain DEX Aggregator Aggregated decentralized exchange that enables traders and liquidity providers to access unified, borderless liquidity across multiple blockchain networks with sustainable rewards.
• Cross-Chain Lending Cross-chain money market that lets users lend, borrow, and trade assets across multiple chains from a single interface, positioned as the first cross-chain lending platform on NEAR.
• Cross-Chain Bridge Bridge feature enabling seamless asset transfers from any supported chain to NEAR, allowing users to start earning yield after bridging.
• NEAR Liquid Staking ($rNEAR) Liquid staking product letting users stake $NEAR and receive $rNEAR at a 0% staking fee while earning staking rewards.
• RHEA Liquid Staking ($xRHEA) Liquid staking product letting users stake $RHEA and receive $xRHEA at a 0% staking fee, with $xRHEA boosting Lending/Farming APY on the platform.
• Rhea SDK (ref-sdk) JavaScript/TypeScript SDK distributed via npm (ref-sdk) that lets developers build applications and integrations on top of Rhea Finance's infrastructure.

Quantifiable outcome

• $300M in bridge volume achieved by COO in prior role within six months
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• TRONmajorTechnology or Integration · 24 March 2026Rhea Finance integrated with the TRON network, enabling TRON users to access cross-chain liquidity, DeFi trading, lending, and borrowing. The integration leverages NEAR's chain abstraction architecture to allow seamless transactions without direct bridge or multi-wallet interactions.
• NEAR ProtocolcoreTechnology or IntegrationRhea Finance is built on NEAR Protocol, leveraging NEAR's chain abstraction architecture. The platform serves as NEAR's chain DEX and lending platform. NEAR Foundation supports Rhea Finance ecosystem development, and NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin is actively involved.
• Margarita FinancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMargarita Finance launched its NEAR20 yieldcoin on Rhea Finance, leveraging Rhea's modular infrastructure for agentic yield-bearing token issuance. NEAR Foundation confirmed this deployment as a community-aligned treasury strategy. The partnership represents co-development of on-chain yield products.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Jupiter: Solana-native DEX aggregator with expanding cross-chain reach. Comparable as a liquidity aggregation platform, currently dominant within its home chain.
• Li.Fi: Cross-chain DEX aggregator and bridge abstraction protocol that competes in the same chain-abstracted trading and bridging niche Rhea targets.
• THORChain: Cross-chain liquidity network enabling native asset swaps between BTC, ETH, BSC, and other chains. Directly comparable as a cross-chain DEX, though Rhea layers lending and money market functionality on top.
• 1inch Network: Leading DEX aggregator routing trades across multiple chains and liquidity sources. Comparable on the aggregation side of Rhea's offering, with significantly larger liquidity and brand recognition.
• Ref Finance (NEAR-native): Predecessor NEAR-native DEX and lending platform from which Rhea evolved. Operates the NEAR chain-only portion of Rhea's product suite and remains a closely related competitor in the NEAR ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Compound: Pioneer DeFi money market protocol. Comparable on the lending/borrowing functionality and a major competitor for any cross-chain lending user.
• Aave: Largest decentralized lending protocol with cross-chain deployments (Aave V3). Directly competes with Rhea's lending product and dwarfs it in TVL and security track record.

Emerging players

• Stargate Finance: LayerZero-based cross-chain bridge and liquidity protocol enabling native asset transfers between chains. Comparable to Rhea's cross-chain bridge component.
• Beefy Finance: Multi-chain yield aggregator offering auto-compounding vaults across numerous chains. Comparable on the yield-optimization and LST side of Rhea's staking and farming products.
• Squid (Axelar): Cross-chain swap router built on Axelar that aggregates liquidity for seamless multi-chain trading. Competes with Rhea on chain-abstracted trading UX.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/rhea_finance

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rhea Finance