• Silhouette raises $3M in pre-seed funding to build a shield exchange that protects DeFi trade strategies.
  • Backed by RockawayX, Amber Group, and others, the platform launches on Hyperliquid, avoiding centralized servers.
  • Shielded trading prevents MEV and front-running while preserving DeFi’s decentralized and permissionless nature.

Privacy-focused DeFi platform, Silhouette has raised $3 million in a pre-seed round to develop a new type of decentralized exchange (DEX) that safeguards traders' strategies, introducing the first “shield exchange” on Hyperliquid.

The funding round was led by RockawayX and included participation from Hivemind, Amber Group, NGC, No Limit Holding, and Protagonist. The capital will support the launch of Silhouette’s minimum viable product (MVP), aimed at empowering traders to execute sophisticated strategies without revealing them on-chain.

Unlike traditional DEXs that expose trade intent publicly, making users vulnerable to front-running and miner extractable value (MEV), Silhouette introduces shielded order flow. This protects personal trade information without compromising decentralization or liquidity.

“We’re in the middle of a DeFi Renaissance, but it’s imperfect without privacy,” said Chandler De Kock, Co-Founder and CEO of Silhouette. “Where privacy has been introduced in DeFi, it’s often come at the cost of usability. Silhouette strikes a new balance—combining the openness of DEXs with the protection traders need to scale sophisticated, long-lasting strategies.”

Built within the Hyperliquid ecosystem, Silhouette leverages the platform’s growing liquidity and active trading community. Rather than relying on centralized servers, it uses decentralized trusted execution environments (TEEs) to shield trades, maintaining full transparency and permissionlessness on-chain.

Samantha Bohbot, Partner and CGO at RockawayX, said the infrastructure comes at a timely moment.

“Silhouette won’t have to build liquidity from scratch—it’s launching into an active Hyperliquid ecosystem. This is a rare opportunity to establish dark pool infrastructure within a community already using advanced trading strategies.”

The team is currently developing the MVP, with testing phases expected soon. The shield exchange is designed for those seeking advanced DeFi functionality with added protection, marking a new step in the evolution of on-chain privacy.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah