A recent addition to the RockawayX family, Ranger Finance is Solana’s first perps aggregator, routing user transactions among integrated perp DEXs to ensure the cheapest execution is achieved.
The vision is simple: deeper liquidity than any one DEX can offer.
In this Q&A, we caught up with co-founder @Fibullnacci to cover Ranger’s founding story, how the team is benefiting from building on Solana, and where they see DeFAI heading.
Q1: How did Ranger Finance come to be? What’s the origin story?
Things started materializing at the end of 2023 when Fathur, one of the co-founders of Solana FM, approached me to share his idea — one that really resonated with me. The core issue was the liquidity gap within the Solana ecosystem, particularly in the perps space.
This was around December 2023. While spot trading on Solana was thriving, perps were still somewhat limited. We had spoken with ETH whales and whales from other chains who were interested in trading perps on Solana, but at the time, they simply couldn’t take the position sizes they wanted.
That’s when I thought — why not create an aggregator to unify liquidity and order books from across different perp DEXs?
If you come from TradFi, especially in Forex, you’ll know that a significant portion of trading is routed through aggregators. These systems use smart order routers to scan multiple venues for the best price, splitting orders across different exchanges to optimize execution. I envisioned something similar for Solana perps — an aggregator that could efficiently route orders across multiple DEXs while accounting for fees and execution quality. That’s how Ranger started taking shape.
But over time, we realized that Ranger could be much more than just a perp DEX aggregator. We’re building a broader aggregation platform that will eventually support additional products beyond perps. The perp DEX aggregator is just the first step. Soon, we’ll introduce spot offerings and other trading tools within the Ranger platform.
The goal is to create an all-in-one platform that caters to both retail and institutional traders. Institutions looking for delta hedging or delta-neutral strategies will be able to access everything through a single technical infrastructure.
So, in a nutshell, that’s how Ranger came to be. From there, our team began to take shape in Q1 of 2024.
Q2: What are users loving the most about Ranger? What’s something you’re working to improve as a result of their feedback?
I’d say one key factor is the cleanliness of our UI/UX — that’s something users really appreciate. Additionally, we’re constantly educating users about our smart order router.
A common question we get is about how SOR works, and I like to explain it this way: If you’re new to Solana or just don’t want to manually check different perp DEXs for the best price, you can simply use Ranger. Our smart router does all the heavy lifting for you. It scans various exchanges in real-time to find the lowest price if you’re buying or the highest price if you’re shorting — automatically routing your order while factoring in all relevant fees.
One area we’re actively improving, based on user feedback, is making our platform even more versatile. While users like our clean UI, we recognize its limitations. So, we’re in the process of revamping it to better serve both retail and more professional traders.
Beyond that, we’re also addressing bugs as they come up, and we’re incredibly grateful for our community’s engagement. If you check our Telegram group, you’ll see how active our users are in reporting issues and providing feedback. Fortunately, we have a near-24/7 team spanning across Asia, Europe, and the U.S., ensuring we can quickly address these concerns.
We’re always in a constant state of improvement.
Q3: How has building on Solana been advantageous to your efforts?
I think many would point out that the Solana community is already well-established, with an active and incredibly supportive user base. And I fully agree there.
Beyond that, what has really stood out to me is how the Solana Foundation itself and the various Superteams across different countries are MVPs. They play a huge role in building, spreading the word, and supporting ecosystem founders and developers.
For example, here in Singapore, we have Superteam Singapore, which has been incredibly active despite only launching recently. They’ve grown rapidly and are constantly reaching out to offer help — whether it’s connecting us with investors, supporting community events, or just checking in to see if we need anything.
I really appreciate that level of engagement and support.
Q4: You’ve announced that you’re working on adding vaults managed by AI Agents in the future. Can you talk about the opportunities that you’re seeing at this new DeFAI frontier?
Vaults managed by agents are definitely something on our radar.
Remember, Ranger isn’t just a perp DEX aggregator — we’re building a platform that will launch multiple products. The perp DEX aggregator is just the first step, and later, we’ll introduce spot trading and potentially other innovative products.
With these integrations, a wide range of trading strategies will become possible. Users will be able to go long, short, and trade various assets — all within our platform. That’s where vaults come into play. They provide a way for portfolio managers to efficiently balance their positions and execute strategies within a structured environment.
In many ways, we see this evolving into something more advanced — almost like AI-driven portfolio management. It will go beyond simple automation, incorporating more complex decision-making and scenario planning to optimize outcomes.
Q5: Do you think that we’re going to see a shift in the DeFAI space from glorified chatbots into something more meaningful?
We’re going to see AI increasingly woven into various aspects of the original DeFi, particularly in areas like vaults and farming strategies. With AI integration, strategies can dynamically adjust and switch based on changing market conditions, making them far more adaptable and efficient.
AI’s growth will be similar to how DeFi evolved in its early days.
Initially, the focus was on mirroring TradFi — starting with spot trading, then bringing perps on-chain, and later expanding into options, which have gained massive popularity. Now, we’re seeing aggregators and other advanced tools emerge.
Q6: How has your RockawayX experience been so far?
We first got acquainted with RockawayX during our initial fundraising round early last year, and the experience has been really positive. There’s been constant communication from the start — the team is always available to help with any needs.
More recently, we’ve been working with a different team member who now oversees our relationship. Our first call with him was great — he’s an experienced trader, so he really understands what we’re building. He’s able to provide valuable feedback from both an institutional and retail trading perspective, which has been incredibly helpful.
If we want to do something that is possible to achieve, RockawayX will help make it happen.
If it’s not, they’re upfront about it, and we can talk things through. For example, at the end of last year, we traveled to Dubai for meetups with various funds, and we had the chance to connect with Viktor. He was very candid about how they could support us and even told us to DM him anytime if we needed anything.
Overall, we’ve been really grateful for how active and supportive Rockaway X has been.
To get started on with perps on Ranger, visit their website and be sure follow them on X for all the latest platform upgrades!
About RockawayX
RockawayX is a $2B AUM investment firm backing leading Web3 founders. In addition to venture investing, RockawayX focuses on long-term value creation by providing liquidity and engineering resources to accelerate go-to-market and achieve exponential growth faster. To date, RockawayX has invested in 74 projects across the Solana, Ethereum and other ecosystems.
