Verify a decision

{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"9bdd13fb-18ce-4fc8-9a27-914e77feffa0","kind":"publish","page_slug":"ellipsis-labs","published_at":"2026-11-05T20:29:19.533Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Ellipsis Labs","sections":[{"content":"Ellipsis Labs was founded in 2022 by Eugene Chen and Jarry Xiao, who met in middle school and both have backgrounds in high-frequency trading, according to funding coverage. The company's flagship product is Phoenix, described as a fully on-chain, non-custodial, 'crankless' central limit order book on Solana, which launched in 2023. Ellipsis later built Phoenix Perpetuals, a non-custodial on-chain perpetual futures exchange, announced by CEO Eugene Chen at a Solana Breakpoint conference. The company also built Atlas, tooling related to verifiable finance on Solana. Phoenix's smart contract program has been audited by security firm OtterSec, and the project runs a bug bounty program with OtterSec.","heading":"Company background and products","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune: DeFi developers behind crypto exchange Phoenix raise $20M Series A","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/04/defi-developers-crypto-exchange-phoenix-series-a-round/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Solana DEX aims to move price discovery on-chain","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.com/news/solana-dex-phoenix-launch"},{"credibility":2,"name":"SolanaCompass: Ellipsis Labs Announces Phoenix Perpetuals","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanacompass.com/learn/breakpoint-25/ellipsis-labs-announces-phoenix-perpetuals-bringing-institutional-grade-derivatives-to-solana"}]},{"content":"Ellipsis Labs raised a seed round in 2023 and a $20 million Series A round in April 2024 led by Paradigm, with participation from Electric Capital, according to Fortune. Separate reporting describes a further raise associated with Haun Ventures tied to the company's Atlas initiative. Aggregator sites disagree on cumulative totals (figures of roughly $21 million and $44 million both appear), which have not been independently reconciled here.","heading":"Funding","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune: DeFi developers behind crypto exchange Phoenix raise $20M Series A","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/04/defi-developers-crypto-exchange-phoenix-series-a-round/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Funding Wrap: Solana-based Ellipsis draws an Ethereum-heavy cap table","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-ellipsis-dex-draws-ethereum-investors"}]},{"content":"In late 2024, a DEX called SolFi rapidly captured a large share of SOL-USD swap volume on Solana — reportedly around a quarter of volume routed through aggregator Jupiter — while its developers remained anonymous and its pricing mechanism (a private, oracle-priced automated market maker rather than a standard constant-product model) was not publicly documented. Ellipsis Labs subsequently claimed credit for building SolFi, according to Blockworks. The episode drew attention in the Solana DeFi community over the lack of transparency about who operated a venue handling a large share of on-chain trading volume and how its pricing worked; no regulatory or legal action was reported in connection with it.","heading":"SolFi: undisclosed authorship of a dominant Solana DEX","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Ellipsis Labs claims credit for mysterious top Solana DEX","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ellipsis-labs-solfi-credit-solana-dex"}]},{"content":"In 2026, builders behind rival Solana perpetuals platforms, reportedly including Pacifica and Bulk, criticized what they characterized as favoritism by Solana ecosystem leaders — including, according to one report, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko — toward Ellipsis Labs' Phoenix Perpetuals. Coverage framed this as a dispute over whether Solana Foundation-linked figures should publicly back a single perps venue while other teams compete in the same market. No finding of wrongdoing by Ellipsis Labs itself was reported; the criticism was directed primarily at ecosystem leaders' promotional conduct rather than at any alleged misconduct by Ellipsis Labs.","heading":"2026 criticism of Solana Foundation favoritism toward Phoenix","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"KuCoin News: Solana Foundation's Favoritism Sparks PerpDEX Rivalry","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/solana-foundation-s-favoritism-sparks-perpdex-rivalry"},{"credibility":2,"name":"SolanaFloor: Phoenix trade records all-time high in daily volume as perceived favoritism divides Solana community","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/phoenix-trade-records-all-time-high-in-daily-volume-as-perceived-favoritism-divides-solana-community"}]},{"content":"No reports of a hack, exploit, or exit scam involving Ellipsis Labs or its Phoenix products were found in available search results. Phoenix's on-chain program has undergone a third-party audit by OtterSec and operates a bug bounty program. This section should be revisited if new incident reporting emerges.","heading":"Security track record","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Phoenix v1 SECURITY.md (bug bounty program)","type":"other","url":"https://rust-digger.code-maven.com/src/phoenix-v1-0.2.4/SECURITY.md"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune: DeFi developers behind crypto exchange Phoenix raise $20M Series A","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/04/defi-developers-crypto-exchange-phoenix-series-a-round/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Solana DEX aims to move price discovery on-chain","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.com/news/solana-dex-phoenix-launch"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Funding Wrap: Solana-based Ellipsis draws an Ethereum-heavy cap table","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-ellipsis-dex-draws-ethereum-investors"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Blockworks: Ellipsis Labs claims credit for mysterious top Solana DEX","type":"news_article","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ellipsis-labs-solfi-credit-solana-dex"},{"credibility":2,"name":"SolanaCompass: Ellipsis Labs Announces Phoenix Perpetuals","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanacompass.com/learn/breakpoint-25/ellipsis-labs-announces-phoenix-perpetuals-bringing-institutional-grade-derivatives-to-solana"},{"credibility":2,"name":"KuCoin News: Solana Foundation's Favoritism Sparks PerpDEX Rivalry","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/solana-foundation-s-favoritism-sparks-perpdex-rivalry"},{"credibility":2,"name":"SolanaFloor: Phoenix trade records all-time high in daily volume as perceived favoritism divides Solana community","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/phoenix-trade-records-all-time-high-in-daily-volume-as-perceived-favoritism-divides-solana-community"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Phoenix v1 SECURITY.md (bug bounty program)","type":"other","url":"https://rust-digger.code-maven.com/src/phoenix-v1-0.2.4/SECURITY.md"}],"summary":"Ellipsis Labs is a New York-based crypto trading technology company founded in 2022 by Eugene Chen and Jarry Xiao, best known for Phoenix, a fully on-chain limit order book on Solana, and for Phoenix Perpetuals, an on-chain perpetuals exchange. No regulatory action, lawsuit, hack, or fraud allegation against the company was found in available reporting; the main documented frictions are a 2024 episode in which the firm was initially anonymous about building the high-volume DEX SolFi, and 2026 community criticism that Solana ecosystem leaders favored Phoenix Perpetuals over rival perp platforms.","timeline":[{"date":"2022","event":"Ellipsis Labs founded by Eugene Chen and Jarry Xiao.","source":"Fortune","source_url":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/04/defi-developers-crypto-exchange-phoenix-series-a-round/"},{"date":"2023","event":"Phoenix, a fully on-chain limit order book, launches on Solana.","source":"Blockworks","source_url":"https://blockworks.com/news/solana-dex-phoenix-launch"},{"date":"2024-04","event":"Ellipsis Labs raises $20 million Series A led by Paradigm.","source":"Fortune","source_url":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/04/defi-developers-crypto-exchange-phoenix-series-a-round/"},{"date":"2024","event":"SolFi, an anonymously-run Solana DEX, rapidly gains large swap market share; Ellipsis Labs later claims credit for building it.","source":"Blockworks","source_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ellipsis-labs-solfi-credit-solana-dex"},{"date":"2026","event":"Community criticism emerges over alleged Solana Foundation favoritism toward Ellipsis Labs' Phoenix Perpetuals versus rival perp DEXs.","source":"KuCoin News","source_url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/solana-foundation-s-favoritism-sparks-perpdex-rivalry"}]},"v":1}