Kuru Labs: Building a full-chain trading platform that integrates order book and automated market-making logic

Recently, a startup project focused on building an on-chain order book trading platform, Kuru Labs, announced the completion of a $11.5 million Series A funding round. This round was led by a well-known investment institution, with several angel investors participating. Kuru Labs aims to create a full-chain trading platform that combines order book architecture with automated market-making logic on the high-performance blockchain Monad, intending to provide a more balanced product experience for professional traders and ordinary users through the reconstruction of the underlying architecture.

Kuru Labs was established in 2024 by a team with experience in high-frequency trading, DeFi protocol development, and on-chain system optimization. The core idea of the project is to start from the bottom, combining the advantages of the two existing mainstream models, to replicate a spot trading system on-chain that is closer to the experience of centralized exchanges.

In terms of financing, Kuru Labs completed a $2 million seed round in mid-2024, receiving support from several well-known investment institutions. The funds from this Series A financing will primarily be used to further expand the team size and realize the vision of a fully on-chain order book on the Monad mainnet.

In terms of technical architecture, Kuru Labs attempts to build a hybrid system that combines order books and automated market-making functions. The core idea is to introduce a default automated market-making algorithm into the order book of each trading pair on-chain, allowing users to receive basic quote support even in the absence of active liquidity providers. This design does not rely on centralized market makers to maintain market liquidity, nor does it conform to the unified constraints of AMM price curves, but rather provides the possibility of flexible switching between the two.

In terms of operation, Kuru Labs has designed an order management mechanism suitable for on-chain environments. The submission and cancellation of limit orders use low and predictable gas costs, allowing market makers or strategy traders to operate frequently without being restricted by high costs that limit their efficiency. The team is also developing a passive liquidity mechanism aimed at lowering participation thresholds and increasing the funding coverage of the on-chain order book.

Kuru Labs has chosen the Monad blockchain as its deployment platform. Monad is a Layer 1 blockchain compatible with the Ethereum EVM and is currently in the testing phase. Unlike existing EVM public chains, Monad reconstructs the execution engine from the ground up, using a parallel architecture and pipelined scheduling mechanism to enhance processing capacity per second and reduce block production latency. Internal testing data shows that Monad can achieve a processing capacity of 10,000 TPS in a controlled environment while maintaining a one-second block production speed.

Although Kuru Labs' technical architecture is somewhat advanced, it also faces practical limitations. The Monad mainnet has not yet been launched, and its chain-level performance and network stability have not been validated in a public environment. Kuru Labs' product design relies heavily on the real-time and predictability of on-chain transactions. If Monad cannot deliver on time, it will directly affect the platform's launch schedule and the feasibility of its core functions.

The hybrid order book model built by Kuru Labs is currently in the early stages of market validation. This model attempts to provide a new on-chain option between existing AMM and centralized order books, making market-making behavior closer to traditional trading systems while retaining the openness and composability of decentralized protocols. Ideally, this architecture can cover mainstream trading pairs as well as serve long-tail assets, thereby providing a unified trading infrastructure for various asset types.

However, there are still a series of uncertainties at the current stage. First, there is the risk of technological realization; although Monad's design goals are attractive, there is still a gap between the white paper and the actual operating environment. Second, there is the actual motivation for user migration; most on-chain trading users have already developed a habit of using AMM platforms, and it is not easy to persuade them to switch to an order book model.

Overall, Kuru Labs' innovative attempts provide new ideas for enhancing the on-chain trading experience, but their success still needs to be tested over time and recognized by the market.