Vega Protocol
Its token holders voted almost unanimously to switch its chain off
A blockchain built only for trading crypto derivatives, designed so that anyone could create and launch a futures, options or swaps market, from a Gibraltar-based team.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- Buyers in the 2021 token sale
Unique participants in the CoinList sale, as reported at the time.
- Value locked on the protocol when shutdown was proposed
DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph in September 2024. These are users' assets on the protocol, not money the project raised.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed round | 2019 | ||
| March 2021 round | 2021 | ||
| CoinList community token sale | 2021 | Not disclosed |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barney Mannerings | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
2018
It described a blockchain designed for high-volume derivatives trading.
18 March 2021
A test network had been running since the second quarter of 2020. The company was preparing a mainnet launch.
20 July 2021
The project then expected trading to go live in the fourth quarter of 2021.
10 May 2023
Crypto futures markets were switched on later that month.
23 May 2023
After the alpha mainnet launch, The Block reported the first trading markets live. The network launch and the first usable markets were separate milestones.
30 August 2024
The proposal would suspend trading, hand the on-chain treasury to stakers and pay validators in USDT to keep the network up while users withdrew.
11 September 2024
Validators were expected to keep the chain running until at least 27 October 2024. Assets left on it after that could become unrecoverable.
How it ended
The team proposed retiring the Vega chain and ending official support for the VEGA token, and token holders approved it. Trading on every market stopped at once, and validators were given incentives to keep the network running for a ramp-down period so users could withdraw. The co-founder said the chain and token had not seen the interest and growth needed to be sustainable. VEGA holders were offered tokens in Nebula, a new exchange to be built on the Vega software.
Still alive
Open spot
Vega Protocol is gone. Is your derivatives exchange still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
13 sources behind this page.
- 1DeFi Derivatives Protocol Vega Raises $43M in CoinList Token Sale · CoinDesk · Jul 2021
- 2Derivatives Trading Protocol Vega Raises $5M From Coinbase, Arrington and More · CoinDesk · Mar 2021
- 3Pantera Leads $5 Million Round for Decentralized Derivatives Market · CoinDesk · Oct 2019
- 4Vega Protocol proposes shutting down chain and launching new token · Cointelegraph
- 5Vega Protocol retires chain and token after near unanimous vote · Cointelegraph
- 6Pantera Capital-backed Vega Protocol shuts down layer-1 chain · crypto.news
- 7Pantera Capital, Ripple's Xpring lead $5 million funding round in crypto-trading startup Vega · Decrypt
- 8Vega Protocol Community Votes to Shut Down Network and VEGA Token · ForkLog
- 9Vega, the First Capital-Efficient Decentralized Derivatives Trading Protocol, Closes $5M Raise with Investment from Arrington Capital, Cumberland DRW & Coinbase Ventures · PRWeb (press release issued by Vega) · Mar 2021
- 10Vega launches first on-chain markets · The Block · May 2023
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- 11Latest posts of @barnabee · twitterapi.io (X API), retrieved 3 October 2026
- 12Posts on X naming Barney Mannerings, including Stable Summit's of July and August 2023 tagging @barnabee · twitterapi.io (X API), retrieved 3 October 2026
- 13X profile of @barnabee · twitterapi.io (X API), retrieved 3 October 2026
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.