RISE, an Ethereum layer-2 network focused on high-speed performance, is repositioning itself as a “foundation of global onchain markets” with the debut of RISE Markets and RISEx, the company announced Thursday.

The shift marks a step in RISE’s evolution from a high-performance execution layer into the foundational engine for global onchain trading. With RISE MarketCore, a shared orderbook infrastructure, and RISEx, an onchain perpetuals DEX, RISE is aiming to position itself as the programmable backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi).

The move comes as RISE’s acquired BSX Labs, a perp DEX on layer-2 Base, whose technology will underpin RISE’s new global markets offering.

Traditional financial (TradFi) markets, from equities to FX, run on orderbooks, a structure long considered incompatible with blockchains due to latency and synchronization challenges. The RISE team claims that the chain’s ultra-low-latency performance enables these orderbooks to operate entirely onchain, unlocking deep liquidity, composability, and programmability in DeFi.

RISE MarketCore is the part of the network that lets anyone build new trading markets directly on the blockchain. It provides the shared system where all buy and sell orders connect, so liquidity is automatically pooled. Developers can quickly launch markets for spot or perpetual trading, and over time, RISE plans to add more complex products like options and prediction markets.

RISEx is RISE’s main trading platform, designed to give users the experience of a centralized exchange, but with everything happening transparently onchain.

“RISE was never just about building a faster blockchain. It’s about enabling a new market structure for the internet,” said Sam Battenally, CEO of RISE, in a press release shared with CoinDesk.

RISEx is entering its closed mainnet phase this quarter, with a public launch expected in early 2026. RISE MarketCore will then open for permissionless deployment of new onchain markets.

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