Bitget has launched Project Archimedes, a US$300 million capital programme for institutional crypto trading firms, targeting quantitative trading firms, asset managers, and market makers.
The programme has two funding pools. A US$100 million Capital Provider Program is aimed at emerging and growing quantitative firms using market-neutral strategies. A US$200 million Interest-Free Lending Program is intended for larger institutions with established strategies and existing trading scale.
Bitget aims to support more than 50 projects over the next six months. The exchange is positioning the initiative for firms that need additional capital to expand trading activity rather than develop new strategies.
Institutional participation in crypto markets has grown, but competition has narrowed returns in some of the best-known arbitrage trades. That has pushed quantitative firms to focus more closely on areas such as basis spreads, funding-rate differences, and tokenised assets, where opportunities can still depend heavily on access to balance sheet and collateral.
Under the capital provider arm, Bitget will allocate money to selected firms and share returns under an agreed structure and risk framework. The lending arm offers interest-free capital to institutions that meet trading volume or position requirements, intended to lower funding costs and increase the capital available to trading strategies.
Capital focus
The programme will initially focus on market-neutral strategies with an established operating history and measurable risk controls. Participating firms will undergo strategy assessment, due diligence, and drawdown reviews before capital is deployed.
Bitget has structured Project Archimedes as a long-term capital cooperation framework with rolling admissions and phased deployment. It plans to publish updates over time on participation levels, capital deployment, and the types of strategies using the programme.
The exchange linked the launch to a broader shift in institutional trading, where access to capital, execution quality, and risk management can determine whether a strategy can be scaled. In crypto markets, that issue has become more pronounced as firms need to maintain positions across spot and derivatives venues, often tying up margin across multiple accounts.
One example the company cited is trading around tokenised US stocks. Arbitrage opportunities can emerge from pricing differences between spot and derivatives markets, but firms often need to hold offsetting positions simultaneously, reducing capital efficiency if collateral cannot be used flexibly.
