In a market where most crypto apps feel like spreadsheets in sneakers, FOMO just made trading feel like social media on speed. Founded in early 2025 by Paul Erlanger and Se Yong Park, this NYC startup isn’t just in the game, it’s rewriting how people experience it. FOMO fuses crosschain trading with a social layer that lets users follow, copy, and learn from one another. It’s crypto for the crowds, not just the coders.
Paul Erlanger, ex-Head of Biz Dev at dYdX, brought the discipline and network that only comes from living DeFi in the trenches. Se Yong Park, now also Head of Ecosystem at Eclipse, adds the product and ecosystem depth of someone who’s helped build at scale across decentralized systems. Together, they’ve turned what used to be complex, gas-heavy trading into something so simple you can do it with Apple Pay and a coffee in hand.
Benchmark saw the signal early. The $17M Series A, led by Benchmark GP Chetan Puttagunta, who’s taken board seats at MongoDB, Elastic & MuleSoft, was a nod that FOMO isn’t another hype cycle. Benchmark was the sole institutional investor, surrounded by 140+ angels who actually shape Web3: Marc Boiron (Polygon Labs CEO), Raj Gokal (Solana Labs Co-Founder & COO), Balaji Srinivasan (former Coinbase CTO), Bryan Pellegrino (LayerZero Labs CEO), and others who know community drives velocity.
The fundraise itself was a masterclass. Instead of begging for checks, FOMO built a 200-name hit list of strategic investors, then converted 140 of them. $2M pre-seed in Feb, $17M Series A closed by Sept. Three angels even reached out independently to intro Chetan Puttagunta, proof of conviction. That’s not luck, that’s precision.
And the traction backs it. 95K on the waitlist pre-launch. 120K+ users since May. Daily trading volume now $20–40M with $150K daily revenue. Gas fees waived, UX simplified, and cross-chain assets spanning BTC, ETH, Solana & more. Within 3 months of launch, FOMO hit #1 mobile trading app on Solana. That’s not growth, it’s ignition.
The plan is bold: use the $17M to scale infrastructure, expand across every major blockchain by mid-2026, and push beyond crypto into prediction markets & traditional securities like bonds. The team behind it, ex-dYdX, Uniswap, OpenSea, Square & Two Sigma, has already proved it knows how to turn velocity into volume.
FOMO isn’t a mood anymore. It’s momentum, measured in users, dollars, and belief. And ironically, the only people not feeling it right now are the ones building it.
