Andre Cronje’s Flying Tulip Raises $200M, Plans Ambitious DeFi Platform

Flying Tulip aims to unify DeFi under one roof

Andre Cronje, the developer behind Yearn Finance, has unveiled his latest venture: Flying Tulip. The project secured $200 million in a private seed round, conducted as a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), with participation from firms like Brevan Howard Digital, CoinFund, and Susquehanna Crypto. The raise values Flying Tulip at a $1 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV).

https://t.co/aiEY6AlGmx pic.twitter.com/cgie4nsx5L

— flyingtulip.com (@flyingtulip_) September 29, 2025

Flying Tulip plans to raise up to an additional $800 million through a public token sale of its native FT token, hosted on its own platform. While the launch date remains unspecified, the sale will occur on-chain across several networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Sonic, and Solana. An early rollout is expected on Sonic, where the platform will offer zero-fee trading.

A “self-reinforcing growth flywheel”

Flying Tulip is pitched as a full-stack onchain exchange integrating spot trading, derivatives, lending, a native stablecoin (ftUSD), and insurance into one system. The platform builds on Cronje’s 2020 Deriswap concept, aimed at consolidating DeFi services into a unified interface.

A key feature is the “onchain redemption right,” a perpetual put allowing investors to burn FT tokens to redeem up to their original investment in the same asset they contributed. Redemption funds are held in a segregated onchain reserve and managed by audited smart contracts with safeguards.

This mechanism is designed to ease pressure from token price volatility. “Providing a mechanism where the team has comfort that there is a floor and, at worst, investors exit what they put in, greatly reduces stress and overhead,” Cronje said.

Revenue and incentives tied to performance

The $1 billion in potential capital will be deployed into DeFi protocols like Aave, Ethena, and Spark, targeting a 4% annual yield, or about $40 million, to fund development, token buybacks, and incentives.

Team members will not receive initial token allocations. Their compensation depends entirely on open-market buybacks funded by protocol revenue, aligning their incentives with the platform’s success.

Revenue streams include trading and lending fees, stablecoin yield, liquidations, and insurance products. Flying Tulip currently has about 15 team members across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

A bold experiment in DeFi fundraising

The project’s fundraising model has drawn both praise and scrutiny. Dan Elitzer, founder of Nascent, called it “a fundraise structure that forces teams to deliver, aligns incentives, and gives investors real protection.”

Still, skepticism remains due to Cronje’s past controversies involving unaudited code in projects like Eminence. With Flying Tulip, he appears focused on correcting past missteps while exploring new ways to align capital and development in DeFi.

The launch date is yet to be announced, but Cronje says it will be “sooner than people think, later than people hope.”