Mochatrade raises $5.5M to offer US stock perpetuals to Indian traders

The pitch hinges on wrapping US equity exposure in perpetual futures for an Indian audience, a structure that sits awkwardly between crypto derivatives and traditional brokerage, and that regulatory seam is the real story here. Who it affects most is not the traders but the incumbent brokers and offshore venues already serving Indian demand for US exposure. The raise is small and the product is still in beta, so the open question is whether Indian regulators treat US stock perpetuals as derivatives to be licensed or as offshore crypto-style products to be fenced off.