Quick take:
- Blockchain Capital and OKX Ventures also joined the round.
- The fundraising valued Solv at $200 million according to the announcement on Monday.
- The company’s SolvBTC product has more than 23,000 BTC staked across more than 10 blockchain networks.
Solv Protocol has completed an $11 million funding round backed by Nomura’s digital asset investment unit Laser Digital, Blockchain Capital and OKX Ventures, among others, CoinDesk reported.
Solv is one of the largest bitcoin-staking protocols with a total value locked (TVL) of more than $1.5 billion, but it still lags several times below the biggest protocols on Ethereum, Lido’s $23 billion TVL and EigenLayer’s $15 billion.
Solv’s SolvBTC product demonstrates a growing interest in Bitcoin-based staking protocols as companies seek to explore more monetisation options for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
Last week, Yala secured an $8 million seed round for its Bitcoin-backed yield-earnings stablecoin YU, while RedStone launched its Bitcoin data Oracle with support for Lombard’s LBTC.
For reference, Lombard raised $16 million in a seed round led by Polychain in July. The protocol’s BTC yield platform Lombard Vault saw its TVL triple over the past month to $114 million according to DeFiLlama.
In August, SatLayer, a Bitcoin restaking platform built on Babylon Chain (Bitcoin’s equivalent of EigenLayer) raised $8 million in a pre-seed round co-led by Hack VC and Castle Island Ventures with participation from Franklin Templeton, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Amber Group and Big Brain Holdings again demonstrating the interest Bitcoin staking protocols are attracting from major Web3 VCs.
Given Bitcoin’s $1.2 trillion market cap, Solv Protocol co-founder Ryan Chow believes it has huge growth potential. “Its staking rate lags far behind Ethereum’s 28%. If Bitcoin reached similar staking levels, it could unlock $330 billion in value,” said Chow.
Stay on top of things:
Subscribe to our newsletter using this link – we won’t spam!
Follow us on X and Telegram.
Credit: Source link
