Staking protocol developer EigenLabs raises $50 million in a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital. The funding comes as EigenLabs prepares to phase out the first version of its EigenLayer protocol later this year. The size of the round is notable amid a prolonged crypto winter that has seen investors focus on smaller early stage rounds.
EigenLayer Raises $50M Amid Crypto Winter
EigenLabs was founded in 2021 to address the problem that it is difficult to improve blockchain infrastructure without introducing new blockchains and so-called trust networks that provide security to the chain. In September, Ethereum switched from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus, appointing cryptocurrency miners as validators or “stakers” to lock their tokens within the network and keep them safe in exchange for financial reward. EigenLayer allows users to “restake” tokens that are locked up to validate Ethereum so those tokens can be reused to help secure other protocols.
“One of the central bottlenecks to innovation in today’s crypto ecosystem is the requirement for projects to bootstrap trust, or cryptoeconomic security. We started working on EigenLayer in the hopes of creating a new model in which developers can easily consume trust, instead of needing to build trust, and design powerful systems of assurances that make the crypto ecosystem safer and more useful.” – said EigenLabs founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan in the press release.
Kannan is an associate professor at the University of Washington and leads the UW Blockchain Lab. The EigenLayer team has extensive experience working with technology companies such as Amazon Web Services, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), and Microsoft.
Other supporters of this round included Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, and Coinbase Ventures. EigenLabs raised in August in its $14.5 million seed round led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures.
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