Venture capital firm Polychain Capital heads $12 million seed funding for Solana's staking protocol, Solayer.
In a significant development for the Solana ecosystem, crypto restaking protocol Solayer has raised $12 million in a seed round. The fundraising was led by Polychain Capital and participated by Big Brain Holdings, Hack VC, Nomad Capital, Race Capital, ABCDE, and Arthur Haye's family office Maelstrom.
Solayer's restaking service is designed specifically for the Solana blockchain, aiming to enhance its speed, flexibility, and developer environment. The platform offers crypto restaking services on Solana, similar to the Ethereum-based protocol EigenLayer.
Key Features of Solayer
Solayer's key features include:
- InfiniSVM: A high-performance blockchain engine with Proof-of-Authority and Proof-of-Stake, enabling up to 1 million transactions per second and near-instant block finality.
- sSOL: A liquid restaking token that allows users to earn multiple income streams without locking their assets, making it suitable for lending, liquidity pools, or collateral.
- Hardware Acceleration: Leverages specialized hardware to improve scalability and security.
Solayer's Restaking Mechanism
Solayer's restaking mechanism allows users to earn rewards by locking earnings from staked tokens in other protocols. This feature sets Solayer apart from other staking protocols on Solana.
Solayer's Mainnet Launch and Adoption
At the time of the mainnet launch on August 15, Solayer included BONK, AltLayer, HashKey, and SonicSVM as its inaugural endogenous actively validated services. The platform has attracted 104,583 depositors and has locked more than $187 million in restaked assets from these depositors, according to its website.
Unlike EigenLayer and Jito, Solayer aims to start with native Solana on-chain dApps and assist them in reserving block space and prioritizing transaction inclusion based on the amount of stake delegated to them.
The Future of Solayer
Solayer plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team and integrate new protocols ahead of launching phase two of its platform. The funding round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants and values the protocol at $80 million, according to The Block.
With its unique features and strong backing, Solayer is poised to make a significant impact on the Solana ecosystem and the broader crypto industry.
[1] Source: Solayer's official website [2] Source: Solayer's Medium blog
In the broader crypto industry, Solayer, a innovative protocol, aims to merge news from finance and technology sectors by offering a unique restaking service specifically designed for the Solana blockchain. Solayer's fundraising round, led by Polychain Capital, has secured $12 million, and the platform hopes to use this funding to integrate new protocols and expand its team. Furthermore, Solayer's restaking mechanism differs from traditional protocols by allowing users to earn rewards by locking earnings from staked tokens in other Solana-based protocols.
