July 25, 2024
Kintsu, a protocol for liquid staking that is being developed on the Monad blockchain, has successfully garnered $4 million in a seed funding round. The round was spearheaded by Castle Island Ventures and saw participation from several other firms including Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, Spartan Group, Breed VC, CMS Holdings, and Animoca Ventures, as announced by Kintsu.
Project | Latest Raise | Latest Raise Date | Stage | Lead Investor | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kintsu | $4M | July 25, 2024 | Seed Round | Castle Island Ventures | Staking |
Additionally, individual investors such as Alex Matthews and Ross Trachtman from Brevan Howard Digital, Marin Tvrdic from Lido, and Robinson Burkey from Wormhole Foundation also contributed to the round.
Stephen Novenstern, the founder of Kintsu, revealed to The Block that the fundraising for the seed round commenced in May and was concluded earlier this month. The structure of the round was a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) along with token warrants, however, Novenstern chose not to disclose the valuation.
About Kintsu
Kintsu, a protocol for liquid staking, was established last year by Novenstern, who previously served as the strategy head at Pangolin, an Avalanche blockchain-based decentralized exchange. Novenstern's experience includes managing Pangolin, which played a crucial role in Avalanche's growth, generating over $18 billion in volume with more than 3200 trading pairs, and operating a genesis Ethereum validator node. This made liquid staking a perfect fit for his interests.
Initially, Kintsu developed a liquid staking protocol for the Aleph Zero blockchain, but it has now shifted its focus entirely to Monad. According to Novenstern, proof of stake blockchains like Monad can be compared to digital nation states. Staking introduces an opportunity cost for DeFi, which could potentially restrict growth at the protocol level. The category of liquid staking tokens, which are not only liquid but also 'composable,' offers a solution to this issue and has demonstrated a strong product-market fit across innovative blockchains like Ethereum and Solana.
Website: https://kintsu.xyz/
Investor: Castle Island Ventures
Castle Island Ventures is a venture capital firm that is exclusively focused on public blockchains1. They invest in infrastructure and application companies that are poised to enable these transformative protocols to power services for the next billion users.
The firm was founded by Matthew Walsh and Nic Carter. Prior to founding Castle Island Ventures, Matt was a Vice President at Fidelity Investments where he led a number of the firm’s blockchain/cryptoasset initiatives1. Nic Carter, on the other hand, worked for Fidelity as their first cryptoasset analyst, where he devised research perspectives on public blockchains
Location: Cambridge, MA
Website: https://www.castleisland.vc/
A central focus of investor activity in the cryptocurrency space is the evaluation of new crypto projects to invest in, particularly those with huge potential. This blog provides insight into what new ventures are benefiting from venture capital support (VC funding in crypto). These new crypto projects, funded by professional investors, can dictate the next narrative in crypto and the next big crypto movers.
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