Puffer Finance, Ethereum Liquid Staking Protocol, Raises $18M in Series A

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Projects that allow users to stake their liquid Ethereum assets have gained popularity in the Ethereum community, and Puffer Finance is capitalizing on this trend. Recently, Puffer Finance, which is based on the Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, raised $18 million in a Series A funding round to launch its own independent network.

According to the announcement on April 16, Taylor, Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital took the lead in the funding round. Kraken Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Lemniscap, Mechanism Fidelity, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, GSR, and several angel investors also participated with significant investments.

According to Amir Forouzani, the co-founder of Puffer, we recently secured funding through a Straightforward Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). With this new funding round, the total estimated value of our fully diluted liquid staking protocol tokens now reaches $200 million.

To date, Puffer Finance has secured a venture capital investment of $23.5 million in total. Notably, information from DeFiLama indicates that following their early-phase trial in February, the value locked within Puffer Finance exceeded $1.2 billion.

After this funding round, Puffer received a strategic investment from Binance Labs, strengthening its role in the Liquid Staking ecosystem, according to Purffer Finance. They also mentioned that these technological developments have aligned perfectly with the launch of their mainnet.

Ethereum Restaking Protocols in the Limelight

Last year saw the debut of EigenLayer, leading Ethereum’s staking protocols to gain significant attention. Consequently, numerous platforms built on EigenLayer have emerged during this time. Among these newcomers, Puffer Finance ranks as the third largest in terms of total value locked (TVL), following Ether.Fi and Renzo.

Using Puffer Finance, Ethereum validators can lower their staking capital to just 1 Ether, which is a substantial decrease from the 32 ETH needed for individual stakers. In return, those who stake Ether with Puffer receive Puffer liquid restaking tokens (nLRTs). These tokens offer users the ability to earn returns in several decentralized finance platforms at once while continuing to receive Ethereum staking rewards.

“Our goal is to make it easier for more people to become home validators and offer them an innovative liquid restaking method of the highest caliber,” expressed Amir Forouzani, a key team member at Puffer Labs.

In simpler terms, Puffer’s mainnet sets a new standard in the field of liquid restaking by making it easier and cheaper for validators to join (just 1 ETH required) and enhancing their rewards through Ethereum’s proof of staking and AVS’ additional returns.

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2024-04-16 17:48