Onchain funding platform Solv Protocol has revealed that it’s secured $6M in fresh funding. The raise was completed with the support of a host of leading industry VCs. UOB Venture Management, Mirana Ventures, Emirates Consortium, Matrix Partners, Apollo Capital, HashCIB, Geek Cartel, Bing Ventures, and Bytetrade Labs all participated.
The raise comes at a propitious time for Solv, which recently launched V3 of its protocol. The latest version includes a host of improvements designed to make it easier for investors to access financial products on-chain. Solv boasts of connecting on-chain entities with over 15,000 individual and institutional investors through its vast liquidity network. Previous investors in the company have included Binance Labs and BlockchainCapital.
Solv Earn, its flagship product, enables users to browse available funds and to assess them on various criteria including APR, term, size, and status. This makes it easy for users to pick an investment fund that suits their goals, timeframe, and risk profile.
New Money for New Narratives
The crypto industry, DeFi in particular, is driven by constantly shifting narratives and evolving use cases. This presents an abundance of investment opportunities for those smart enough to identify emerging trends and position themselves accordingly. The last 12 months have witnessed the growth of liquid staking derivatives (LSD) which has given rise to its own DeFi vertical: LSDfi. This is one of many sectors that is now accessible through Solv.
As Solv Protocol CEO Ryan Chow explains, “New DeFi narratives, such as RWA and LSD, are driving speculation around the next iteration of DeFi summer. Solv V3 will focus on the RWA track, and is committed to introducing billions of dollars worth of income-generating assets for the industry through our fund platform, in preparation for the next phase of DeFi mass adoption.”
Bringing real world assets on-chain has the potential to multiply the TVL in DeFi protocols, moving it from billions of dollars to ultimately trillions. In the process, it stands to disrupt industries such as forex by introducing more consistent pricing and facilitating global access.
Laser Digital, a subsidiary of Japanese banking giant Nomura Securities, participated in the $6M round. Explaining his firm’s rationale behind writing a check, Laser’s Olivier Dang said: “Solv has built a trustless DeFi platform with a trusted institutional network, integrating brokers, underwriters, market makers, and custodians to create the first fund infrastructure on the blockchain, becoming an important infrastructure that bridges DeFi, CeFi, and TradFi liquidity.”
Solv Shines at the Right Time
Since launching V3 of its protocol in Q2 of this year, Solv has reported more than 25,000 users and over $100 million in trading volume. Its latest funding round has been completed at a time when TradFi and DeFi are closer than ever, with institutions now intent on gaining exposure to crypto in various forms. For some, this entails investing in web3 infrastructure, or migrating their existing processes to an on-chain environment, with the potential improvements this brings in terms of security, reducing counterparty risk, increasing transparency, and delivering faster settlement.
Other TradFi players are intent on gaining direct exposure to crypto assets, as evidenced by the spate of Bitcoin ETF filings that’s seen Wall Street bigshots saying nice things about crypto again. Given Thursday’s ruling that XRP doesn’t constitute a security, prompting speculation that the same classification may apply to other assets maligned by the SEC such as SOL, things are looking up for the industry.
With Solv sporting an experienced team including financial experts from Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, the on-chain investment protocol is well placed to ride the wave of goodwill that should continue into 2024 and beyond.
