Quick take:
- ConsenSys, OKX Ventures, CMS Holdings, ABCDE, Gumi Cryptos Capital and others also joined the round.
- The fundraising values aPriori at a fully diluted token value of at least $100 million, co-founder and CEO Ray S told The Block.
- The liquid staking protocol plans to launch its testnet and mainnet as soon as Monad blockchain does.
Liquid staking protocol aPriori has secured an $8 million seed round led by Pantera Capital, bringing the total raised to date to $10 million. The fundraising also attracted participation from OKX Ventures, CMS Holdings, ABCDE, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Chorus One, Everstake Capital and Staking Facilities, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The fundraising values aPriori at a fully diluted token value of at least $100 million, co-founder and CEO Ray S told The Block.
OurNetwork’s Spencer Noon, Pyth Network’s Marc Tillement, Wormhole Foundation’s Robinson Burkey, TN Lee of Pendle Finance and Zano Sherwani of Jito Labs were among those who joined as angel investors.
Apriori’s liquid staking protocol is powered by the concept of maximum extractable value (MEV), thus increasing validator incentives on Monad.
According to Ray S, his company was previously developing an MEV-powered platform similar to the Ethereum Virtual Machine but has since chosen to focus on building within the Monad blockchain ecosystem. MEV allows miners to earn more beyond gas fees and block rewards.
Although aPriori is fully operational, it is still in devnet, and will be ready to launch its testnet and mainnet as soon as Monad blockchain does, Ray S said. Monad previously said it plans to launch its mainnet in 2024.
According to Ray S, once Monad goes live, users will be able to stake their Monad tokens using aPriori. They will also be able to earn rewards and receive a liquid stake pool that can be used across decentralised finance apps.
“We have strong relationships within Monad’s ecosystem and its builders, with protocols committing to leverage our liquid staking token (LST) going into Monad’s mainnet,” Ray S said.
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