Aligned Raises $34M To Grow DeFi and Web3 Infrastructure

Total value locked in DeFi protocols has risen 237% from $55.36 billion to $186.55 billion year-over-year, a trend Aligned expects to continue

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The capital raised will be used to grow its core products for Ethereum-compatible blockchains like layer-2 networks
  • Aligned’s founder is the former chief strategy officer at ConsenSys

Aligned, a DeFi and Web3 infrastructure company, has secured $34 million in funding, the company announced on Thursday.

Investors include GSR, Altium Capital and Cavalry Fund, as well as individual investors like film producer Happy Walters. This is the firm’s first funding round, founder Sam Cassatt told Blockworks.

Cassatt, a former chief strategy officer at ConsenSys, said he formed Aligned to provide products for mining, high performance computing and staking and liquidity provisioning through an immutable, full-stack infrastructure for DeFi (decentralized finance).

“[We’re taking] a deep and thoughtful look at what the next generation infrastructure looks like for Web3,” Cassatt noted. “Web3 will have different architectures than Web2, and for us, we’re not just buying commodity hardware or renting it from AWS, we’re building custom hardware.”

In the past 12 months, demand for DeFi has grown astronomically. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has risen 237% from $55.36 billion to $186.55 billion year-over-year, data from DeFi Llama shows. 

“Demand will continue to grow,” Cassatt said. “I don’t see this slowing down, it’s getting larger day by day.” 

The capital raised will be used to grow its core products for Ethereum-compatible blockchains like layer-2 networks.

“My background is very devoted to Ethereum, and we help get it to market,” Cassatt said to Blockworks. “However, we would be remiss to only focus on the Ethereum network.”

Overall, liquidity needs to be deployed across many new architectures and frameworks, and Cassatt said the company works as much as possible to be agnostic to tokens and networks themselves.

Going forward, the firm plans to continue growing Web3 architecture to create more opportunities for crypto companies building in the space, Cassatt said.

“Our hope is that we can help secure networks and help companies get off the ground faster because we have infrastructure they can use.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

With $30 million in funding and EverQuest’s creator at the helm, it’s possible, but not guaranteed

article-image

As Satoshi-era wallets saw over $8 billion worth of BTC on the move, Congress is gearing up for “Crypto Week”

article-image

Bitcoin’s runaway success was partly driven by Slashdot

article-image

Blockworks Research data shows that VC spending is back on the rise after a slow May

article-image

After rejecting a bid from the AI cloud-computing startup last year, Core Scientific agreed to be acquired in a deal expected to close by Q4 2025

article-image

Sponsored

Plume’s collaboration with TRON will unlock cross-chain RWA yield for one of the world’s largest blockchain ecosystems