CoinFund, ParaFi Capital Co-Lead Seed Round for Staking Platform ClayStack
ClayStack is a staking protocol that provides users with the ability to unlock staked digital assets in the form of liquid staking derivative tokens and use those tokens to trade, lend or farm for additional rewards.
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- The recent funding will help ClayStack “redefine the current staking ecosystem by building a robust platform that is secure and open for all,” the company said
- As there is a widespread DeFi boom, the gap between staking and DeFi is growing bigger and ClayStack hopes to bridge the gap via liquid staking, the company said in a blog post
Crypto staking platform ClayStack announced it has raised $5.2 million in a seed funding round co-led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, the company announced in a release Tuesday.
ClayStack is a staking protocol that provides users with the ability to avoid lockup periods by staking their digital assets in the form of liquid staking derivative tokens on supported blockchains. Users can then use those tokens to trade, lend or farm for additional rewards, ClayStack said.
The round also received participation from Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Group, HyperSphere, Defiance Capital, Hashed, Solana Foundation, The LAO, Genblock Capital, Ledger Prime, Animoca Brands, Republic Labs and more. ClayStack said in a statement the raise will help it “redefine the current staking ecosystem by building a robust platform that is secure and open for all.”
“Staking market cap is over one-third of the overall crypto market cap, but participation amongst users is still very low,” Mohak Agarwal, Founder and CEO of ClayStack said in an email to Blockworks. “ClayStack bridges the gap between staking and DeFi, allowing users to reap all the benefits of staking without sacrificing liquidity.”
The staking industry has made headlines recently as major businesses estimate multi-billion dollar growth over the next few years, while others have announced new staking ventures.
Earlier this month, senior analysts at JPMorgan Chase wrote in a report that the staking industry has a total revenue of $9 billion currently but estimates that staking revenue can grow to $40 billion by 2025 through Ethereum upgrades.
“Liquid staking is becoming increasingly important in a multi-chain world,” said Santiago R. Santos, general partner at ParaFi Capital. As there is a widespread DeFi boom, the gap between staking and DeFi is growing bigger and ClayStack hopes to bridge the gap via liquid staking, the company said in a blog post.
“The merging of DeFi and staking is a paradigm shift in cryptocurrency and this investment round will enable us to innovate from a position of strength as we head into our alpha launch,” said ClayStack Founder and CEO, Mohak Agarwal. The company’s alpha release, or first phase of the product, is set for Q3, it said.
In the future, ClayStack wants to build a platform that allows users to “make the most of their staked assets irrespective of the ecosystem that they are in,” the post said.
“Claystack is emblematic of the new wave of innovation that doesn’t force users to choose between staking and participation in the DeFi ecosystem,” Vanessa Grellet, head of portfolio growth at CoinFund said in an email to Blockworks. “Users have the flexibility to engage in both which we believe will spur on advancements and growth in both areas.”
Additional investors in the seed round also include Meltem Demirors (Coinshares), Larry Cermak (The Block), Robert Leshner (founder, Compound), Stani Kulechov (founder, Aave), Kain Warwick (founder, Synthetix), Sandeep Naiwal (co-founder, Polygon), Stefan George (co-founder, Gnosis), Illia Polosukhin (founder, Near Protocol), Tegan Kline (The Graph), Tarun Chitra (founder, Gauntlet Network), Raj Gokal (co-founder, Solana), and Partners of True Ventures.
