Gearbox Shifts Into V2 With $4M Funding Boost

Investors from Placeholder, Zee Prime, Ledger Prime, Polymorphic and GCR participated in the raise

article-image

Source: DALL·E

share
  • Gearbox has been live for over a year, making leveraging possible without KYC or trust
  • V2 of Gearbox will integrate with Curve, Lido and Convex

Gearbox, an on-chain composable leverage protocol that has been around for over a year, has raised a $4 million DAO round from investors at Placeholder, Zee Prime, Ledger Prime, Polymorphic and GCR.

The protocol first came to life over a year ago at the ETHGlobal hackathon in February 2021, Ivan Ngmi, pseudonymous Gearbox DAO contributor told Blockworks in an interview. But since December 2021, the Gearbox protocol has been governed by the Gearbox DAO that currently comprises about 8,160 GEAR token holders. 

“Gearbox V1 has been fully deployed on-chain for more than half a year now,” Ngmi said. “The core innovation is that our credit accounts give every user a leveraged smart contract ‘wallet’ which they can connect to other third-party protocols and compose their positions there.”

Borrowers can earn leverage through assets by depositing approved collateral and then using it across various protocols through margin trading, leverage farming, leverage options and many more, Ngmi said.

‘It essentially allows lenders to take leverage without having to have a credit score trust or permission system,” Ngmi said. 

The latest funding will help Gearbox launch V2 of its composable leverage product, which will introduce new assets including CVX, FXS and CRV. 

V2 will also integrate with existing DeFi protocols including Lido, Curve, Convex and Yearn. The latest version will allow users to employ ten times leverage on yield farms via third-party protocols with stablecoins including Frax, LUSD and sUSD.

Leveraged farming positions in ETH and stETH can also be taken after V2’s launch, whether to farm yield or arbitrage the ETH/stETH ratio.

“We believe that composability is a key feature in DeFi [decentralized finance]. While other products might be better at providing simple leverage for going long or short, the emphasis of Gearbox Protocol is on composability with other DeFi protocols,” pseudonymous 0xMikko, a core developer at Gearbox, said in a statement. 

“As we already see a dire need for leverage without any trust or credit scores — credit accounts as primitive make leverage for anything possible fully on-chain, only relying on math and code,” he said.


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 (1).png

Research

Aave’s revenues have doubled from April lows and are fast approaching all-time highs. With 35% of borrow interest coming from ETH and 55% from stablecoins, Aave is emerging as a powerful proxy as an ETH and stablecoin beta. As looping strategies accelerate growth and Horizon positions the protocol to ride the RWA wave, Aave is shaping up as one of DeFi’s most compelling multi-narrative plays.

article-image

Lit Protocol’s Vincent is shifting agentic finance from toy demos to production rails

article-image

The new system aims to unify Europe’s fragmented tokenized asset settlement and cut cross-border costs

by Blockworks /
article-image

Tron slashed fees by 60% as Plasma looms, threatening its USDT moat

article-image

The acquisition adds evaluation-based funding to Kraken Pro, giving traders access to capital on performance

by Blockworks /
article-image

The deal merges real-time pricing data with on-chain credit ratings, aiming to boost institutional adoption of decentralized finance

by Blockworks /
article-image

New fund adds income-focused strategy for ETH exposure, distributing premiums bi-weekly to investors

by Blockworks /