Portal raises $34M for atomic swaps while DEX is still in testnet

Portal and one of its investors stressed that its atomic swap technology will take time to launch

article-image

SNeG17/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Portal, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi project, recently announced its successful $34 million seed funding round. At time of writing, this represents the second-largest funding round in the Web3 space for the year 2024. This follows an earlier fundraising effort in September 2021, where Portal secured $8.5 million.

Then, as now, Portal’s raise announcement focuses heavily on the platform’s creation of a decentralized exchange (DEX) to allow atomic swaps that don’t rely on trusted intermediaries to move assets between chains. 

But after more than two years and $42.5 million in funding, Portal’s DEX is still in testnet. 

Read more: Bitcoin doesn’t need to change, but…

Following the announcement of this most recent fundraise, Portal community members expressed frustration at the project’s slow development on Portal’s Telegram channel. Some invested in Portal through retail investment platform Republic and wanted to know when they could see returns. An administrator in Telegram said investors would receive equity following launch.

In an interview, Portal co-founder and CEO Chandra Duggirala acknowledged “things did take longer than we expected, which is true of all difficult engineering problems.”

Duggirala said Portal is currently undergoing audits, testing its platform and setting up its validator network. Portal expects its platform to be mainnet ready by Q2, Duggirala said.

The Portal DEX and Portal wallet are both listed as coming soon on Portal’s website. The startup has published some documentation regarding how the Portal DEX will execute swaps alongside some code repositories on GitHub.

Atomic swaps allow users to directly exchange assets between different blockchains, using cryptographic hash functions for secure transactions. This technology reduces the need for intermediaries, like wrapped assets or third-party bridges, making trading more straightforward and potentially safer.

Duggirala emphasized the importance of atomic swaps, especially considering the security breaches that have affected custodial platforms, where users’ funds are held by a third party. 

Read more: DeFi hackers ring in New Year with 3 attacks in 5 days

Portal reported participation in its seed round from notable backers, including Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Gate.io and Arrington Capital.

When asked about how Portal secured an additional $34 million in funding despite its DEX still being in the works, Duggirala said investors are taking the long view.

“This is a long-term project and all of the investors understood then…that these things take time,” Duggirala said.

In an email, Arrington confirmed its investment. 

“Our take is that Portal is tackling a very large problem, and building a bridgeless and custodian-less cross chain solution is not easy.  We are really excited by what the team has built over the past couple years and what is soon to come,” a spokesperson wrote. 

A spokesperson for Portal did not immediately return a request for further comment on when Portal opened and closed its seed round.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

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.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

The Arbitrum-based perps DEX recently launched its points campaign

article-image

P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens revealed this week that Satoshi wrote him over email in the early days of Bitcoin

article-image

A Blockworks Research report looked at how Hyperliquid has maintained its hype and how it can build out its businesses

article-image

Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick discussed how the firm is approaching investments in the current market

article-image

The asset surged over the past seven days to reach its highest-ever weekly close on the SOL/ETH pair

article-image

Industry watchers note that SOL ETFs have attracted a fraction of the demand for bitcoin and ether ETFs