Ex-Terra Developer Neel Somani Raises $15M for Cross-chain Rollups

Blockworks Exclusive: Somani’s new project, Eclipse, is designed to be deployed on multiple chains in case a Terra-like event happens again

article-image

Source: DALL·E

share

key takeaways

  • Eclipse’s seed round was led by Tribe Capital, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko was an angel investor
  • Somani announced his Eclipse protocol four months after the Terra stablecoin collapsed

Neel Somani was developing a protocol connecting the algorithmic Terra stablecoin with Ethereum at TerraForm Labs’ Hacker House in early May when a Jump Capital employee took him aside and explained that the algorithmic stablecoin had depegged and was unlikely to recover. 

Although Terra’s explosion wiped out billions of dollars in value and caused projects to fold almost overnight, Somani and his Terra colleagues have mostly remained in crypto, grafting onto new projects in anticipation of the next bull market.

Neel Somani | Source: Eclipse

Fewer than five months after Terra’s collapse, the 24-year-old engineer has already raised $15 million for a new project on a different blockchain — the Eclipse rollup running on Solana. 

Inspired by Cosmos, Eclipse is a layer-2 network that allows users to transfer value between blockchains. Eclipse hopes to be more flexible than the current slate of cross-chain protocols, letting developers deploy rollups across multiple layer-1s. 

Somani began his career as a quantitative analyst at Citadel but found traditional finance dull, curious to explore a riskier career path. In early 2022, Somani left the hedge fund for Terra, where he worked on an Ethereum virtual machine-compatible smart contract layer. 

“I want to be in a role where it either goes to zero or explodes in a good way,” Somani told Blockworks. 

Somani would get his wish, and was publicly lighthearted after Terra torpedoed his project.

Loading Tweet..

When it came time to fundraise for his new project, potential investors were not so sanguine, viewing Somani’s involvement with the collapsed stablecoin as a point of concern. 

When Terra comes up during meetings with investors, “I have to kind of own it and show that I’m acknowledging this, and I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” Somani said.

But Somani’s new venture is also a response to Terra’s mistakes — the Eclipse rollup is designed to be deployed on multiple chains in case a Terra-like event happens again. Eclipse will be deployed on the Solana virtual machine, but is designed to be ecosystem-neutral.

“I didn’t want to tie myself to the reliability of a single channel” after Terra collapsed, Somani said.

Eclipse raised $6 million in pre-seed funding in under three weeks over the summer — it would raise $9 million in a seed round led by crypto venture capital firms Tribe Capital and Tabiya a few weeks later. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko was an Eclipse pre-seed investor, along with Polygon.

Somani told Blockworks that investors received equity plus yet-to-be-announced Eclipse tokens.

In its heyday, Terra was a giant in the fledgling DeFi industry. It once had $60 billion in locked value, with scores of engineers working on its ecosystem. 

Today, Terra founder Do Kwon is wanted by Interpol. Terra’s comeback plan, Terra 2.0, has been slow to materialize. But the developers who built the blockchain — including Somani — haven’t disappeared from crypto. When Somani’s phone rings about new crypto projects, he recommends ex-Terra developers.

“I’ll say, ‘Hey, I know these guys through Terra. They built a huge protocol. They crushed it,’” Somani said. “Of course, Terra didn’t work out, but I still think that they’re fantastic builders.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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

Flashnote Template Presentation (2).jpg

Research

With the recent election, it’s clear that there will be a meaningful shift in crypto regulations and legislation. Trump is likely as pro-crypto as a president can be. He launched (multiple) of his own NFT collections and is launching an Aave wrapper called World Liberty Fi. He has also spoken out and mentioned that he wants to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet" and transform it into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world". He proposed creating a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile alongside support from Senator Cynthia Lummis, promising to retain 100% of all Bitcoin held by the U.S. government. More importantly, we’re likely to see deregulation across the board in a lot of industries, with crypto being one of them - as Trump has committed to keeping the crypto market largely unregulated. Crypto, DeFi in particular, has historically been knee-capped by overreaching and hostile governmental agencies and regulation by enforcement, as evidenced by the plethora of Wells notices and lawsuits over the past few years. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans taking control of the Senate, and being on the verge of securing the House, we think it’s likely that crypto realizes positive regulatory clarity. Below, you can find our analysts’ takes:

article-image

Solana is the crowd favorite to potentially flip Ethereum somewhere down the line, and it tends to feel realistic at times

article-image

Of course, a lot has happened since the 600+ survey respondents shared their thoughts between Aug. 15 and Oct. 1

article-image

AI’s future shouldn’t be decided by a handful of tech giants

article-image

A look at software wallet Exodus may show how an SEC shakeup could have a real impact on industry companies

article-image

Co-chairing Trump’s transition team to help fill administration positions is Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick

article-image

Reflect is a delta-neutral currency protocol that lets tokens accrue yield without touching the banking system