Exclusive: Seismic raises $7M in round led by a16z Crypto

Seismic, an encrypted blockchain, plans to release its developer testnet in a month

article-image

ElenaR/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


Here’s a fun exclusive for you this morning: Seismic, an encrypted blockchain, raised $7 million in a round led by a16z Crypto, with participation from Polychain, Alliance and 1kx, among others. 

This was the first fundraising effort for founder Lyron Co Ting Keh, given that Seismic was his first startup. The idea, he said, came from wanting to start his own company. 

As he spoke to various app developers, it became clear that “you need encryption to be in the foundation of the chain and not just built onto it. And so we tried for many months to build on it, on the chain, but we couldn’t get any of these nice properties that we wanted,” he explained. 

One of the bottlenecks in building on big L1s is creating “apps with investment vehicles that are tailored to long term positions. Apps where social experience is built into everyday payments,” Co Ting Keh continued. 

I know what you’re thinking: Co Ting Keh is entering a crowded space, but Seismic’s goal is to solve for forced transparency and limited scalability, two notable problems in crypto.

“Forced transparency [is as] big of a change as limited scalability, if someone were to solve this, and then it’s something that is on the brink of consensus, and not consensus opinion right now, where most people agree that, ‘hey, these are two problems, and we’ve been talking about them for the last decade,” he said. 

“When I view the landscape of Seismic [among] blockchains right now, when I view it in the future, or where I’m looking to work, [there is a] distinction between transparent and encrypted blockchains.” 

The big question, of course, is when will Seismic launch its mainnet? Co Ting Keh told me that they have yet to miss an engineering deadline, and are currently aiming for the end of the year. The team — which includes six engineers and Co Ting Keh — plans to release the developer testnet in roughly a month. 

The funds will be allocated to the mainnet launch, he added.


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

US dollars might technically be worth less, but it’s still good news

article-image

Apps are doing well, as is casino gaming, says Tom Schmidt of Dragonfly

article-image

Sponsored

Machine DeFi brings programmable peer-to-peer finance into contact with tangible machines that generate real-world value

article-image

What happens to your investment portfolio when the companies driving returns are no longer in it?

article-image

Wow, the ETF hype sure didn’t last long

article-image

The private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June; analysts had projected payrolls to add 100,000 positions