Terra-focused Stader Labs Raises $12.5M, Hits $450M Valuation

The platform offers services to earn rewards with Terra, but will offer staking with Solana, Ethereum 2.0, Cosmos and Near in the future

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The company plans to use the funds to grow the staking ecosystem and add seven to 10 new blockchains over the next 12 months and expand into other consumer segments, Founder Amitej Gajjala said
  • The company aims to have $10 billion assets under management by the end of the year, a 1,900% increase goal from current levels, he said

Staking-focused Stader Labs raised $12.5 million in a strategic round, valuing the company at $450 million, the company’s Founder Amitej Gajjala told Blockworks in an interview. 

The company plans to use the funds to grow the staking ecosystem and add seven to 10 new blockchains over the next 12 months and expand into other consumer segments, Gajjala said. 

The round was led by Three Arrows Capital and additional investors include Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment and angel investors like Prabhakar Reddy, co-founder of FalconX and Matt Cantieri, GM at Anchor Protocol.

In October 2021, Stader raised $4 million from Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, True Ventures, Hypersphere, Proof, Ledger Prime, Huobi Ventures, Solidity Ventures and Double Peak. 

The platform offers services to earn staking rewards with Terra through its smart contracts, but will support other chains like Solana, Ethereum, Fantom and Cosmos in the future. Its two core products are Stake Pools, where users can stake in pre-defined baskets of validators grouped by performance, and Liquid Staking, where users receive a liquid token (LunaX) when staking to participate in yield-boosting DeFi strategies. 

Since the company launched Nov. 23, 2021, it has over 20,000 unique wallets staking on its platform and about $500 million Terra has been staked with Stader Labs, Gajjala said. The majority of those staking with the company are retail investors, but there are some funds on Terra staked with Stader, too, he added.

“The objective is to build an economic ecosystem to grow and develop custom solutions such as yield redirection with rewards, liquid staking, launchpads, gaming, and more,” the company said in a statement. 

Gajjala said the company aims to have $10 billion in assets under management by the end of the year, with the goal of a 1,900% increase from current levels. 

“In a nutshell, we want to be the AWS for staking infrastructure,” Gajjala said. “We want to create staking smart contracts that can be customized for different use cases,” he added.


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

HYATT REGENCY SALT LAKE CITY

TUES, OCT. 8, 2024

Guided by the expertise of Blockworks Research Analysts team, this one day event will feature senior leaders, entrepreneurs, and developers from across the crypto industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an immersive experience to explore the latest trends, […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

hivemapper.jpeg

Research

We believe crypto market participants overlook Hivemapper’s fundamental potential due to a poor understanding of both the niche map data market and Hivemapper’s positioning relative to incumbents. Hivemapper’s token model catalyzes both a cost and product advantage via unmatched map freshness and near real-time accuracy, which is its wedge into a market characterized by stale data and high data collection costs. Its current and potential future product suite may represent one of the strongest possibilities for PMF in crypto today.

article-image

As part of its 19b-4, the potential issuer included a correlation analysis of ETH that’s “substantially similar” to the BTC analysis done by the SEC before it approved the spot bitcoin ETFs

article-image

A greater focus on data availability sampling is top of mind, including additional work that layer-2s must do to become faster and more secure

article-image

The former FTX CEO was sentenced in a New York courtroom on Thursday

article-image

👨‍⚖️ SBF’s courtroom sequel: Plus, Coinbase’s legal loss was DeFi’s gain

article-image

Public mining companies have been acquiring sites, refreshing machine fleets and diversifying business models in preparation for the event