Key Insights:
- Symbiotic has successfully raised $29 million in a Series A funding round to increase its team and further develop its Universal Staking framework.
- This protocol supports a variety of assets for network security, extending its utility beyond conventional staking methods.
- Pantera Capital spearheaded the funding, alongside investments from Coinbase Ventures and over 100 angel investors.
Expansion Goals
The team behind the Symbiotic network, aiming to rival EigenLayer, has announced that it secured $29 million through a Series A round. This funding will bolster the current team and aid in the development of the Universal Staking framework, enhancing operations not just for restaking but also for additional staking activities.
“Instead of focusing only on shared security, Symbiotic allows for any combination of assets to secure various types of networks—modular or monolithic, L1 or L2—while accommodating use cases that extend well beyond traditional staking, including financial products and insurance,” the team stated in a press release.
Funding Round Details Pantera Capital led this funding round, accompanied by participation from Coinbase Ventures and numerous angel investors.
Restaking has become a prominent DeFi trend, drawing significant investment over the past year. EigenLayer, a leader in this sector, reached a peak Total Value Locked (TVL) of $20 billion, though it has since fallen to about $7 billion recently. Currently, total TVL for all restaking protocols hovers around $14 billion.
Total Value Locked across all restaking protocols as of Apr. 22 (DefiLlama)
Symbiotic’s Arrival Launched in 2024, Symbiotic was supported by leading figures like the co-founders of Lido and Paradigm, manifesting as a competitor to EigenLayer. With a current TVL of around $825 million, it ranks third among its competitors in the restaking sector.
Users can secure decentralized applications (actively validated services or AVS) by restaking their crypto assets deposited in different protocols, earning rewards like yield or points. Notably, Symbiotic permits users to deposit any Ethereum ERC-20 token, unlike EigenLayer, which only accepts ETH.
With this latest round of funding, Symbiotic aims to reshape how investors view the staking industry by enhancing existing infrastructures significantly.
“We are developing infrastructure and our goal is to make considerable improvements to it,” stated Misha Putiatin, co-founder of Symbiotic. “This pivot accommodates new protocols either in the active pipeline or coming on board that prefer not to share their security but develop their own with our assistance.”
To read more, check out the article here.
