Cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic closed a $29 million Series A funding spherical led by Web3-focused funding corporations, together with Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, to assist the launch of a brand new financial coordination layer for blockchain safety.
The spherical included greater than 100 angel traders, with participation from main business gamers together with Aave, Polygon and StarkWare, the corporate stated in an April 23 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The closing of the funding spherical additionally marks the launch of Symbiotic’s Universal Staking Framework, which goals to be an financial coordination layer that bolsters blockchain safety through staking.
The new staking layer allows the usage of any mixture of cryptocurrencies to safe networks, including monolithic and modular layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, the announcement acknowledged.
“We’ve created a modular framework that lets protocols evolve security models over time while efficiently coordinating risk,” Misha Putiatin, co-founder of Symbiotic, instructed Cointelegraph. “This empowers protocols at every stage of their lifecycle to evolve their security models seamlessly without rebuilding infrastructure.”
Related: Ethereum L2 development is ‘double-edged sword’ for ETH value
The “next step” in blockchain infrastructure
The new staking layer is the “next step in blockchain infrastructure” on account of unlocking “economic coordination between assets and networks that were previously impossible,” in keeping with Paul Veradittakit, managing companion at Pantera Capital.
“As the number and variety of onchain assets continue to increase, Symbiotic allows them to easily serve as economic security while enabling entirely new use cases across DeFi,” he added.
Blockchain networks trying to bolster safety can undertake Symbiotic’s community of decentralized validators that carry “programmable security” with out the necessity to modify infrastructure.
According to the corporate, 14 networks, together with Hyperlane, Spark and Avail, have already adopted the brand new coordination layer, with 20 extra anticipated to observe.
The staking layer allows “any protocol, including L1s, bridges, oracles, and even emerging verticals like artificial intelligence or zero-knowledge systems, to configure their own validator sets, incentive mechanisms and slashing conditions without having to rebuild core infrastructure,” Putiatin stated.
Related: Bitcoin ETFs log $912M inflows in ‘dramatic’ investor sentiment boost
Crypto wants extra collaborative financial incentives: Hoskinson
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, emphasised the necessity for collaborative economics within the crypto business to counter rising competitors from conventional tech corporations coming into the blockchain house.
Crypto’s “circular economy,” which regularly implies that the rally of a selected cryptocurrency is bolstered by funds exiting one other token, is limiting the expansion of the business, stated Hoskinson.
“The problem right now, with the way we’ve done things in the cryptocurrency space, is the tokenomics and the market structure are intrinsically adversarial. It’s sum 0,” stated Hoskinson. “Instead of picking a fight, what you have to do is you have to find tokenomics and market structure that allows you to be in a cooperative equilibrium.”
“You can’t build a global ecosystem this way, and you can’t win this way,” he stated. “Because here’s the thing. The incumbents are much larger.”
Magazine: 3 reasons Ethereum could turn a corner: Kain Warwick, X Hall of Flame
Read MoreCointelegraph.com News