Bitcoin DeFi Protocol Velar Raises $3.5 Million To Build World’s First PerpDEX on Bitcoin
Panama City, Panama, February 1st, 2024, Chainwire
Bitcoin DeFi platform Velar has closed its seed funding round, after welcoming $3.5 million capital from a range of notable Web3 investors. The round attracted participation from key ventures including Bitcoin Startup Lab, CMS Holdings, Black Edge Capital, GBV, Cypher Capital, Trust Machines SPV, Transform Capital, Maple Block and Samara Asset Group, among others.
Building on the unprecedented interest and growth in DeFi over the past few years that attracted over $100B in liquidity to the Ethererum network, Velar is deploying the world’s first perpetual decentralized exchange (PerpDEX) on Bitcoin. Velar aims to unlock the $800 billion of dormant network liquidity to Bitcoin’s evolving DeFi landscape, and in doing so, offer BTC holders the same value proposition and yields that have been so successful in the Ethererum ecosystem.
Currently preparing for the mainnet launch of Dharma, the first ever Uniswap v2-inspired AMM built on popular Bitcoin Layer Stacks, Velar intends to use the new capital to accelerate development of its PerpDEX Velar Artha. The platform will leverage Stacks to enable liquidity for DeFi dApps on Bitcoin, with Velar Artha due to launch in Q2 2024. Despite initially launching on Stacks, Velar is a L2-agnostic protocol and will also integrate other leading Bitcoin L2s. Cem Özer, Co-Founder and CEO of Sovereign labs, and Alexei Zamyatin, Co-Founder of Build on Bitcoin (BoB), both prominent upcoming Bitcoin L2s have also participated in Velar’s funding round as angel investors.
“Velar’s successful funding round is a validation of our mission to make Proof-of-Work and Bitcoin the base layer of DeFi. Velar is set to redefine what’s possible, facilitating $800B worth of dormant liquidity to be used in DeFi; and we’re excited to invite the world to be a part of this groundbreaking journey,” said Mithil Thakore, Co-Founder and CEO of Velar.
“DeFi is the logical next step for Bitcoin. Introducing perps for Bitcoin and other assets that can be swapped in a decentralized way, and earn rewards will help unlock the $500B in untapped value on Bitcoin,” said Muneeb Ali, Co-Creator of Stacks. “This fundraise helps the team at Velar build a liquidity protocol that will be a major gateway for the usability being unlocked by sBTC on Bitcoin L2.”
“We are excited to support the adoption of DeFi on BTC. After witnessing the explosion of DeFi on ETH with the introduction of swapping, staking, and farming, we believe that Velar brings this same ensemble of DeFi products to the BTC space” added Eric, CMS Holdings.
Velar’s eventual product suite will include an AMM, project launchpad, and PerpDEX, with the latter enabling institutions to utilize their dormant BTC holdings as collateral in a non-custodial way. Velar launched its AMM testnet last May which saw over 165,000 testnet wallets created, a record for a Bitcoin-focused DeFi project.
Velar was co-founded by Mithil Thakore, Jakob, Tejinder Singh Mor and Aravind Sathyanandham, fintech and blockchain veterans with years of experience working and building in the Web3 space. Mithil was the creator of TeraSurge Capital, a quant-based crypto derivatives trading desk and prop VC, Aravind was Director of MENA at Amber Group and Institutional Sales at Crypto.com.
Although Ethereum remains the dominant DeFi blockchain, commanding 57.3% of the aggregate total value locked (TVL), the emergence of platforms like Stacks, a Bitcoin L2 for smart contracts, DeFi and NFTs, has led to a growing market for decentralized financial ecosystem on Bitcoin. The blockchain’s eponymous native asset has been the talk of crypto since the approval of 10 spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January.
Velar aims to gradually challenge the status of Ethereum as the premium L1 for DeFi, by paving the way for financial dApps to flourish on the Bitcoin network.
About Velar
Velar is a DeFi platform that helps Bitcoin users put their holdings to work in DeFi. Consisting of an AMM, launchpad, and perpetual DEX, Velar caters to BTC holders keen to generate yield on their holdings in a non-custodial way, while retaining their Bitcoin in a secure & native environment.