Hermetica Secures $1.7 Million in Seed Funding, Accelerating Bitcoin DeFi with USDh
Panama City, Panama, October 16th, 2024, Chainwire
Hermetica, the creator of USDh, the first Bitcoin-backed, yield-bearing synthetic dollar, is thrilled to announce the successful close of its $1.7 million seed funding round.
Key Backers
UTXO Management led the round, with additional support from prominent investors including CMS Holdings, Ethos Fund, Trust Machines SPV, Newman Capital, Silvermine, and strategic angels such as Tycho Onnasch (Founder & CEO, Zest Protocol), Robin Obermaier (Founder & CEO, Liquidium), Mithil Thakore (Founder & CEO, Velar), Matt Maduno (Founder & CEO, Arch Network), and GM Chung (Founder & CEO, DeSpread).
Fueling USDh’s Expansion
The capital will accelerate the growth of USDh. USDh is natively issued on Bitcoin Layer 1 through Runes and Layer 2 through the Stacks network and is available to purchase on decentralized exchanges.
With the global stablecoin market expanding over 100% year-over-year to now exceed $160 billion – accounting for 50% of all on-chain transactions – USDh is well-positioned for rapid growth. Despite Bitcoin’s $1.3 trillion market cap, only 1% of its value is locked in DeFi, leaving an untapped $1 trillion market for USDh to unlock.
Hermetica aims to empower Bitcoin users to hold and transact with a stable, liquid dollar asset redeemable for Bitcoin (1 USDh = 1 USD worth of Bitcoin), enabling Bitcoin market participants to securely hold dollars without exiting the Bitcoin ecosystem or converting to fiat.
“We believe stablecoins are a foundational building block for a decentralized financial system. USDh is the ideal Bitcoin-backed stablecoin—capital efficient, independent of the fiat system, and yield-generating.” said Hermetica Labs CEO Jakob Schillinger.
Looking Ahead
The capital raised will fuel the further development of USDh’s integrations across the Bitcoin ecosystem, including enhanced liquidity, institutional-grade custodial partnerships, and scalable off-exchange settlement solutions. Hermetica is building on Bitcoin’s foundational strengths to offer a decentralized, secure alternative to traditional fiat-backed stablecoins.
Testimonials by some of our Investors:
“USDh represents a breakthrough for Bitcoin-backed stablecoins. Hermetica’s innovative approach to delta-hedging positions USDh as a key player in the evolving stablecoin landscape. We’re excited to support Hermetica as they continue to lead the charge in Bitcoin DeFi.” – Tyler Evans, Managing Partner, UTXO Management
“We are excited about Hermetica because they are unlocking significant value within the Bitcoin ecosystem with the creation of USDh. We believe their ability to seamlessly integrate stablecoins into Bitcoin’s Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks presents a massive opportunity. USDh will become a fundamental tool for Bitcoin users seeking a reliable dollar asset without leaving the ecosystem.” – Simon Shin, Managing Partner, Ethos Fund
About Hermetica
Hermetica is a crypto-native team with deep expertise in financial technology, bringing together experience from major institutions such as Kraken and State Street. Hermetica is focused on creating innovative financial products that leverage Bitcoin’s security and transparency.
Earn up to 25% APY on app.hermetica.fi.
About Stacks
Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer. The 2024 Nakamoto and sBTC releases will bring faster speeds and transactions backed by 100% Bitcoin finality. Stacks is the current leading Bitcoin L2 by developer traction and market cap and is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $500B in passive capital as a fully programmable, productive asset. The Stacks (STX) token, used as gas on the L2, was the first to undergo an SEC-qualified sale in the United States. The project explicitly decentralized with the mainnet launch in 2021. In the Stacks ecosystem, there are currently 30+ contributing entities including a non-profit Stacks Foundation, a developer tooling company Hiro, Xverse, Trust Machines, Mechanism, Bitcoin L2 Labs, ALEX, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, and more.
