LayerZero Labs raised $135 million for its decentralized omnichain interoperability protocol which could be used to accelerate the development of cross-chain decentralized applications (dApps).
The idea is to build high-throughput applications, like gaming, NFT marketplaces and media apps, on cost-effective blockchains.
The funding round was co-led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz and with participation from Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, and Uniswap Labs, This funding round values LayerZero Labs at $1 billion.
The company reports very significant traction:
Following the beta launch of LayerZero, the LayerZero Labs team recently launched Stargate, a cross-chain liquidity transfer protocol built on LayerZero’s generic messaging. Stargate solves a holy grail problem called the Bridging Trilemma and enables cross-chain liquidity transfer in native assets, with unified liquidity and instant guarantee of finality.
The team believes Stargate will be integral to any application that wants to move cryptocurrency across blockchains. In just 10 days post-launch, Stargate has surpassed $3.4B in assets secured, and Stargate has sent over $264M in transfers over LayerZero. Building off this momentum, LayerZero Labs will focus on integrating the LayerZero protocol with Non-EVM blockchains (Solana, Terra, etc.) while building a community of cross-chain DeFi protocols and dApps powered by LayerZero & Stargate.
“This round is a massive step forward for LayerZero Labs and the unfolding interoperability landscape. We’ve brought some of the best and most well respected entities in the world together to accomplish the same goal: create the generic messaging layer that underpins all interoperability between blockchains,” said Bryan Pellegrino, CEO and co-founder, LayerZero Labs.
“LayerZero unlocks a future of blockchains without borders. Users will interact with omnichain dApps that exist on multiple blockchains. These dApps will seamlessly communicate over LayerZero without the user even realizing it,” said Ryan Zarick, CTO and co-founder, LayerZero Labs.
