Pantera Capital is an investment firm focused exclusively on Bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the space. The company believes that Bitcoin has the potential to transform the way people use money and that it will do for payments what the Internet has done for communications and commerce. Until 2014, Pantera focused on global macro hedge fund investments. The firm was founded in 2003 by Dan Morehead, who was a chief financial officer and head of Macro Trading at Tiger Management. The firm has since shifted its investment advisory services to focus exclusively on Bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the space. Shareholders include Benchmark, Fortress Investment Group, and Ribbit Capital.

Pantera Capital

Digital Currency Group builds and supports bitcoin and blockchain companies by leveraging insights, network, and access to capital. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, DCG has been an active seed investor in the digital currency industry with 150+ investments in over 30 countries. In addition, DCG owns and operates CoinDesk, the top media and events platform in the blockchain space, Genesis Trading, the industry's leading bitcoin brokerage firm, and Grayscale Investments, the largest digital currency asset management firm.

Digital Currency Group

Genesis is an institutional trading firm connecting institutional investors to digital asset markets. It facilitates billions in digital currency trades, loans, and transactions on a monthly basis, including over $25 billion in 2020 YTD. Its platform provides a single point of access for digital asset trading, derivatives, borrowing, lending, custody, and prime brokerage services. Its team combines decades of experience at top Wall Street investment banks with a deep understanding of cryptocurrency markets.

Genesis

Chapter One Ventures is an early-stage seed fund created by Jeff Morris Jr.

Chapter One Ventures

CoinFund is a private cryptoasset investor and blockchain research and advisory firm that focuses on crypto and blockchain investments. The firm was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States.

CoinFund

The LAO is a global community of Ethereum enthusiasts and specialists that supports the work of Ethereum developers. They invest in seed-stage firms in the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and application software sectors.

The LAO

Divergence Ventures is a crypto operator fund.

Divergence Ventures

CMS is a principal investment company that focuses on investing in the crypto-asset ecosystem. The firm plans to invest in both liquid and illiquid crypto tokens, as well as equity interests in select businesses.

CMS Holdings

Bixin Ventures is the investment arm of Bixin Group which is one of the largest mining operators and wallet provider in the world, with over 1 million registered users. Bixin Ventures’ mission is to invest in and build crucial infrastructure that enables the future of open finance through permissionless and decentralized network. We have invested in groundbreaking projects like Mina Protocol, Star Atlas, LayerZero, CertiK, Arbitrum, EPNS, Algorand, OneKey and many others.

Bixin Ventures

Protoscale Capital

Triblock is a web3 investment & advisory firm

Triblock

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that invests at every stage in companies building revolutionary technologies. It has been investors, founders, and early employees of prominent technology companies. It has historically invested in a wide variety of sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health, and consumer Internet.

Founders Fund

Founded in 2001, Tiger Global Management, LLC (“Tiger Global”) is a New York-based investment firm pursuing a long-term approach to investing in leading, global public and private companies that leverage technological innovation. Tiger Global’s public equity business includes fundamentally oriented long/short, long-focused and crossover strategies, targeting investments in high-quality, public growth companies. The private equity business invests in early through late stage companies that pursue innovative approaches to new and existing industries, building on over 20 years of experience investing in hundreds of businesses in more than 30 countries with more than 90 portfolio company IPOs. With a strong track record investing across sectors and stages, Tiger Global aims to be a thought partner to companies and their management teams across their lifecycle in public and private markets. The Firm’s mission is to generate world-class returns for its investors and to do so in a way that makes its employees, partners and portfolio companies proud.

Tiger Global Management

GoldenTree is an employee-owned, global asset management firm that specializes in opportunities across the credit universe in sectors such as high yield bonds, leveraged loans, private credit, distressed debt, structured products, emerging markets, private equity and credit-themed equities. GoldenTree was founded in 2000 and is one of the largest independent asset managers focused on credit. GoldenTree manages over $48 billion for institutional investors including leading public and corporate pensions, endowments, foundations, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds. GoldenTree is headquartered in New York and has offices in West Palm Beach, FL, Charlotte, NC, London, Dublin, Sidney, Singapore, Tokyo, and Dubai.

GoldenTree Asset Management

Flow Traders brings greater transparency and efficiency to financial markets, operating in highly competitive industry, as a global liquidity provider and market maker.  We continuously provides stable liquidity, actively invest in the financial ecosystem, develop innovative technologies, and foster both our team and strategic partnerships.  Flow Traders Strategic Capital invests in future financial market innovators. Our investments drive transparency and efficiency in global financial markets. Our strategy focuses on increasing our proximity to emerging technologies within the capital markets ecosystem, it is fully aligned with Flow Traders' strategic agenda. We go beyond investing financial capital and focus on creating long-term value, by providing our expertise. We leverage our extensive network of international partners and resources to support our investments.

Flow Traders

Coinbase Ventures is an investment arm of Coinbase that aims to invest in seed-stage cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

Coinbase Ventures

At Double Peak Group, our guiding philosophy embraces a unique blend of value investing, focused on the pioneering domain of digital assets.  Managed by Nyx Holdings, the family office of Galen Law-Kun, our strategy is grounded in making meaningful investments during early funding rounds and secondary markets in the digital asset ecosystem. We pinpoint undervalued opportunities that hold the promise of substantial growth over an extended time horizon. Our investments cast a wide net across various facets of the digital asset ecosystem, reflecting our comprehensive and dynamic approach. From Asset Management, Banking & Payments, and Cross-Chain Bridges, to DeFi Primitives, Infrastructure Protocols, Investment Funds, Gaming/Metaverse, NFTs, Privacy/Security, and Web+ Social Protocols – our footprint is extensive and growing.

Double Peak Group

Steel Perlot is an AI and analytics company that invests in and incubates businesses. The company builds an engine for innovation and also backs transformative companies. Steel Perlot's mission is to continuously develop and market important goods and platform businesses by owning and scaling key underlying technologies and so reshaping the global market via hard technological innovation.

Steel Perlot

Wintermute Ventures is the investment arm of Wintermute, a global algorithmic trading firm, liquidity provider, and leading OTC desk in digital assets.  Drawing from Wintermute's expertise in pioneering DeFi trading and powering liquidity across the entire ecosystem, Wintermute Ventures is uniquely positioned to back early-stage Web3 projects with hands-on support. Focused on long-term growth, the company takes a flexible approach, investing from early ideation to later-stage expansion. Committed to developing strategic relationships and driving positive outcomes, Wintermute Ventures prioritizes decentralized ownership, ensuring its investments align with the company’s broader vision of a decentralized future. Since 2020, it has invested in over 100 projects.

Wintermute Ventures

Ondo Finance

Ondo Finance develops a cryptocurrency trading platform that makes decentralized finance providing users with a choice between downside protection and higher returns.

<div>Ondo Finance is a decentralized lending protocol that offers specialized financial products that connect retail investors, institutions, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) within the Defi ecosystem. The company&rsquo;s platform offers a choice between downside protection and enhanced returns as well as &ldquo;liquidity-as-a-service&rdquo; (LaaS), which matches DAOs with underwriters to provide liquidity for native governance tokens. As of April 2022, Ondo has partnered with over ten DAOs including Terra, Frax, and Fei, and had a total value locked (TVL) of over USD 200 million in liquidity deposited into its protocol.&nbsp;</div>

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Ondo Finance, Ethereum's BlackRock-Backed Tokenization Crypto, Could Reach $5, Analyst Says

<div>
 
 Ondo Finance is a decentralized lending protocol that offers specialized financial products that connect retail investors, institutions, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) within the Defi ecosystem. The company&rsquo;s platform offers a choice between downside protection and enhanced returns as well as &ldquo;liquidity-as-a-service&rdquo; (LaaS), which matches DAOs with underwriters to provide liquidity for native governance tokens. As of April 2022, Ondo has partnered with over ten DAOs including Terra, Frax, and Fei, and had a total value locked (TVL) of over USD 200 million in liquidity deposited into its protocol.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Ondo also planned to decentralize its governance structure by launching a native ONDO token and related DAO. Additionally, it also aimed to launch vaults that bundle yields from algorithmic stablecoins and aggregate yield across different blockchains. In January 2023, Ondo Finance 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15626">
 launched a tokenized fund
 </a>
 that enables stablecoin holders to invest in bonds and US Treasuries and receive ownership tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The company stated that this fund will process daily subscriptions and redemptions in both stablecoins and fiat currencies. Investors will be able to transfer ownership tokens between whitelisted investor addresses and smart contracts that pass a compliance review to engage in on-chain trading and lending with fund tokens. 
 &nbsp;The company expanded this product onto the Polygon blockchain in July 2023, and the Solana blockchain in December 2023. 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 In April 2022, Ondo Finance raised USD 20 million in Series A funding led by Founders Fund and Pantera Capital to expand the company&rsquo;s employee base and support new product launches including its multi-chain expansion. In May 2022, Ondo Finance
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10246">
 announced the initial sale of its native token
 </a>
 (at a price of USD 0.055 and a total supply of 400 million tokens) on Coinlist via its subsidiary, Nami industries. 
 
</div>

MakerDAO is a DAO (governed through the MKR token) that manages the Sky protocol (formerly known as Maker).&nbsp;Developed on the Ethereum blockchain, the protocol allows users to place their funds (through cryptocurrency) as collateral in exchange for its stablecoin DAI, which is pegged to the USD. DAI can be used like any other cryptocurrency and even as savings since holders of DAI are entitled to a return based on the DAI Savings Rate (DSR). The DSR is determined by members of the DAO using a mix of public and proprietary market data.Sky offers access to investing and borrowing DAI through the Oasis app which was developed by some of the creators of protocol. In addition, the protocol is available for developers of DeFi apps who can build apps to facilitate earning, investing, and borrowing DAI. As of May 2024, Sky had integrated with over 400 applications ranging from payment systems to gaming platforms. It generates revenue through stability fees (akin to interest payment on borrowed DAI) and liquidation fees which is an additional charge that occurs when the value of the submitted collateral falls below a set liquidation amount.&nbsp;In April 2022, the protocol announced that it was bridging to StarkNet, a reportedly cheaper and faster zero-knowledge (ZK) overlay chain built by StarkWare. Along with its expansion on Ethereum, the DAO had planned to move toward a multi-chain offering with this rebuild. It planned to roll out this offering in four phases, beginning with a simple bridge between the main blockchain and StarkNet’s Layer 2.&nbsp;In February 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16269?industryIds=64">launched a new lending platform</a> named Spark Protocol, to enable users to borrow, lend, and stake DAI, the protocol’s stablecoin. The platform, which is a fork of Aave's version 3 (v3), will be built by Phoenix Labs, a research and development company formed by the DAO. Additionally, the company also announced the deployment of etherDAI, a liquid staking derivative for Ethereum that will be pegged to the value of ETH. Furthermore, in March, the protocol went on to<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17322"> approve several new proposals </a>that make changes to both its governance structure and the investment of its treasury. These changes divide the DAO’s current structure into smaller self-governed and self-sustained units named SubDAOs, which will also have their own tokens in the MakerDAO ecosystem. Moreover, the proposal also planned to increase the protocol’s revenues by investing a part of its reserves (worth USD 7 billion) into real-world assets and money-market funds.&nbsp;The platform outlined its plans for a major update (named Endgame) in May 2023. The launch was proposed to take place in five phases and will ultimately lead to the creation of a new blockchain. The road map is as follows: 1) launching new branding and website as well as upgraded versions of Dai and MKR tokens; 2) launching six Maker SubDAOs, specializing in user acquisition, decentralized frontends, and collateral allocation; 3) introducing new AI tools to assist governance, including tools for summarizing, interpreting, and generating governance proposals; 4) enabling rewards for governance participation; and 5) deploying a new blockchain to house backend logic for SubDAO tokenomics and governance security. The first phase of the update is expected to be rolled out in the summer of 2024.&nbsp;In August 2024, the protocol followed through with the first phase of its plans by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32993">rebranding itself under the new name "Sky"</a>, and launching new versions of DAI and MKR tokens named the USDS and SKY.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2024, Sky<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33252"> partnered with Aave Labs</a>, to launch the “Sky Aave Force” initiative. The initiative featured key proposals such as integrating the newly launched USDS and sUSDS stablecoins on Aave’s V3 protocol, introducing an incentive program for sUSDS suppliers and deploying a direct deposit module for USDS into the Aave Lido Market. Additionally, the partnership will enable the companies to distribute SPK tokens, the native token of Sky’s lending protocol Spark, to create a market for sUSDS on Aave. Collectively, these initiatives enable users to earn yields on their sUSDS deposits from the revenues generated by Sky’s protocol and mint USDS directly on Aave without meeting the usual collateral requirements.

MakerDAO

Founded by former executives of Qualcomm, Solana Labs is the developer of the Solana blockchain, which uses the native cryptocurrency SOL. The company enables developers to create decentralized applications in its blockchain and is capable of carrying out 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a theoretical upper limit of 710,000 TPS for the architecture. As of May 2024, the blockchain averaged around 2,400 TPS. This is in contrast to Ethereum’s average of between 13 to 15 TPS. In addition to transaction speed, Solana also has other advantages such as lower transaction fees and improved scalability, given its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and underlying architecture. The mechanism also enables users to stake their SOL and earn yields for validating the network. Solana provides the ability to create specialized tooling and programming functionality to tokens through <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25910">Token Extensions</a>. This allows developers and businesses to establish rules for tokens, such as dictating their functionality and determining their holders, as well as embed features like whitelisting, automatic transfer fees, and confidentiality provisions for transfers.Solana also provides guides and a content aggregator website for developers to discover tools to create dApps on its blockchain. As of May 2024, more than 440 dApps were created on Solana, ranging across use cases such as DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. It also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18094">launched a ChatGPT </a>(a chatbot built on OpenAI's GPT model) plugin to allow developers and users to query the blockchain for on-chain data. The plugin works through the ChatGPT interface and allows users to perform various tasks such as checking wallet balances, transferring tokens, and purchasing NFTs.Key customers and partnershipsWeb browser developer Opera partnered with Solana in December 2021 to integrate the blockchain and create a built-in crypto wallet onto the Opera browser to improve accessibility to dApps hosted on the blockchain.As of May 2024, the company served several enterprise clients such as Shopify, Asics, Helio, and Tiplink.Funding and financialsThe total value locked (TVL) in DeFi projects across the Solana blockchain amounted to USD 4 billion as of May 2024. The company raised USD 314 million through an initial coin offering (ICO) of SOL. The ICO was co-led by Polychain Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The funding was to be used to create a venture investing arm, a trading desk, and support the development of new applications in its blockchain.

Solana

Swiss-based Eidoo is a developer of a wallet that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with tokens such as DAI, MKR, AAVE, and UNI, among others. In addition, Eidoo provides a DeFi marketplace that integrates with its wallet, allowing users to trade any tokens that they hold. Eidoo also offers a debit card that allows the conversion of digital assets into fiat currencies, such as the GBP and EURO, and spending or even withdrawing cash from ATMs.Eidoo began with the proprietary token EDO, which it also used to raise USD 27.9 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The token was then upgraded following its merger with blockchain oracle provider Provable Things to establish pNetwork, the infrastructure that facilitates cross-chain interactions between multiple decentralized apps, governed by the token PNT. To obtain an Eidoo debit card, users are required to stake PNT ranging from 20 to 200,000 for various service tiers.Eidoo had several applications such as virtual account numbers to deposit money and obtain a tokenized representation of their deposit as well as features to buy, hold, and trade NFTs in the roadmap as of December 2021.

Eidoo

Synthetix is a DAO (governed by holders of its native token SNX) that offers a platform on which users can trade and vote on the creation of on-chain synthetic assets, which are derivatives based on real-world assets. These synthetic assets enable traders to capture the price movements of assets such as cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, stocks, and commodities, among others, with zero slippage. The protocol allows users to stake SNX as collateral for the debt pool and earn weekly rewards. As of April 2022, Synthetix had USD 642 million in total value locked (TVL).Additionally, Synthetix also offers the opportunity for developers to build on top of the platform to tap into its liquidity as well as develop decentralized perpetual futures, options markets, deal coordination markets, and more. As of December 2021, the protocol served large DeFi platforms including 1inch, Curve Finance, Yearn Finance, and Paraswap.In February 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16609?industryIds=64">deployed version 3 (v3) of its platform </a>on the Ethereum mainnet. V3 reportedly offers more efficient architecture that enables developers to create products that offer a liquid market for any financial derivative, as well as more complex decentralized applications. Additionally, the solution also offers staking and differentiated debt pools, to enable stakers to earn fees from supplying collateral to specific asset pools. The company went on to deploy its protocol on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase, in April 2024.&nbsp;Moreover, in May 2024, the company launched a new perpetual futures exchange named Infinex. The solution unifies several DeFi applications into a single layer and enables users to trade across multiple chains. Moreover, it provides users access to passkey authentication and social sign-in options.Key customers and partnershipsIn December 2024, Synthetix&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/37190">partnered with Mass</a>, a cryptocurrency application developer, to integrate its leveraged perpetuals platform into a new mobile trading app. The mobile app combines on-chain trading and self-custody features with a centralized exchange interface, allowing users to trade perpetual futures with up to 25x leverage. The app includes streamlined features like Apple and Google logins, sponsored first transactions, crosschain gas tank, and multiple on/off-ramp options via SEPA, ACH, and credit/debit cards.

Synthetix

Compound is an open-source lending protocol built on Ethereum that allows developers to build DeFi applications for functions such as deposits and lending. Compound offers adjusted money market interest rates based on asset-specific supply and demand and supports a number of Ethereum-based assets for users to take collateralized loans and lock-up assets without borrowing. Locked assets are automatically liquidated if an independent oracle determines that the price has dropped too low. Additionally, since assets are stored in a shared pool, even users with liquidated collateral can claim tokens if they are able to repay the general pool. Compound also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13038">offers borrowing services</a> for institutional clients that allow them to borrow USD or USDC at a fixed annual percentage rate of 6% using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether as collateral, with a loan-to-value of 90%.As of April 2024, Compound had a total value locked (TVL) of USD 2.3 billion. The protocol is governed by its native-token COMP, which along with a variety of other digital assets that are a part of the Compound ecosystem, are supported by Coinbase Custody, a crypto asset custodian. In August 2022, Compound launched a version of its protocol named “Compound III” which features a single borrowable asset. Users can supply collateral that can never be withdrawn by other users (except during liquidation) and borrow USDC.In May 2022, Compound<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10267"> received a B- credit rating from S&amp;P Global Ratings</a> on its enterprise credit facility which offers 4% annually on deposits of the stablecoin USDC. Notably, Compound claims that this is the first time an "institutional DeFi" product has been scored by a major credit rating agency.Funding and financialsCompound’s last funding round was in November 2019 where it raised USD 25 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund to help the company further decentralize the protocol by enabling crypto exchanges and custodians such as Coinbase to maintain the protocol going forward.

Compound

Organizations and protocols that allow individuals to lend their crypto assets and take out collateralized or uncollateralized loans from to/from these projects

Organizations that allow individuals to invest in tokenized financial and real assets

Organizations that provide fully decentralized insurance products

Organizations that apply NFTs across areas of finance such as documentation and non-fractionalized ownership records for assets

Decentralized exchanges that help connect buyers and sellers of DeFi tokens without the need to rely on an intermediary

Organizations that provide digital wallets for users to take custody of DeFi tokens

Blockchains and related protocols that allow developers to build DeFi apps

All companies within this industry are either blockchain-based platforms or offer blockchain-centric services

Promotes financial inclusivity, allowing those that won't traditionally have access to credit to raise funds

Companies with the infrastructure segment offer solutions for users to build decentralized applications

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>

 Decentralized lending protocol, Ondo Finance, has collaborated with Aptos Foundation, a supplier of blockchain infrastructure, to merge its tokenized US treasuries product, USDY, with the Aptos blockchain. 
 This collaboration will facilitate the creation of new staking and restaking methods, as well as systems that include on-chain native and real-world asset yields. Furthermore, the firm plans to introduce USDY on Aptos' automated market maker (AMM) exchanges to increase liquidity options for users and to enable Aptos to utilize USDY as collateral in its Collateralized Debt Positions.&nbsp;

</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Real-world asset tokenization has seen a growing interest within the DeFi industry in the last six months with a number of recent fundraises, including <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/2311454"> Untangled Finance </a> , <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/2873315"> Ostium Labs </a> , and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/826434"> GenTwo </a> , which raised <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/22651"> USD 13.5 million </a> , <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/22537"> USD 3.5 million </a> , and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/21536"> USD 15 million </a> , respectively. Notably, This partnership showcases the company’s commitment to strengthening its position in the space, having <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/15626"> launched its tokenized treasuries product </a> in January of last year.

Ondo Finance

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