Maven 11 Capital is an investment fund solely focused on investing in blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT). We invest in ventures, digital assets, and digital currencies that adopt this technology.

Maven 11 Capital

Robot Ventures is a (pre-)seed investor in exceptional fintech and blockchain companies led by founders with big ambitions, and contrarian worldviews.

Robot Ventures

IOSG Ventures is a pioneering crypto fund founded in 2017 that invests in the future of Web3. As a thesis-driven firm, we assist founders in developing community-driven protocols that are primed to transform the crypto landscape. Our portfolio comprises a wide range of innovative and high-potential investments, including ZKRU (Scroll, StarkWare, Arbitrum, zkSync), Security Auditing(Runtime Verification, Hexens), MEV (Flashbots, Blocknative), DeFi/NFT-Fi (1inch, MetaMask), FOG (Big Time, Illuvium), and a number of industry leaders including Arweave, Cosmos, Celestia, EigenLayer, Scroll, zkSync, Nil Foundation, and Mina, etc. We are passionate about investing in crypto-native paradigms that have the potential to transform the future of the industry, whether you’re building infra, middleware, security, gaming, or social platforms.

IOSG Ventures

SevenX Ventures is an independent thinker and tech-driven cryptocurrency investment firm that provides insights and operational expertise to help blockchain startups in growing.

SevenX Ventures

OKX Ventures focuses on exploring the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value. Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.

OKX Ventures

Re7 Capital

Karatage

BitScale Capital

Protagonist is an investment management company.

Protagonist

Figment Capital supports investments in high-confidence, early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects. It sits in a unique position amongst Web3 developers and investors.

Figment Capital

Mantle Network is a blockchain technology platform built for scaling decentralized adoption and token adoption.

Mantle Network

Our mission at Paper Ventures is to be at the very forefront of innovation, fostering groundbreaking ideas that redefine the boundaries of technology and finance. We believe in the transformative power of blockchain and are committed to supporting those who are as passionate about its potential as we are.

Paper Ventures

A high conviction investment firm backing frontier founders.

Edessa Capital

Bodhi Ventures provides investments to decentralised crypto networks

Bodhi Ventures

Binance Labs identifies, invests, and empowers viable blockchain entrepreneurs, startups, and communities, providing financing to industry projects that help grow the larger blockchain ecosystem.

Binance Labs

280 Capital serves as the Web3 investment arm of the Huang, Liu, and Chen Family Office, managing a $2 billion portfolio. With roots the Web3 domain since 2014, the family currently manages a $400 million digital assets portfolio, anchored by an early acquisition of Bitcoin, showcasing a profound commitment to advancing the blockchain industry.

280 Capital

Galaxy Digital operates as a technology-driven financial services and investment management firm that provides institutions and direct clients with a full suite of financial solutions spanning the digital assets ecosystem. Galaxy Digital operates five synergistic business lines: Trading, Asset Management, Principal Investments, Investment Banking, and Mining.

Galaxy Digital

BH Digital offers institutional investors access to a diverse array of compelling opportunities. Brevan Howard Digital combines Brevan Howard's institutional governance, controls, and risk management with specialized expertise inherent to crypto markets in both investing and business operations.

BH Digital

ConsenSys is an Ethereum software web3 company. ConsenSys enables developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. ConsenSys' product suite, composed of Infura, Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, MetaMask, and Diligence, serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for its clients, and has handled billions of dollars in digital assets. Ethereum is a programmable blockchain in the world, business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. On this trusted, open-source foundation, ConsenSys is building the digital economy of tomorrow.

ConsenSys

CryptoDiscover is an Asia-focused blockchain investment and advisory firm.

CryptoDiscover

Antalpha is a fintech company that provides a variety of financial services to institutional clients, mainly those active in Bitcoin.  They leverage their strategic partnerships and years of experience in the blockchain space and cryptocurrency investments to help their portfolio companies build disruptive decentralized Web 3.0 businesses.  Comprised of an international team of financial professionals and technology specialists who are leaders in their respective fields, Antalpha aims to support its portfolio companies by leveraging its insights, network, and access to proprietary resources.

Antalpha

Bankless Ventures is an early-stage Web3 fund empowering pioneers to explore the frontier of Web3.

Bankless Ventures

Renzo

Renzo is a liquid restaking protocol in the EigenLayer ecosystem, securing Actively Validated Services (AVSs) and providing a larger reward than ETH staking.

Renzo is a protocol that leverages a blend of smart contracts and operator nodes on EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking platform, to enable users to earn yields via automated liquid restaking strategies. Users can choose between restaking Ethereum and liquid staking tokens (LSTs) directly or minting “ezETH,” the platform’s native token that represents a restaked ETH position. It can be minted by depositing LSTs or ETH into the platform’s smart contracts and used as collateral in other DeFi protocols to earn compounding rewards.

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Renzo is a protocol that leverages a blend of smart contracts and operator nodes on EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking platform, to enable users to earn yields via automated liquid restaking strategies. Users can choose between restaking Ethereum and liquid staking tokens (LSTs) directly or minting “ezETH,” the platform’s native token that represents a restaked ETH position. It can be minted by depositing LSTs or ETH into the platform’s smart contracts and used as collateral in other DeFi protocols to earn compounding rewards.Moreover, the platform acts as an interface to the EigenLayer ecosystem to secure actively validated services (AVSs). As of January 2024, the protocol has served over 2,000 users and had a total locked value (TVL) of ~USD 20 million. During the same period, the protocol announced plans to implement a DAO, which will be responsible for overseeing operators, AVS restaking strategies, and protocol parameters.Funding and financialsIn January 2024, Renzo <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25539">raised USD 3.2 million</a> in a seed funding round led by Maven11 to further develop the protocol. Furthermore, the company planned to include support for cross-chain restaking, integration with lending markets, liquidity aggregators, and vault products.

MakerDAO is a DAO (governed through the MKR token) that manages the Maker Protocol.Developed on the Ethereum blockchain, the Maker 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.MakerDAO offers access to investing and borrowing DAI through the Oasis app which was developed by some of the creators of Maker Protocol. In addition, the Maker Protocol is available for developers of DeFi apps who can build apps to facilitate earning, investing, and borrowing DAI. As of May 2024, the Maker Protocol had integrated with over 400 applications ranging from payment systems to gaming platforms. MakerDAO 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.In April 2022, MakerDAO 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.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, MakerDAO 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.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 MakerDAO governance security. The first phase of the update is expected to be rolled out in the summer of 2024.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. Funding and financialsAs of May 2024, MakerDAO had around USD 8.1 billion in total value locked (TVL). The company’s most recent funding round was in April 2020 for an undisclosed sum. Previously, the company had raised USD 27.5 million through the sale of its MKR token to Dragonfly Partners and Paragon to expand its operations to Asia.

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. Moreover, the company announced plans to launch a new perpetual futures exchange named Infinex in the following months.Funding and financialsIn March 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17267">received an investment of USD 20 million </a>from DWF Labs, a Web3 venture capital company. Synthetix plans to use this investment to drive volume for its protocol across both centralized and decentralized exchanges and invest in product development.

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

<div>
 
 Renzo, an Ethereum restaking protocol based on EigenLayerl, secured USD 17 million in a Series A fundraise, with Galaxy Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital Nova Fund as leading investors.
 The raised funds will be utilized for the expansion of the company's restaking offerings and for the integration of ERC-20 tokens into its protocol.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 The Ethereum restaking space (particularly the EigenLayer ecosystem) has seen a recent boom in investor interest, with protocols such as <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/3595961"> Kelp DAO </a> , <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/2708185"> Ether.fi </a> , and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/2569524"> EigenLayer </a> raising <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/29715"> USD 9 million </a> , <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/27099"> USD 23 million </a> , and <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/26893"> USD 100 million </a> , respectively. Notably, this new funding comes only one week after Symbiotic, which aims to provide an alternative to Eigenlayer’s staking infrastructure, <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/30402"> emerged from stealth with a USD 5.8 million funding round </a> . Symbiotic differentiates itself from EigenLayer by offering support for the restaking of any ERC-20 token. Therefore, Renzo’s initiative to integrate ERC-20 tokens into its restocking protocol will enable EigenLayer to compete indirectly with Symbiotic via its ecosystem.

Renzo

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless