Lombard, a Bitcoin restaking protocol, has raised USD 16 million in new funding in partnership with Babylon led by Polychain Capital, with participation from BabylonChain, dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund, and Nomad Capital.

Lombard offers a Bitcoin staking protocol built on top of Babylon’s Bitcoin staking infrastructure. This protocol enables users to earn yields by leveraging their staked Bitcoin holdings. Lombard aims to introduce a native "liquid Bitcoin" token (LBTC) that offers liquidity for staked Bitcoin deposits on Babylon’s platform. LBTC enables users to leverage their staked assets to help secure other proof-of-stake networks and earn additional rewards. 

Analyst QuickTake: The Bitcoin layer-2 space has seen a large influx in investor interest, with companies such as Arch Labs , ZKM , and Botanix Labs raising USD USD 7 million , USD 5 million , and USD 8.5 million , respectively, within the past three months. Moreover, Babylon , which partnered with Lombard to support this fundraise, also raised a majority of its total funding within the last six months across back-to-back funding rounds; it secured USD 18 million in seed funding last December, an undisclosed amount in strategic investment from Binance Labs in February, and USD 70 million in March. Notably, Lombard aims to support Babylon’s Bitcoin layer-2 ecosystem by offering restaking services similar to what already exists on the Ethereum blockchain via startups such as Renzo and Ether.fi on the EigenLayer ecosystem.