Celestia's MilkyWay Secures $5 Million in Seed Round Led by Polychain Capital
Celestia's liquid staking protocol, MilkyWay, has successfully raised $5 million in a seed funding round. Notably, the funding was spearheaded by Polychain Capital, with additional participation from prominent investors including Binance Labs, Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital, and LongHash Ventures. This substantial financial backing arrives amid preparations for the launch of MilkyWay's token and airdrop.
MilkyWay's architecture differentiates itself by operating as a smart contract on Osmosis, standing in contrast to its competitor, Stride, which runs on its own Layer 1 blockchain. While Stride provides support for multiple tokens in liquid staking, MilkyWay focuses its efforts on Celestia, exemplifying a more specialized approach.
Despite MilkyWay's total value locked (TVL) currently amounting to approximately $24 million, which stands in contrast to Stride's $135 million, the latter's TVL specific to TIA insignificantly surpasses that of MilkyWay. Nevertheless, MilkyWay is poised for its upcoming token launch and aims to extend its reach beyond Celestia.
Key Takeaways
- MilkyWay, a liquid staking protocol, raises $5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.
- Significant participation from Binance Labs, Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital, and LongHash Ventures.
- MilkyWay's architecture contrasts Stride's, functioning as a smart contract on Osmosis and emphasizing Celestia.
- While Stride supports multiple tokens for liquid staking, MilkyWay maintains focus on Celestia (TIA) token liquid staking.
- Upcoming plans entail a token launch and airdrop, with 10% of the total supply of the MILK token allocated to mPoint holders.
Analysis
The notable $5 million seed round secured by MilkyWay serves as a testament to the firm's promising potential, garnering substantial investor confidence. This critical financial injection fortifies MilkyWay's position to expand its reach beyond Celestia, heightening competition within the realm of liquid staking, particularly with existing entities like Stride.
By virtue of its simpler architecture and concentrated token focus, MilkyWay stands poised to offer an intuitively user-friendly experience, potentially amplifying its user base and total value locked (TVL). Consequently, such momentum may induce a ripple effect on Stride's market share and TVL stature.
Anticipated plans for a token launch and airdrop are anticipated to bring about heightened visibility for MilkyWay, fostering a surge in its user base and augmented TVL. This momentum showcases potential for additional inflows of investment, enabling MilkyWay to amplify its operations and sustain a broader array of tokens over the long term. This innovation holds the potential to benefit countries and establishments championing blockchain adoption by enhancing user experience and fortifying efficiency across the liquid staking landscape.
Did You Know?
MilkyWay, a liquid staking protocol: Liquid staking is a method enabling users to continue leveraging their staked assets while simultaneously utilizing them for staking cryptocurrencies. MilkyWay, a liquid staking protocol, provides a platform for users to stake their tokens and acquire a derivative token representing their staked assets, subsequently deployable in DeFi applications.Seed round led by Polychain Capital: Within the realm of venture capital financing, the seed round is the earliest stage wherein startups raise capital from a select group of investors, often in exchange for equity. In this instance, MilkyWay raised $5 million in a seed round, prominently led by Polychain Capital, with engagement from investors such as Binance Labs, Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital, and LongHash Ventures.Smart contract on Osmosis: A smart contract is a self-executing contract encompassing pacts inscribed directly into code. Osmosis denotes a decentralized exchange (DEX) constructed on the Cosmos SDK. MilkyWay's structure operates through a smart contract on Osmosis, thereby constituting a program functioning on the Osmosis blockchain, facilitating the liquid staking of tokens.