Ethereum liquid staking protocol Puffer Finance raises $18M Series A

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Puffer Finance, a liquid staking initiative established on Ethereum’s Eigenlayer protocol, has raised $18 million during a Series A investment round to introduce its main network. In simpler terms, Puffer Finance, which is an Ethereum-based project for staking and redeeming assets using the Eigenlayer protocol, recently obtained $18 million from investors for launching its primary platform.

Based on the announcement made on April 16, Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital took the lead in the investment round. Notable contributions came from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Lemniscap, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Mechanism, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, GSR, and several angel investors.

Based on information from DeFiLlama, Puffer Finance saw its total value locked reach over $1.2 billion just after its initial testing phase in February. So far, this decentralized finance protocol has secured a total investment of $23.5 million through venture capital funding.

After this funding round, Puffer received a significant investment from Binance Labs. This investment strengthens Puffer’s role within the Liquid Restaking system. In their statement, Puffer mentioned that they will be making technological strides as they prepare for their mainnet launch.

With Puffer Finance’s innovation, Ethereum validators can now minimize their capital commitment to only 1 Ether (ETH), compared to the previous requirement of 32 ETH for individual stakers. Moreover, by staking Ether through Puffer, users will obtain Puffer liquid restaking tokens (nLRTs). These tokens grant users the ability to generate returns in various decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms concurrently with their Ethereum staking rewards.

Liquid staking, a well-established practice in other blockchain networks like Cosmos, has now made its way to Ethereum following the Merge upgrade’s implementation of proof-of-stake. Puffer Labs core contributor Amir Forouzani expressed their goal in a press release: “Our aim is to eliminate major hurdles for home validators and introduce an innovative liquid restaking protocol with cutting-edge features.”

On March 6th, according to CryptoMoon’s report, EigenLayer surpassed Aave in terms of total value locked (TVL) with an astounding $10.4 billion in crypto assets secured. This achievement came after EigenLayer temporarily suspended the limit on the amount users could stake.

According to Dune Analytics, EigenLayer has more than 107,900 distinct depositors. DefiLlama’s data reveals that approximately 74% of staked tokens belong to Wrapped Ether (wETH) and stETH. Liquid staking protocols are the most prevalent category in DeFi, with a total value locked of around $55 billion spread across roughly 160 different platforms. This growth is primarily driven by Lido, which holds the largest share at approximately $35 billion in value.

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2024-04-16 13:13