Cross-chain messaging protocol developer LayerZero Labs has raised one other $120 million, based on an April 4 announcement. The corporate plans to make use of the capital to extend its headcount and increase its attain into the Asia-Pacific area. The corporate had beforehand raised $135 million in March 2022.
— LayerZero Labs (@LayerZero_Labs) April 4, 2023
LayerZero Labs is finest identified for its cross-chain messaging protocol, LayerZero, which is usually used to create asset bridges between blockchain networks. It’s also a supporter of the Stargate multichain bridge.
With the completion of this fundraising spherical, the corporate now has a $3 billion valuation. Over 33 traders participated within the newest funding spherical, together with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, Circle Ventures, Christie’s, OpenSea Ventures and Samsung Subsequent.
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Ryan Zarick, co-founder and chief expertise officer of LayerZero Labs, stated the brand new fundraise will assist to create a multichain setting the place functions could make the most effective use of every community’s distinctive advantages:
“Think about a future the place a single user-facing utility can harness the pace of Solana, the safety of Ethereum, and a budget file storage of Arweave, whereas additionally being totally abstracted to the consumer.”
He continued, “That is our imaginative and prescient, made attainable by the LayerZero protocol that seamlessly connects all blockchains and allows chain-agnostic functions to be constructed throughout varied blockchains to create a best-in-class consumer expertise. The times of selecting one chain to construct on are over; the longer term is omnichain functions.”
The problem of securing cross-chain messages has turn into acute in recent times, as greater than $3 billion was stolen from blockchain bridges in 2022, based on a report from Chainanalysis. LayerZero has tried to resolve this downside through the use of a relayer and oracle to safe messages, the place a message is just confirmed if each the relayer and oracle agree that it’s legitimate.
On January 31, LayerZero acquired 37.58% of the vote to turn into Uniswap’s bridge protocol for cross-chain governance between Ethereum and BNB Chain, coming in second behind Wormhole. On March 30, Gnosis introduced that LayerZero would combine with its multi-bridge platform, Hashi, to additional enhance the safety of blockchain bridges.
