Weekly Newsletter, 18 April 2025

On-chain Collateral, blockchain’s next killer use case?

Blockchain technology’s first killer use case is clearly stablecoins. Stablecoins continue to have tremendous traction, and for good reason. Being able to send dollars to anyone in the world, instantly, 24/7, without needing a banking relationship and for less than a cent is a massive unlock, especially for people with an underdeveloped banking system or without a stable currency. Already, annual transaction volumes in stablecoins are in the tens of trillions. As we have often said, stablecoins are analogous to email, which was the killer use case of the previous generation of internet protocols. But instead of sending information we are now sending real value, which was simply not possible before blockchain technology. And this can easily be extrapolated to moving any type of value around – the tokenization movement is fast underway. Money as software.

Looking at the broader super-powers of blockchain, we believe that collateral could become the next killer use case. Collateral is the backbone of the global financial system. Collateral underpins credit markets worth over a quadrillion dollars (that’s 15 zeros). But despite its importance, collateral management remains fragmented, inefficient and costly. Enter blockchain.

Blockchains provide a global, ubiquitous collateral system. Anyone can post on-chain collateral consisting of any asset (USD, Treasuries, crypto native assets like BTC or ETH, tokenized IP, tokenized real estate, anything really). Anyone in the world can easily verify that the collateral is there and under what conditions it can be claimed. No banks needed. Enforcing the collateral is also straightforward and frictionless – a massive change to our current system.

For example, our portfolio company Flexa is using on-chain collateral to build a global merchant payments system where people are able to pay with any asset they like. All secured by on-chain collateral via the ANVIL collateral protocol. In our recently published The Satellite View, and in this fascinating Legends4Legends presentation Tyler Spalding, the architect of ANVIL, explains the history of collateral and how ANVIL works.

The movement is real. As this infrastructure is maturing, 5bln people with an internet connection suddenly have a bank in their pocket.

Also this week

Relevant financial updates

WalletConnect*, an open protocol connecting wallets to decentralized apps, had its TGE and is now trading at a $393mln FDV
Resolv*, a company working on a trustless stablecoin and low-risk crypto investments backed by the True-Delta Neutral Architecture, has raised $10mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Animoca Brands, Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, gumi Cryptos and 4 others
MG Stover, a boutique fund administration firm that specializes in providing tailored experiences for hedge, private equity, venture capital, and digital asset funds, was acquired by Securitize for an undisclosed amount
Optimum*, a high-performance memory infrastructure designed to enhance blockchain networks, has raised $11mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Animoca Brands, NGC Ventures, Spartan Group, GSR Investments, CMS Holdings and 19 others
Rakurai*, a company that enhances blockchain throughput using technology from networking and algorithmic trading to build performant validator nodes, has raised $3mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Robot Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, Anagram Crypto, Slow Ventures, Colosseum and 5 others
Candy*, a company specializing in digital collectibles, creating digital assets for fans and collectors, was acquired by Futureverse* for an undisclosed amount.
LayerZero*, a blockchain interoperability protocol that connects various blockchains to support the development of omnichain applications and tokens, has raised $55M in a Private Token Sale funding round with investments from Andreessen Horowitz
ORO*, a data infrastructure platform that facilitates the exchange of user-contributed data for AI development, has raised $6mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Orange DAO, Delphi Ventures, NEAR Protocol, Ocular Crypto and 1 other
World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform enabling users to earn interest on cryptocurrencies and access borrowing services, has raised $25mln in a funding round with investments from DWF Labs
Embr*, a crypto-based meme battle platform where users create, submit, and compete with meme tokens in a game-like environment, has raised $1.80mln in a Pre Seed funding round with investments from Robot Ventures, Lattice Capital, Daryl Lau, Eugene Chen, Temple DAO and 2 others
Glider.fi*, a platform for automated crypto portfolio management, allowing users to create and run trading strategies across multiple blockchains, has raised $4mln in a funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, GSR Investments, Selini Capital, Uniswap and 4 others
OpenZKP, an Ethereum Layer-2 open-source library that implements zk-STARKs, enabling developers to build scalable and secure decentralized applications, has raised $6mln in a Strategic funding round with investments from Animoca Brands, Coinstore Labs and Soverign Trust
Fizen, a financial technology company that offers a cross-border payment gateway and specializes in facilitating cryptocurrency payments for businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount in a strategic funding round with investments from Tether.
Auradine, a company that focuses on revolutionizing internet infrastructure through blockchain, AI, and zero-knowledge technologies, has raised $153mln in a Series C funding round with investments from Mayfield, Qualcomm Ventures, StepStone Group, Marathon Digital (MARA), Premji Invest and 3 others

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 18/04

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