Nikolas Sargeant
Sovryn, a Bitcoin-native, decentralized trading and lending platform, announced on Wednesday, that it had secured $5.4m in its latest funding round, led by General Catalyst.
According to the press release shared with Cryptowisser, Sovryn said it would use the funds to expand its global financial operating system designed to provide individual self-sovereignty and financial autonomy to people around the world. The additional investors in the round were Collider Ventures, Bering Waters, Bollinger Investment Group, and Balaji Srinivasan, the team added.
The fundraising comes ahead of the public launch of Sovryn’s Zero protocol. The team explained that Zero is a highly innovative lending product that will allow users to take out 0% interest loans using their bitcoin as collateral, with no repayment or maturity date against the loan. The loans are interest-free in perpetuity, and users decide when to pay them back, if ever. The waitlist for early access to Zero is now open.
This latest development indicates the rapidly growing appetite from traditional investors to get involved in the DeFi and Bitcoin space. The cryptocurrency market has been in a bearish trend since the start of the year. However, the funding demonstrates the confidence these investors have in Sovryn’s ability to grow the capabilities of Bitcoin beyond simply a store of value and to create tools for financial sovereignty.
While commenting on this latest development, General Catalyst managing director Kyle Doherty said:
“We believe the team at Sovryn has the technical ability and community to build products that will actually fulfill the promise of DeFi by bringing it to the dominant network, Bitcoin. We are philosophically aligned with the goals of the Bitcoin and Sovryn networks to empower people, promote individual freedom, and achieve broader financial inclusion”.
Sovryn's core contributor, Edan Yago, also commented that:
"Sovryn is a user-owned cooperative developing open-source code to enhance the freedom of individuals around the world. There is no corporation, foundation or non-profit behind Sovryn - so it's remarkable that established funds, like GC, are changing the way they invest in order to support the Sovryn mission”.
Sovryn is a leading Bitcoin-native DeFi platform and is fully community-owned and governed. It’s built on Bitcoin, uses BTC as its primary trading currency, and delivers decentralized and autonomous finance at scale.
The platform has a security-first approach and bridges the gap between Bitcoin and the rest of the smart-contract world for projects and individuals who want access to financial applications without being beholden to governments or financial intermediaries. The platform also delivers a wide variety of financial services such as spot and margin trading, borrowing and lending, and liquidity providing across investment pools—all built on the foundation of bitcoin as the reserve currency of the future.
Doherty added that;
“Our intention is to help grow the Sovryn ecosystem, actively participate in Bitocracy, and become useful members of the Sovryn community. We think we have much to offer and are excited to get started. There is an incredible opportunity to pursue investments that enable and build upon Bitcoin and Satoshi’s original vision. Bitcoin is the longest-running cryptocurrency with the largest market cap, and with the appetite for DeFi on other blockchains, Sovryn is fulfilling that appetite on Bitcoin to provide people with financial control over their lives.”
Sovyrn raised funds in March 2021 led by investors such as AscendEX, Gate.io, DeFi Technologies, Cadenza (a BitMEX-affiliated venture fund), Collider Ventures, Blockware Solutions, Monday Capital and Greenfield One.
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that supports founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time.
