zkLend, a cash market protocol being constructed on StarkNet, has introduced it has raised $5 million in seed-round funding led by Delphi Digital, anchored by StarkWare and Three Arrows Capital.
Produced on Starkware’s StarkNet, zkLend will have the ability to scale at an element of 1-200 of Ethereum’s traditional value, whereas inheriting Ethereum’s excessive degree of safety.
In constructing one of many core primitives on StarkNet, the zkLend staff will launch Artemis, their permissionless lending providing, in Q3 2022.
Artemis will allow DeFi customers to borrow in opposition to their belongings in an inexpensive, environment friendly, and secure manner. Institutional and company customers needing a KYC and AML-compliant answer will have the ability to use Apollo, the permissioned answer anticipated to launch early subsequent yr.
The funding from this spherical will go in direction of the launch of the aforementioned merchandise Artemis and Apollo, along with staff growth throughout tech, advertising and marketing, and enterprise growth.
“zk-Rollups are the last word answer to true Ethereum scaling – the place safety is assured by math not individuals. Constructing our next-generation cash market protocol on StarkNet implies that we inherit Ethereum’s safety and decentralization whereas leveraging zk-Rollup’s large scalability potential. For the primary time, it implies that permissionless and safe monetary companies that put particular person sovereignty first are inside attain. Given the passionate StarkNet group, we’re sure that this would be the future L2.” stated Jane Ma, Co-Founding father of zkLend.
The protocol will undertake an ouroboros mannequin to incentivize customers to take part within the focused cash market swimming pools. Different highlighted options enabled by zkLend embody double-sided borrowing & collateralization elements, protocol-to-protocol lending, and variable liquidation charges.
ZEND, the native protocol token is a lynchpin of the protocol. Customers staking ZEND will have the ability to take pleasure in governance, booster price rewards, and claims to the curiosity earnings earned by the swimming pools.
“zkLend has two merchandise to cater to each DeFi customers and whitelisted institutional customers, serving as the elemental cash lego within the rising zk-Rollup ecosystem of dapps and customers,” commented Brian Fu, Co-Founding father of zkLend.
Different buyers within the seed spherical included Genesis Block Ventures, Alameda Analysis, CMS, MetaCartel DAO, DCVC, Amber Group, TPS Capital, Ascensive, D3Web Capital, 4RC, and SkyVision Capital.