SaltLayer has closed a $8 million pre-seed investment round based on the Babylon staking mechanism and powered by Bitcoin.
Multiple venture capital organizations focusing on cryptocurrency have backed the Bitcoin restaking platform, according to a statement made on X on August 22.
The pre-seed investment was co-led by web3 venture capital firm Hack VC and Castle Island Ventures.
The protocol will utilize the funding to introduce its restaking product to the expanding Bitcoin market. Through staking and liquid restaking, users can earn incentives on their Bitcoin using SatLayer.
The ecosystem is powered by Babylon, which just raised $70 million in a fundraising round headed by Paradigm.
The platform allows proof-of-stake systems to use Bitcoin for staking, such as rollups, oracles, layer-2 chains, and data availability layers.
Any infrastructure provider or decentralized application can sign up with SaltLayer to become a Bitcoin Validated Service. dApps and other providers on SaltLayer give consumers the option to lock their Bitcoin for yield, much like actively validated services do.
Earning Rewards in Idle BTC
In exchange for contributing to the security of BVSs through Bitcoin, users can deposit their liquid staking tokens and gain incentives and other network advantages.
Users must first deposit Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) or BTC liquid staking tokens from Bedrock, pStake, Solv Protocol, PumpBTC, and Lombard in order for this to function.
Users can obtain receipt tokens representing the deposited funds, and WBTC or LSTs contribute to the security of BVSs. Holders can start earning incentives by retaking these tokens via SaltLayer.
SaltLayer’s pre-seed investment was also supported by Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, OKX Ventures, and Mirana Ventures, among other venture capital firms.
