{"id":22632,"date":"2022-03-30T23:15:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T22:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=22632"},"modified":"2022-03-30T23:15:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T22:15:33","slug":"sequoia-ftx-a16z-lead-135m-fund-for-layerzero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/sequoia-ftx-a16z-lead-135m-fund-for-layerzero\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequoia Capital, FTX, A16z lead $135 Million Series A funding for LayerZero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
LayerZero<\/a>, an omnichain interoperability standard, has raised $135 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (A16z). This brings the cross-chain protocol's valuation to $1 billion.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Sequoia
Sequoia Capital, FTX, A16z lead $135 Million Series A funding for LayerZero<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to Forbes, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and FTX Ventures led the investment round\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, and Uniswap Labs are among the other investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investors raised a total of $135 million, bringing LayerZero's worth to $1 billion, making it a unicorn. The platform's creators, LayerZero Labs, previously received $2 million in a seed round and $6 million in a Series A round<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors are interested in the protocol because of its approach to addressing the security issues that cross-chain platforms face. LayerZero persuaded Sequoia to trust in a multi-chain future, according to Michael Bailhe, a partner at the firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had conviction in a cross-chain future, but the technology to enable it was insufficient\u2014until we met LayerZero,\u00a0said Bailhe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to Bryan Pellegrino, the protocol's CEO and co-founder, LayerZero's objective is to “link every smart contract on every chain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protocol promises to be more of a messaging layer than a bridge protocol, allowing direct cross-chain communication analogous to a decentralized SWIFT<\/a> \u2014 the global financial institutions' messaging channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum, Avalanche, and Fantom are among the seven blockchain networks currently supported by the protocol. In the following four weeks, work on integrating Terra and Solana will begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-chain protocol breaches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two of the largest crypto attacks occurred in the first quarter of 2022, thanks to the exploitation of cross-chain protocol security weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Axie Infinity Ronin network <\/a>hack is the biggest of the year, with investors losing over $600 million in just one week. Last month, Wormhole, a Solana and Ethereum bridge protocol with over $1 billion in TVL, lost $325 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-chain protocols have been criticized by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum network<\/a>. He believes the industry will move toward a multi-chain future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fundamental security limits of bridges are actually a key reason why while I am optimistic about a multi-chain blockchain ecosystem\u2026, I am pessimistic about cross-chain applications, Buterin explained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LayerZero, an omnichain interoperability standard, has raised $135 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (A16z). This brings the cross-chain protocol’s valuation to $1 billion. According to Forbes, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and FTX Ventures led the investment round . Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":22641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4076,778,8564,8563,4554],"class_list":["post-22632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a16z","tag-ftx","tag-layerzero-2","tag-sequoia-capital","tag-series-a-funding"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-240.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}