The CEO of MilkyWay, JayB Kim, announced that the Celestia liquid staking protocol, MilkyWay, has successfully raised $5 million in a funding round led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital. Kim highlighted the participation of other investors such as Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital, and LongHash Ventures in this round. This investment aims to support MilkyWay in becoming a prominent liquid staking protocol within the modular Blockchain ecosystem.
Funding Round Impact
According to Kim, the funding round commenced last December and recently concluded, involving a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) and token development structure. However, the exact valuation of the project was not disclosed at this time. Binance Labs, through its venture capital arm, has been actively investing in staking projects like Babylon, Renzo, Puffer Finance, and StakeStone.
MilkyWay vs. Stride
MilkyWay differentiates itself from its competitor, Stride, in terms of architectural design. While MilkyWay operates as a smart contract on Osmosis, Stride functions on its own Layer-1 Blockchain. Kim highlighted that MilkyWay's design simplifies operational and technical aspects compared to Stride.
Currently, MilkyWay focuses on liquid staking for Celestia (TIA) tokens, while Stride supports liquid staking for a variety of tokens such as ATOM, DYDX, INJ, and JUNO. Despite Stride having a higher total locked value of approximately $135 million due to its broader focus, the funds raised in this round will be used to enhance the protocol's development and attract more liquid staking providers to MilkyWay's ecosystem. Kim anticipates that MilkyWay will solidify its position in the industry and play a significant role in the liquid staking sector.
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