Drop Protocol, a liquid staking protocol for Interchain assets and an inaugural member of the Lido Alliance, successfully closed a $4 million seed funding round. The round was led by CoinFund, with additional backing from CMS Holdings, Anagram, Interop Ventures, Cosmostation, and others. Notable angel investors include Vasiliy Shapovalov (Co-founder of Lido DAO), Mustafa Al-Bassam (Co-founder of Celestia Labs), and Jon Kol (CEO of Abacus Labs, a core contributor to Hyperlane). The Drop team is led by former Lido and P2P contributors, and the protocol is built as an Integrated Application on Neutron.
As a liquid staking app, when users stake with Drop, they receive dAssets, which are receipt tokens representing a staked position. For example, if a user stakes ATOM with Drop, they receive dATOM. dAssets auto-compound staking rewards and can be used throughout the Drop ecosystem to earn additional yield. Drop has a security-obsessed culture. Drop’s modular smart contract architecture, built as an Integrated Application on Neutron, contributes to the overall security of the protocol.
Since its launch, Drop has attracted over 10,000 unique users and enabled $20M worth of digital assets to be deployed across different dApps and DeFi opportunities. As a member of the Lido Alliance, Drop enjoys access to distribution, liquidity, networking opportunities, and strategic and technical insights via Lido, positioning it ahead of other Interchain liquid staking providers.
In recent years, the Interchain, a network of blockchains connected by IBC, has grown tremendously and given rise to some of the industry’s most important technologies. However, the equivalent of billions of dollars in digital assets securing these blockchains remains locked and unusable. Drop’s mission is to strengthen the economic viability of sovereign blockchain economies by transforming previously stagnant, unproductive digital assets into flowing streams of opportunity.
Unlike Ethereum’s thriving decentralized economy whereby ~30% of all staked ETH is liquid staked and deployed productively across dApps, liquid staked assets on major Interchain networks such as Celestia and Cosmos Hub make up less than 2% of all staked assets.
“Blockchain technology will play a fundamental role in the future of Internet products and services, and tomorrow’s blockchain economies won’t be built on the back of static, unproductive assets as they are today. The future is liquid, and with the support of Drop’s robust partner network, we’re accelerating toward it,” said Mitya Argunov, co-founder of Drop Protocol.
“Drop is bringing modularity to Interchain security by allowing staked collateral to trade freely. This creates more adaptable blockchain ecosystems and brings in the native security economy of an IBC chain into its application ecosystem. Lido DAO token holders have signaled their endorsement of the project and its potential to grow stETH adoption outside of Ethereum, by building with assets on IBC that bring similar benefits to their own domains. The initiative underscores Lido Alliance and Drop’s commitment to advancing decentralization across the Web3 industry,” said ADCV, a Contributor at Lido DAO.
With Drop, users can auto-compound staking rewards while retaining the ability to deploy their assets in various dApps for additional yield and benefits, earn DROP rewards, remain eligible for airdrops, support ecosystem growth, and exit their position at any time. As a result, Interchain dApps benefit from new users and asset inflow, while networks benefit from increased economic activity without sacrificing network security.
Investor quotes:
“CoinFund is proud to back Drop as it brings capital efficiency to the Interchain, making billions of dollars eligible to flow into DeFi. Modular chains require higher staking participation to ensure security but that shouldn’t come at a cost to their ecosystem. Mitya is a talented and ambitious founder, and we’re looking forward to witnessing the team empower the growth of interchain DeFi,” said Alex Felix, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner at CoinFund.
“CMS is excited to back Drop Protocol as they work to bring liquid staking to the Cosmos and Celestia ecosystems. Drop’s cross-chain approach aligns with our own chain-agnostic posture, and we look forward to supporting Drop as they continue to build,” said Tucker Watson, Head of Investment Analysis at CMS Holdings.
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