Hinkal, a zero-knowledge (ZK) protocol that allows institutional investors to trade privately on-chain, has raised $1.4 million in a strategic funding round.
SALT Fund — an investment fund led by Anthony Scaramucci’s son AJ — led the financing round, Hinkal said Friday. Other investors included Draper Associates, SNZ Capital and Peer VC.
Nika Koreli, co-founder and CTO of Hinkal, told The Block that the company raised the strategic round due to increasing interest from investors. “We received interest in March and the round closed within two weeks,” Koreli said.
He added that the round was structured as a simple future equity agreement (SAFE) and token warrants, bringing Hinkal’s valuation to $70 million.
Tal Cohen, CEO of Kraken US, has also joined Hinkal’s advisory board.
What is Hinkal?
Hinkal facilitates confidential on-chain trading for institutional investors such as venture capital funds, liquid funds and family offices. This is made possible by the ZK protocol, which allows users to run decentralized applications with private wallet addresses that they keep themselves.
“In traditional finance you can send/sell/exchange without people looking at you – Hinkal makes this possible for crypto, creating a new wave of typical institutional users who value this on-chain discretion,” Koreli said.
Hinkal requires users to perform know-your-business (KYB) verification to prevent illegal use of the protocol. Koreli explained that Hinkal has developed an attestation layer, giving users a choice of validation methods. Users can verify ownership of a centralized exchange account (for example, Coinbase or Binance) or use decentralized identity providers (DID) such as Authento, ZkMe and Galxe Passport, he said.
Koreli acknowledged that while Hinkal’s KYB verification process is similar to traditional finance, it differs in that users can activate reusable attestations. Traditional finance, on the other hand, requires users to undergo KYB checks before every account opening, he said.
Koreli said “top VCs,” including some of Hinkal’s investors, are currently using the protocol, though he declined to name them.
Sale of ‘Vested tokens’
Hinkal said it ensures its users, including VCs, only liquidate acquired tokens through the protocol. “Traditional vesting models typically limit the transfer of unvested tokens so that they cannot be deposited with Hinkal,” Koreli said, adding: “There are some exceptions to liquid vesting that users can trade – we allow allow these to be deposited and liquidated.”
AJ Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SALT Fund, called Hinkal a “game-changing protocol” in a statement and said it “addresses critical pain points for institutional funds, founders and VCs by enabling private DeFi trading strategies and token liquidation without the broader market.”
Hinkal is operational in seven blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Polygon and BNB Chain, and supports all major dapps, Koreli said.
Hinkal currently employs about ten people and Koreli plans to maintain a streamlined team structure.
