Ethereum liquid restaking protocol Puffer Finance reaches $200 million valuation in new token funding round

Puffer Finance, a Ethereum ETH

-5.45%
the EigenLayer-based liquid recovery protocol has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital.

Other investors in the round included Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Mechanism Capital, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, GSR and Lemniscap, Puffer Finance said on Monday.

Angel investors, including Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Wormhole co-founder Anthony Ramirez, AltLayer co-founder Yaoqi Jia and Pendle Finance core contributor Anton Buenavista, also participated in the round.

The round was structured as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT), Puffer co-founder Amir Forouzani told The Block through a spokesperson. The round brought Puffer’s fully diluted token valuation to $200 million, Forouzani added.

Puffer’s Series A round comes shortly after raising funding from Binance Labs earlier this year. Last year, the project also raised a $5.5 million seed funding round and an initial $650,000 pre-seed round.

Ethereum’s recovery continues to gain momentum

The Ethereum renewal industry has been gaining momentum since the launch of EigenLayer last year. This led to the launch of several EigenLayer-based platforms this year. According to DeFiLlama, Puffer Finance is currently the third largest liquid withdrawal protocol by total value locked (TVL), behind Ether.Fi and Renzo facts. Puffer currently has a TVL of $1.17 billion, compared to Ether.Fi’s $3.5 billion and Renzo’s $2.95 billion.

With Series A funding in place, Puffer Finance is now looking to launch its mainnet, which it says will expand validator participation within Ethereum’s ecosystem and improve its decentralization. “By lowering the entry requirement to just 1 ETH for validators and increasing their revenue through the integration of Ethereum’s proof of staking with Actively Validated Services’ (AVS’) recovery returns, Puffer’s mainnet sets a new standard for innovation in the liquid withdrawal landscape . ‘, the project said.

Puffer has also previously received a $120,000 grant from the Ethereum Foundation for his open-source tool called Secure-Signer. The tool allows Ethereum validators to reduce the risk of cuts or fines.

Avichal Garg, co-founder and general partner at Electric Capital, said in a statement: “By lowering barriers to entry and improving security measures, Puffer’s technology enables broader participation and strengthens the integrity of the network.”

Peter Johnson, co-head of venture at Brevan Howard Digital, said in a statement that Puffer Finance is “building critical infrastructure that enhances the decentralization and security of Ethereum” and that BHD remains committed to “supporting projects critical to the growth and security of Ethereum’. resilience of the blockchain ecosystem.”