March 25, 2024
Lagos, Nigeria - Venture capital firm Binance Labs has made a "strategic investment" in liquid staking protocol StakeStone.
StakeStone is an "omnichain liquidity hub" that integrates multiple yield layers - including Ethereum staking, restaking, real-world assets (RWAs), artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralized physical asset networks.
StakeStone is currently focused on offering Ethereum staking on its platform. When users stake ETH on StakeStone, they receive STONE, a yield-bearing token that can be used to earn additional rewards.
Charles K, co-founder of StakeStone, said that the project is not just a liquid staking protocol. In the future, StakeStone plans to support more asset types and offer Bitcoin staking with a yield-bearing token called "STONE BTC."
At the time of writing, StakeStone has a total value locked (TVL) of $1.18 billion, up 6x from $195 million three months ago.
Despite challenging market conditions that saw venture capital funding for crypto startups decline by 36% in 2023 compared to 2022, Binance Labs has remained active and has invested in over 20 projects so far in 2024.
Binance Labs, a $10 billion venture fund that was spun out of Binance to operate independently, has been particularly bullish on liquid restaking, including Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon and Ethereum restaking protocols Renzo and Puffer Finance. Most recently, ether.fi, another Ethereum restaking project, was launched on Binance Launchpool.
EigenLayer is arguably the pioneer project to introduce the restaking model to the crypto industry, and it gained significant attention after raising $100 million from leading crypto venture capital firm a16z crypto.
Also this month, Binance Labs invested in seven other startups through its sixth Incubation Program, including:
- Game development platform Cellula
- zkSync-based derivatives DEX Derivio
- Stablecoin issuer Ethena Labs
- AI-powered content platform NFPromp
- DEX UXUY
- AI-powered web3 knowledge-sharing platform QnA3
- DeFi protocol Shogun
About Binance Labs
Binance Labs is the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance Labs invests in projects that are building infrastructure, protocols, and applications for the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
About StakeStone
StakeStone is an omnichain liquidity hub that connects yield-bearing assets across different blockchains. StakeStone offers a variety of staking and restaking products, including Ethereum staking, Bitcoin staking, and real-world asset staking.
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