TLDR:
- Kintsu, a startup, raised $4 million in seed funding from Brevan Howard Digital and others to build a liquid staking protocol on the Monad blockchain.
- Kintsu plans to launch its sMONAD liquid staking token during the first week of Monad’s launch, which is expected to bring significant innovation to web3.
Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol building on the Monad blockchain, has successfully raised $4 million in a seed funding round. The funding was led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, Spartan Group, and other notable investors. Angel investors from Brevan Howard Digital and other organizations also contributed to the round.
Founded by Stephen Novenstern, Kintsu aims to revolutionize the DeFi ecosystem on the Monad blockchain. The platform initially developed a liquid staking protocol for Aleph Zero but shifted focus to Monad due to its potential. Monad, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, is backed by prominent entities like Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures and has raised significant funding.
Kintsu plans to launch its sMONAD liquid staking token in conjunction with Monad’s mainnet rollout. Novenstern believes that Monad’s innovative features, including a parallelized 100% bytecode compatible EVM and custom MonadDB state database, will change the landscape of web3. The protocol’s Monad-native DAO will decide on the official token launch.
With a current team of about a dozen members, Kintsu is planning to expand its workforce in the near future. The project aims to leverage best practices from successful DeFi protocols to catalyze the growth of the DeFi ecosystem on Monad. The collaboration between Kintsu and prominent investors signifies a significant step forward for liquid staking development and DeFi innovation.
