Labs Pantera Capitalmcsweeney Theblock: A startup that specializes in decentralized exchange infrastructures has raised a $15 million Series A from Pantera Capital, the firm which is also behind the 0x protocol.
0x is striving to bring greater security and liquidity to decentralized exchanges and other trading solutions, with their new fund enabling them to advance this goal.
The company was founded by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali back in 2015 after realizing there wasn’t a secure way for people to make low-cost, cross-chain transfers on Ethereum. 0x recently also debuted their public trading interface, where users can trade ERC-20 tokens directly on the Ethereum blockchain for real-world currency.
The 0x founders stressed that the success of any decentralized exchange depends on its reliability and security, which is why they are spending their own funds to ensure the success of their protocol.
“This funding will allow us to continue growing fast by hiring additional engineering talent and dedicating significant resources to improve our core infrastructure,” said Warren, Co-founder of 0x. “We’re excited to build upon this early momentum and solidify our role in the blockchain ecosystem.”
Pantera Capital is a blockchain investment fund and advisory firm focused on driving large-scale institutional adoption of digital assets. They invested $1 million in August 2017, making them one of the earliest investors in 0x.
“The investment community has really taken notice of the potential for 0x and decentralized exchanges more broadly to impact blockchain technology,” said Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital. “0x has exceptional technical insight and an innovative vision, and we are excited to support them in this next stage of the company’s growth.”
In May of 2018, 0x raised a $4 million Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital. The startup is planning to use the new funds to continue their focus on improving their infrastructure and expanding into other markets.
Pantera Capital is a hedge fund focused exclusively on digital currencies like cryptocurrencies and blockchain companies. Founded in 2013 by Dan Morehead, CEO and co-chief investment officer of Pantera Capital, and Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer of Pantera Capital Management LP, the firm invests according to value investing principles in the best emerging technology platforms across four asset classes: cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, fintech and protocols. Pantera Capital also works with its investee companies on ICO fundraising through its Cryptocurrency Fundraising Initiative.
The 0x Protocol represents a new kind of blockchain infrastructure where off-chain smart contracts can be interacted with by on-chain orderbooks, in what is known as Plasma-style execution. Led by a team of founders including Will Warren, Oleg Andreev, Jann Kesten and Dan Galperin, 0x was launched in September 2017 with its initial version release later that month. Further milestones were reached in October 2017 and March 2018.
The project has since grown substantially to offer an open financial system of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) that, as opposed to current models that rely on centralized exchanges and relayers, allows for greater security, efficiency, and transparency. 0x is designed to offer users a platform where they can trustlessly execute trades directly with one another using the popular ERC-20 standard or any Ethereum-based token.
