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Ecco Capital Leads Raise With Top Blockchain & Technology VCs, Bringing Project Valuation to $20M

NEW YORK, May 16, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Asymmetry Finance, a liquid staking tokens (LST) protocol, today announced its seed round totaling $3 million in conjunction with the official launch of its platform. The raise was led by Ecco Capital, a venture capital fund focused on frontier crypto innovation. Asymmetry Finances liquid staking tokens protocol is a custom-built solution to the centralization of the staked Ether market.

While the $13.6 billion LST market continues to blossom into one of the most attractive sectors of DeFi due to its liquidity and flexibility, the LST market remains highly centralized. Currently, 88% of the LST market is staked on Lido Finance creating a single point of failure and posing significant security vulnerabilities. The centralized custodianship of staked assets on Ethereum will only grow more concerning as more users flock to the network to stake assets following the recent Shapella upgrades.

New and veteran DeFi users, as well as institutions, are in need of a liquid staking solution that promotes decentralization, while retaining the benefits of LSTs and optimal capital efficiency. Asymmetry offers an immediate solution to the scalability and centralization challenges facing the Ethereum LST market.

"Staking on Ethereum is essential for securing, scaling, and sustaining the network," said Justin Garland, co-founder of Asymmetry Finance. "The percentage of ETH staked relative to other chains is significantly lower which we believe presents a unique opportunity to onboard users and reshape the highly centralized staking market. We want to encourage all Ethereum holders to stake and help secure the network itself while also earning yield. The challenge is incentivizing users to simultaneously contribute towards decentralization as well, rather than compounding on the centralization that we currently see in the market."

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"Substantial centralization not only inherently conflicts with the core fundamentals of DeFi, but also has potential knock-on effects for the entire ecosystem," added Hannah Hamilton, co-founder of Asymmetry Finance. "Asymmetrys vision is not to directly challenge Lido or Rocketpool, but to advance the core tenets of decentralization on the Ethereum network, and empower DeFi users with a novel liquid staking alternative."

The successful seed raise drew support from some of the most notable venture funds, including: Ecco Capital, Republic Capital, and GMJP. Additionally, Asymmetry received investment from one of the leading LST providers, Ankr, highlighting Asymmetrys symbiotic relationship with all LST providers. Asymmetry Finance will use the resources to further develop its liquid staking protocol, add top talent to the team, and onboard decentralized finance (DeFi) enthusiasts and institutions to its platform.

"Republic Capital sees the liquid staking market as one of the leading sectors in the current crypto industry and were thrilled to see tech providers and developers that not only seek to increase decentralization but also create an easier experience for the act of staking," commented Graham Friedman, Head of Venture of Republic Crypto. "We see the Asymmetry team as fitting this vision by nailing both items. Blended with their experience in crypto native teams we look forward to their continued launch of products that augment and enhance the staked asset markets in order to help it thrive and grow."

"Ecco Capital views the growing staking economy as DeFi's fixed income equivalent. We have partnered with Asymmetry Finance because of their dedication to decentralizing the Ethereum liquid staking ecosystem. The team continues to ship major milestones in their roadmap, and aims to build the best tools for retail users and institutions to access highly competitive DeFi yield on one seamless platform," said Daniel Abrahamian, CIO of Ecco Capital.

Central to the Asymmetry Finance protocol is its flagship project, Simple Asymmetry Finance Ethereum (safETH), which aims to deliver consistent yield to users in a safe and efficient manner. The core elements of safETH include:

Fee-Free Decentralized Asset Basket: The use of a decentralized basket of assets with no additional user fees directly mitigates risks such as the central point of failure, and a singular dominant custodian, at risk of possible regulation.

Simplicity and Accessibility: Lowering the point of entry to all DeFi users in an effort to make DeFi more boring.

Indexed Products: Indexed products are traditionally popular across markets due to their diversification by nature and reduced risk, particularly in the case of passive yield.

To learn more about Asymmetry Finance, please visit: asymmetry.finance. Follow Asymmetry Finance on Twitter, and stay up-to-date on Medium.

About Asymmetry Finance

Asymmetry Finance is a groundbreaking DeFi protocol designed to decentralize Ethereum by making complex strategies with market leading yield and asymmetric upside accessible to the next billion Web3 users.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230516005362/en/

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Asymmetry Finance Raises $3M Seed Round to Solve Centralization Threat to the Ethereum Ecosystem - Yahoo Finance