Polychain-Backed Lombard Raises $16M to Expand Bitcoin Yield Solutions
Shalini Nagarajan
Updated:
July 2, 2024, 10:00 EDT
Lombard, a pioneering yield-bearing liquid Bitcoin solution, announced a successful $16 million funding round led by Polychain Capital. This funding initiative attracted a consortium of investors, including BabylonChain, dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, and Mirana Ventures. Notably, crypto exchanges Bitget, Bybit, and OKX also participated, aiming to leverage Lombard’s yield-bearing Bitcoin solution to attract new users.
Founders and executives from prominent entities like Allora, Altlayer, Babylon, BeraChain, Euler, Gearbox, and Pendle also joined the investor group. Lombard’s team includes seasoned professionals from other leading crypto firms such as Argent, Coinbase, and Maple.
LBTC by Polychain-Backed Lombard: Empowering Bitcoin to Earn Interest
Named in homage to London’s historic Lombard Street, Lombard seeks to facilitate DeFi access to the $1.5 trillion Bitcoin liquidity market. Their innovative approach involves LBTC, a yield-bearing 1:1 token pegged directly to Bitcoin. This enables users to seamlessly engage in lending, borrowing, and trading across diverse DeFi platforms.
Luke Pearson, a key contributor to the project, explained that LBTC derives its yield through Babylon’s staking protocol, without the need for traditional wrapping mechanisms. Additionally, LBTC is designed for cross-chain compatibility within the web3 ecosystem, ensuring flexibility and security through a decentralized validation process.
Currently in a private beta phase, Lombard aims to achieve full operational status pending Babylon’s acceptance of deposits by month’s end. Future plans include integrating LBTC into multiple DeFi protocols on the Ethereum mainnet, with expansions slated for Ethereum Layer-2 solutions and other major Layer-1 blockchains post-summer.
Lombard’s Funding Success Post Major Staking Protocol Investment
This funding milestone follows a substantial $70 million investment in Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol backed by Binance. Babylon’s technology supports Proof-of-Stake systems across various blockchains, Layer 2 rollups, and Data Availability layers, enhancing security without centralized custodians.
Beyond its financial utility, LBTC holds potential to positively impact Bitcoin’s environmental footprint. Pearson noted LBTC’s alignment with Babylon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) security model and ERC-20 token functionality, indirectly promoting sustainability.
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