Quick Take
Cross-chain lending platform Synonym Finance has raised $1.5 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Borderless Capital. The funding round drew support from prominent venture funds and angels, positioning Synonym Finance as a promising player in the evolving world of DeFi.
Synonym Finance Secures $1.5 Million in Oversubscribed Seed Round Led by Borderless Capital
Synonym Finance, a cross-chain lending platform, made waves in the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) space today with the announcement of its successful oversubscribed seed round funding, which raised a total of $1.5 million. Borderless Capital, a renowned Web3-native investment manager with a focus on nurturing dynamic blockchain ecosystems and cross-chain technologies, led the funding round.
The seed round garnered substantial support from some of the most notable names in the venture capital and blockchain investment community, including Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Veris Ventures, AWVC, SerDAO, as well as contributions from angels associated with SCRIB3, Jones DAO and Arbitrum, among others.
Synonym Finance stands out as a cross-chain lending platform built on the Wormhole xChain Technology Stack and Arbitrum. Its primary objective is to provide DeFi users with a robust money market characterized by deep liquidity and cross-chain efficiency.
Fragmented Liquidity and Cross-Chain Asset Bridging
The rapidly evolving blockchain landscape has witnessed the emergence of various Layer-1s, rollups, and sidechains, offering new opportunities for blockchain scaling. However, this diversification has led to fragmented on-chain liquidity, creating inefficiencies. Furthermore, as new chains are introduced, DeFi professionals often seek to explore them, necessitating the bridging of assets. This process incurs high fees, slow transfer times, and the complexities of wrapping and unwrapping tokens.
0xbeachball, Founder of Synonym Finance, expressed his enthusiasm and gratitude for the significant backing they’ve received, stating, “The cross-chain lending sector is extremely underdeveloped, and we see a significant gap for a highly flexible cross-chain money market to acquire users in both new and existing ecosystems. We’re building Synonym to be a highly flexible cross-chain lending protocol that can deliver liquidity and borrow volumes into new ecosystems.”
Synonym Finance’s cross-chain money market aims to address the issues of fragmented liquidity and inefficient bridging by enabling professionals to utilize the same liquidity across multiple chains. This is achieved by allowing the borrowing of assets on one blockchain while using collateral assets on another blockchain. Synonym leverages cutting-edge technologies such as Circle’s CCTP to empower users with a best-in-class money market experience.
Alpen Sheth, Partner at Borderless Capital, emphasized their excitement about Synonym Finance’s mission to provide secure cross-chain borrowing and lending while tackling the issue of fragmented liquidity.
He stated, “Synonym is advancing the overall maturity of DeFi for users, developers, and institutions across web3 and beyond, starting with a universal cross-chain money market.”
Sam Kim, General Partner at Big Brain Holdings, expressed their enthusiasm for Synonym Finance’s suite of products that leverage the emerging ecosystems of Wormhole and Solana, believing that the team will help unlock Ethereum capital and open up Solana DeFi for Ethereum users.
Michael Tan, General Partner at Veris Ventures, commended Synonym for boldly addressing the complexities of cross-chain lending and acknowledged its potential to pioneer true cross-chain borrowing. He emphasized the crucial role Synonym could play in capital efficiency across all existing and upcoming blockchains.
Synonym Finance has demonstrated its commitment to security and risk management through audits by OtterSec and Runtime Verification, as well as a partnership with Gauntlet for quantitative modeling and real-time risk monitoring. In the long term, Synonym aims to become the premier venue for cross-chain lending and borrowing among major L2 rollups, app-chains, and innovative L3s.
As the cryptocurrency and DeFi space continues to evolve rapidly, Synonym Finance’s successful seed round and innovative cross-chain lending solutions position the platform as a noteworthy contender in the growing cross-chain ecosystem.