According to Cointelegraph, Puffer Finance, a native liquidity re-pledge protocol built on EigenLayer, officially announced that it has successfully completed its Series A financing. A total of $18 million was raised, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Avon Ventures (a venture capital fund associated with Fidelity Investments parent company), Lemniscap, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, Mechanism, GSR and several top angel investors.
Before the launch of the Puffer testnet and mainnet, Puffer launched the Crunchy Carrot Campaign, achieving an impressive total locked value (TVL) of approximately $1.3 billion, highlighting its rapidly growing influence in the field of liquidity re-staking. In addition, Puffer has established good cooperative relationships with many major players in the DeFi field and the Ethereum ecosystem, maintaining strategic consistency with Ethereums L2 solutions, further enhancing Puffers capabilities and influence. With the development of future expansion plans, Puffer is expected to further strengthen its important position in the field of liquidity re-staking.
Prior to this Series A round, Puffer Finance raised a total of $5.5 million in angel and seed rounds, with well-known investment institutions including Lemniscap, Lightspeed Faction, Brevan Howard Digital, Bankless Ventures, Animoca Ventures, DACM, LBank Labs, 3 3D AO, WAGMI 33, Concave, SNZ, Token Pocket and Canonical Crypto, etc. The support of many well-known institutions demonstrates the broad industry support and confidence in Puffers vision. After this round of financing, Puffer received a strategic investment from Binance Labs, further strengthening its position in the liquidity re-staking ecosystem and laying a solid foundation for the upcoming mainnet launch and long-term future development.
The Series A funding will play a key role in the upcoming launch of the Puffer Finance mainnet, a major milestone aimed at expanding validator participation and enhancing decentralization within the Ethereum ecosystem. By lowering the threshold for validator participation to just 1 ETH and enhancing validator returns by integrating Ethereum’s PoS validation with Active Validation Service (AVS) re-staking, the Puffer mainnet will set a new standard for innovation in the field of liquidity re-staking.
Amir Forouzani, core contributor at Puffer, said: “As we approach the launch of mainnet, our goal is to significantly lower the barriers and entry points for individual or small group validators to participate, while providing the most advanced decentralized liquid re-staking protocol. This is a major milestone for Ethereum decentralization and the broader re-staking ecosystem.”
With support from the Ethereum Foundation, Puffer’s Secure-Signer technology brings innovation to Ethereum verification by protecting Ethereum node operators from the risk of slashing behaviors such as double signing. This “remote signing” technology is critical to minimizing the risks associated with validator operations, thereby strengthening the overall security of the Ethereum network.
Another innovation from the Puffer team is Validator Vouchers (VTs), a new paradigm designed to increase the efficiency, adaptability, and profitability of permissionless and guaranteed liquidity staking protocols (LSPs). This innovative model not only facilitates wider participation of validators in Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus, but also ensures that the system is more adaptable and profitable for Ethereum validators who maintain the integrity and security of the network.
This Series A funding will enable Puffer Finance to further enhance these innovative technologies and introduce other innovative features that support Ethereum’s scalability and security.
Peter Johnson, Managing Director of Brevan Howard Digital, said: “We are delighted to support Puffer Finance as they build critical infrastructure that advances the decentralization and security of Ethereum. This investment aligns perfectly with our commitment to supporting projects that are critical to the growth and adaptability of the blockchain ecosystem.”
Avichal Garg, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Electric Capital, said: The innovation that Puffer Finance brings to the blockchain space is not only transformative, but also critical to the advancement of a truly decentralized financial ecosystem. By lowering barriers to entry and strengthening security, Puffers innovative technology ensures broader participation in Ethereum validation and strengthens the integrity of the Ethereum network.
With the upcoming launch of the Puffer Finance mainnet, Puffer’s direction and focus remain firmly on creating a more inclusive, secure and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.
About Puffer Finance
Puffer is the first native liquidity re-staking protocol (nLRP) built on EigenLayer. It introduces native liquidity re-staking tokens (nLRTs), namely pufETH. Holding pufETH can accumulate Ethereum PoS equity proof and re-staking dual rewards. Nodes in the protocol use Puffers anti-slashing technology to effectively reduce the risk of slashing and improve capital utilization efficiency, while obtaining higher rewards through native re-staking. For more information, please visit www.puffer.fi.
