Staked, a company which enables holders of crypto-assets to compound their holdings through staking and lending, today announced that it raised a $4,500,000 seed round from a group of leading cryptocurrency investors.
Pantera Capital led the round with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Global Brain, Digital Currency Group, Winklevoss Capital, Fabric Ventures, Applied Crypto Ventures, and Blocktree Capital, among others. Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera Capital, will join Staked’s board of directors.
Staked helps institutional investors stake or lend their holdings in proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies. Holders of proof-of-stake currencies are paid block rewards by “staking” their assets and running the server software that secures the blockchain.
This participation can yield 5–100% annually in additional currency rewards, depending on the currency’s reward and mining protocol, but requires secure and highly available servers. Staked provides the secure infrastructure required for staking and the company’s services currently support six cryptocurrencies including Tezos, Dash, Decred, Livepeer, Factom, and EOS. Customers include top-tier crypto funds, venture capital funds, family offices, and hedge funds.
Staked also offers a white-labeled staking platform that enables exchanges, custodians, and wallets to offer staking rewards to their customers without an expensive and complex technology build out.
“We help institutional investors in digital currencies earn their network staking rewards,” said founder & CEO Tim Ogilvie. Staked will add support for other passive opportunities such as lending in Q1 2019 and expects to support staking across 20 crypto assets by the end of this year. “Investors have a growing number options to compound their crypto assets, and Staked makes it easy to understand, access, and execute on the available opportunities.”
Pantera initiated discussions with Staked as a potential customer before deciding to invest in the company as well. “Pantera invests in many leading proof-of-stake projects, so we knew we needed a staking solution,” said Paul Veradittakit. “We liked Staked because of the experienced team, focus on institutions, and broader vision around helping investors earn a yield on their cryptocurrency.”
Staked was founded in April 2018 by three founders with long histories building and running successful internet businesses. Tim previously founded Adbuyer.com, sold to Mediaocean in 2011 and YC-backed Think Gaming. Co-founders Seth Riney and Jonathan Marcus also have extensive experience as founders and operators. This is the Company’s first round of external capital.