Cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic closed a $29 million Sequence A funding spherical led by Web3-focused funding companies, together with Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, to assist the launch of a brand new financial coordination layer for blockchain safety.
The spherical included greater than 100 angel traders, with participation from main business gamers together with Aave, Polygon and StarkWare, the corporate mentioned in an April 23 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The closing of the funding spherical additionally marks the launch of Symbiotic’s Universal Staking Framework, which goals to be an financial coordination layer that bolsters blockchain safety by way of staking.
The brand new staking layer allows using any mixture of cryptocurrencies to safe networks, including monolithic and modular layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains, the announcement acknowledged.
“We’ve created a modular framework that lets protocols evolve safety fashions over time whereas effectively coordinating threat,” Misha Putiatin, co-founder of Symbiotic, informed Cointelegraph. “This empowers protocols at each stage of their lifecycle to evolve their safety fashions seamlessly with out rebuilding infrastructure.”
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The “subsequent step” in blockchain infrastructure
The brand new staking layer is the “subsequent step in blockchain infrastructure” attributable to unlocking “financial coordination between property and networks that have been beforehand unimaginable,” in keeping with Paul Veradittakit, managing companion at Pantera Capital.
“Because the quantity and number of onchain property proceed to extend, Symbiotic permits them to simply function financial safety whereas enabling completely new use instances throughout DeFi,” he added.
Blockchain networks seeking to bolster safety can undertake Symbiotic’s community of decentralized validators that deliver “programmable safety” with out the necessity to modify infrastructure.
In keeping with the corporate, 14 networks, together with Hyperlane, Spark and Avail, have already adopted the brand new coordination layer, with 20 extra anticipated to comply with.
The staking layer allows “any protocol, together with L1s, bridges, oracles, and even rising verticals like synthetic intelligence or zero-knowledge techniques, to configure their very own validator units, incentive mechanisms and slashing situations with out having to rebuild core infrastructure,” Putiatin mentioned.
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Crypto wants extra collaborative financial incentives: Hoskinson
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, emphasised the necessity for collaborative economics within the crypto business to counter rising competitors from conventional tech companies coming into the blockchain house.
Crypto’s “circular economy,” which regularly signifies that the rally of a selected cryptocurrency is bolstered by funds exiting one other token, is limiting the expansion of the business, mentioned Hoskinson.
“The issue proper now, with the best way we’ve achieved issues within the cryptocurrency house, is the tokenomics and the market construction are intrinsically adversarial. It’s sum 0,” mentioned Hoskinson. “As a substitute of choosing a combat, what it’s important to do is it’s important to discover tokenomics and market construction that means that you can be in a cooperative equilibrium.”
“You’ll be able to’t construct a world ecosystem this manner, and you may’t win this manner,” he mentioned. “As a result of right here’s the factor. The incumbents are a lot bigger.”
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