LBank Labs Backs Puffer Finance’s Seed Round Led By Lemniscap and Lightspeed Faction

Road Town, BVI, August 9th, 2023, Chainwire

LBank Labs, a leading blockchain venture fund, is excited to announce its investment in Puffer Finance alongside investors such as Brevan Howard, Bankless Ventures, Animoca Ventures, and others to help create a capital-efficient and permissionless staking pool through its open-source project Secure-Signer.

Puffer Finance recognizes the challenges validators face in the Ethereum Proof of Stake network, such as the risk of losing all ETH staked to slashing penalties. Secure-Signer is a remote signing tool designed to prevent validators from committing slashable offenses, limiting access to validator keys to mitigate the effect of software bugs and user errors to protect stakers from costly penalties that disproportionately impact solo stakers.

In addition, Puffer Finance is working on a protocol to lower the barrier of entry for at-home stakers and provide access to additional streams of revenue, allowing for a financially viable alternative to centralized Liquid Staking Providers. With the advancement of Ethereum’s ZK-rollup adoption, Puffer validators can also potentially earn additional revenue through unique restaking services that are exclusive to Puffer’s tech stack.

Jason Vranek and Amir Forouzani, Co-founders of Puffer, expressed excitement about the collaboration with LBank Labs, highlighting the synergy between Puffer and LBank Labs’ scale across the market.

“We are thrilled to have LBank Labs partnering with us at Puffer Finance. Their deep understanding of the liquid staking, combined with their keen industry insight, makes them an invaluable ally. This collaboration signals an exciting chapter of innovation and growth for us both."

LBank Labs aims to focus on its Platform Standard Ecosystem thesis and Puffer Finance stands out as an exceptional example of standard in the liquid staking space. One of the values that LBank Labs sees in its future portfolio companies is ‘how can this project change the industry standard’ “In that perspective, Puffer can contribute to bringing 100 million users to the crypto space with the mission to create universal and fair access to decentralized assets for billions of people”

Nathalie, Principal Investor at LBank Labs said: "We believe in the same vision that puffer sees in liquid staking. We look forward to working closely with Puffer to lower the barrier to entry for retail stakers and promote the decentralization on ETH staking."

Some of the other investors joining Puffer's latest round include Brevan Howard, Bankless Ventures, Animoca Ventures, and community funds such as 33DAO, WAGMI33, and Concave. Puffer Finance had previously raised $650K in a pre-seed round led by Jump Crypto in June 2022. Additionally, they received the Ethereum Foundation's Grant for developing a public good called Secure Signer, which has already been open-sourced for public use.

About LBank Labs

LBank Labs, a prominent player in the web3 space, manages a versatile $100 Million fund that extends beyond specific protocols and exchanges. With a team of experienced web3 veterans from prestigious entities, they have built an extensive network of expertise and connections. Their investment strategy includes fund-of-fund investments, direct investments in early-stage projects, and liquid projects, enabling them to explore diverse opportunities. Lbank Labs actively promotes their investment thesis, “The Other Angle,” through engaging discussions and focuses on the PSE principles to foster sustainable growth and innovation in the web3 landscape. With a Fund of Fund network comprising 12 funds and over $1 billion in AUM, and offices in seven global regions, Lbank Labs is well-positioned to expand their network and drive innovation in the web3 ecosystem, together with their partners and collaborators.

ContactLBank Labsjunjie.niu@lbanklabs.com