Cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic closed a $29 million Collection A funding spherical led by Web3-focused funding corporations, 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 buyers, 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 Common Staking Framework, which goals to be an financial coordination layer that bolsters blockchain safety by way of staking.
The brand new staking layer permits 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, advised 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” as a result of unlocking “financial coordination between belongings and networks that had been beforehand unimaginable,” based on Paul Veradittakit, managing accomplice at Pantera Capital.
“Because the quantity and number of onchain belongings proceed to extend, Symbiotic permits them to simply function financial safety whereas enabling totally 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 accordance with the corporate, 14 networks, together with Hyperlane, Spark and Avail, have already adopted the brand new coordination layer, with 20 extra anticipated to observe.
The staking layer permits “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 corporations getting into the blockchain house.
Crypto’s “circular economy,” which frequently implies that the rally of a particular 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 carried out issues within the cryptocurrency house, is the tokenomics and the market construction are intrinsically adversarial. It’s sum 0,” mentioned Hoskinson. “As an alternative of selecting a battle, 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 possibly can’t construct a worldwide ecosystem this fashion, and you may’t win this fashion,” he mentioned. “As a result of right here’s the factor. The incumbents are a lot bigger.”
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