Lava, a bitcoin-focused monetary providers startup, introduced on Wednesday that it has raised $17.5 million in new funding whereas additionally launching a lending product providing yields on US {dollars}.
In a submit on X, the corporate stated its platform permits customers to fund overcollateralized loans secured totally by bitcoin (BTC), with lenders incomes as much as 7.5% on their deposits.
The funding follows Lava’s earlier $10 million Collection A spherical led by Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures. New backers on this extension embody Peter Jurdjevic, Bijan Tehrani of Stake, Charlie Spears, Jacob Brown, Lee Linden, and Zach White. The agency stated the extra capital can be used to develop its infrastructure for bitcoin-denominated monetary merchandise.
Lava’s service is accessible globally, providing entry to greenback liquidity with out promoting bitcoin, alongside zero-fee bitcoin buying and selling and yield-bearing USD accounts. The mannequin resembles earlier crypto lending merchandise, corresponding to BlockFi’s curiosity accounts, which drew scrutiny from the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) and resulted in enforcement actions in 2022.
Lava’s elevate comes amid a surge of late-stage and strategic crypto financing exercise in September, in accordance with Blockworks Analysis. Complete crypto fundraising reached its highest month-to-month ranges since early 2022, with infrastructure, finance, and blockchain Layer 1 initiatives main deal quantity.
