A16z doubles down on LayerZero with $55M investment

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The $55 cardinal concern has been made done LayerZero tokens with a three-year lock-up, according to an a16z wide partner.

A16z doubles down connected LayerZero with $55M investment

Venture superior steadfast Andreessen Horowitz, oregon a16z, announced a $55 cardinal concern successful LayerZero, a Web3 institution that runs a crosschain messaging protocol. The concern was disclosed successful an April 17 X station by Ali Yahya, a wide spouse successful the firm.

A16z has made erstwhile investments successful LayerZero, including an initial concern successful March 2022 and a consequent concern during LayerZero’s Series B backing circular successful April 2023. The companies person not disclosed the backing round's valuation.

The Canada-based LayerZero was valued astatine $3 billion during its Series B backing round, which saw information from 33 investors. In summation to a16z, Circle Ventures, OKX Ventures, OpenSea Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and galore others participated astatine the time.

In January 2025, LayerZero reached a colony with the FTX Estate implicit a long-running quality stemming from allegations that it exploited the exchange’s liquidity situation by “negotiating a fire-sale transaction,” according to the Estate. In June 2024, LayerZero launched its ain token, LayerZero (ZRO).

Crosschain protocols, chain-agnosticism summation traction

Crosschain messaging protocols let programs to stock accusation crossed ecosystems and tin beryllium a captious relation for decentralized applications (DApps) oregon traders who privation seamless swaps crossed blockchains.

Some protocols competing successful the aforesaid abstraction arsenic LayerZero see Wormhole, Stargate, Superbridge, Connext, and galore others.

Wormhole whitethorn beryllium 1 of the largest competitors to LayerZero, having raised $225 cardinal astatine a $2.5 cardinal valuation successful November 2023. Like LayerZero, Wormhole hosted an airdrop for its token, Wormhole (W), though the airdrop attracted scammers and spoof tokens. Chainlink besides has a crosschain interoperability protocol that allows for messaging betwixt blockchains.

More and much companies are realizing the worth of being omnichain oregon astatine slightest chain-agnostic. Phantom, which astatine archetypal was a Solana-centric wallet, present supports six large blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Magic Eden, an NFT-infrastructure company, besides started arsenic Solana-centric but has launched marketplaces for aggregate blockchains now.

Magazine: X Hall of Flame: ChainLinkGod was successful High School erstwhile helium started the account!

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