Puffer Finance has raised $18 million in Series A funding to launch its mainnet and further promote the decentralization of Ethereum

According to Cointelegraph: Puffer Finance, a native liquidity re-staking protocol built on EigenLayer, has officially announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round. A total of $18 million was raised, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Avon Ventures (a venture capital fund associated with Fidelity Investments), Lemniscap, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, Mechanism, GSR, and several top angel investors.

Before the launch of the Puffer testnet and mainnet, Puffer launched the "Crunchy Carrot Campaign," achieving an impressive total locked value (TVL) of approximately $1.3 billion, highlighting its rapidly growing influence in the liquidity re-staking space. Additionally, Puffer has established strong partnerships with several key players in the DeFi space and the Ethereum ecosystem, maintaining strategic alignment with Ethereum L2 solutions, further enhancing Puffer's capability boundaries and influence. With future expansion plans underway, Puffer is expected to further strengthen its significant position in the liquidity re-staking domain.

Prior to this Series A funding, Puffer Finance raised a total of $5.5 million in angel and seed rounds, with notable investment firms including Lemniscap, Lightspeed Faction, Brevan Howard Digital, Bankless Ventures, Animoca Ventures, DACM, LBank Labs, 33DAO, WAGMI33, Concave, SNZ, Token Pocket, and Canonical Crypto, among others. The support from numerous renowned institutions demonstrates widespread industry confidence in Puffer's vision. Following this round of funding, Puffer secured strategic investment from Binance Labs, further enhancing its position in the liquidity re-staking ecosystem and laying a solid foundation for the upcoming mainnet launch and long-term future development.

This Series A funding will play a key role in the recently launched Puffer Finance mainnet, which aims to expand validator participation within the Ethereum ecosystem and enhance its decentralization. By lowering the participation threshold for validators to just 1 ETH and integrating Ethereum's PoS validation with active validation services (AVS) re-staking to enhance validator yields, the Puffer mainnet will set new standards for innovation in the liquidity re-staking space.

Puffer's core contributor Amir Forouzani stated, "As we approach the launch of our mainnet, our goal is to significantly lower the barriers and thresholds for individual or small group validators to participate while providing a state-of-the-art decentralized liquidity re-staking protocol. This is a significant milestone for Ethereum decentralization and the broader re-staking ecosystem."

With the support of the Ethereum Foundation, Puffer's Secure-Signer technology brings innovation to Ethereum validation by protecting Ethereum node operators from risks such as double-signing penalties. This "remote signing" technology is crucial for minimizing risks associated with validator operations, thereby strengthening the overall security of the Ethereum network.

Another innovation from the Puffer team is the Validator Tokens (VTs), a new paradigm designed to improve the efficiency, adaptability, and profitability of permissionless and guaranteed liquidity staking protocols (LSPs). This innovative model not only facilitates broader participation of validators in Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus but also ensures that the system is more adaptable and profitable for Ethereum validators tasked with maintaining network integrity and security.

This Series A funding will enable Puffer Finance to further enhance these innovative technologies and introduce additional features that support Ethereum's scalability and security.

Peter Johnson, Managing Director at Brevan Howard Digital, stated, "We are excited to support Puffer Finance in enhancing Ethereum's decentralization and security through the critical infrastructure they are building. This investment perfectly aligns with our commitment to supporting essential projects for blockchain ecosystem growth and adaptability."

Avichal Garg, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Electric Capital, remarked, "The innovations that Puffer Finance brings to the blockchain space are not only transformative but also crucial for advancing a truly decentralized financial ecosystem. By lowering barriers to entry and enhancing security, Puffer's innovative technology ensures broader participation in Ethereum validation and strengthens the integrity of the Ethereum network."

As the Puffer Finance mainnet is set to launch, Puffer remains committed to creating a more inclusive, secure, and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.

About Puffer Finance

Puffer is the first native liquidity re-staking protocol (nLRP) built on EigenLayer. It introduces native liquidity re-staking tokens (nLRTs), namely pufETH, which allows holders of pufETH to accumulate dual rewards from Ethereum PoS staking and re-staking. Nodes within the protocol utilize Puffer's anti-penalty technology to effectively reduce penalty risks and enhance capital efficiency while obtaining higher rewards through native re-staking. For more information, please visit www.puffer.fi.