Yala, a crypto startup developing a bitcoin-backed stablecoin, has raised $8 million in a seed funding round co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures.

Other investors in the round included Galaxy Vision Hill, Anagram, ABCDE, Amber Group, HashKey Capital, Satoshi Lab and UTXO Management, Yala said Thursday. This was an oversubscribed seed round, Yala co-founder and COO Kaitai Chang told The Block, adding that the firm initially aimed to raise $5 million.

Yala began raising capital for the seed round in March and closed it last month, Chang said. He added that the round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants but declined to comment on Yala's valuation.

Yala was founded in January of this year by Chang, a former Binance Labs employee; Bin Liu, who also co-founded Alchemy Pay; and Vicky Fu, a former director of engineering at Circle. The trio aims to advance the development and expansion of decentralized finance on Bitcoin.

Yala is developing a bitcoin-backed, yield-earning stablecoin called YU. Users will soon be able to mint YU by depositing bitcoin onto any destination blockchain through MetaMint. "MetaMint is a cross-chain protocol allowing for the instant conversion of native BTC -1.86% into stablecoins on EVM-compatible chains, thus eliminating the need for intermediate wrapping and simplifying user experience," Chang said.

Yala claimed that investors have already committed over 2,000 BTC (currently worth around $126 million) in deposits for its protocol. While Yala currently accepts BTC as collateral, Chang said the protocol plans to also accept Bitcoin liquid staking tokens in the future.

Yala is also adding an insurance feature to its protocol to address challenges such as Bitcoin's 10-minute block production time, Chang explained. He said the addition safeguards users from liquidation caused by bitcoin price volatility or high-risk activities like restaking.

"The insurance module, Takaful, represents Yala's innovative approach to DeFi on Bitcoin, creating a cooperative framework where participants, insurers and shareholders collectively manage risks and benefits," Chang said. "It details insurers' roles in fund management, contract formulation and governance, incorporating 'qard hasan' loans [interest-free, based on Islamic ethics] as a fallback for insufficient funds, thereby ensuring a resilient, compliant and community-driven financial environment."

The Yala protocol is currently under development, with the testnet expected to launch this month and the mainnet in the first quarter of next year, Chang said.

YALA, the protocol's governance token, is also expected to launch alongside the mainnet.

Currently, 23 people work remotely for Yala across the globe, Chang said, adding that he plans to expand the team across functions such as business development, engineering and marketing.

The Funding newsletter: Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my bimonthly newsletter, The Funding. It's free. Sign up here!

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。