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Polychain-Backed Lombard Raises $16M to Scale Bitcoin Yield Solutions

funding VC Funding

Crypto Reporter

Shalini Nagarajan

Crypto Reporter

Shalini Nagarajan

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Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.

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Last updated:

July 2, 2024

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Yield-bearing liquid Bitcoin solution Lombard on Tuesday announced it raised $16m in a funding round led by Polychain Capital.

Joining the round were investors including BabylonChain, dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, and Mirana Ventures. Crypto exchanges including Bitget, Bybit, and OKX also participated, likely aiming to attract new users by offering this yield-bearing Bitcoin solution.

Founders and executives from Allora, Altlayer, Babylon, BeraChain, Euler, Gearbox, and Pendle also joined the investors. The team has executives with experience in other crypto companies including Argent, Coinbase, and Maple.

Polychain-Backed Lombard’s LBTC Makes BTC Earn Interest

Lombard, named after the historic Lombard Street in London, aims to bridge the gap between DeFi and the $1.5t in Bitcoin liquidity. Its solution is to make Bitcoin more accessible for DeFi by using its yield-bearing 1:1 LBTC product. This would allow people to use Bitcoin across various DeFi platforms to lend, borrow, and trade.

The project’s core contributor Luke Pearson told Cryptonews that LBTC is a yield-bearing token directly tied to Bitcoin (1 LBTC = 1 BTC). It earns interest through Babylon’s staking protocol, instead of relying on wrapping mechanisms.

Also, LBTC is built to be inherently compatible across different blockchains. Holders can move their LBTC where they need it within the web3 ecosystem.

Further, the product avoids the risks of centralized custodians or bridges, being secured by a group of independent validators who verify every transaction on the protocol, he said.

Lombard is conducting a private beta and aims to achieve full functionality by the end of the month, pending Babylon accepting deposits.

Afterward, it intends to integrate LBTC with multiple DeFi protocols on the Ethereum mainnet. It has plans to expand to Ethereum Layer-2 solutions and other major Layer-1 blockchains after summer.

Lombard Secures Funding After Major Staking Protocol Investment

Lombard’s funding round comes after a major $70m investment in Binance-backed Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon. This protocol too allows users to stake their Bitcoin without relying on a central custodian. Babylon’s technology helps secure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) systems used by various blockchains, Layer 2 rollups, and Data Availability layers.

Beyond its core function, LBTC might also have a positive impact on Bitcoin’s environmental footprint.

Pearson acknowledged concerns about Bitcoin’s energy consumption. He highlighted that LBTC utilizes Babylon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) security model and functions as an ERC-20 token, which could indirectly promote sustainability.