Celestia liquid staking protocol MilkyWay raises $5 million ahead of token launch and airdrop
Quick Take
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MilkyWay has raised $5 million in a seed round from Binance Labs, Polychain Capital and others.
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The funding comes ahead of MilkyWay’s token launch and airdrop in the coming months.
MilkyWay, a Celestia TIA liquid staking protocol, has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital, MilkyWay co-founder and CEO JayB Kim told The Block.
Other investors in the round included Binance Labs, Hack VC, Crypto.com Capital and LongHash Ventures, Kim said. Binance Labs said in a separate statement that it has invested in MilkyWay to help it become the leading liquid staking protocol within the modular blockchain ecosystem, including for Celestia.
MilkyWay began raising for the round last December and closed about a month ago, Kim said. The round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) and token warrants for the co-lead investors, and as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) for the participating investors, Kim added. He declined to comment on the valuation.
Binance Labs, the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of crypto exchange Binance, continues to bet big on the staking and restaking verticals. It has recently invested in several such startups, including Babylon, Renzo, Puffer Finance and StakeStone.
What is MilkyWay?
MilkyWay is the first Celestia liquid staking protocol that was launched last December. Its only rival currently is Stride.
MilkyWay is different from Stride in several aspects, including its architectural design, Kim said. “MilkyWay’s on-chain architecture is a smart contract on Osmosis OSMO, whereas Stride runs its own Layer 1 blockchain,” he said. “We argue that our design is magnitudes simpler than Stride, which includes and is not limited to
