Portal Secures $8.5 Million From Coinbase Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital and Others To Build Bitcoin-Based DeFi Platform

By Chainwire

September 21, 2021 – San Francisco, California

Portal – a self-hosted layer 2 wallet and true cross-chain DEX on Bitcoin that makes atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other digital assets fast, secure and private – is delighted to announce the closing of an $8.5 million funding round to build a self-sovereign and uncensorable DeFi on Bitcoin.

The funding round saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital, OKEx, Republic.co, Shima Ventures, LD Capital, Monday Capital, GenBlock, Taureon, Autonomy Capital, Krypital and B21 Capital, as well as the senior executives and founders of Ethereum, DFINITY, MobileCoin, Tether (USDT), Galaxy Digital, Bitcoin.com, Republic, Centre.io, Polymath, Æternity, Hedera Hashgraph, Blockstream, Reef Finance, GlobeDX, FIO, Portion and 4K.

Michael Arrington, founder of Arrington XRP and TechCrunch, said,

“Decentralized cross-chain bridging is one of the hardest problems in crypto right now, especially as multiple blockchains gain real traction. We’re excited to see Portal’s Bitcoin-native approach to multichain transfers go live and provide an alternative bridging mechanism to the growing number of active on-chain users.”

Brain Johnson from Republic Capital said,

“Interoperability is a necessity for blockchain to bridge into the mainstream finance world. Republic Capital invested in Portal with this future in mind. Utilizing Bitcoin’s security as an anchor, we believe that Portal and its team are in a unique position to build one of the leading bridges in DeFi.”

Portal offers the speed and liquidity of centralized platforms with the trust minimization guarantees of Bitcoin.

From spot markets to options, P2P lending and borrowing, all using on-chain, peer-to-peer contracts and without third-party custody or control, Portal unlocks Bitcoin’s potential to actually decentralize finance.

At the core of Portal is its layer 2 and layer 3 technology, called ‘Fabric,’ which is an open-source toolbox for deploying censorship-resistant layers on top of the Bitcoin base layer.

Fabric enables the completely private, off-chain execution of ‘smart contracts’ for asset issuance, P2P swaps, staking, liquidity, derivatives and more.

Eric Martindale, CEO of Portal, said,

“By bringing a fast, peer-to-peer, layer 2 exchange – with the speed of centralized exchanges but with privacy – Portal is delivering on the promise of self-sovereignty for everyone. The current centralized exchanges, false ‘decentralized’ DEXs, custodially-wrapped tokens and censorable ecosystems all threaten Bitcoin’s promise of self-sovereignty. Fabric technology enables layer 3 privacy on cross-chain transactions and eliminates the need for centralized custodians.”

On why they chose to build on Bitcoin, Martindale added,

“We believe Bitcoin provides the much-needed financial infrastructure that the free, uncensorable internet-of-the-future will be built on, and although we are starting with a P2P exchange, our mission is to be ‘the platform’ for decentralized, peer-to-peer human interactions – be it communications, financial transactions or social media.”

The platform uses Bitcoin’s ‘hash time-locked contracts’ to ensure that users retain full control over the funds offered up in trade, preventing counterparty risk and loss of funds.

It incentivizes anonymous, self-interested third parties to intermediate transactions between mutually untrusting peers while guaranteeing security.

The funding announcement comes ahead of Portal’s public token sale on Republic.co launchpad in October.

About Portal

Portal is DeFi built on Bitcoin. It makes DeFi unstoppable with anonymous, zero-knowledge swaps via the first true cross-chain DEX that’s genuinely trustless. It eliminates minting wrapped coins (i.e., wBTC, wETH) or risky staking with intermediaries. With Portal, DeFi becomes a service that anyone can provide, maintaining anonymity within open, transparent markets with a security model as robust as Bitcoin mining.

Fabric protocol is Portal’s layer 2 and layer 3 technology that enables building censorship-resistant communications, media and one-click cross-chain swaps – all on Bitcoin.

For further information, visit here.

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George Burke

This content is sponsored and should be regarded as promotional material. Opinions and statements expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of The Daily Hodl. The Daily Hodl is not a subsidiary of or owned by any ICOs, blockchain startups or companies that advertise on our platform. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in any ICOs, blockchain startups or cryptocurrencies. Please be advised that your investments are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility.

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