Crypto staking firm Stader Labs raises $12.5 million in new funding

Crypto staking infrastructure firm Stader Labs has raised $12.5 million in a new funding round.

The round was led by Three Arrows Capital, with participation from Accel, Blockchain.com, Accomplice, GoldenTree Asset Management, Amber, Figment, and others.

Angel investors, including FalconX co-founder Prabhakar Reddy and Anchor Protocol general manager Matt Cantieri, also backed the round.

This is Stader Labs’ second fundraise after its $4 million seed round in February. The new round, like its previous round, is also realized via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale, Stader’s co-founder and CEO Amitej Gajjala told The Block.

The fresh funding will help Stader add support for more blockchains and their native tokens, said Gajjala. Stader’s staking platform went live in November and currently supports Terra’s LUNA token, which has seen around $500 million worth of LUNA deposits within a few months.

Gajjala said Stader is preparing to add support for Solana, Hedera, and Fantom in the next two to three months and Ethereum and Polygon in the second quarter of this year. The platform is also considering supporting NEAR and Polkadot blockchains.

The new round brings Stader Labs’ total funding to date to $16.4 million and its valuation to $450 million.

Stader is set to launch its own SD token in March, said Gajjala, adding that the firm then may raise more funds in a public token sale.

Last month, crypto staking firm Figment also raised $110 million in funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. Venture capital firms are increasingly injecting cash in crypto staking firms as they are minting money due to the rise in prices for staking-based coins.