Participated · Seed · Apr 2024

Merkle Trade is a decentralized trading platform that offers leverage up to 1,000× across crypto, foreign exchange, and commodity markets. The product combines game elements and social trading to make trading a more enjoyable and social activity for a broader audience. It supports high-leverage positions across multiple asset classes and emphasizes community-driven trading experiences. The company has just completed a seed financing, signaling early-stage investor interest. Reported investors include leading crypto and venture firms participating in the round. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2024

Infrared is the first proof-of-liquidity (PoL) staking protocol on Berachain, offering liquid staking for the network’s native BGT and BERA tokens. Users who stake native tokens receive validator rewards plus iBERA, a liquid-staked token that can be deployed across other DeFi protocols to generate additional yield. The protocol aims to unlock productive capital within the wider Berachain ecosystem by maximizing efficiency and yield for stakers and builders. Infrared will be among the first projects to benefit from the Berachain Foundation’s incubator, Build a Bera. The article links the rollout to Berachain’s recent mainnet launch on Feb. 6 and the network’s proof-of-liquidity consensus that rewards liquidity provision. Financially, the company has completed multiple financing rounds bringing institutional backing from crypto-focused investors.

Participated · Seed · May 2023

Nolus is an interoperable application on Cosmos that offers a DeFi Lease to reduce over-collateralization and improve capital efficiency in crypto money markets. Its DeFi Lease provides up to 150% financing on initial investments, lowers margin call risk, and grants access to underlying leveraged assets through whitelisted yield-bearing strategies. The protocol incorporates liquid staking derivatives to enable self-repaying loans and aims to create a cornerstone use case for LSDs in the Cosmos ecosystem. Nolus runs a semi-permissioned PoS blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK and a WASM smart contract engine focused on interoperability, security, and performance, using IBC and Interchain Accounts to access liquidity across chains. The team plans to complete the technological backbone and expand the platform both within and outside the Cosmos ecosystem, and after months of testing will open its public mainnet in May. Financially, Nolus secured $2.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding at a $20 million valuation to finish development and support expansion.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2023

INTMAX develops a stateless zkRollup Layer2 protocol designed to deliver near-zero gas costs while preserving data sovereignty, targeting payments at global scale. It also offers the INTMAX Wallet (a Walletless Wallet) that leverages biometric authentication, MPC and FHE to provide secure, instant access across devices and browsers without app installs or seed phrases. The wallet reportedly reached over 1,000 daily registrations worldwide within three weeks of launch. The project positions its Layer2 to support extremely large scale (the team states capacity for handling up to one billion users per day) and to specialize in low-cost cross-border payments. Public milestones include a 2022 Ethereum Foundation grant and selection among Crypto Valley’s top 50 blockchain projects in 2023. Roadmap items in the article include additional wallet features in 2023 Q4 (support for non-biometric devices, other L2s, and link payments) and an INTMAX mainnet start targeted for 2024 Q1. INTMAX is a stateless zkRollup developed by Ryodan Systems AG that aims to combine extremely high scalability with customizable privacy for Ethereum Layer 2. The project claims it can scale to 1 billion users in a single day and targets near‑zero gas costs through design elements such as a preconsensus mechanism, state deltas, a zkRollup with limited online assumptions, and liveness/safety separation. Ryodan Systems announced a $5M seed raise to continue development and pursue a roadmap that includes an alpha on Ethereum mainnet in Q2 2023 and a mainnet launch in Q4 2023. The company is headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland, and received an Ethereum Foundation grant in 2022. Ryodan Systems was also named one of Crypto Valley's Top 50 Best Performing Blockchain Projects in 2023. The fundraising included both institutional/VC backers and prominent angel investors who the company says will support development and ecosystem growth.

Led · Seed · Nov 2022

Cryptosat develops tamper‑proof orbital compute modules that physically separate computing units to mitigate side‑channel attacks that affect traditional TEEs (such as Intel SGX). The company says physically unreachable satellites make many attack vectors far harder to exploit. Its use cases include transaction signing, trusted setups for cryptographic schemes, a randomness oracle, and a time‑oracle (VDF). In May Cryptosat launched Crypto1, a coffee‑mug‑sized proprietary crypto‑satellite, on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 Falcon 9 mission. The module is described as a tamper‑proof platform intended to host a range of blockchain-based applications, products, and services. The company is led by seasoned space and security tech entrepreneurs Yonatan Winetraub and Yan Michalevsky and recently raised a seed financing to support its development.