Participated · Equity · Jul 2024

Astria is building the Astria Stack, a development stack and sequencing layer for deploying decentralized EVM rollups. The stack provides components to launch an EVM rollup that uses the Astria Sequencing Layer for decentralized block building and Celestia for data availability. Led by CEO Josh Bowen, Astria aims to deploy a permissionless rollup without relying on a centralized sequencer. The company intends to use the new funding to continue building its sequencing layer and broader stack. Celestia-based rollup Forma has launched on the Astria Stack; since May about 42,000 NFTs have been minted or purchased on Forma, with a total bridge volume of 3 million $TIA. Astria is developing a shared sequencer network intended to let anyone deploy censorship-resistant rollups without relying on a centralized sequencer. Sequencers coordinate transactions on layer 2 rollups; Astria says its shared sequencer enables high throughput and low-latency soft commitments while providing cross-chain composability. The project also includes the Astria EVM, which Astria plans to serve as the flagship EVM for modular blockchain Celestia's data availability layer. Astria raised $5.5 million in seed funding to develop the shared sequencer network. The round was led by Maven 11 and included investments from 1kx, Delphi Ventures and Figment Capital. The company positions itself within the modular blockchain model that separates consensus, settlement, data availability and execution into distinct layers.