Participated · Seed · Jan 2025

Torram is a Web2.5 infrastructure company building Bitcoin-native technology to enable institutional-grade decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world asset tokenization on Bitcoin's base layer. Its core product suite comprises a decentralized oracle network, a decentralized indexer network, and decentralized APIs to provide secure real-time data feeds, comprehensive indexing, and standardized data integration. The company aims to let institutions use Bitcoin as a secure settlement layer and to power Bitcoin-native applications with bank-grade reliability. Torram reports strong traction, with over 40 projects awaiting integration, underscoring demand for reliable Bitcoin infrastructure. The company closed an oversubscribed $710,000 pre-seed round in early December 2024 to advance development and go-to-market efforts. Torram is based in Toronto and positions its infrastructure to capitalize on growing institutional interest as Bitcoin surpassed a $2 trillion market cap in December 2024.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

USDh is a stablecoin developed by DeFi protocol Hermetica on the Bitcoin layer-2 Stacks network. Hermetica secured roughly $3 million in liquidity for USDh through a collaboration with Bitcoin lending protocol Zest, which Hermetica says will make USDh the largest stablecoin on Stacks. Hermetica and Zest plan to offer yield on USDh by lending against sBTC, the bitcoin-backed bridging asset used to bring BTC into the Stacks ecosystem. Hermetica said the initial liquidity boost could create a short-term window of higher yields, with projected APYs as high as 50% and a current average APY of 18%. The article notes that the $3 million is small relative to dominant stablecoins like USDT and USDC, highlighting the relative infancy of Bitcoin DeFi. Stablecoins are framed as integral to the crypto economy and important to Bitcoin's evolution into a network that can support DeFi capabilities.