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Onomy, a Cosmos blockchain-based ecosystem, recently raised $10 million in funding for the development of its new protocol. Leading investors participated in the round. Bitfinex, the Maker Foundation, GSR, Ava Labs, CMS Holdings, and DWF Labs were among them. The round, however, did not have a specific lead investor.
The underlying goal of building a decentralised autonomous organisation with a public infrastructure, according to Onomy co-founder Lalo Bazzi, should serve the “core tenant of crypto — self-custody — without sacrificing the user experience.”
Onomy intends to integrate the DeFi and foreign exchange markets. Its products include the Onex decentralised trading platform and non-custodial wallet, as well as a Layer 1 blockchain network and cross-chain bridge.
According to Bazzi, “Products are built in an agnostic way to add support for other blockchains and protocols we have partnered with, such as Polygon, Avalanche, and IOTA to bring a seamless user interface and user experience to the cross-chain and multi-chain world.”
Since December 2020, Onomy has been in development. When asked why it raised funds nearly two years later, Bazzi explained that the project had been raising capital for the last two years to fund the development of its products and is now closing the round. He also stated that this is the final raise before the mainnet launch. With the new funding, Bazzi intends to improve the protocol and ‘methodically’ scale the team. Onomy currently has 15 full-time employees, and Bazzi plans to hire more developers in the near future.
Onomy Protocol announced bridging to Polygon earlier this year, expanding its list of cross-chain deployments. Onomy’s Layer 1 application blockchain, built with Cosmos Tendermint, powers a hybrid DEX and Forex marketplace, a stablecoin minting system, and a non-custodial wallet.
Onomy’s mainnet will go live in the coming days. It reported over 800,000 transactions and 40,000 unique users on its testnet. Onomy will convert itself into a decentralised autonomous organisation, or DAO, upon the launch of its mainnet. This will allow holders of its native token, NOM, to vote on its decisions.
It is worth noting that, as a result of the FTX liquidity-bankruptcy scandal, both DeFi and self-custody have been hot topics in the crypto community. According to some experts, one of the most important lessons to be drawn from the situation is the importance of DeFi platforms over centralised gatekeepers. The ongoing crypto bear market has proven to be a builder’s market as investors continue to find promising projects like Onomy.
The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash
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