Key Points
- Botanix Labs has garnered $8.5 million in seed funding to develop a Bitcoin-native DeFi ecosystem.
- The firm plans to use the funds to build Spiderchain, a Bitcoin-native Layer 2 primitive with Ethereum Virtual Machine equivalence.
Botanix Labs, a Bitcoin development startup, has secured $8.5 million in a seed funding round. The round saw participation from Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and ABCDE.
The firm aims to utilize the funds to establish a Bitcoin-native DeFi ecosystem. Notable angel investors including Andrew Kang, Fiskantes, Dan Held, The Crypto Dog, Charlie Spears, Altcoin Sherpa, Dovey Wan, Jebus, Icebergy, Crypto ISO, Davis, Walt Smith, and Domo also contributed to the round.
Funding Details and Use
The latest funding round closed in April, however, the company did not disclose the round’s valuation or structure. This follows a previously undisclosed $3 million pre-seed round that concluded in June 2023, bringing Botanix Labs’ total funding to $11.5 million. The pre-seed round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE).
The New York-based firm plans to use the funding to develop Spiderchain, a Bitcoin-native Layer 2 primitive with full Ethereum Virtual Machine equivalence. Specifically, Botanix Labs will allocate the funds towards expanding its team and focusing on product development.
About Botanix Labs and Spiderchain
Botanix Labs was founded by Harvard alumni and is headed by Belgian polymath and Spiderchain inventor Willem Schroé. The company’s mission is to build infrastructure that supports a global financial system running on Bitcoin for the next century.
Spiderchain’s name stems from the process of securing funds from the Bitcoin base layer using a series of randomized, decentralized multi-sigs, likened to a spider’s web. This scaling technology permits applications and smart contracts running in the Ethereum ecosystem to be copied and run natively on Bitcoin. Users can also withdraw from crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance to a web3 wallet connected to the Layer 2 without using wrapped assets or leaving the Bitcoin network.
Botanix Labs released a whitepaper for its EVM Layer 2 protocol in June 2023, with a testnet version released in November. The testnet has since generated over 200,000 active addresses, 10,000 token launches, and dozens of decentralized applications, with a mainnet launch of Spiderchain expected in early summer this year.
Spiderchain’s Uniqueness
Spiderchain sets itself apart from other Bitcoin “Layer 2” solutions that are essentially centralized sidechains controlled by a single multi-sig. Unlike many new projects leveraging Bitcoin branding for protocols that run on separate blockchains like Ethereum, Internet Computer, Cosmos, or Polygon, Spiderchain runs fully on Bitcoin. It uses Bitcoin as its native asset and the EVM as its software layer in a decentralized network of multi-sigs where any node can participate as a key holder.
The Botanix team expressed pride in building the next generation of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions during the bear market when few investors were interested in the future of Bitcoin. The recent surge in venture investment and application development in the Bitcoin ecosystem underscores its importance.
“Bitcoin has proven itself to be the most secure monetary network in history. Now it’s time to put Bitcoin to work by transforming it from only being a store of value into a global monetary network that empowers the sovereignty of individuals,” said Botanix Labs CTO and co-founder Armin Sabouri.
