Share this article
A16z, Paradigm Lead $150M Round for Ethereum Scaling Solution Optimism at $1.65B Valuation
A16z previously led Optimism’s $25 million Series A round.
By Brandy Betz
Updated May 11, 2023, 7:17 p.m. Published Mar 17, 2022, 6:23 p.m.
Ethereum scaling solution Optimism has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round co-led by top crypto investors Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) at a $1.65 billion valuation. The funding will largely go toward hiring, according to a Medium post from the company.
- Ethereum demand continues to grow as non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications become more popular, which slows transaction times and pushes gas, or transaction, fees higher.
- Optimism is a layer 2 scaling solution built on the Ethereum blockchain that uses a transaction execution method called optimistic rollups to improve throughput and lower transaction fees while still maintaining the security properties of the underlying blockchain.
- Optimism has about $363 million in total value locked (TVL) on the platform, according to DeFi Llama data.
- A16z led Optimism’s $25 million Series A round last year. At the time, Partners Chris Dixon and Arianna Simpson praised Optimism’s “exceptional team, carefully designed developer experience, major scaling benefits, years of research and testing, and full composability.”
- Last summer, a16z launched what was then the largest fund in crypto industry history at $2.2 billion. Paradigm topped the figure with its own $2.5 billion fund launch in November.
Read more: A16z Investing $70M in Ethereum Staking Provider Lido Finance
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
French Banking Giant BPCE to Roll Out Crypto Trading for 2M Retail Clients
The service will allow customers to buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC through a separate digital asset account managed by Hexarq.
What to know:
- French banking group BPCE will start offering crypto trading services to 2 million retail customers through its Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne apps, with plans to expand to 12 million customers by 2026.
- The service will allow customers to buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC through a separate digital asset account managed by Hexarq, with a €2.99 monthly fee and 1.5% transaction commission.
- The move follows similar initiatives by other European banks, such as BBVA, Santander, and Raiffeisen Bank, which have already started offering crypto trading services to their customers.
Top Stories
