Cosmos-Based DeFi Protocol Quasar Raises $5.4M

The collapse of multibillion-dollar centralized crypto exchange FTX has renewed focus on the promise of decentralized finance. However, decentralized finance (DeFi) still has growing pains due, in part, to fragmentation across multiple blockchains – a problem addressed through interoperability-focused protocols.

Quasar Finance, a decentralized asset management protocol using the Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) technology released by the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, has raised $5.4 million in a funding round led by Shima Capital at a $70 million valuation. The protocol allows users to create and join vaults, or independent asset containers capable of connecting tokens and data transfers between chains.

Other investors in the round included Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, HASH Capital, CIB and Osmosis co-founder Sunny Aggarwal, among others. The capital will go toward product development and scaling out the team, according to a press release provided to CoinDesk.

Quasar plans to offer structured investment products for DeFi, starting with an automatically rebalancing index of the Cosmos ecosystem that supports the staking of assets. After months of private testing, Quasar will open its public testnet on Feb. 10.

“Securing this funding given ongoing and difficult market conditions is a massive show of confidence and a significant reaffirmation of our partners commitment to the common goal – making non-custodial and permissionless asset management available to all,” said Quasar co-founder and CEO Valentin Pletnev in the press release.

Read more: Cosmos Investors Vote to Approve Inter-Blockchain Communication