Galaxy Digital Backs $5.25 Million Round for Blockchain Staking Startup

Blockchain staking startup Bison Trails has raised $5.25 million in a series seed funding round backed by Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital.

Announcing the news on Friday, Bison Trails said the round was led by Accomplice and Initialized Capital, with Notation Capital, Homebrew, Distributed Global and Charge Ventures and other angel investors also taking part.

The New York-based firm did not provide specific details on how it plans to utilize the funding, other than “to underscore our mission.”

Founded last year, Bison Trails aims to enable a future where blockchain participation is “easy, more transparent, and truly decentralized.”

The firm allows clients to launch "highly-available, and geographically distributed" nodes on blockchain networks, and offers infrastructure solutions, including staking, validating, voting, transacting and securing blockchain protocols.

"The infrastructure that we’re building today will pave the way for an entire generation of new decentralized companies, services, and participants to access blockchain economies and networks," Bison claims. Its platform will launch in "coming weeks" to early partners.

Staking – supporting a network by holding its tokens and running a node for rewards – is a use case that has been drawing attention from investors in recent months.

Back in January, blockchain staking-as-a-service startup Staked raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by blockchain investment firm Pantera Capital. Staked offers institutional investors with the technical infrastructure for non-custodial staking services. Other participants in Staked's seed round included Coinbase Ventures, Global Brain, Digital Currency Group, Winklevoss Capital, Fabric Ventures and Blocktree Capital.

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