<\/p>\n
Portal, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi project, recently announced its successful $34 million seed funding round. At time of writing, this represents the second-largest funding round in the Web3 space for the year 2024. This follows an earlier fundraising effort in September 2021, where Portal secured $8.5 million.<\/p>\n
Then<\/a>, as now<\/a>, Portal\u2019s raise announcement focuses heavily on the platform\u2019s creation of a decentralized exchange (DEX) to allow atomic swaps that don\u2019t rely on trusted intermediaries to move assets between chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n But after more than two years and $42.5 million in funding, Portal\u2019s DEX is still in testnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Bitcoin doesn\u2019t need to change, but\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n Following the announcement of this most recent fundraise, Portal community members expressed frustration at the project\u2019s slow development on Portal\u2019s Telegram channel. Some invested<\/a> in Portal through retail investment platform Republic and wanted to know<\/a> when they could see returns. An administrator in Telegram said<\/a> investors would receive equity following launch.<\/p>\n In an interview, Portal co-founder and CEO Chandra Duggirala acknowledged \u201cthings did take longer than we expected, which is true of all difficult engineering problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Duggirala said Portal is currently undergoing audits, testing its platform and setting up its validator network. Portal expects its platform to be mainnet ready by Q2, Duggirala said.<\/p>\n The Portal DEX and Portal wallet are both listed as coming soon on Portal\u2019s website. The startup has published<\/a> some documentation regarding how the Portal DEX will execute swaps alongside some code repositories<\/a> on GitHub.<\/p>\n Atomic swaps allow users to directly exchange assets between different blockchains, using cryptographic hash functions for secure transactions. This technology reduces the need for intermediaries, like wrapped assets or third-party bridges, making trading more straightforward and potentially safer.<\/p>\n Duggirala emphasized the importance of atomic swaps, especially considering the security breaches that have affected custodial platforms, where users\u2019 funds are held by a third party.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>DeFi hackers ring in New Year with 3 attacks in 5 days<\/a><\/p>\n Portal reported participation in its seed round from notable backers, including Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Gate.io and Arrington Capital.<\/p>\n When asked about how Portal secured an additional $34 million in funding despite its DEX<\/a> still being in the works, Duggirala said investors are taking the long view.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a long-term project and all of the investors understood then\u2026that these things take time,\u201d Duggirala said.<\/p>\n In an email, Arrington confirmed its investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur take is that Portal is tackling a very large problem, and building a bridgeless and custodian-less cross chain solution is not easy.\u00a0 We are really excited by what the team has built over the past couple years and what is soon to come,\u201d a spokesperson wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Portal did not immediately return a request for further comment on when Portal opened and closed its seed round.<\/p>\n
\n