Acre, a bitcoin staking platform that allows users to earn rewards in bitcoin, has raised $4 million in a strategic funding round at a $90 million token valuation.
Investors in the round include Draper Dragon, Big Brain Holdings and Orange DAO, Acre said Thursday. The round also saw participation from undisclosed angel investors, including individuals from firms such as Lido, EigenLayer, Wormhole, Thesis and Quantstamp.
Acre closed the round this month, co-founder and CEO Laura Wallendal told The Block. The funding was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with a token warrant, Wallendal said, adding that the $90 million valuation represents the fully diluted valuation of the yet-to-be-launched ACRE token.
Wallendal declined to comment on when the round began or whether Acre had previously raised funds.
Acre is a spin-out from Thesis, a bitcoin-focused venture studio behind projects such as tBTC, Fold and Mezo Network. Wallendal previously held leadership positions at Thesis and currently serves as an advisor to the studio.
As a bitcoin-focused platform, Acre enables users to deposit their bitcoin holdings to earn more bitcoin or "compound" their bitcoin. It achieves this through various methods, including staking rewards. Acre's first vault partner is Mezo, a Bitcoin scaling network.
"Acre provides bitcoin liquidity to decentralized networks, helping them grow while also enabling lending and other DeFi integrations beyond staking," Wallendal said. "Unlike traditional staking models, Acre is bitcoin-first, allowing BTC holders to participate in DeFi without needing to interact with new chains, manage multiple tokens, or compromise control over their assets."
To secure deposited bitcoin, Acre has selected tBTC, a "decentralized custodian." The underlying BTC is held in a 51-of-100 multisig operated by decentralized nodes.
"The trade-off here is between speed and decentralized custody. Acre prioritizes security over instant transactions," said Wallendal. "Deposits take about three hours to complete, but they remain fully decentralized throughout the process."
Since launching its gated mainnet last July, Acre has collected 1,028 BTC as user deposits, worth over $100 million. With the platform now open to the public, Acre expects deposits to grow significantly.
Acre currently has eight core team members, and Wallendal plans to expand the team across operations, engineering and marketing as the platform continues onboarding new wallet partners and integrating with additional protocols.
Wallendal declined to provide a timeline for the ACRE token launch but said that Acre would transition to being governed by a decentralized autonomous organization or DAO later this year.
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