BitDAO Launches After $230M Private Sale Round

There&39s a new decentralized autonomous organization on the block.

BitDAO has launched after a $230M private funding round featuring over 20 institutional investors and DeFi partners, already making it one of the world&39s largest DAO&39s. The round saw participation from Peter Thiel, a billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Paypal, Alan Howard, Dragonfly Capital, Fenbushi, Founders Fund, Jump Capital, Pantera Capital, and more.

In addition to the funding, Bybit, one of the largest crypto derivatives trading platforms, has pledged to contribute 2.5 basis points from all of its futures contracts transaction volume as recurring support for the BitDAO treasury. Based on 2021 numbers, this could amount to roughly $1B annually.

BitDAO aims to improve adoption, collaboration, and innovation within DeFi. Through the BitDAO treasury, the organization will support new and existing DeFi protocols with funding, R&D, and liquidity. The holders of BDAO, BitDAO&39s governance token, will be given the opportunity to vote on where this capital is allocated. The BDAO token is pegged to the value of Bitcoin but BitDAO has plans to launch additional pegs. The DAO&39s utilizes a multi-chain design to counteract the potential downsides of centralized pegged tokens.

The fresh capital, and future inflows, will fund new DeFi initiatives through BitDAO&39s grant program and help existing protocols with liquidity using token swaps. Another key objective is to attract talent. BitDAO has plans to employ hundreds and launch development and research centers posed to tackle some of the pressing technical problems facing DeFi.

This is exciting news for the DeFi space. For the past few years, DeFi has had the attention of major VCs, both crypto and non-crypto. Taking a decentralized approach to support the long-term growth of the industry is only fitting.