Galaxy Digital Leads $4.3 Million SAFT Into Blockchain Platform Centrifuge
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Decentralized asset finance protocol Centrifuge has raised $4.3 million via a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) funding round, according to an announcement shared with Decrypt today.
“It is critical to start bridging blockchain to the real world in order for ordinary people to benefit from decentralized infrastructure and applications. Centrifuge is taking a lead in this and will complement the role of traditional financial institutions, while bringing a great diversity of assets to DeFi to propel its growth and adoption,” said Jocy Lin, founding partner of IOSG Ventures.
SAFTs are a form of fundraising or investment contracts that crypto developers can offer to accredited investors. Unlike initial coin offerings (ICOs) where tokens become immediately available, SAFTs allow startups to get funding in return for some assets that haven’t been actually issued yet—but will be when the project becomes operational.
The SAFT funding round began last December and was led by Mike Novogratz’s investment firm Galaxy Digital and research-driven venture capital fund IOSG Ventures. The round also saw participation from companies such as Rockaway, Fintech Collective, Moonwhale, Fenbushi, TRGC, and HashCIB.
“DeFi will eventually need to finance the economy to fulfill its potential—Centrifuge is the on-ramp for the real economy to tap into DeFi liquidity,” noted William Nuelle, a researcher at Galaxy Digital.
Centrifuge aims to create an on-ramp that provides an easy and streamlined way for users to bring their assets into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and invest in diversified asset-backed pools.
“We made it our mission to bridge real-world assets to DeFi: a task that can bring trillions of value from traditional finance into DeFi. Some bigger projects we are working on […] will make financing large pools of assets instant and a much more attractive and democratized option for financing assets,” said Centrifuge.
In the future, Centrifuge plans to launch new pools and improve UX for both investors and asset originators as well as join Polkadot as a parachain, allowing the protocol to outsource chain security from the Polkadot Relay Chain.
