Compound, a leading DeFi protocol with over $125 million loans originated this year, raised $25 million in a Series A led by a16z crypto with allocations from Bain Capital and Polychain Capital. CEO Robert Leshner said he plans to use the fresh capital to make the service more available to ordinary people by integrating with popular exchanges, custodians and wallets.
Why it matters:
- Interest rates that are multiples higher than existing alternatives represent an opportunity to bring in a large non-crypto native market into the ecosystem. The biggest hurdle is making consumers feel comfortable with using these systems which can be accomplished by integrating into these more user friendly interfaces.
- As global interest rates are at historic lows and trending more into negative territory, people will start to rethink their savings accounts and DeFi protocols will likely gain more attention.