Tezos has taken a significant step towards expanding its DeFi ecosystem with the launch of the DeFi Catalyst Accelerator (DCA) in Singapore. This six-week program is designed to support early-stage startups that are developing innovative decentralized finance applications on the Tezos blockchain and its Etherlink Layer-2 rollup.
Tezos and Etherlink tout distinct advantages for DeFi development, such as speed, security, low fees, and compatibility with Ethereum-based tools. Etherlink’s focus on decentralization and MEV protection further enhances its appeal to DeFi builders.
The inaugural DCA cohort consists of five teams: Plend, Hanji, SaveX, Hashleap, and Rivo. These startups are addressing various challenges within the DeFi sector, including stablecoin design, on-chain exchanges, cross-border remittances, payment solutions, and simplified DeFi investing.
Participants in the DCA will benefit from the expertise of StableTech members, who have extensive experience in building core components within the Tezos DeFi toolkit. StableTech is a consortium of contributors to the Tezos ecosystem.
The launch of the DCA comes at a time when venture capitalist interest in the DeFi sector is on the rise. Berachain, an EVM-equivalent L1 built on the Cosmos SDK, recently secured 0 million in Series B funding, co-led by Brevan Howard (BH) Digital Assets and Framework Ventures. Galaxy Digital has also revealed plans to broaden its investment focus by launching a 0 million Galaxy Ventures Fund I, LP fund to support promising startups.
This renewed interest in the DeFi sector follows a strong January 2024, with 113 publicly disclosed investment projects in the crypto venture capital space, representing a 10.8% increase from December 2023. According to journalist Colin Wu, DeFi received approximately 19% of crypto venture capital funding in January 2024, outperforming other sectors like infrastructure projects, CeFi, NFT/GameFi, and L1/L2 projects.
