Bitcoin-based DeFi protocol Babylon has raised $15 million from a16z Crypto and is expanding the market for bitcoin-collateralised loans, Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday.
The investment was executed through purchases of Babylon's native BABY token and will be used to develop bitcoin-collateral infrastructure.
A16z Crypto plans to continue supporting Babylon's bitcoin-native infrastructure. Babylon, founded in 2022, is a bitcoin staking protocol developing a trustless vault system that supports the use of bitcoin as collateral for on-chain loans. Users can use bitcoin as collateral without moving it off the network.
Babylon signed a partnership with Aave Labs in December last year and plans to introduce bitcoin-collateral loan functions on Aave V4. Babylon is building a 'bitcoin-backed spoke' that enables BTC to be used directly as collateral without wrapping, with testing planned in the first quarter of 2026 and a launch scheduled for the fourth quarter.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr