Binance Labs has invested an undisclosed amount in Sophon ahead of its mainnet launch and Token rollout next month.
Binance Labs, the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced an undisclosed investment in Sophon, a zkSync hyperchain or layer-2 network built using Matter Labs’ modular, open-source framework, the ZK Stack.
Discussions between Binance Labs and Sophon began over the summer and the investment round closed in August, said Sebastien (“Seb”), Sophon’s semi-anonymous co-founder and CEO and former DeFi head at zkSync. Sebastien said the round was structured as a simple agreement for future Token (SAFT), declining to comment on Sophon’s valuation.
The investment in Binance Labs brings Sophon’s total Capital to date to more than $70 million. Sophon raised about $60 million through a node sale in May and $10 million in a seed round earlier this year. “There’s no further funding in the pipeline,” Seb said.
Sophon is a hyperchain on zkSync, which is simply a layer-2 network built using Matter Labs’ ZK Stack framework. When asked how building on Sophon differs from building on zkSync, Seb said that blockchains like zkSync Era, Optimism , and Arbitrum are and will remain general-purpose, primarily serving as liquidation and DeFi. However, to connect more deeply with the retail industry, a strong focus on the platform and product is needed, and Sophon helps you do that.
“In the web2 space, no one cares whether they are using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform when they are using Booking.com or Netflix; what matters is the platform experience, along with the distribution channels and in some cases, the culture and/or community,” says Seb. “Our vision is to create a seamless, engaging and culturally rich ecosystem that integrates web3 with everyday lifestyle applications.”
Seb said he sees Solana and Base as Sophon's closest competitors, as they are the two “most retail-oriented ecosystems.”
Sophon recently announced partnerships with Aethir (AI), Azuro (prediction), and Beam (gaming) as the first three ecosystem projects and will reveal the rest in the coming months.
Sophon expects to launch its mainnet next month. He said the SOPH token is also “expected to be deployed alongside the Primary Network,” adding that more details about the token will be Chia later.
Seb said there are currently around 20 people working at Sophon, adding that he plans to hire a senior Rust developer and a business development person based in Asia Pacific.
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