Ethereum (ETH) based options issuance platform Opyn has raised $2.16 million in funding led by Dragonfly Capital, according to an announcement made on June 22. The funding will be used to better improve risk management systems for Opyn’s Ethereum’s options investment vehicles.
Other participants in the funding round include Version One Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, 1kx, A. Capital, DTC Capital, CoinFund and angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Robert Leshner, Dylan Field, Linda Xie, among others.
Besides risk management, the funds will be used to develop the platform’s protocol and security and make hires in critical positions.
Founded in 2019 by Aparna Krishnan, Zubin Koticha, and Alexis Gauba, Opyn describes it mission as wanting to “build an inclusive, fair, and open financial system” that “protect users” and offers “essential infrastructure."
On the Opyn platform, users can purchase options contracts to protect assets on defi protocols. Should these protocols become bankrupt, users can use the options to recover the deposits lost due to the insolvency.
Tom Schmidt of Dragonfly Capital Partners was all praise for Opyn’s infrastructure and how it could mitigate the volatility of the market,
Opyn is starting a new chapter in DeFi by unlocking options and offering a new and powerful financial primitive that brings stability to a historically-volatile market…[They are] already dominating the decentralized options market, and we’re thrilled to be working with them in building a new, open financial system.
The Defi market has seen exponential growth in the past 12 months, with 2020 seeing significant developments take place. Lending platform dYdX has reached a milestone of $1 billion in total loans in roughly one year. Newly launched COMP token has also seen rapid growth, bringing in a great deal of funds into the defi space, to the point where it has surpassed MakerDAO (MKR) in total ETH value.
