Thruster Raises $7.5M in Seed Round for DeFi Expansion

Thruster, a decentralized exchange operating on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Blast, secured $7.5 million funding round led by Pantera Capital.

Thruster, a decentralized exchange platform based on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Blast, raised $7.5 million in a seed round lead by Pantera Capital.

In addition, TN Lee of Pendle, Alex Lin of Stacked, Kratik Lodha of Renzo, Georgios Vlachos of Axelar, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, ParaFi Capital, and Arche Fund contributed to the funding. Sam Kazemian, the inventor of Frax, was one of the angel investors.

The fundraiser was set up as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants valued at $70 million, as Thruster’s anonymous contributor, 0xFri, disclosed to The Block. 

Using an integration-first strategy, Thruster is a yield-earnings DEX platform that increases yield for liquidity providers. After less than two months of debut, the platform has grown to be the second largest on Blast, behind Juice Finance, which has a TVL of $358 million, according to DeFiLlama, with around $320 million.

Additionally, Thruster says that over 100,000 people have already used it to accomplish transactions totaling over $2 billion.

“We saw Blast as an exciting new ecosystem to build on based on its yield and incentive-first model,” 0xFri stated in response to the announcement. Yield and incentives drive attention in DeFi. Blast has developed a system that allows for higher and more sustainable yields, so more users and builders should gravitate toward that chain rather than others.

With only ten employees at the moment, Thruster intends to grow by forming new alliances, adding more team members, and integrating with other protocols in order to elevate the user experience to the point of centralized exchanges.

“With the support of this fundraise, we will be able to integrate Thruster products and liquidity into other top protocols across DeFi, NFTFi, and more,” 0xFri continued.