Hong Kong venture capital firm Chiron Partners has launched a new ecosystem fund dedicated to Terra (LUNA), opening the door to new innovations for the layer-one decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocol.
The Chiron Terra Fund I, also referred to as CTI, will deploy $50 million in capital to support innovative projects building on top of the Terra ecosystem. Projects at the intersection of decentralized finance and “metaverse-linked” nonfungible token platforms are eligible for support, the company announced Wednesday.
Built using Cosmos SDK and Tendermint, Terra is a DeFi protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power global payment systems. The native LUNA token has been designed to absorb the short-term volatility of Terra-based stablecoins. Following its Columbus-5 upgrade in October, Terra is reportedly set to house over 160 new projects by early 2022.
“CTI fills a vital gap in the digital assets space. We truly believe every great project requires a well-built protocol to flourish, and CTI will make that happen. We’re excited to advance our thematic approach and identify promising investment opportunities,” shared Sean Hung, Founding Partner and CEO of Chiron Partners.
Terraform Labs, the South Korean development company behind the Terra blockchain, successfully raised $150 million in funding earlier this year. Major crypto venture funds including Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital and BlockTower Capital contributed to the raise.
“We’re thrilled to have Chiron Partners join the booming Terra ecosystem as a valuable resource to help equip ecosystem projects and builders with capital, strategic expertise, and other guidance,” said Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs.
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Terra has emerged as one of the largest DeFi-oriented blockchains on the market, with total value locked surpassing $13 billion, according to industry data. Only Ethereum has a higher TVL.
In terms of price performance, LUNA has skyrocketed over 9,000% this year. Last month, the cryptocurrency peaked above $77.00. The cryptocurrency has a total market capitalization of $24.2 billion, placing it in the tenth spot among active projects.