The DeFi Trader Joe protocol raises $5 million, a war chest that should allow the project to expand its team. The Decentralized Finance platform that relies on the Avalanche network (AVAX) also plans to diversify the services it offers.
Big names behind Trader Joe
According to The Block media, the DeFi Trader Joe protocol built on Avalanche (AVAX) is raising $5 million in a private token sale. The round saw participation from DeFiance Capital, GBV Capital, Mechanism Capital, ThreeArrows Capital, Not3Lau Capital, Coin98 Ventures, Avalanche Foundation, Delphi Digital, Coin98 Ventures, Not3Lau Capital, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov.
In a tweet on September 02, 2021, the anonymous co-founder of Trader Joe known as Cryptofish, highlights the encouraging support of the protocol by these big names in the cryptosphere:
“Trader Joe started as a basic project, launched in a fair way, with the vision of being on the frontiers of DeFi. And now, to have the industry’s biggest investors willing to put their names behind us in our quest to realize that vision is extremely encouraging.”
For portfolio manager at DeFiance Capital, Darryl Wang, an arm of Three Arrows Capital, Trader Joe could become “the dominant DeFi platform on Avalanche.”
Trader Joe one step away from the top spot
This new money will be used to strengthen Trader Joe’s staff which currently has 15 people. Trader Joe hopes to increase this number to 20 in the near future, according to the other anonymous co-founder of the project, 0xMurloc.
The co-founders of Trader Joe have decided to remain anonymous in order to gain efficiency, according to 0xMurloc:
“Compared to typical tech startups, we don’t have to spend time incorporating LLCs, etc.”
The 2 co-founders only reveal themselves to their partners when necessary.
Launched in July 2021, Trader Joe currently ranks 2nd in Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem in terms of total blocked value (TVL), behind Benqi.
In terms of service, Trader Joe currently offers a decentralized trading platform. 0xMurloc said the protocol plans to launch a lending platform “soon.” He further stated that the platform offers “the best user experience,” with “the largest selection” of tokens to trade.
This fundraising not only contributes to the development of Trader Joe, but also indirectly to the development of the Avalanche ecosystem. The latter has moreover embarked on an operation to seduce DeFi protocols, with the Avalanche Foundation putting $180 million on the table to attract more DeFi assets and applications to the network.
