Tether-focused Layer 1 Stable raises $28 million seed round to boost USDT adoption
Stable, a new Layer 1 blockchain being built for stablecoins, has raised $28 million in seed funding as it bets on Tether's USDT stablecoin as the future of onchain payments.The round was co-led by Bitfinex and Hack VC, with participation from Franklin Templeton, eGirl Capital, Mirana, Castle Island Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, Nascent, and Blue Pool Capital. Angel investors and advisors include Bryan Johnson (Braintree) and Divesh Makan (Iconiq Capital). Bitfinex, an early backer, also played a key role in incubating the project from the start, Stable said.Stable officially began raising for the seed round last month and closed it this month, Joshua Harding, Founder and CEO of Stable, told The Block. The round was structured as a combination of a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) and token warrants, Harding said, declining to disclose the post-money valuation. He also declined to disclose whether the full $28 million was raised in a single tranche or split across earlier stages, such as a pre-seed.The fundraise comes just weeks after the passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.S., a new law that provides regulatory clarity for stablecoins and sets out guidelines for banks to build digital payments infrastructure.âIt is clear that the U.S. is undergoing a complete 180 in terms of its approach to digital assets and stablecoins, moving from the âenforcement by lawsuitâ approach under the previous administration towards providing clear rules of the road for institutions,â said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether and CTO of Bitfinex. âNow, major financial institutions and banks will be able to fully unleash the power behind assets like USDT."Ardoino has been a "close advisor" to Stable in his capacities both between Bitfinex (CTO) and Tether (CEO) from day one, Harding said.Why a stablecoin-specific blockchain?The Layer 1 â described by Stable as a âstablechainâ â aims to eliminate the pain points associated with using stablecoins on general-purpose blockchains.Harding said general-purpose blockchains werenât built for stablecoins as they are optimized for programmability and composability, not for low-fee, high-throughput, finality-guaranteed payments. As a result, stablecoin users are stuck paying high gas fees in volatile tokens, dealing with long confirmation times, or relying on centralized bridges and custodians, he said."We built Stable to solve this issue by creating a stablecoin-native chain with USDT as the gas token, where transfers are free at the protocol level, and the entire stack is optimized for real-world payments and remittances," Harding said. "We believe the end state for blockchains is simple: users should pay fees in the same currency they're sending and receiving."Stable isnât the only blockchain chasing stablecoin utility. Competing projects like Plasma (also backed by Bitfinex) and Noble are also focused on bringing stablecoins to the mainstream. But Harding argues that Stable is optimized end-to-end for stablecoin utility."We are the first 'stablechain' Layer 1 where USDT is used as the native gas, every transaction settles in dollars, and the protocol is optimized end-to-end for stablecoin utility with batched transfers, parallel execution, and core-level throughput enhancements," he said.While developers can deploy other stablecoins on the chain, Harding said the architecture is tightly integrated around USDT, citing its dominant role in real-world usage and remittances. âIn the future, other stablecoins could be more deeply integrated if thereâs clear user demand, but USDT will remain the foundation of the chainâs design and go-to-market," he said.Roadmap and launch timelineThe Stable network is expected to go live in phases. Phase 1 â already underway â brings USDT as native gas, sub-second block times, and basic infrastructure. Phase 2, slated for later this year, will introduce the USDT aggregator and "guaranteed" blockspace. Phase 3, focused on developer tools and ecosystem growth, is planned for 2026.The mainnet launch is targeted for late Q3 or early Q4 of 2025, Harding said, adding that Phases 1 and 2 are on track to be completed this year.Stableâs team is currently 27 people and Harding plans to expand it. Asked whether Stable will launch a native token in the future, Harding said, "The team is open to exploring best practices to decentralize the network."The Funding newsletter: Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my free bimonthly newsletter, The Funding. Sign up here!Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. 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