Hermetica, the creator of USDh, the first yield-generating synthetic dollar backed by Bitcoin, is delighted to announce the successful closing of its $1.7 million seed funding round.
Key contributors
UTXO Management led the round, with additional support from prominent investors including CMS Holdings, Ethos Fund, Trust Machines SPV, Newman Capital, Silvermine and strategic business angels such as Tycho Onnasch (founder and CEO of Zest Protocol) , Robin Obermaier (founder and CEO of Liquidium), Mithil Thakore (founder and CEO of Velar), Matt Maduno (founder and CEO of Arch Network), and GM Chung (founder and CEO of DeSpread).
Fueling the USDh Expansion
Capital will accelerate the growth of USDh. USDh is issued natively on Bitcoin Layer 1 through Runes and Layer 2 through the Stacks network and is available for purchase on decentralized exchanges.
As the global stablecoin market has grown over 100% year-over-year to now exceed $160 billion, or 50% of all on-chain transactions, USDh is well-positioned to experience rapid growth. Despite Bitcoin’s $1.3 trillion market cap, only 1% of its value is locked in DeFi, leaving an untapped market of $1 trillion for USDh to unlock.
Hermetica aims to enable Bitcoin users to hold and transact with a stable and liquid dollar asset exchangeable for Bitcoin (1 USDh = 1 USD of Bitcoin), allowing Bitcoin market participants to securely hold dollars without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem or converting to fiat currency.
“We believe that stablecoins are a fundamental part of a decentralized financial system. USDh is the ideal Bitcoin-backed stablecoin: capital-efficient, fiat-agnostic and yield-generating,” said Jakob Schillinger, CEO of Hermetica Labs.
To go further
The capital raised will fuel the further development of USDh integrations into the Bitcoin ecosystem, including enhanced liquidity, institutional-grade custody partnerships, and scalable off-exchange settlement solutions. Hermetica builds on the fundamental strengths of Bitcoin to offer a decentralized and secure alternative to traditional fiat-backed stablecoins.
Testimonials from some of our investors:
“USDh represents a major breakthrough for Bitcoin-backed stablecoins. Hermetica’s innovative approach to delta hedging positions USDh as a key player in the ever-evolving stablecoin landscape. We are excited to support Hermetica as it continues to lead the charge in Bitcoin DeFi. » – Tyler Evans, Managing Partner, UTXO Management
“We are excited about Hermetica as they unlock significant value within the Bitcoin ecosystem with the creation of USDh. We believe their ability to seamlessly integrate stablecoins into Bitcoin’s Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks represents a huge opportunity. USDh will become a fundamental tool for Bitcoin users looking for a reliable dollar asset without leaving the ecosystem. » – Simon Shin, Managing Partner, Ethos Fund.
About Hermetica
Hermetica is a crypto-native team with deep fintech expertise, bringing together experience from major institutions such as Kraken and State Street. Hermetica is focused on creating innovative financial products that leverage the security and transparency of Bitcoin.
Earn up to 25% APY on application.hermetica.fi.
About batteries
Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 that allows smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer. The 2024 Nakamoto and sBTC releases will bring faster speeds and transactions backed by 100% Bitcoin finality. Stacks is currently the Bitcoin L2 leader in developer traction and market cap and is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $500 billion in passive capital as a fully programmable and productive asset. The Stacks (STX) token, used as gas on L2, was the first to undergo a qualified sale by the SEC in the United States. The project explicitly decentralized with the launch of mainnet in 2021. In the Stacks ecosystem, there are currently over 30 contributing entities, including non-profit Stacks Foundation, developer tools company Hiro, Xverse , Trust Machines, Mechanism, Bitcoin L2 Labs, ALEX, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, and more.
