Cosmos-Based DeFi Protocol Quasar to Start Mainnet After Raising More Than $11.5M

Quasar Finance, a decentralized asset management protocol based on the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, is starting its mainnet today with the aim of helping investors manage their digital assets across multiple blockchains.

The move comes after Quasar raised $5.4 million in a funding round led by Shima Capital earlier this year at a $70 million valuation, bringing the total fund raised to over $11.5 million, the protocol said in a press release on Thursday.

Quasar said it aims to become the leading decentralized asset management platform by enabling connectivity among blockchains via Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC). "Powered by IBC-enabled smart contracts, Quasar’s goal is to empower investors with easy access to the emerging interchain landscape of numerous individual blockchains, within the Cosmos ecosystem and beyond," the press release said.

In the wake of the spectacular failure of centralized exchanges such as FTX, both crypto natives and investors have increased their focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) and security. Quasar is aiming to address these issues by creating a dedicated layer 1 protocol that will allow investors to deposit funds into permissionless, non-custodial investment vehicles known as "vaults," that are optimized to work across multiple blockchains, the press release said.

The system is also designed to eliminate the need for cross-chain bridges, which have proven to be risky for DeFi investors, resulting in over $2 billion in losses in 2022 alone.

By giving investors access to the developing interchain landscape of independent and interoperable blockchains, both within and outside the Cosmos ecosystem, Quasar hopes to allow investors to have greater control over their investments.

"Quasar's mainnet launch is expected to attract more liquidity providers and strategists looking to crowdsource interchain capital, while providing more yield opportunities for individual LPs," said Valentin Pletnev, lead and co-founder of Quasar Finance, in a statement.