Parachain auction winner Acala Network has launched a $250 million fund to fuel the adoption of Acala USD (aUSD) as the dominant stablecoin for the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem respectively.
As unveiled by the blockchain protocol, the funding round came as a result of the collaboration between the top 9 known parachain protocols as well as prominent names in the digital currency ecosystem.
The $250 million commitment was pulled by notable investors in the crypto industry including Alameda Research, Arrington Capital, Digital Currency Group, IOSG, Jump Crypto, Kraken Ventures, and Pantera Capital, among others. The fund will be used in supporting protocols that are built on either Polkadot or Kusama, but which has the right use cases on how stablecoins and most importantly, the aUSD can be integrated across the board.
“Building the native, decentralized stablecoin of Polkadot and Kusama has been at the heart of Acala’s work for over three years,” said Acala co-founder Bette Chen. “It is fantastic to see this group of parachains and funds coming together to grow the cross-chain ecosystem with aUSD as a foundational building block.”
Acala Network, tasked with the creation of a native stablecoin for the Polkadot ecosystem, came off as the first protocol to win the Polkadot auction slot as announced back in November last year. The aUSD Ecosystem fund has a number of primary goals including to help “grow the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem through increased cross-chain activity and growth of Polkadot’s native stablecoin, aUSD.”
Just as the name implies, the only listed qualifying projects include early-stage startups building on Polkadot and Kusama, but with a strong focus on driving the growth and utility of aUSD. Acala Network named Astar Network, Centrifuge, Efinity, HydraDX, Manta, Moonbeam, OriginTrail, Parallel, and Zeitgeist as the parachain protocols that supported the emergence of the ecosystem fund.
Beyond Acala which is streamlined to Polkadot, a number of venture capital firms have been floating funds to back innovative projects in the broader digital currency ecosystem, a trend that is likely to pick up massive momentum in the near future.
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