A16z leads $25 million financing for Miden Blockchain project

Source: Cointelegraph Original: "A16z Leads $25 Million Financing for Miden Blockchain Project"

A16z Crypto led a $25 million investment in Miden, an independent blockchain project derived from Polygon Labs.

Miden has completed a $25 million seed round financing led by a16z Crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, Delta Fund, MH Ventures, and angel investors including Rune Christensen from MakerDAO and Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer.

Miden is a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-driven blockchain that focuses on high scalability through its hybrid consensus model, which shifts transaction execution from the mainnet on 'edge devices' to user devices.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on April 29, Miden is designed specifically for institutions that value confidentiality, allowing applications to execute public and private transactions in complete secrecy.

Miden's co-founder and former Meta engineer Bobbin Threadbare stated that executing on edge devices can help address the "bottlenecks that limit traditional chains," and added:

"It allows blockchain to scale without relying on supernodes or sacrificing decentralization, while making privacy a built-in feature rather than an afterthought."

$25 million will be used to fund the development of Miden, with its mainnet expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Naval from Polygon Labs said that Miden is "the future of blockchain."

Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of Polygon Labs, stated: "Miden is the future of blockchain. With edge execution at its core, it is not just an upgrade but a blueprint for the ultimate form of blockchain architecture."

Nailwal added: "Miden's goal is to become a company on par with Solana, Sui, and Aptos, and to be the center of cross-chain liquidity for Agglayer as a native chain, helping to develop the Agglayer ecosystem. Independent construction will naturally attract the necessary funding and focus for Miden to compete at the highest level."

The Miden plan aims to airdrop approximately 10% of Miden's native tokens to holders and stakers of Polygon (POL) tokens as a reward for its native ecosystem.

Miden Co-founder: The existing blockchain is not yet ready for mass adoption.

According to Miden's Threadbare, "The reality is that existing blockchains are not ready for mass adoption, either lacking privacy, scalability, or lacking Web3 native principles such as censorship resistance."

However, the infrastructure of Miden could be a "catalyst for large institutional adoption," he added:

"The reality is that, so far, blockchain has not provided privacy without compromising performance or programmability, which is a major issue."

The co-founder added that large tech companies entering the field need privacy solutions that meet regulatory requirements, which leaves a huge gap for solutions like Miden.

Inco: The Fourth Layer of the Blockchain Stack

Other industry observers also criticize the lack of confidentiality in the industry, which limits institutional adoption.

Remi Gai, the founder of Inco, told Cointelegraph that with the continuous development of technology, confidential computing technologies such as fully homomorphic encryption could unlock the next trillion-dollar capital in the cryptocurrency space.

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