UAE headquartered Cypher Capital, a crypto investment firm, has participated in the $3.5 million seed funding round for Echelon, an innovative decentralized lending protocol. The seed round attracted additional support from strategic partners including Amber Group, Laser Digital, Saison Capital, Selini Capital, Interop Ventures, and Re7. 

As per the press release, this investment demonstrates Cypher Capital’s commitment to supporting advanced solutions in decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain technology. Echelon aims to enhance DeFi lending by improving capital efficiency, integrating with other DeFi applications, and providing innovative yield strategies on Move-based blockchains such as Movement and Aptos.

“Echelon has demonstrated that their project is truly driving innovation in the DeFi space,” said Harsh Agarwal, Investment Lead at Cypher Capital “Echelon’s focus on capital efficiency, user-friendly design, and its potential to integrate real-world assets makes it a standout in the evolving DeFi landscape. We are excited to support their efforts in developing high-performance lending markets.”

Echelon’s protocol features advanced functionalities including increased borrowing power on correlated assets, isolated pools for niche asset markets, and direct in-wallet integration for streamlined yield strategies. The platform is designed to target institutional-grade markets while ensuring affordable borrowing rates and innovative yield opportunities.

“This funding will help us build additional lending and risk management products, expand to new networks, and provide global access to dollar denominated yields,” said Glen Rose, cofounder of Echelon. “We’re excited to build core primitives on high performance Move-based chains.” 

With the new funding, Echelon plans to enhance its offerings by developing strategies backed by treasury and real-world assets (RWAs), implementing cross-chain deposit vaults, and expanding its team of full-stack and smart contract engineers.