Hourglass is a web3 firm that offers the first protocol to provide comprehensive infrastructure for TBTs(Time-Bound Tokens). The Hourglass protocol is currently comprised of two components, that is, a platform for users to receive time-bound tokens for long-term staking and a marketplace for their native liquidity. Therefore, Hourglass has essentially released the first-ever marketplace for trading TBTs through a unique concept that tokenizes a user’s staked assets in a DeFi(Decentralized Finance) protocol based on its lock-up time period.
Recently Hourglass has secured $4.2 million in a seed funding round that was led by Electric Capital. Other backers in this financing round include Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Tribe Capital and Hack VC among other angel investors.
Hourglass marketplace launch came in the same week as Lido’s version 2 deployment. Lido is the second largest liquid staking platform in the DeFi space with a TVL(Total Value Locked) of more than $12 billion across the Ethereum ecosystem. Hourglass is set to tokenize Lido’s withdrawal queue and according to a statement released by the company, the lack of tokenization will otherwise clog the exit path for weeks or even months. The release company further noted that tokenization of its queue will allow users to trade their place in the queue for withdrawal of their staked Ether and in the meantime, gain liquidity.
According to Charlie Pyle, the founder of Hourglass, the idea behind the marketplace is to allow users to allow users to trade their place in line for withdrawal of locked assets, essentially transferring a user’s ownership of an asset that has been locked up in the protocol to another buyer. In a nutshell, you can basically take a time-bound token and transfer it to a buyer.
The company promises its users the opportunity to discover the future of DeFi liquidity with The Hourglass protocol. Users can access exceptional opportunities, trade staked positions and therefore, strengthen the crypto ecosystem.
Utilizing the protocol, users can maximize opportunity by accessing best market opportunities through the industry’s elite DeFi protocol, stay liquid and keep trading long-term staked positions freely while maintaining the ability to adapt to changing market conditions. This will eventually lead to DeFi stability and creation of a more robust and dependable DeFi landscape.
