Catalyst or popularly known as Cata Labs is a firm that develops DeFi(Decentralized Finance) infrastructure and more specifically offers a cross-chain liquidity platform built from the ground up for the future of modular chains. The platform’s infrastructure allows any chain’s liquidity to permissionlessly connect to that of another chain resulting in new app-specific chains that can automatically move transfer to and from any other chain from the first day. By offering permissionless liquidity, Catalyst is purpose-built-to connect all chains and enable access of any assets from anywhere. The platform was founded by Crypto veterans Alexander Lindgren and Jim Chang as an open-source protocol to move liquidity between modular chains and automatically swap with any chain including liquidity hubs like Ethereum and Cosmos.
On Wednesday, the company announced that it has secured $4.2 million in a seed funding round. The post-funding market valuation remains undisclosed but is estimated to be around the “mid-eight figure valuation”. The funding round was led by The Spartan Group and garnered participation form other venture capitals including Robot Ventures, Maven 11, Alchemy Ventures, HashKey Capital, Circle Ventures and Superscrypt among others.
Earlier on, I mentioned that Cata Labs offers liquidity solutions to modular chains, so what exactly is a modular chain? A modular chain is a new crypto concept that has resulted in blockchains made up of different modules that can be added as needed. The fact that each module serves a specific function means that the blockchain can be flexible and adaptable. These types of chains help improve scalability and customization of blockchain networks to meet a firm’s needs. Modular chains offer one major advantage that is, they are easier to deploy than traditional blockchains hence increasing the speed at which they are being launched and deployed. This advantage however has one major downside, without connection to traditional chains, these chains cannot do much hence Catalyst’s involvement in this sector is meant to dissolve this barrier by offering a global liquidity layer that allows for automatic cross-chain connection at the first day of launching the modular chains.
Another issue that Catalyst aims to solve is the emergence of roll-ups that provide liquidity and scaling for specific chains. The globe has yet to see a unified liquidity layer that allows crypto holders and users to trade native assets seamlessly in a cross-chain manner that is liquidity-efficient. Catalyst is therefore coming up with a fresh approach that offers a trust-minimized and unified liquidity layer for use rollups therefore, creating efficiency.
In addition to the benefits listed above, Cata Labs’ infrastructure offers a borderless blockchain connection that is secure by design, simple, decentralized and self-custodial. The firm has a mission to enable firms and users build the future with confidence that their projects will seamless and secure access to liquidity.
