Pantera leads $29M funding for EigenLayer rival Symbiotic to expand staking play

Symbiotic, an Ethereum-based staking and restaking protocol positioned as a rival to EigenLayer, has raised $29 million in a Series A round led by Pantera Capital, with major participation from Coinbase Ventures and angels linked to leading DeFi and infrastructure projects including Aave, Polygon, StarkWare, ether.fi, and others. The round, structured as equity with token warrants, brings Symbiotic’s total funding to roughly $34.8 million when combined with its earlier seed round co-led by Paradigm and cyber•Fund. The raise was announced on April 23, 2025, following the January 2025 mainnet launch of Symbiotic’s permissionless restaking platform on Ethereum. Symbiotic is building a “universal staking” framework designed to broaden restaking beyond EigenLayer’s shared-security model by allowing any combination of assets (not just native tokens or ETH liquid staking tokens) to secure a wide range of networks and services, including Layer 1s, Layer 2s, bridges, oracles, data-availability layers, and AI/zero-knowledge processors. Instead of only focusing on shared security, the protocol aims to provide a modular, flexible crypto-economic coordination layer that can underwrite not only network security but also applications like insurance and other financial products. Since launch, Symbiotic has integrated with about 14 networks, with plans to expand to around 35 networks including Hyperlane, Spark, and Avail as it deploys the new capital. The funding will primarily be used to expand Symbiotic’s team, enhance its software development kits (SDKs) and tooling, and deepen cross-chain integrations, all of which are intended to make it easier for external networks and applications to plug into its staking framework. The raise underscores intensifying competition in the Ethereum restaking and shared-security sector, where EigenLayer is currently the dominant player, and highlights investor conviction that generalized, asset-agnostic staking layers could become key infrastructure for securing modular blockchains and related services. Symbiotic has also begun to feature in incentive programs such as Omni Foundation’s $10 million rewards initiative, which includes support for SolverNet users with Symbiotic, signaling early ecosystem adoption. "entities":["Symbiotic","Pantera Capital","Coinbase Ventures","EigenLayer","Aave","Polygon","StarkWare","ether.fi","Paradigm","cyber•Fund","Ethereum","Hyperlane","Spark","Avail","Omni Foundation","SolverNet"]}`

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• Pantera and Coinbase Ventures Co-Lead $29M Series a for Crypto ... (binance.com)
• Symbiotic raised $29M Series A Funding on Apr 23, 2025 ... (cypherhunter.com)
• Coinbase, Pantera back $29m raise for crypto staking protocol ... (crypto.news)
• News - Series A Funding | CryptoRank.io (cryptorank.io)

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