Wormhole, a cross-chain protocol, secured a substantial $225 million investment, propelling its valuation to $2.5 billion in its latest funding round.
The funding round was spearheaded by prominent entities such as Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, ParaFi, Dialectic, Borderless Capital, and Arrington Capital, as revealed in an announcement on November 29.
Alongside this development, the Wormhole Foundation introduced Wormhole Labs, an independent technology entity solely dedicated to constructing tools, products, and reference implementations fostering cross-chain activity and development. The protocol, presently known for its capabilities in bridging assets, fueling oracle data sources, and facilitating non-fungible token transfers, stands as a cornerstone in blockchain-to-blockchain communication technology.
Initiated in 2021, Wormhole has facilitated transactions exceeding $35 billion to date. Developers behind the protocol claim it manages a staggering 2 million cross-chain messages per day, spanning across more than 30 different chains. In a setback earlier this year in February, Wormhole faced a breach due to an unauthorized minting failure on the Ethereum-Solana bridge, resulting in a loss exceeding $321 million. Subsequently, Jump Crypto, a venture capital firm, vowed to replenish the funds lost during the hack, surpassing $320 million.
Additionally, in May, investors within the former Terra ecosystem filed a lawsuit against Jump Trading, the high-frequency trading firm owning Jump Crypto. Allegations were made against the company and its CEO Kanav Kariya for purportedly manipulating the price of TerraUSD, aiming to amass an estimated $1.3 billion in profits. However, these allegations have yet to be substantiated in court.
