Secret Network Announces $400 Million in Ecosystem Funding Alongside Substantial New Investment from Leading Firms

DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, CoinFund, HashKey Acquire SCRT Positions; Secret Network Reveals $225M Ecosystem Fund and $175M Accelerator Pool

SCRT Labs, the core development team behind Secret Network, revealed $400M in ecosystem funding initiatives as part of Shockwave, a massive growth initiative aimed at establishing Secret Network as a critical pillar and data privacy hub for Web3. Secret Network is the first Layer 1 blockchain with privacy-preserving smart contracts, which launched on mainnet in 2020.

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“We are excited to become supporters of the Secret ecosystem and look forward to helping accelerate its global growth across all verticals and aspects.”

In addition, SCRT Labs announced that multiple top-tier investment firms have acquired SCRT positions and recently joined the Secret ecosystem as critical stakeholders and ecosystem fund participants: DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, CoinFund and HashKey.

The $400M in ecosystem funding is divided between two primary initiatives:

• a new $225M ecosystem fund comprised of contributions from over 25 existing ecosystem investors and partners, targeted at expanding Secret Network’s application layer (including DeFi and NFTs), network infrastructure, and tooling.
• a $175M accelerator pool funded in SCRT that is designed to provide non-dilutive capital, grants, and ecosystem incentives to rapidly expand user adoption.

This news follows Monday’s launch of the auctions for the highly-anticipated Tarantino NFTs, a collection of seven rare NFTs issued by Quentin Tarantino on Secret Network that has been covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and elsewhere. These Secret NFTs secure chapters from the original, never-before-seen handwritten Pulp Fiction screenplay as well as exclusive commentary from the award-winning director and screenwriter.

Firms that have recently acquired significant SCRT holdings and made commitments to the Secret Ecosystem Fund include DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, CoinFund, and HashKey. They will work alongside the Secret ecosystem to drive adoption of privacy-first Web3 technologies, unlocking the true promise of the decentralized web.

“Secret Network is the first mover and market leader in solving what is still a core need for Web3: data privacy for applications,” says Brian Lee, Partner at Alameda Research. “We are excited to become supporters of the Secret ecosystem and look forward to helping accelerate its global growth across all verticals and aspects.”

Secret has already seen substantial adoption across multiple verticals – including DeFi, NFTs, gaming/metaverse, and access control – with over $1.3B in historical trading volume on Secret DEXes like SecretSwap, thousands of active NFT collectors and creators on platforms like Stashh, and successful funding rounds for Secret Apps like Sienna Network, Altermail, and Shade Protocol. The ecosystem fund will help resource the next generation of superstar projects in the Secret ecosystem while amplifying support for existing projects and builders.

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“DeFiance is excited to support Secret Network, the only privacy-by-default smart contract blockchain that enables groundbreaking technologies like front-run resistant DEXes, Secret NFTs, and more,” says Arthur Cheong, Founding Partner at DeFiance Capital. “The Secret team has been relentless in working towards their mission since Enigma and we think that the ecosystem is now ready to tackle the next phase of growth.”

The $225M Secret Ecosystem Fund is led by SCRT Labs, the core development team supporting Secret Network, and features commitments from 25 partner organizations – all of whom hold a position in SCRT and/or have already invested in Secret’s application layer. Ecosystem fund participants will deploy capital across the Secret application ecosystem, providing substantial experience, guidance, and ongoing mentorship. All 25 partner organizations can be found in the complete announcement on the Secret Blog, including Hashed, Arrington Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Fenbushi Capital, and Terraform Labs.

“With a strong network of supporters and a passionate global community, Secret Network is now entering its most aggressive growth phase to date,” says Guy Zyskind, Founder and CEO of SCRT Labs. “Since our first whitepapers at MIT in 2015, we have worked tirelessly to bring data privacy to all blockchains. We now invite developers around the world to join us in our mission and to build the next generation of Secret Apps that will protect and empower millions of global users.”

In addition to the $225M Secret Ecosystem Fund, the $175M Accelerator Pool will be used to support critical growth initiatives across Secret DeFi, NFTs, gaming and metaverse, and other essential application verticals on Secret Network. Initiatives will target the core network metrics mentioned above, especially active usage, userbase, and TVL.

The Accelerator Pool will be a source of non-dilutive early stage funding in the form of grants to teams building applications, ecosystem tooling, and network-level improvements that support our ambitious growth goals. This funding is intended to be used as an initial foundation for developers before they turn to the Secret Ecosystem Fund and work towards global growth.

Grants have already been approved for over a dozen initiatives, including the development of the Secret NFT reference implementation, the Secret Monero Bridge, developer frameworks like Polar and Griptape, and many more.

Developers, teams, and organizations interested in the Secret Ecosystem Fund may get in contact via this interest form. Interested developers may submit applications and get more information about the grant program via the Grants area of the Secret Foundation GitHub repository.

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