In a seed fundraising round, Glif, a liquid leasing platform for Filecoin FIL +0.34% holders and storage providers, raised $4.5 million.
According to Glif on Tuesday, Multicoin Capital led the funding round, which also included participation from Zee Prime Capital, Fintech Collective, Big Brain Holdings, Protocol Labs, and other investors. A representative for the crypto venture capital firm Multicoin told The Block that this is the company’s first transaction within the Filecoin ecosystem.
The round was closed by Glif in November of last year; creator and CEO Jonathan Schwartz told The Block that the deal was set up as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, but he would not elaborate on the valuation.
Glif: What is it?
Filfox research indicates that Glif is presently the largest protocol in the Filecoin ecosystem, with a total value locked of over $139 million. By putting tokens into its system, Glif allows miners and storage providers, as well as owners of Filecoin tokens, to get paid. Glif is similar to a liquid staking platform in terms of mechanics, while Filecoin is referred to as a liquid leasing protocol because it is not a proof-of-stake network.
According to a statement from Multicoin Capital managing partner Kyle Samani, “Glif is to Filecoin as Lido is to Ethereum or Jito is to Solana — a cornerstone to the Filecoin network’s DeFi ecosystem and its capital efficiency.” “The traction that Glif has achieved is astounding. In all of crypto, it is one of the DeFi protocols with the quickest growth. We anticipate Glif to continue its exponential growth over the next couple of years, and to renew attention in the Filecoin
March 2023 saw the release of the Glif protocol, which came about soon after Filecoin built its own virtual machine to support smart contracts and provide it access to the world of decentralized applications.
Since its creation in 2019, Glif has developed tools and applications for Filecoin before releasing the system. Along with other Filecoin tools and infrastructure, Glif claims to have created the first Filecoin notary service and the first Filecoin wallet, which was the Filecoin multisig wallet utilized for the Filecoin initial coin offering distribution.
Glif hopes to leverage new capital to lock in a total value of over $495 million at current pricing, or 100 million in FIL leases.
Launch of tokens and Glif reward points
In late Q1 2024, Glif plans to introduce a rewards program that will provide users points.
Glif users must create iFIL tokens, which are Glif’s native liquid leasing token, and deposit FIL in order to be eligible to earn points.
Although a source with intimate knowledge of the situation stated that the protocol will reward users based on both past and future action, Glif did not specify whether points would be awarded based on past or future behavior. “Glif points will be awarded historically based on the amount of rewards received by liquidity providers, and by the amount of rental fees paid by storage providers,” stated a source. “This same strategy will be used to reward future activity as well.”
When asked if those points would ever be exchanged for Glif’s native token, the source said that they will be used to decide how many tokens will be given out as an airdrop to users initially.
According to the source, Glif intends to introduce a “governance token” that will function similarly to previous “vote escrowed” governance token schemes, such as veCRV.
Crypto projects are using points more and more to reward devoted users. According to a recent analysis by The Block, cryptocurrency projects have awarded 40 billion reward points thus far.
