Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol, has successfully raised $4 million in a seed round led by Castle Island Ventures. The fundraising, structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, also saw participation from Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, Spartan Group, Breed VC, CMS Holdings, and Animoca Ventures. Notable angel investors included Alex Matthews and Ross Trachtman from Brevan Howard Digital, Marin Tvrdic from Lido, and Robinson Burkey from Wormhole Foundation.

Kintsu initially developed its liquid staking protocol on the Aleph Zero blockchain but has now shifted its focus to Monad. The protocol is set to launch within the first week of Monad's mainnet going live. Monad, an EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain, is highly anticipated with a mainnet launch expected later this year.

This announcement coincides with another Monad-based liquid staking protocol, aPriori, securing $10 million in funding led by Pantera Capital. Additionally, Kuru, an on-chain order book built on Monad, raised $2 million in a seed round led by Electric Capital.