Ethereum liquid restaking platform Kelp raises token round at $90 million valuation
Quick Take Kelp DAO has raised $9 million in a private token sale round. The round was closed at a $90 million FDV in March, co-founder Amitej Gajjala told The Block.
Kelp DAO, an Ethereum liquid restaking platform based on EigenLayer, has raised $9 million in a private token sale round.
SCB Limited, a proprietary trading firm based in the Bahamas, and Laser Digital (the crypto unit of Nomura Global) led the round with a combined $3.5 million investment, Kelp said Wednesday. Other investors in the round included Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Draper Dragon, DACM, Cypher Capital, GSR, HTX Ventures and DWF Ventures.
Angel investors, including Scott Moore of Gitcoin, Sam Kazemian of Frax Finance, Marc Zeller of Aave Chan Initiative, Saurabh Sharma of Jump Crypto and Amrit Kumar of AltLayer, also joined the round.
Kelp began raising for the private token round in February and closed it in March, co-founder Amitej Gajjala told The Block. The token's fully diluted valuation was set at $90 million in February, Gajjala said. He noted that this was the FDV when Kelp's total value locked was around $300 million. Since then, Kelp's TVL has grown to around $961 million, so the FDV "may increase" if Kelp were to raise a new round, but it isn't planning one for now, Gajjala said.
KELP token launch timeline
Kelp privately sold its yet-to-launch KELP token in the round, Gajjala said — adding that the DAO expects to launch the governance token "soon" and "is currently going through legal and exchange due diligence."
To be clear, the KELP token is not related to Kelp's KEP , a token representation of EigenLayer points, Gajjala noted. He added that Kelp recently paused KEP claims as "EigenLayer's snapshot logic makes it non-fungible. So it won't be available for claims anymore."
Those who already claimed KEP will get EigenLayer tokens, Gajjala said.
Kelp's expansion plans for Bitcoin, Solana and more
Kelp currently offers an Ethereum liquid restaking platform. With fresh funding in place, it plans to also launch liquid restaking services for other blockchains, including Bitcoin, Solana and BNB Chain, Gajjala said — adding that Kelp expects to launch "1-2 of these chains" in the third quarter of this year.
"We plan to enable native restaking on Kelp from Bitcoin Layer 2 networks," Gajjala said. "We are also evaluating building staking infrastructure on other chains like BNB Chain, Solana, etc. Some innovative solutions like restaking of synthetic Bitcoin/synthetic ETH (based on carry trade) are currently under assessment."
Gajjala and Kelp co-founder Dheeraj Borra also run a liquid staking platform called Stader Labs . Stader currently has a TVL of over $680 million, with the largest share coming from Polygon (MATIC) liquid staking at $504 million, according to DeFiLlama data .
If you want to stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends, I write a bimonthly newsletter called The Funding. It's free, and you can sign up for it here .
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
New spot margin trading pair — HOLO/USDT!
FUN drops by 32.34% within 24 hours as it faces a steep short-term downturn
- FUN plunged 32.34% in 24 hours to $0.008938, marking a 541.8% monthly loss amid prolonged bearish trends. - Technical breakdowns, elevated selling pressure, and forced liquidations highlight deteriorating market sentiment and risk-off behavior. - Analysts identify key support below $0.0080 as critical, with bearish momentum confirmed by RSI (<30) and MACD indicators. - A trend-following backtest strategy proposes short positions based on technical signals to capitalize on extended downward trajectories.

OPEN has dropped by 189.51% within 24 hours during a significant market pullback
- OPEN's price plummeted 189.51% in 24 hours to $0.8907, marking its largest intraday decline in history. - The token fell 3793.63% over 7 days, matching identical monthly and yearly declines, signaling severe bearish momentum. - Technical analysts cite broken support levels and lack of bullish catalysts as key drivers of the sustained sell-off. - Absence of stabilizing volume or reversal patterns leaves the market vulnerable to further downward pressure.

New spot margin trading pair — LINEA/USDT!
Trending news
MoreCrypto prices
More








