LayerZero Labs, the company behind the LayerZero interoperability protocol, has raised $135 million in a Series A+ funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. Other participants included Uniswap Labs, Paypal Ventures, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures. The new financing brings the company’s valuation to $1 billion, giving it unicorn status.
Fresh capital targets cross-chain application growth
According to the announcement, the proceeds will be used to support the development of cross-chain decentralized applications built on LayerZero. Co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino said the round marks a major step forward not only for LayerZero Labs, but also for the broader interoperability sector, as the company aims to build a generic messaging layer that can serve as infrastructure for communication across blockchains.
As blockchain ecosystems become increasingly multi-chain, interoperability tools are gaining strategic importance. LayerZero focuses on generic messaging rather than simple token transfers, with the broader goal of enabling smart contracts on one chain to interact with and leverage another chain’s network in a seamless way. That approach positions the protocol as infrastructure for a more composable blockchain environment.
Stargate Finance posts early traction
LayerZero Labs recently launched Stargate Finance, a cross-chain liquidity transfer protocol powered by LayerZero’s messaging technology. The company said Stargate had already surpassed $3.4 billion in assets secured and processed more than $264 million in transfers over LayerZero after launch. Stargate currently operates across seven blockchains: Arbitrum, Optimism, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Avalanche, Fantom, and Polygon.
FTX Ventures investor Ramnik Arora said composability is one of blockchain’s defining characteristics and argued that LayerZero helps unlock that value. In his view, the protocol enables smart contracts on one chain to securely tap into another chain’s network, increasing the usefulness of the broader blockchain ecosystem.
Cross-chain infrastructure remains a major theme
Cross-chain technology has expanded rapidly over the past year, with major DeFi applications such as Curve Finance, Lido, Uniswap, Sushiswap, and Anchor operating across multiple networks. At the time referenced in the report, total value locked across bridges connecting to Ethereum stood at $21.63 billion.
The combination of large venture backing and growing usage metrics suggests that interoperability infrastructure is becoming a core battleground in crypto. LayerZero Labs’ latest raise underscores continued investor conviction that cross-chain messaging and liquidity movement will remain central to the next phase of blockchain development.