
The Middleware Thesis
TLDR:Building and using crypto remains painful b/c it requires direct interaction with base protocol layers (L1s) that have made technical and UX sacrifices to satisfy a pre-defined ethos (e.g. decentralization, scaling, etc).Modular architecture empowers builders to permissionlessly innovate and customize on behalf of users by creating abstractions on top of the base layer.The biggest unlock of modular won’t be general-purpose solutions (e.g. roll-ups), but rather use-case specific protocols...

The Web3 Growth Playbook
Interest in Web3 has exploded over the past twelve months. NBA superstars are paying six-figures for NFT's and proudly displaying them. OpenSea is doing more volume than Etsy. The fastest growing game in the world runs on Ethereum. While this surge in interest has driven new users into the space, usage of crypto products still dwarfs that of their predecessors. There are hundreds of Web2 apps and games with more than 10M monthly active users - Metamask is the only Web3 app at this scale....
Investing in Lagrange
We’re excited to announce our investment in Lagrange, which is building cross-chain State Proofs, allowing any user to prove cross-chain state without requiring intermediary bridges or messaging protocols. Cross-chain State Proofs aim at solving the fragmentation of contract state and liquidity across different chains, which has created inherent inefficiencies between instances of multi-chain DeFi applications. Since Lagrange State Proofs are purely cryptographic, they also provide an improve...

The Middleware Thesis
TLDR:Building and using crypto remains painful b/c it requires direct interaction with base protocol layers (L1s) that have made technical and UX sacrifices to satisfy a pre-defined ethos (e.g. decentralization, scaling, etc).Modular architecture empowers builders to permissionlessly innovate and customize on behalf of users by creating abstractions on top of the base layer.The biggest unlock of modular won’t be general-purpose solutions (e.g. roll-ups), but rather use-case specific protocols...

The Web3 Growth Playbook
Interest in Web3 has exploded over the past twelve months. NBA superstars are paying six-figures for NFT's and proudly displaying them. OpenSea is doing more volume than Etsy. The fastest growing game in the world runs on Ethereum. While this surge in interest has driven new users into the space, usage of crypto products still dwarfs that of their predecessors. There are hundreds of Web2 apps and games with more than 10M monthly active users - Metamask is the only Web3 app at this scale....
Investing in Lagrange
We’re excited to announce our investment in Lagrange, which is building cross-chain State Proofs, allowing any user to prove cross-chain state without requiring intermediary bridges or messaging protocols. Cross-chain State Proofs aim at solving the fragmentation of contract state and liquidity across different chains, which has created inherent inefficiencies between instances of multi-chain DeFi applications. Since Lagrange State Proofs are purely cryptographic, they also provide an improve...

Subscribe to Lattice

Subscribe to Lattice
Share Dialog
Share Dialog

We're excited to announce that we've co-led a $2M round into xToken, alongside their existing investors. xToken is an on-chain asset management platform that offers passive and composable DEFi strategies. Their initial product focused on liquid staking derivatives of popular ERC20 tokens, but they've since expanded into Uniswap V3 LP strategies (and so much more!)
We believe that xToken is on the path to becoming a fully integrated DeFi Protocol that will allow people to leverage their assets in the most liquid and flexible way possible. I've known Michael, xToken's founder and Project Lead, for more than a year and a half and have been blown away by how much the project has grown since then. We're excited to get even more deeply involved in the community.
As DeFi has grown 100x in size over the last two years, it has also grown in complexity. Users can stake popular DeFi tokens like AAVE and KNC to help manage risk and govern those networks, but the staking process is not always straightforward. Users often to have manually claim (and re-stake) staking rewards, and staked tokens tend to be illiquid and not composable. Meanwhile, xToken's staking strategies like xAAVE and xKNC are set-and-forget, auto-compounding solutions that are liquid and composable.
xToken is in the early innings of building an ecosystem around their staking strategies, but we believe that the ultimate output will be a platform that gives people maximum liquidity and flexibility for staked ERC20 tokens. As an example, xToken Lending (launching soon!) will be the only place that users can earn both staking yield and interest from lending out AAVE (while also being able to borrow against it).
xToken's journey has not always been a smooth path - xToken has had a major hack and is still in the process of rebuilding trust in the product. However, the community and team have been incredibly resilient and we believe that this solidarity will provide a meaningful moat for xToken going forward.
We're thrilled to partner with Michael and the xToken team and community on the path to building the next great DeFi Platform.

We're excited to announce that we've co-led a $2M round into xToken, alongside their existing investors. xToken is an on-chain asset management platform that offers passive and composable DEFi strategies. Their initial product focused on liquid staking derivatives of popular ERC20 tokens, but they've since expanded into Uniswap V3 LP strategies (and so much more!)
We believe that xToken is on the path to becoming a fully integrated DeFi Protocol that will allow people to leverage their assets in the most liquid and flexible way possible. I've known Michael, xToken's founder and Project Lead, for more than a year and a half and have been blown away by how much the project has grown since then. We're excited to get even more deeply involved in the community.
As DeFi has grown 100x in size over the last two years, it has also grown in complexity. Users can stake popular DeFi tokens like AAVE and KNC to help manage risk and govern those networks, but the staking process is not always straightforward. Users often to have manually claim (and re-stake) staking rewards, and staked tokens tend to be illiquid and not composable. Meanwhile, xToken's staking strategies like xAAVE and xKNC are set-and-forget, auto-compounding solutions that are liquid and composable.
xToken is in the early innings of building an ecosystem around their staking strategies, but we believe that the ultimate output will be a platform that gives people maximum liquidity and flexibility for staked ERC20 tokens. As an example, xToken Lending (launching soon!) will be the only place that users can earn both staking yield and interest from lending out AAVE (while also being able to borrow against it).
xToken's journey has not always been a smooth path - xToken has had a major hack and is still in the process of rebuilding trust in the product. However, the community and team have been incredibly resilient and we believe that this solidarity will provide a meaningful moat for xToken going forward.
We're thrilled to partner with Michael and the xToken team and community on the path to building the next great DeFi Platform.
<100 subscribers
<100 subscribers
No activity yet