We’re excited to share that Frontera Labs Inc. building Strata Protocol has raised a $3 million seed round, led by Maven11, with Lightspeed Faction as a major investor and participation from Halo Capital, Heartcore Capital, Anchorage Digital Ventures, Nayt Technologies, Split Capital and angel investors across the ecosystem.

This raise will help us bring on-chain yields to a wider audience with the next generation of structured yield products engineered for tailored risk-reward.

DeFi is shifting from being supply-led to demand-driven as capital allocators increasingly require risk-optimized yields that reflect their diverse risk appetites and return expectations, which a single yield product cannot effectively serve.

Strata is purpose-built to deliver structured yields across any on-chain or off-chain strategy by segmenting risk into distinct senior and junior tranches, each designed to match the risk-return profile of different investor types. Risk-tranching enables on-chain allocators to deploy capital across multiple assets and strategies along the risk–reward spectrum, transferring risk to users willing to take higher risk for greater returns, while senior tranche holders earn safer, yet high yields. 

This tranching model unlocks targeted risk exposure, improves capital efficiency, and enhances risk-return pricing while catalyzing the growth of underlying yield strategy, creating a more inclusive, scalable, and institution ready yield ecosystem.

Strata was born out of an acceleration with Ethena Labs, where the Ethena Foundation backed us before there was even a product—just conviction in the idea and in our team. Ethena’s early belief helped shape Strata from concept to reality, providing not only capital but also hands-on support across BD, growth, operations, technical development, and legal guidance. 

Strata introduced its first structured yield products built on Ethena’s USDe on Ethereum mainnet in October 2025. By pairing a purpose-built design for the evolving demand of on-chain yields with Ethena’s proven yield engine, Strata now exceeds $210M in TVL, offering users the safest way to access USDe yield through the senior tranche and the opportunity to earn >20% APY via the junior tranche.

Strata’s tokenized tranches are already integrated across the DeFi ecosystem, including Pendle, Morpho, Euler etc. and are expected to be listed as collateral on Aave pending ongoing governance approval.

Strata is a generalized risk-tranching protocol that brings structured yield products to any on-chain or off-chain yield strategy by splitting yield into tokenized senior and junior tranches, each tailored to distinct risk–reward profiles. 

Senior tranche is essentially an over-collateralized, yield-bearing asset that offers minimum guaranteed yield at a benchmark rate and is protected against underlying counterparty credit risk, with coverage provided by the junior tranche. It is designed for risk-averse investors looking for safer, more predictable yields on digital dollars that outperform T-bill rates, Aave lending yield, Sky Savings etc. where conservative capital in DeFi typically resides today.

Junior tranche is a liquid investment product and serves as a market-priced insurance fund that underwrites underlying strategy’s underperformance against the benchmark rate and counterparty credit risk. It is well-suited for users with a more aggressive risk profile, including DeFi-native power users, hedge funds, and yield farmers who seek higher yields and have a slightly higher risk tolerance.

Strata’s dual-token design introduces a meaningful shift in risk management by splitting yield and risk exposure into distinct senior and junior tranches. By transforming the underlying yield strategy into risk-tiered tranches, allowing different types of investors to access yield based on their risk appetite, Strata is redefining how on-chain or off-chain yield is accessed, managed, and scaled across DeFi.

Strata’s modular, chain-agnostic architecture enables expansion beyond USDe into a wide range of USD and non-USD assets and strategies across multiple ecosystems, including managed yield vaults, RWAs etc. as it evolves into the default chassis for the next generation of on-chain structured yield products, and its risk-tranching protocol becomes the engine that powers them. If you are keen to work/partner with us, reach out via X, Telegram or Discord, and check out our Docs.

Our backers include top-tier venture firms, institutional fund managers, custodians, researchers, and traders across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This investor diversification and strategic alignment directly strengthens Strata’s growth and distribution strategy. This funding enables us to scale our team and accelerate our mission to democratize on-chain yields by enhancing the platform's capabilities to build structured yield products on diverse on-chain and off-chain strategies across multiple ecosystems.

With more capital flowing on-chain, secure, transparent, and purpose-built yield products are now essential. This is how we unlock DeFi for the world — by ensuring it’s built for everyone.

And we’re just getting started. Let’s keep tranching on.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always conduct your own research and consider your risk tolerance before participating in DeFi protocols. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Join us as we build the next era of DeFi.

Docs          Twitter / X        Discord     Telegram

We’re excited to share that Frontera Labs Inc. building Strata Protocol has raised a $3 million seed round, led by Maven11, with Lightspeed Faction as a major investor and participation from Halo Capital, Heartcore Capital, Anchorage Digital Ventures, Nayt Technologies, Split Capital and angel investors across the ecosystem.

This raise will help us bring on-chain yields to a wider audience with the next generation of structured yield products engineered for tailored risk-reward.

DeFi is shifting from being supply-led to demand-driven as capital allocators increasingly require risk-optimized yields that reflect their diverse risk appetites and return expectations, which a single yield product cannot effectively serve.

Strata is purpose-built to deliver structured yields across any on-chain or off-chain strategy by segmenting risk into distinct senior and junior tranches, each designed to match the risk-return profile of different investor types. Risk-tranching enables on-chain allocators to deploy capital across multiple assets and strategies along the risk–reward spectrum, transferring risk to users willing to take higher risk for greater returns, while senior tranche holders earn safer, yet high yields. 

This tranching model unlocks targeted risk exposure, improves capital efficiency, and enhances risk-return pricing while catalyzing the growth of underlying yield strategy, creating a more inclusive, scalable, and institution ready yield ecosystem.

Strata was born out of an acceleration with Ethena Labs, where the Ethena Foundation backed us before there was even a product—just conviction in the idea and in our team. Ethena’s early belief helped shape Strata from concept to reality, providing not only capital but also hands-on support across BD, growth, operations, technical development, and legal guidance. 

Strata introduced its first structured yield products built on Ethena’s USDe on Ethereum mainnet in October 2025. By pairing a purpose-built design for the evolving demand of on-chain yields with Ethena’s proven yield engine, Strata now exceeds $210M in TVL, offering users the safest way to access USDe yield through the senior tranche and the opportunity to earn >20% APY via the junior tranche.

Strata’s tokenized tranches are already integrated across the DeFi ecosystem, including Pendle, Morpho, Euler etc. and are expected to be listed as collateral on Aave pending ongoing governance approval.

Strata is a generalized risk-tranching protocol that brings structured yield products to any on-chain or off-chain yield strategy by splitting yield into tokenized senior and junior tranches, each tailored to distinct risk–reward profiles. 

Senior tranche is essentially an over-collateralized, yield-bearing asset that offers minimum guaranteed yield at a benchmark rate and is protected against underlying counterparty credit risk, with coverage provided by the junior tranche. It is designed for risk-averse investors looking for safer, more predictable yields on digital dollars that outperform T-bill rates, Aave lending yield, Sky Savings etc. where conservative capital in DeFi typically resides today.

Junior tranche is a liquid investment product and serves as a market-priced insurance fund that underwrites underlying strategy’s underperformance against the benchmark rate and counterparty credit risk. It is well-suited for users with a more aggressive risk profile, including DeFi-native power users, hedge funds, and yield farmers who seek higher yields and have a slightly higher risk tolerance.

Strata’s dual-token design introduces a meaningful shift in risk management by splitting yield and risk exposure into distinct senior and junior tranches. By transforming the underlying yield strategy into risk-tiered tranches, allowing different types of investors to access yield based on their risk appetite, Strata is redefining how on-chain or off-chain yield is accessed, managed, and scaled across DeFi.

Strata’s modular, chain-agnostic architecture enables expansion beyond USDe into a wide range of USD and non-USD assets and strategies across multiple ecosystems, including managed yield vaults, RWAs etc. as it evolves into the default chassis for the next generation of on-chain structured yield products, and its risk-tranching protocol becomes the engine that powers them. If you are keen to work/partner with us, reach out via X, Telegram or Discord, and check out our Docs.

Our backers include top-tier venture firms, institutional fund managers, custodians, researchers, and traders across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This investor diversification and strategic alignment directly strengthens Strata’s growth and distribution strategy. This funding enables us to scale our team and accelerate our mission to democratize on-chain yields by enhancing the platform's capabilities to build structured yield products on diverse on-chain and off-chain strategies across multiple ecosystems.

With more capital flowing on-chain, secure, transparent, and purpose-built yield products are now essential. This is how we unlock DeFi for the world — by ensuring it’s built for everyone.

And we’re just getting started. Let’s keep tranching on.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always conduct your own research and consider your risk tolerance before participating in DeFi protocols. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Join us as we build the next era of DeFi.

Docs          Twitter / X        Discord     Telegram