M^ZERO is a next-generation DeFi(Decentralized Finance) platform that was founded by Luca Prosperi. The Berlin-based platform provides a decentralized infrastructure layer for digital assets value transfer. The firm has plans to become the first decentralized money middleware designed to facilitate on-chain interactions among substantial players. M^ZERO aims to bridge the gap between DeFi and TradFi(Traditional Finance) systems by continuously developing financial solutions with increased levels of security and transparency. The financial framework proposed by M^ZERO is set to institutional liquidity and interaction of asset providers in an on-chain manner. The solution will be rooted in an ecosystem that is managed and overseen by fully-decentralized and institutional-quality governance. To meet its objectives, M^ZERO has plans to launch its platform-native token that is a permissionless stablecoin backed by distributed US short-term government debt. Simply put, M^ZERO intends to replicate the success Visa, Mastercard and American Express have achieved for payments in Value distribution.
M^ZERO has recently raised $22.5 million in a seed fundraising round that was led by Pantera Capital and garnered participation from other investors like Road Capital, Standard Crypto, The Salt Fund and AirTree among other firms. The newly acquired funds will be used in facilitating the development of a decentralized infrastructure that allows institutional users to allocate assets on-chain and transfer value in a mechanism that implements complete transparency, composability and that is open-source while at the same time minimizing exposure to risk. The funds will also be utilized to aid ongoing product development. The firm has an objective to connect global financial system assets to decentralized services while offering optimized capabilities. Luca Prosperi, M^ZERO’s CEO, has expressed sentiments that shared on-chain governance will seamlessly with best-practice asset onboarding in a regulatory-friendly setup.
Pantera Capital is one of the firm institutions in crypto funding and began its operations in 2013 when the value of BTC(Bitcoin) was trading below $100. The platform had in the year 2022 revealed its plans to raise $1.25 billion for another crypto fund. While lauding M^ZERO’s efforts, Paul Veradittakit, a senior partner at Pantera Capital, said that the platform will be an open-source and neutral protocol where liquidity and collateral providers can freely meet in a decentralized market powered by blockchain. The venture capital also expressed its pride and satisfaction in leading the fundraiser event for M^ZERO.
In the year 2022, Centralized finance institutions were hit hard by bankruptcies and collapses leading to the evolution of DeFi. Since then, DeFi has become more institution-friendly and scalable. According to Mr. Prosperi, who was once a leading voice in MakerDAO ecosystem, M^ZERO will have its own governance token that will utilize a different model as opposed to other models like the ones implemented in open Discord channels and will instead be a consortium of sophisticated parties. The firm also undertaking research and development with the aim of designing a decentralized protocol. The platform is still in development and plans to go live by the end of this year.
