Echelon raises $3.5m to advance DeFi lending on Move-based blockchains

Decentralized lending protocol Echelon has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Amber Group and backed by several crypto venture capital firms.

The platform plans to use the fund to promote its decentralized finance ecosystem, according to details in a press release published on August 27.

Echelon will use the seed funding to expand its product offerings, grow its team, and implement treasury, cross-chain vaults, and real-world asset-backed strategies.

Eyes set on DeFi in the Move-based ecosystem

Echelon offers a money market platform for lending and borrowing crypto assets through non-custodial pools, allowing its clients to earn interest and increase their purchasing power by leveraging their assets.

Users on the decentralized lending platform can access these additional earning opportunities through staking and real-world assets.

Echelon wants to bring its products like DeFi and RWA to Aptos (APT) and other proof-of-stake blockchains built with the Move programming language. The Rust-based language has become increasingly popular in the smart contracts space since its use in Meta’s Diem project.

Sui (SUI) is another project that uses the Move programming language.

Echelon will also target Movement, a modular network of Move-based blockchains where developers can build interoperable dApps that bridge Move-based platforms and Ethereum (ETH) virtual machine ecosystems. Movement is Ethereum’s first Move-EVM layer-2 network.

Movement Labs raised $3.4 million in a pre-seed funding round, which went toward a software development kit targeting the web3 interoperability ecosystem.

In addition to Amber Group, Echelon’s seed funding round was also attended by several strategic partners including Laser Digital, Selini Capital, Interop Ventures, Saison Capital, and Re7.