By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
The new funding will help to bootstrap several DApps built on the Acala network thereby helping it become self-sufficient and self-sustainable.
On Wednesday, September 8, Polkadot-based DeFi Hub Acala announced a major breakthrough in its fundraise. Acala Treasury raised more than $61 million from more than 26,000 community members worldwide.
Currently, the funds are in the Acala Foundation and will later move to Acala’s Protocol DAO, the on-chain Acala Treasury, upon the launch of Acala on the Polkadot blockchain network. All the funds held on Polkadot’s DOT token will allow the network to become self-sustainable.
Furthermore, it will facilitate self-funding of future parachain slots on the Polkadot blockchain. The official announcement further notes that the funds will “enable the network itself to help bootstrap new DApps and protocols built on Acala’s DeFi smart contract platform, and enable the network to fund its own growth through various Treasury proposals voted on via Acala’s on-chain governance system”.
When Acala launches on the Polkadot blockchain, the network contributors will receive rewards in ACA tokens.
About the Acala Treasury
The Acala Treasury is a Protocol DAO funded through Acala’s protocol fees and community-contributed events. It works as a reserve for digital tokens that are native and foreign to the Acala ecosystem.
Post the recent funding, the Acala Treasury will hold healthy funds which will be useful towards several operations and economic activities of the network. This includes:
- Bootstrapping liquidity for DApps built on the Acala network
- Self-funding parachain slots on Polkadot
- Software and tool development
- Network security operations and enhancements
- Protocol operations and improvements
- community, marketing and event funding
Acala’s DeFi Smart Contract Platform
As said, Acala works as the DeFi and liquidity hub of the Polkadot blockchain network. It is also compatible with Ethereum’s smart contract platform optimized for DeFi. It also comes with built-in primitives and liquidity such as the Liquid DOT staking (LDOT), the Acala Dollar (aUSD) decentralized stablecoin, and the Acala Swap AMM-style DEX.
Besides, Acala’s engineering team has also configured a built Acala EVM+. This is to provide an environment similar to Ethereum along with an Ethereum-compatible experience for the DeFi users. All this is without compromising on power, speed, and customizability of Polkadot’s modular blockchain framework, Substrate. The announcement states:
Upon Acala’s upcoming network launch on Polkadot, any DApp team can deploy their EVM-based smart contracts onto the Acala EVM+ with minimal changes while using the same tooling they utilize in other Ethereum environments (MetaMask, Truffle, Waffle, etc.).
The development will allow DeFi teams to smoothly integrate with Acala and the entire Polkadot ecosystem. It will encourage thousands of users to join the Acala platform with billions in new TVL.