"Building the YC of Stablecoins": Obex Secures $37 Million in Funding to Build Yield-Generating Stablecoin Infrastructure

Author: Krisztian Sandor

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

Web3 incubator Obex recently announced the completion of a $37 million financing round, led by Framework Ventures, LayerZero, and the Sky Ecosystem Fund. The funds will be used to develop a new generation of yield-bearing stablecoins.

The Obex incubator aims to invest in projects that bring RWA onto the blockchain and provide institutional-level risk control and underwriting standards for this rapidly developing market.

Obex will become Sky's latest capital allocator (formerly MakerDAO, which launched the DAI and USDS stablecoins with a total market value of $9 billion), using its large reserves to fund Sky's expansion and earning returns from projects through its strategies.

Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, stated in an interview: “The total market capitalization of stablecoins is approaching the trillion-dollar mark, but I believe the growth momentum of yield-bearing stablecoins will be even more rapid.”

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that maintain price stability by being pegged to external assets such as the US dollar. This category of tokens is rapidly evolving into a substantial asset class. Currently, stablecoins are primarily pegged to fiat currencies and government bonds, and they are increasingly being used for cross-border payments. Meanwhile, emerging categories of stablecoins are attempting to provide holders with more competitive returns through backend investment strategies.

Among the tokens known as “synthetic stablecoins”, the most notable is the USDe token issued by Ethena, which has a scale of 8 billion USD. This token creates profits for holders by maintaining a neutral trading position through holding spot cryptocurrencies while shorting equivalent derivatives.

However, the stability mechanisms of certain tokens may harbor risks, leading to their decoupling from the pegged price. Recently, the vulnerability attack on the decentralized protocol Balancer triggered contagion risks in the DeFi sector, resulting in a series of synthetic stablecoins, including Stream Finance's USDX and Elixir's deUSD, exhibiting decoupling phenomena.

The creation of Obex is precisely to avoid such stablecoin collapse events. Spencer pointed out that these incidents indicate that the stablecoin industry needs stricter regulation and a more robust technical foundation. “We cannot allow institutions to issue hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins only to let them collapse in an instant,” he emphasized, “The Sky platform has the infrastructure to safely enable these stablecoins to achieve scale expansion.”

The Obex incubation program will focus on stablecoins backed by high-quality RWA assets, primarily concentrating on three key areas: computing resources (such as tokenized GPU infrastructure), energy assets (including municipal-level solar and battery deployment projects), and loans aimed at large fintech companies (which, despite their size, often struggle to obtain traditional credit support).

Obex incubation will provide startup teams with 12 weeks of relevant services, offering funding, technology, and the opportunity to use Sky infrastructure.

Teams that pass the risk and governance review will be eligible for additional funding support from Sky. Sky recently approved a governance vote to invest up to $2.5 billion in USDS stablecoins into Obex.

Spencer referred to Obex as the “YC of stablecoins,” a metaphor that draws on the influential Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator. “In San Francisco, stablecoin advertisements are everywhere. We receive five to ten project proposals every day,” he said, “the industry is experiencing a vibrant growth momentum.”

Spencer added: “What is currently lacking is the infrastructure - to provide adequate support for these ideas, ensure their safety, and truly achieve scalability.”