DeFi protocol raises $10M from Bitfinex, Ava Labs despite turbulent market

The prolonged market volatility has not stopped investors from backing a new protocol that merges DeFi and the foreign exchange market.

The ongoing crypto bear market has proven itself to be a builders market as investments continue to find projects with promise.

Onomy, a Cosmos blockchain-based ecosystem, just secured millions from investors for the development of its new protocol. The project merges decentralized finance (DeFi) and the foreign exchange market to bring the latter on-chain.

According to the developers, the latest funding round garnered $10 million from big industry players such as Bitfinex, Ava Labs, the Maker Foundation and CMS Holdings among others.

Lalo Bazzi, co-founder of Onomy, said the underlying goal of building a decentralized autonomous organization with a public infrastructure should serve the “core tenant of crypto — self-custody — without sacrificing on the user experience.”

Both DeFi and self-custody have been hot topics in the crypto community due to the FTX liquidity-bankruptcy scandal. Some experts have said that one of the major lessons to take away from the situation is the value of DeFi platforms compared to centralized gatekeepers.

Related: Bank for International Settlements will test DeFi implementation in forex CBDC markets

Forecasts for the near future of the industry have shown a mixture of another tough year while still holding investors’ interest.

According to a Coinbase-sponsored survey that was conducted between Sept. 21 and Oct. 27, institutional investors are still keen on the space. It revealed that 62% of surveyed institutional investors with crypto investments increased their positions in the past year.

On Nov. 9, just days into the FTX scandal, Cathie Wood of ARK Investment added an additional $12.1 million to the company’s existing shares in Coinbase. Additionally, banks continue to show interest in the industry, with JP Morgan using DeFi for cross-border transactions and BNY Mellon launching its own Digital Asset Custody Platform.

Still, some research predicts a continuation of tough conditions for the blockchain industry, which have the potential to last into the upcoming year.