Spartan Capital leads $10 million strategic funding round for Bitcoin DeFi developer ALEX

Automated Liquidity Exchange (ALEX), the firm developing Bitcoin's finance layer, announced Tuesday it has raised $10 million in strategic funding.

Spartan Capital led the round, which saw additional participation from CMS Holdings, DACM, DWF Labs, Foresight Ventures, G-20 Group, Ouroboros Capital, Summer Capital, Cultur3 Capital and EVG, among others. ALEX's board of directors remains the same following the round, a company spokesperson told The Block. 

ALEX leverages Layer 2s, bridges, oracles and other infrastructure to create a Bitcoin-specific decentralized finance layer. ALEX intends to continue developing its finance layer on Stacks, a Bitcoin network Layer 2, with the fresh funding. 

"The recent funding significantly empowers us to continue our journey, enhancing DeFi's accessibility and usability worldwide," said ALEX co-founders Chiente Hsu and Rachel Yu in a statement. "With this investment, we're set to grow our team, further improve our platform's UI/UX and strengthen our business development strategies. These steps are crucial for us to broaden the Bitcoin economy's reach, moving closer to our goal of widespread financial inclusion."

ALEX’s total value locked is nearly $200 million, with total transaction volume exceeding $1.3 billion across 52,892 wallets, according to the firm’s website. The firm previously raised $2.5 million from Trust Machines, Gossamer Capital and others in March 2023, The Block previously reported.

ALEX's Chiente Hsu, who is also the company's CEO, holds a doctorate degree in econometrics and quantitative economics and previously served as the managing director and global head of quantitative investment strategy research at Morgan Stanley. Rachel Yu was the former executive director and head of China FI sales at JP Morgan.