Blockchain
OpenDelta Raises $2.5 Million to Build Bitcoin-Based Stablecoin Using Runes
Bitcoin-focused stablecoin company OpenDelta has raised $2.15 million in a pre-seed round led by 6th Man Ventures, CEO Konstantin Wünscher told CoinDesk.
“We want to use Bitcoin to create stable value in a currency called fiat,” Wünscher said in an interview.
OpenDelta will settle in the newest green field for decentralized finance (DeFi) on top of the new Bitcoin trend, Runes.
During the April 19 Bitcoin halving, developer Casey Rodarmor created Runes, a way to let people do engrave fungible tokens on satoshis, the smallest unit of bitcoin (BTC). Since then, the DeFi-enabling novelty has exploded into a behemoth for Bitcoin transactions, according to Dune control Panel from Crypto Koryo.
OpenDelta’s flagship token, USDO, will retain its dollar value by protecting bitcoin (BTC) deposited by users as collateral. The token won’t go live until May, and even then, it will only be open to waitlists in a closed beta. But the company behind it plans to bring Runes to other Bitcoin levels as well.
The product will be profitable for its holders, Wünscher said. It will generate this upside from funding rates in the derivatives markets it trades in to maintain its dollar value. To mint USDO, users will deposit bitcoin as collateral into a wallet that will be controlled by “institutional-grade custodians,” according to a press release.
OpenDelta is among the first companies to build the new face of DeFi for Bitcoin in the Rune era. As Wünscher sees it, the kind of people who are deeply interested in Bitcoin (he sees himself as such) are not necessarily attuned to the norms and nonsense of Ethereum DeFi, he said.
“We can create new experiences on Bitcoin because people haven’t been pre-exposed to anything other than Bitcoin,” he said.