WingRiders, the native Cardano decentralized exchange (“DEX”), has today announced the close of its seed and private funding round with a number of high-profile crypto investors – including giant Animoca Brands, Matrixport, Spark Digital Capital, Double Peak, and Bitrue.
WingRiders emerged from “stealth mode” in December 2021 with a fully working prototype deployed on the Cardano testnet. The company, has developed rapidly, and its deployment to the Cardano mainnet is imminent.
Commenting on the investment, Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said: “As the crypto space advances, it is important to support projects that have a bold vision and that add value to the infrastructure that makes the open metaverse interoperable. WingRiders is developing a platform with the goal to support the growth of the Cardano ecosystem by providing a safe and secure channel for the swap of tokens on the Cardano chain.”
Bitrue, the leading digital asset exchange, also participated in the round, and Bitrue CMO Adam O’Neill said: “We have listened to our community and they have asked us to keep working more and more in the Cardano space. We are already the first exchange to list Cardano native assets, and our investment in WingRiders is another move to support Cardano’s growing interest and future development. The WingRiders platform is powered by one of the largest names in the space, and will be a long term player in this industry. We are proud to partner with them.”
Dan Yan, Founding Partner and COO of Matrixport, Asia’s fastest growing digital assets financial services platform, added: “WingRiders is building a robust and high-performing DEX that aims to address a white space in the Cardano ecosystem. We are excited to partner with a team that has deep roots in the underlying technologies and a strong commitment to the community. We can expect further innovation that will make meaningful contributions towards the growth of the wider Cardano ecosystem.”
WingRiders will move to mainnet in the next few weeks, and once established, will release details of its Token Generation Event (“TGE”). The aim is for this to be underway within the first quarter of 2022. Speaking about the seed and private round, project spokesperson Kaaran Kalantari said. “It is really gratifying to see the support that our project has gathered in such a short time. With this announcement of our latest investors, it is possible to see the future potential of our platform, not just for Cardano, but for the crypto space as a whole. We have big players, and the faith of our backers is validation of that ambition.”
In addition to Animoca Brands and Bitrue, the rounds also included Spark Digital Capital, an Asia-based fund, Double Peak capital, and Singapore based Matrixport. Together, these five names form a star-studded initial round for the Cardano native DEX platform.