Polygon, Solana, Algorand Join $50M Cross-Chain Fund

The organizations behind Algorand (ALGO), Solana (SOL), and Polygon (MATIC) have joined forces to create a new 50 million USD cross-chain investment fund.

The fund manager, Borderless Capital, launched the Cross-Chain Ecosystem Investment Fund on Thursday. It is focused on investing in startups that leverage the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol.

Borderless Backs Cross-Chain Developers

The Algorand Foundation, the Solana Foundation, and Polygon Ventures are all participating in the fund. Other investors include Aptos Labs, Circle, Jump Crypto, and a number of key players in the space.

Together, participants in Borderless’ new fund represent major stakeholders in some of the most popular blockchains today. By teaming up in the name of cross-chain interoperability, participants are signaling their willingness to collaborate on projects that span diverse networks.

Dan Reecer, Head of Operations at Wormhole Foundation, commented:

“Crypto is still a nascent industry with essentially limitless growth opportunity, and we should be doing nothing but working together, regardless of which specific networks individuals may be more passionate about,”

Wormhole has invited startups to apply for investment on its website.

What is Wormhole?

Wormhole is a cross-chain messaging protocol designed to power Web3 applications. It connects liquidity and users across over 20 of the leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases spanning DeFi, NFTs, gaming and more.

As one of the most popular interoperability frameworks, Wormhole has been used by the likes of Circle and Uniswap to bridge tokens from one blockchain to another. According to a press release, Wormhole has already powered the transfer of over 35 billion dollars worth of tokens.

A variety of cross-chain applications have also been built using the platform.

Security Needed in Cross-Chain Development

Cross-chain messaging protocols like Wormhole propose a more connected future for today’s fragmented blockchain ecosystem. But to date, security issues have plagued crypto bridges. Hackers have taken hundreds of millions of dollars as a result.

For example, Wormhole’s Ethereum–Solana bridge was exploited to the tune of 120,000 wrapped ETH (wETH) in February 2022.

But to their credit, Wormhole’s backers stepped in to replace the stolen funds. And after the venture capital firm behind the project coughed up the missing crypto, Wormhole launched a major bug bounty program to help prevent future exploits.

Within months, the program had proved its worth. And in May, Wormhole awarded 10 million USD to the white hat hacker Satya0x for uncovering another critical vulnerability. 

Going forward, if Wormhole is to become the cross-chain messaging standard of choice for blockchain developers, it must continue emphasizing security. Especially considering the competition from alternative solutions such as Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).

Finally, with the advent of the new investment vehicle, crypto developers have more incentive to solve Wormhole’s cross-chain security challenges.