Chronicle Secures $12 Million Seed Round to Expand Real-World Asset Integration

Chronicle, the pioneering oracle launched on Ethereum in 2017, has successfully secured a $12 million seed round. This funding, though modest, is significant for a protocol that already supports major decentralized stablecoins like Dai and USDS. The round was led by Strobe Ventures, with participation from notable firms and angels including Galaxy Vision Hill, Brevan Howard Digital, 6th Man Ventures, Robot Ventures, Gnosis Venture, Rune Christensen, Andre Cronje, and Stani Kulechov. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of the Chronicle network as the integration of real-world assets into the blockchain ecosystem gains momentum.

Chronicle's approach to scaling is deliberate and focused on quality over quantity. Co-founder Niklas Kunkel emphasized that the company is not in a race to secure as many protocols as possible but rather aims to support larger, higher-quality, long-term players. This cautious approach has been possible due to Chronicle's early development within the MakerDAO ecosystem, where it was spun out with a working product and did not require immediate funding. The core protocol was designed by early MakerDAO coders working on a predecessor to DAI called SAI, addressing the critical problem of securely bringing off-chain data on-chain.

After the dissolution of the Maker Foundation, Chronicle branched out as an independent entity to expand its use beyond DAI. The team developed Scribe, a proprietary cryptographic primitive designed to reduce the high computation costs associated with updating oracles. Chronicle officially launched its public product in September 2023, distinguishing itself through a hyper-focus on verifiability and transparency. Each validator in the Chronicle system reports all raw data and the computation process, embodying the DeFi ethos of "don't trust, verify."

Chronicle has processed over $20 billion in total value since its inception and has been integrated into top real-world asset (RWA) platforms such as Centrifuge, Midas, Superstate, and M^0, as well as DeFi protocols like Euler and Morpho. The project is now looking to expand deeper into traditional finance as institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Hamilton Lane increase their involvement in the blockchain space. Kunkel highlighted that tokenized assets are a major trend, with approximately $20 billion in on-chain real-world assets, including U.S. Treasurys, private credit, and real estate.

However, many of these on-chain products lack full trustlessness due to their reliance on issuers and custodians. Chronicle has been working on a solution to provide real-time, privileged, private read access to the underlying reserves of these tokenized assets, addressing the need for embedded trustlessness and transparency in DeFi protocols. Kunkel believes that this vertical will likely outscale DeFi within the next 12 months, positioning Chronicle as a key player in the integration of real-world assets into the blockchain ecosystem.