Miden Secures $25 Million for Edge-Execution Blockchain
1min read A16z Crypto has led a $25 million investment round into miden, an independent blockchain project that was spun out of Polygon Labs. The seed round was also supported by 1kx, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, delta Fund, mh Ventures, and several angel investors, including MakerDAO’s Rune Christensen and EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan.
Miden is a blockchain project that leverages zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology to achieve high scalability. Its hybrid consensus mode allows for transaction execution on "edge devices," which refers to users’ devices, thereby moving the workload off the mainnet. This design is particularly appealing to institutions that prioritize confidentiality, as it enables both public and private transactions to be executed with full privacy.
Bobbin Threadbare, the co-founder of Miden and a former engineer at meta, highlighted the advantages of this approach. He noted that executing transactions on edge devices can alleviate the bottlenecks that limit traditional blockchain chains. This method allows blockchains to scale without relying on supernodes or compromising decentralization, while also making privacy a built-in feature rather than an afterthought.
The $25 million in funding will be used to support Miden’s development, with the mainnet launch scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025. Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of Polygon Labs, expressed his enthusiasm for Miden, stating that it represents the future of blockchain technology. He described Miden as not just an upgrade but a blueprint for the final form of blockchain architecture, thanks to its edge execution capabilities.
Ask Aime: "Did A16z Crypto's $25m investment in Miden (formerly Polygon Labs) make it a future blockchain winner?"
Nailwal also mentioned that Miden aims to compete with other high-performance blockchains like Solana, Sui, and Aptos, and to become the epicenter of cross-chain liquidity for Agglayer as a native chain. This independent development positions Miden to attract the necessary capital and focus to compete at the highest level. Additionally, Miden plans to airdrop around 10% of its native tokens to Polygon (POL) token holders and stakers to reward its native ecosystem.
Threadbare emphasized that no existing blockchain is currently ready for mass adoption due to limitations in privacy, scalability, or Web3-native principles such as censorship resistance. He believes that Miden’s infrastructure could serve as a catalyst for large institutional adoption, as it addresses the need for privacy solutions that comply with regulatory requirements. This gap in the market is significant, especially as large tech firms enter the space and require such solutions.
Other industry experts have also noted the lack of confidentiality in the blockchain industry, which has hindered institutional adoption. Confidential computing technologies, such as fully homomorphic encryption, could potentially unlock the next $1 trillion worth of capital for the crypto space with continued technological development, according to Remi Gai, the founder of Inco.
