Templar Protocol Secures $4 Million for Decentralized Bitcoin Lending

Templar Protocol, a startup focused on developing a decentralized lending platform for Bitcoin and other digital assets, has successfully completed a $4 million Pre-Seed funding round. This round was led by Robot Ventures, with additional participation from several strategic investors, including Digital Asset Capital Management, Proximity Labs, Blackdragon Capital, and the NEAR Protocol.

The funding will be used to accelerate product development and hiring, furthering Templar’s mission to enable users to borrow dollars against their Bitcoin without relying on centralized institutions. The current landscape of Bitcoin lending solutions often requires users to surrender their Bitcoin to centralized custodians, which introduces risks of seizure, censorship, and counterparty failure. Templar’s Cypher Lending Protocol aims to address these issues by leveraging multi-party computation (MPC) networks and open-source smart contracts built on the NEAR blockchain. This approach ensures that borrowers retain full control of their collateral without the need for trusted third parties, aligning with the original vision proposed by Cypherpunk legend Nick Szabo.

Templar’s platform allows borrowers to access dollar liquidity without compromising privacy, ease of use, or incurring a taxable event in most western jurisdictions. Unlike traditional methods that require smart contract wallets or centralized intermediaries, Templar’s solution is permissionless and decentralized. Users simply send their Bitcoin collateral to a deposit address and provide a stablecoin address to receive their loan, eliminating the need for centralized custody.

The funding round was also supported by strategic angels, including Zaki Manian, Will Price, Loi Luu, Yessin Schiegg, and Sam Kazemian. These investors share Templar’s vision of empowering users to be their own banks, free from the constraints of centralized institutions. Royal Fool, the pseudonymous Co-Founder and CEO of Templar Labs, emphasized the personal motivation behind the project, stating that Templar is building a product to solve trust issues faced by Bitcoin holders and to provide a user-friendly alternative to existing solutions.

Richard Galvin, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset Capital Management, highlighted the untapped potential in DeFi for lending native Bitcoin without the risks associated with wrapping or third-party custodial services. Templar’s solution, leveraging NEAR’s technology, aims to bring a permissionless, decentralized lending protocol that preserves user ownership and control. Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol and CEO of the NEAR Foundation, echoed this sentiment, noting that Templar’s approach to multichain lending for Bitcoin and other crypto assets is a significant advancement for DeFi and Web3.

With the newly raised capital, Templar plans to accelerate its development roadmap and launch the protocol in the second quarter of 2025. Future plans include expanding support for additional assets and enhancing privacy features, such as differential privacy and Zero Knowledge Proofs. Templar’s ultimate goal is to drive broader adoption of its protocol among Bitcoin holders and the wider crypto community, proving that individuals can access liquidity and lending services without compromising their freedom, privacy, or ease of use.