Corn raises $8.3 million in community funding to push Bitcoin’s use on its Ethereum Layer 2

Corn, an Ethereum Layer 2 network aiming to utilize Bitcoin within the decentralized finance ecosystem, has raised $8.3 million in a community funding round.

The round was raised through a compliant token sale platform called Legion and involved 675 investors alongside venture and investment firms, including Polychain, Amber, GSR, Presto, Laser Digital, and others.

Corn noted that VCs and community investors participated on the same terms. The funding round was oversubscribed, with demands exceeding the supply by seven times, drawing interest from over 4,200 investors.

While it's not fully operational yet, Corn aims to deepen Bitcoin's integration into the DeFi ecosystem by using it as a gas token through a new hybrid tokenized version called BTCN.

BTCN will be Corn’s tokenized Bitcoin that is backed 1:1 by native bitcoin and is not limited by a single custodian or bridging solution.

Corn will have its native token, CORN, to incentivize users and developers. Based on veTokenomics, Corn’s operating model requires users to lock their tokens to gain governance rights and participate in revenue sharing. Here, users can stake CORN to acquire popCORN, granting them governance rights and the ability to direct yields to network applications.

In August 2024, Corn announced a $6.7 million seed funding round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from notable investors like Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, and others. This round was aimed at facilitating the launch of the Corn ecosystem.

Corn is built on Arbitrum’s Nitro Stack — a Layer 2 scaling solution — and utilizes LayerZero for interoperability. Corn also secures itself by integrating with the restaking protocol Babylon.