Panther Protocol, a provider of privacy-enhancing technologies for the decentralized financial industry (DeFi), has completed a public sale to further develop privacy solutions for DeFi and Web 3.0.
Banter announced to Cointelegraph on Thursday that they have raised $ 22 million in a recent public sale of ZKP tokens, bringing the total to $ 32 million.
As of Tuesday, the public sale of the Panther protocol has ended in less than 90 minutes, as previously announced by Project Panther.
The Panther protocol was launched in the third quarter of 2020, using zk-SNARKs, a new form of zero-knowledge encryption used on popular privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Zcash (ZEC). The acronym zk-SNARK stands for Zero Knowledge Concise Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge, and refers to a situation where possession of certain information can be demonstrated without disclosing that information.
Panther builds on several blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Flare, Near and Avalanche, and develops a consistent privacy layer for DeFi and Web 3.0. The protocol uses zAssets, secured 1: 1 representations of the underlying assets, and gives users the benefits of private transactions in a new type of asset.
As previously announced by Panther, the protocol’s public sales accounted for 5% of total ZKP shipments with “variable unlock plans.” Fifteen percent of the total offer was sold through pre-seeding and seeding and three consecutive rounds of private sales. According to Panther, the protocol has raised $ 10 million in private funding.
Some so-called investors, who were willing to bid $ 22 million for the Panther publicly, complained that they were unable to continue paying.
“The shocking support for the dispute was on the page for 90 minutes, and it did not allow me to make any payments because the buttons did not work, and then no one responded to the dispute in an hour,” said a potential investor.
The Panther project did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
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Amid significant growth in the broader cryptocurrency markets, the DeFi industry has continued to explode this year, with the total value recorded across all DeFi protocols reaching a new all-time high in early November, exceeding $ 270 billion.
Source: DeFi Llama
In line with the growing popularity of DeFi, industrial projects are increasingly working with privacy solutions. According to Paulo Gueda, chief investment officer at Blockchain Valley Ventures, privacy is the biggest problem holding back DeFi.
