A16z leads $25 million funding round for Miden blockchain project

A16z Crypto leads $25 million investment in Miden, an independent blockchain project spun out of Polygon Labs.

Miden has closed a $25 million seed round led by a16z Crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, Delta Fund, MH Ventures, and angel investors including MakerDAO’s Rune Christensen and EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan.

Miden is a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-driven blockchain focused on high scalability through its hybrid consensus model, which moves transaction execution from the mainnet on “edge devices” to user devices.

Designed for institutions that value confidentiality, Miden enables applications to execute public and private transactions with complete confidentiality, according to an April 29 announcement.

Bobbin Threadbare, co-founder of Miden and former engineer at Meta, said that execution on edge devices can help solve “bottlenecks that limit traditional chains,” adding: “It allows blockchains to scale without relying on supernodes or sacrificing decentralization, while making privacy a built-in feature rather than an afterthought.”

$25 million will be used to fund the development of Miden, whose mainnet is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Polygon Labs’ Nailwal says Miden is “the future of blockchain”

Polygon Labs founder Sandeep Nailwal said: “Miden is what the future of blockchain will look like. With edge execution at its core, it is not just an upgrade, but a blueprint for the final form of blockchain architecture.”

“Miden aims to be comparable to Solana, Sui, and Aptos, and to be the hub for cross-chain liquidity for Agglayer as a native chain, helping to grow the Agglayer ecosystem. Building independently will naturally allow Miden to attract the funding and focus needed to compete at the highest level,” Nailwal added.

Miden plans to airdrop about 10% of Miden’s native tokens to Polygon (POL) token holders and stakeholders to reward its native ecosystem.

Miden Co-Founder: Existing Blockchains Are Not Ready for Mass Adoption

According to Miden’s Threadbare, “the reality is that existing blockchains are not ready for mass adoption,” either lacking privacy, scalability, or Web3 native principles such as censorship resistance.

However, Miden’s infrastructure could be a “catalyst for large institutional adoption,” he added: “The reality is that blockchains, so far, have not provided privacy without compromising performance or programmability, and that’s a major problem.”

The co-founder added that regulatory-compliant privacy solutions are needed for large tech companies to join the space, leaving a huge gap for solutions like Miden.

Other industry observers have also criticized the industry’s lack of confidentiality, limiting institutional adoption.

Remi Gai, founder of Inco, said that as the technology continues to develop, confidential computing technologies such as fully homomorphic encryption could unlock the next $1 trillion worth of capital for the cryptocurrency space.