Bitcoin-based DeFi protocol Sovryn raises $10 million in a token sale

Sovryn, a bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for trading and lending, has raised $10 million in a token sale.

Sovryn said its "governance token" SOV was on sale, each for 9,736 satoshis, i.e., 0.00009736 bitcoin, or around $5.

That means Sovryn collected 200 bitcoin through the sale, co-founder Edan Yago told The Block. Given that bitcoin's price is volatile, the collected amount could rise or fall in the future.

Yago said the raised funds will be kept in the protocol's treasury, and the community will decide how to utilize them.

Sovryn today also launched a bug bounty program worth up to $1.25 million via a bug bounty platform called Immunefi. The protocol looks to reward white hat hackers for identifying "critical bugs" relating to its smart contracts.

Sovryn went live last December and currently has 4,000 active addresses, Yago told The Block. The protocol's volume and total value locked data aren't known yet. Yago said analytics tools around Sovryn's data are currently being rolled out.

The token sale round brings Sovryn's total funding to date to $16 million. Earlier this year, the protocol raised $2.5 million in a token sale, previously $2.1 million from venture firms, and "additional smaller sales in the interim on a strategic basis," Yago told The Block.