<p>Crypto market maker Alameda Research has acquihired Ren — the DeFi project behind the development of tokenized bitcoin renBTC.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/renproject/ren-alameda-90a8f471b323">The news means</a> Ren's core development team, around 10 to 20 people, will join Alameda, Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told The Block.</p> <p>"We expect them to keep producing good projects and not really miss a beat," said Bankman-Fried. </p> <p>Specifically, the Ren development team <a href="https://medium.com/renproject/ren-alameda-90a8f471b323">will add support for Solana</a> in its RenVM protocol. <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/66533/rens-new-network-bridges-ethereum-with-bitcoin-bitcoin-cash-and-zcash">RenVM</a> is a cross-chain network that connects different blockchains with Ethereum and currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Zcash, among other blockchains.</p> <p>"We anticipate that we will be able to begin bridging assets to/from Solana in Q2," said Ren CEO Taiyang Zhang. "Doing so will have a profound impact on Serum, but also on the wider Solana ecosystem."</p> <p><a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72924/ftx-dex-serum-solana-blockchain">Serum</a> is a decentralized exchange built on Solana, initiated by a group including some Alameda team members.</p> <p>The Solana support will also help RenVM, said Zhang. "The upcoming support for Solana, and integration into Serum, will help bring even more volume and users to RenVM [...] RenVM will see new and diverse assets, new users, and increased fee revenue for its <a href="https://www.theblockresearch.com/ren-cross-chain-swaps-92696">node operators</a>."</p> <p>RenVM mainnet went live in May last year and currently has more than $600 million worth of user deposits, <a href="https://www.theblockresearch.com/ren-cross-chain-swaps-92696">as The Block Research reported last week</a>.<br /> <br /> <img src="https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-29-at-16.48.27.png" /><em><span style="font-size: 8pt; color: #999999;">Source: Ren, The Block Research </span></em></p>