EigenLayer AVS Gasp raises funds at $80 million token valuation

Mangata Finance, a cross-chain swap protocol, has rebranded as Gasp and announced a new $5 million private funding round in anticipation of its testnet launch as an EigenLayer Actively Validated Service, or AVS.

Several investors, including Polychain Capital, CMS Holdings, Master Ventures, Token Metrics and Cluster Capital, backed the round, Gasp said on Wednesday. The round had no lead investor, but Cluster Capital contributed the largest share at 30%, Gasp founder and CEO Peter Kris told The Block.

Gasp began its fundraising efforts last November and concluded them this month, Kris said, noting that the investment was structured as a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) with token warrants round.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block that the round has brought Gasp's fully diluted token valuation to $80 million.

What is Gasp?

Gasp, formerly known as Mangata Finance, is a cross-chain swap protocol that currently supports transfers between Ethereum scaling networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism. Its goal is to eventually support all blockchains.

Gasp, initially incubated by Polychain, started in 2020 within the Polkadot ecosystem. However, it did not launch on the mainnet as the team was not confident in Polkadot, according to Kris. Gasp is now developing on EigenLayer, a popular Ethereum restaking protocol, and is set to launch its testnet as an EigenLayer AVS in the coming weeks.

An EigenLayer AVS uses Ethereum's security features through EigenLayer without creating its own consensus mechanisms. "The Gasp network relies on Ethereum for transaction finality through EigenLayer, making it one of the first EigenLayer AVSs to be deployed," Kris said. He added that "Gasp on EigenLayer will make cross-chain atomic swaps as easy as calling a smart contract on Ethereum or any other connected chain."

Gasp mainnet and token launch

Following a successful testnet, Gasp plans to progress to the mainnet and token launches. Kris said that a new token called GASP will be introduced and airdropped to users, including those holding Mangata X (MGX) tokens. "MGX is an economic testnet we ran from one year ago. MGX holders will get part of the airdrop of GASP," he said.

The Gasp team currently consists of 22 people, with plans to expand, especially in marketing, Kris said. The latest private funding round has brought Gasp's total funding to date to around $11 million.