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Ruholamin Haqshanas
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Ruholamin Haqshanas
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Lava, a New York-based Bitcoin lending platform, has secured $10 million in Series A funding from major VC firms Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, according to a recent report from Fortune.
Founders Fund has maintained cautious activity in the crypto space. This has primarily been through partner Joey Krug, who joined from blockchain-focused Pantera in 2023.
Khosla Ventures Stayed Away From Crypto After Worldcoin Investment
Khosla Ventures, however, has largely stayed away since its high-profile $100 million investment in Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project in 2022.
Keith Rabois, who recently returned to Khosla Ventures from Founders Fund, told Fortune that the Lava investment was based on the entrepreneur and specific opportunity rather than signaling a broader pivot toward crypto.
Lava enables users to borrow dollars against their Bitcoin holdings. This aims to address a common challenge for crypto investors who want to leverage their assets without liquidating them.
“Our tagline is save in Bitcoin, spend in dollars,” Lava’s founder and CEO Shehzan Maredia said.
Crypto lending has faced significant scrutiny following the 2022 collapses of firms like Genesis, BlockFi, and Celsius. These failures, driven by practices such as rehypothecation—where client collateral is used to back other transactions—damaged trust in the sector.
Lava aims to rebuild confidence by allowing users to self-custody their assets, ensuring the platform never takes direct control of Bitcoin holdings.
Rabois praised this feature as a “technical breakthrough” aligned with Bitcoin’s ethos of decentralization and self-sovereignty.
The service comes at a cost, with Lava charging an origination fee and interest rates around 7.5%. Despite the premium, Maredia believes Lava’s approach is more resilient than its predecessors. “Users are very aware of the risks from the last cycle and want something better,” he said.
Lava also plans to expand its offerings to include payments and Bitcoin purchasing, though it has no intentions of issuing a token—opting instead for an all-equity funding model.
Earlier this year, Lava Network successfully secured $15 million in a seed funding round, introducing the next phase of the mainnet. The seed funding round was co-led by Tribe Capital, Jump Capital, and Hashkey Capital. Alliance DAO, Node Capital, North Island Ventures, Finality Capital Partners, and other investors participated in the round.
Interest in Blockchain Sector Continues Despite Regulatory Hurdles
New York’s blockchain sector continues to thrive despite regulatory challenges under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
As reported, cryptocurrency enforcement in the United States may ease under the upcoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
Speaking at a legal conference in New York, current and former senior government lawyers indicated that while financial fraud cases will still be pursued, the Justice Department’s focus will likely move toward immigration enforcement, a key campaign promise of Trump.
Scott Hartman, co-chief of the securities and commodities task force at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, revealed that fewer resources will be allocated to policing cryptocurrency crimes.
