Greetings community,

Shade Protocol has recently closed a $5,000,000 private raise. This capital will be used to support core protocol contributors and developers who continue their mission of bringing DeFi to privacy on Secret Network — unlocking untapped potential in the world of stablecoins, synthetics, and DeFi.

These key partners (20) are as follows:

• SCRT Labs

• Figment Labs

• KuCoin Labs

• Composable Labs

• AW3 Labs

• NGC Ventures

• Sky Vision Capital

• A41 Ventures

• SkyBridge20 Ventures

• 0xVentures

• Bison Fund

• Quant Capital

• Citadel.One

• Shima Capital

• Momentum6

• Basics Capital

• Taureon

• Divergence Capital

• Boring DAO

• AVentures

• GravityX Capital

Key advisors are Tor Bair of the Secret Foundation, Nick Cote, and Xavier Advisory. Some other advisors and contributors wished to remain anonymous — we thank these individuals for their support. Through the amazing networks of these partners and advisors, the core contributors are confident they can achieve meaningful integrations and effective product partnerships.

Perhaps the most important question is how this capital will be deployed?

Simply put, this $5M in capital is bringing the core development team from being part-time contributors to full-time. As a result of this capital raise, across all key primitives in development, there are collectively 20+ developers, project coordinators, marketers, and business development professionals building Shade Protocol full time or contracted — making this team of decentralized contributors one of the largest teams on Secret Network!

“I’ve always said if we don’t exist in 2.5 years, then in my mind, we succeeded because I’d much rather we went for it and failed than have played things out the ‘safe way’ and lost because we didn’t move quick enough. The capital raised is intended to scale Shade Protocol as aggressively and quickly as possible. We currently are living in a very narrow window in history where privacy-preserving DeFi is as unexplored as it is. The core contributors plan on capitalizing on this opportunity with everything we got — we are deeply thankful for the key partners and community for allowing us a shot at doing this full time. Collectively, there is a commitment to excellence and I’m confident the vision that is set before us is achievable.” - Carter Woetzel (Lead Researcher of Shade Protocol)

QUOTE from Citadel.one:

“Citadel.one team believes that a never before seen combination of privacy by default combined with a stablecoin pegged to a basket of fiat currencies and commodities (such as gold) can make SILK one of the most demanded and liquid stablecoins within the market. We are happy to support Shade Protocol as it has the potential to strengthen the Secret Network ecosystem and grant the highly appreciated default privacy to the existing crypto world.”

QUOTE from Shima:

“At Shima, we believe in the value of preserving privacy in Web3.0 and DeFi and trust in the ability of the Shade team to consistently build strong products– starting with Silk. We are excited to be partnered with Shade, and to help drive their growth as a key future player in DeFi”

QUOTE from SkyBridge20:

“Strangers can’t view our bank account & transaction history, so why should they be able to view our crypto?

If crypto is truly wanting to be adopted by the masses it will need privacy. Shade Protocol bursting onto the scene will bring a plethora of DeFi applications, all with privacy built-in. With Shade comes Silk, true decentralized money for private transactions. All powered by Secret Network.

It’s time to discover the dark side of the moon 🌑”

- J. Andrews, Sr. Analyst @ Skybridge20 Ventures

QUOTE from Andromeda Protocol:

“As one of the most ambitious projects in the space going multi-chain, Andromeda is extremely excited about integrating Shade/Silk into our platform making it easy for users to interact with the IBC ecosystem. Projects like Shade/Silk are vital to the end game we seem to all be playing.”

QUOTE from Composable Labs:

“We are excited by the innovation taking place with Shade protocol and its utility across the SCRT network. We at Composable Labs are deeply committed to power holistic evolution of the DeFi space. Our team is proud to be a part of the rapid growth of the protocol, look forward to collaborating further in the near future.”

0xbrainjar, Founder & Head of Product at Composable Labs

Quote from AW3L:

“We’re thrilled to be backing the Secure Secrets team who has been a pivotal contributor in the Secret network since 2019. Shade Protocol’s vision to build an ecosystem of privacy-preserving Defi primitives within the Secret ecosystem is set to form the railways for mass adoption of the SNIP-20 standard within the industry. At AW3L, we’re humbled to be partnering up with ambitious teams such as Shade who pushes the privacy defi narrative further.”

- Shota Kimura Bauer (Co-founder of AW3L)

Etc….

Shade Grants

Finally, we are excited to share an opportunity for developers and builders to integrate and build Shade Protocol primitives — the Shade Grants program!

Funded in SHD managed by core contributors, Shade Grants will be used to support critical growth initiatives for Silk adoption, Shade Protocol integration, community initiatives, and user tooling. Shade Grants will target core protocols metrics such as revenue, TVL, accessibility, and availability.

Interested developers or community members may submit applications, learn more about the Shade Grants program and the various categories here: Shade Grants

What’s Next?

This exciting announcement carries forward our momentum from our initial announcement of Shade Protocol in September. With more key primitives being funded and built, more community members getting involved with Shade Protocol, and more supporters and partners than ever helping to ensure our global growth, the future has never been brighter for Shade Protocol and Silk.

Join the Shade Community

The Shade Protocol community invites you to join the telegram and follow the Shade Protocol to stay up to date with the roadmap and announcements!

Who knows what alpha will be revealed next? 🤫

——————————————————————————————————————————

"The information provided in this Medium Post pertaining to Shade Protocol, its crypto-assets, business assets, strategy, and operations, and is for general informational purposes only and is not a formal offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction and its content is not prescribed by securities laws. Information contained in this Medium Post should not be relied upon as advice to buy or sell or hold such securities or as an offer to sell such securities. This Medium Post does not take into account nor does it provide any tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the specific investment objectives or financial situation of any person. Shade Protocol and its contributors and shareholders make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of such information and Shade Protocol expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or errors or omissions thereof. Shade Protocol core contributors reserve the right to amend or replace the information contained herein, in part or entirely, at any time, and undertakes no obligation to provide the recipient with access to the amended information or to notify the recipient thereof. The information contained in this Medium Post supersedes any prior Medium Post or conversation concerning the same, similar or related information. Any information, representations or statements not contained herein shall not be relied upon for any purpose. Neither Shade Protocol nor any of its core contributors shall have any liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to you or any person resulting from the use of the information in this Medium Post by you or any of your representatives or for omissions from the information in this Medium Post. Additionally, Shade Protocol core contributors undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed in this Medium Post."