Multiple organizations announced today that they have acquired large positions in SCRT, the native coin of the Secret Network blockchain, totaling $11.5 million. These firms are led by Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital and also include Spartan Group and Skynet Trading. These funds and liquidity providers will help support growth of privacy-preserving applications on Secret Network, including its DeFi and NFT ecosystems.
These investors join other major funds already participating in the Secret Network ecosystem, including Outlier Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, and Hashed, as well as key ecosystem contributors such as Secret Foundation and Enigma MPC and experienced node operators such as Figment and Staked. These organizations and dozens of other contributors will work together to grow user and developer adoption of Secret Network and its applications, as well as Secret Network’s rapidly growing front-running resistant, privacy-first decentralized financial ecosystem (Secret DeFi). In addition, leading liquidity provider Skynet Trading will in the future continue providing liquidity to SCRT on multiple exchanges.
Secret Network is the first blockchain to feature privacy-preserving smart contracts, which launched on mainnet in September 2020. This means all decentralized applications built on Secret Network have data privacy by default, helping protect users, boost security, and improve usability. The Secret Network blockchain itself is based on Cosmos SDK / Tendermint, meaning the network has its own independent consensus, on-chain governance, and features like slashing and delegation. It is secured by the native coin Secret (SCRT), which must be staked by network validators and is used for transaction and computation fees as well as governance.
Data privacy is becoming a key narrative in the blockchain space. To date, all blockchains (such as Ethereum and Polkadot) have been public by default, forcing all data to be exposed when interacting with applications or assets. This leaves users and applications vulnerable and heavily restricts what can be built on blockchains. Secret Network’s unique functionality unlocks many new types of applications across multiple Web 3.0 verticals, including decentralized finance, NFTs, access control, and more.
“Secret is the first blockchain ecosystem to prioritize privacy. Financial privacy is critical to individual freedom, and Arrington Capital has long been committed to financial privacy and censorship resistance,” said Michael Arrington, Founder of Arrington Capital. “The rapid expansion of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) makes solutions like Secret Network a timely addition to the DeFi ecosystem.”
The Secret Network ecosystem has undergone explosive growth in 2021 thanks to the launch of multiple new native applications, including SecretSwap, the first front-running resistant, cross-chain AMM with privacy protections. Daily gas use has grown nearly 3,000% since January, and the number of active Secret accounts (not including exchange addresses) has grown 500%. Over $100M in Ethereum assets are currently being used within the Secret DeFi ecosystem, and multiple bridges to additional ecosystems are in development, including Binance Smart Chain, Cosmos, Polkadot, Monero, Bitcoin, and more.
More critical applications are in development across the Secret Network ecosystem, including Secret NFTs – non-fungible tokens that allow for private ownership as well as public and private metadata. These unique capabilities enable new use cases for NFTs across collectibles, blockchain-based gaming, digital media, marketplace, content monetization, and representation of real-world assets. Multiple Secret Apps leveraging Secret NFTs are being developed for launch in Q2 2021.
“Of all the networks in all the world, we chose Secret because it was a yes-yes-yes brainer,” said Monty Munford, Chief Evangelist and Core Contributor to Sienna Network, which is building their platform on Secret Network. “They understand privacy and we understand DeFi; match made in heaven.”
“The addition of these valuable and experienced partners to the Secret ecosystem marks a significant inflection point for Secret Network as we concentrate on expanding and supporting our fast-growing application layer,” said Tor Bair, Founder of Secret Foundation. “We look forward to working alongside these organizations to drive global adoption of privacy-first decentralized applications, secured by Secret Network.”
Developers interested in building their own applications on Secret Network are invited to learn more about the Secret Network Grant Program, which leverages an ecosystem pool with over $60M in assets to support development. Developers can also apply for the Secret Fellows Program, where they can receive competitive compensation and mentorship while building critical network tooling and applications for Secret Network.
About Secret Network
Secret Network is the first privacy-enabled Layer 1 blockchain, featuring privacy-preserving smart contracts (“secret contracts”) that utilize hardware-based and software-based privacy technologies to protect data. Secret contracts are unique in that they allow for encrypted inputs, outputs and state. Data on Secret Network is private by default, public when desired. Secret Network is also open-source and permissionless – anyone can operate a node, deploy an app, or contribute to the network and its ecosystem.
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