DeFi Protocol Hourglass Raises $4.2M in Seed Round Led by Electric Capital

DeFi protocol Hourglass announced its official launch, as well as its $4.2 million seed funding round. The round is led by Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures and others.

Hourglass is a marketplace for trading Time-Bound Tokens (TBTs). TBTs represent staked assets in DeFi protocols that are committed for a period of time, such as $frxETH staked on Frax. TBT is a "semi-fungible token" issued by the Hourglass smart contracts. On the marketplace, users can trade their positions on staked assets by trading TBTs to access liquidity.

Hourglass' launch partners include Lido, Frax and Convex. On Hourglass, Lido users who want to redeem their $stETH can exit the withdrawal queue early.