We’re excited to announce that Tenor raised a $2.5M Seed round led by Prelude (prev. Cherry Crypto). This investment round will support Tenor in its development of a noncustodial fixed rate lending and borrowing platform enabling lenders and borrowers to get matched efficiently at fixed rates.

Also participating in the round are Coinbase Ventures, Lattice Fund, Curved Ventures, Will Price, Jez, Blurr, Atka, Very Early, BatuX, Scott Shapiro and builders from Moonwell, Re7, Degenscore, Daedalus, Octav, and Etherfi.

As more of finance moves onchain and stablecoin adoption continues, we believe the development of efficient fixed-rate lending and borrowing markets is necessary. While money markets are predominant in DeFi today, we think that over time, most lending activity will be executed at fixed rates. Fixed-rate markets, while more complex, can offer efficiency gains and improved predictability to users compared to the large spreads and unpredictability of current money markets.

The recent launch of Coinbase's Bitcoin-backed loans with Morpho also signals that exchanges and fintechs are adopting onchain lending markets to power their businesses. We believe that providing simple access to fixed-rate markets will be key to the adoption of onchain rails. Tenor aims to provide users and integrators with robust fixed-rate market infrastructure to help them grow their businesses and simplify access to onchain markets.

Tenor allows lenders and borrowers to get matched directly at fixed rates onchain, cutting the structural utilization spread of traditional money markets and giving borrowers certainty over their borrowing costs. Fixed-rate markets enable lenders and borrowers to benefit from improved matching efficiency through an RFQ-like system.

Tenor will support a passive fixed-rate borrowing experience, where positions can automatically roll over at maturity, removing the need for manual intervention. In addition, the platform will offer integrated alerting, real-time monitoring, and liquidation protection features to further streamline the borrower experience. Tenor's platform aims to solve the complexities around the management of fixed rate borrowing positions.

Tenor eliminates the pain points associated with the interest rate kink of traditional money markets, delivering a more seamless and predictable experience for borrowers. By borrowing at fixed-rates, users are protected from sudden spikes in utilization that might otherwise force them to unwind positions prematurely.

Tenor is built on the Morpho protocol and focuses on enabling simple access to fixed rate loans through features like auto renewal, pre liquidations, and advanced monitoring. The platform will support rates trading and custom markets for advanced users and institutional partners. Tenor also provides the necessary tools to integrators such as exchanges and fintechs to power their onchain lending and borrowing products.

The closing of Tenor’s seed round is an important milestone towards making onchain fixed rate markets a reality. The next step for Tenor is to undergo security audits from leading providers in the space starting with Spearbit. We’re looking forward to completing security audits and releasing the Tenor to the world. 

We’ve been extremely excited by the enthusiasm received from integrators, partner protocols, and the broader community regarding Tenor. If you’re looking to learn more about Tenor, make sure to reach out; we’d love to talk! 

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