Polychain Secures $6.7 Million Investment in Bitcoin-Focused Yield Network, Corn

Corn is designed to tap into Bitcoin’s extensive liquidity, estimated at $1.1 trillion, for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Polychain Capital has announced an investment of $6.7 million into Corn, a new yield-generating network that focuses on Bitcoin. This Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network utilizes a tokenized version of Bitcoin, referred to as BTCN, to facilitate gas fees and encourage economic activities within the ecosystem.

Corn was officially launched on August 19, with a mission to enhance the utility of Bitcoin and create new opportunities for yield generation, as noted by Chris Spadafora, the founder of Corn and BadgerDAO.

“By aligning network participants through the power of Super Yield Farming, ensuring foundational token utility, and putting Bitcoin in the driver’s seat, Corn is definitely not just another vanilla chain launch.”

The ongoing bullish trend in the cryptocurrency market has led to a surge in new yield-generating initiatives. For example, February saw the launch of Ethena’s USDe synthetic dollar with an impressive annual yield of 27.6%.

Despite concerns surrounding sustainability, Ethena quickly became a leading decentralized application in the crypto space, surpassing daily cumulative revenues of $6.8 million in March.

Corn’s BTCN: Unlocking Bitcoin Liquidity for DeFi

With a market cap exceeding $1.1 trillion, Bitcoin retains a vast amount of liquidity that could significantly benefit emerging DeFi sectors.

One of the primary objectives of the Corn protocol is to access this substantial Bitcoin liquidity, as highlighted by Spadafora:

“The BTCN unlocks the Bitcoin liquidity for DeFi. Users can bridge native BTC, use existing tokenized BTC, and/or leverage BTC secured with a trusted custodian. For the first time, it’s not a one or the other decision.”

This innovative yield-generating protocol has attracted investments from prominent crypto firms such as Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, HTX Ventures, and Relayer Capital.

How Does Corn Generate Yield?

Corn plans to establish a network-wide “Crop Circle” that brings together users, applications, and token holders in a cohesive ecosystem through the tokenized BTCN.

The primary revenue streams for the sustainable yield-generating protocol will come from native token emissions and transaction fees. According to Spadafora:

“Yield comes from the native CORN emissions issued by the chain on a per block basis, the bribes Corn stakers receive from external parties that want their vote weight directed in a specific manner, and finally, the transaction fees from the network in the form of BTCN that are redistributed to Corn stakers.”

In contrast to most yield-generating platforms, Corn launched without a fixed yield rate. The actual yield will largely depend on ecosystem growth and the number of participants involved, facilitated by Corn’s flywheel mechanism.