Peregrine Exploration raises $3.6 million from Polychain, Dragonfly for restaking-focused stablecoin protocol Level

Blockchain development and research company Peregrine Exploration raised $3.6 million in a funding round co-led by Polychain Capital and Dragonfly to develop a stablecoin protocol called Level.

Robot Ventures, Pier Two, EIV and Global Coin Research participated in the round, according to a press release. Angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Jeff Fang, Julian Koh, Sidney Powell and others were also involved.

Level aims to be the first stablecoin protocol backed by restaked dollar tokens. These tokens are formed when someone stakes a dollar-denominated token (such as USDC or USDT) on a restaking protocol like EigenLayer in order to earn restaking yield. This yield is generated from the tokens being used to provide security for other blockchains.

EigenLayer, Symbiotic and Karak have all said they will support the use of any token for providing economic security, including dollar tokens, the press release noted.

Peregrine Exploration claims the project's stablecoin will be launched in closed beta "in the coming weeks." Its goal is to allow users to mint Level USD, earning Level XP points and yield from decentralized lending platform Aave on dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. 

“Level was founded on the belief that the two most important use cases of crypto are the permissionless access to digital dollars and the ability to provide economic security to decentralized networks,” Peregrine Exploration CEO David Lee said, adding:“Level combines these two use cases into a single product, opening up a whole new world of opportunities for restakers, AVSs, and DeFi users.”