Walrus Foundation Raises $140M From Private Token Sale

The web3 data storage infrastructure organization Walrus Foundation raised $140 million from a private token sale.

Web3 data storage infrastructure organization Walrus Foundation has raised $140 million from a private token sale, the company announced on Monday.

The venture firm Standard Crypto led the financing, which also included support from a16z crypto, Electric Capital, Creditcoin, Lvna Capital, Protagonist, Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, Karatage, RW3 Ventures, Comma3 Ventures and The Raptor Group, according to a company release.

The Walrus Foundation oversees the development of the Sui-based decentralized data storage platform Walrus, which lets users store items such as images, videos and PDFs. The platform deploys its utility token WAL to run a delegated proof-of-stake mechanism that operates its storage nodes while preventing Sybil attacks.

The Walrus Foundation plans to use its financing to continue developing Walrus, which is expected to launch on mainnet on March 27.

"This investment is a significant milestone to redefine decentralized storage," Managing Executive Rebecca Simmonds said in a statement. "By leveraging Sui’s unique architecture, we’re making storing data programmable, interactive and secure."

Walrus is being created by Mysten Labs, the same startup behind the Layer 1 blockchain Sui. The platform's token, WAL, maintains a total supply of 5 billion with a circulating supply of 1.25 billion. Sixty percent of WAL tokens will go to the community, with initial token unlocks scheduled for March, according to Walrus's tokenomics roadmap.