Walrus Foundation Raises $140M in Token Sale to Expand Its Decentralized Data Storage Protocol

Walrus Foundation has raised $140 million in a token sale led by Standard Crypto. The fundraising also attracted participation from a16z crypto

Walrus Foundation has closed a $140 million token sale ahead of the mainnet launch of its decentralized data storage protocol and application development platform on March 27.

The fundraising was led by Standard Crypto and also attracted participation from a16z crypto, Electric Capital, Creditcoin, Lvna Capital, Protagonist, Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, Karatage, RW3 Ventures, Comma3 Ventures, and The Raptor Group, the Foundation said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The fresh funding will be used for the expansion and maintenance of the protocol.

Announced earlier this month, the Walrus Protocol, initially developed by Mysten Labs on the Sui blockchain, allows any application to publish, read, and program large data files.

Applications ranging from AI datasets, rich media files, and websites to blockchain history can manage on-chain and off-chain data files, referred to as blobs, via Move-based smart contracts.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of our investors as we embark on this exciting journey to revolutionize decentralized storage,” said Rebecca Simmonds, Managing Executive of Walrus Foundation. “By leveraging Sui’s unique architecture, we’re making storing data programmable, interactive, and secure.

"Walrus is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this growing market and this funding will allow us to drive the adoption of programmable storage across industries as businesses search for flexible and verifiable data solutions.”

Adam Goldberg, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Standard Crypto added: “Prior on-chain storage attempts have struggled with scalability, flexibility, and security, limiting their adoption within a rapidly expanding set of use cases for both apps and infrastructure. We believe, with Walrus, we finally have an internet-scale and crypto-native storage platform designed for the coming era of data-heavy blockchain adoption.”