NextBlock invests $3M in Soda Labs to expand blockchain privacy

Investment and Expansion

NextBlock has invested $3 million in Soda Labs' seed round, funding the entire closed round as the blockchain infrastructure company expands its programmable privacy technology for financial activity on public blockchains.

Background and Technology

Soda Labs has spent the past two and a half years developing a cryptographic privacy solution based on garbled circuits and multiparty computation (GC-MPC). The company said its system uses established cryptographic standards including AES and SHA256 and can operate on standard cloud CPUs without requiring specialised hardware.

Market Impact and Adoption

Soda Labs' technology has processed more than 100 million transactions on the COTI network. Its deployed applications include tokenisation platform Zoniqx and perpetuals exchange PriveX. According to the company, PriveX has processed more than $20 billion in trading volume, while Zoniqx is onboarding issuers across multiple asset classes and jurisdictions.

Future Plans and Outlook

The new funding will give Soda Labs room to focus on scaling commercial adoption and execution over the next 12 to 18 months. The company plans to use the capital for its go-to-market strategy, validator network expansion, broader blockchain coverage, team growth and integrations with banks, payment companies, tokenisation platforms and other financial infrastructure providers.

Expert Insights

Public blockchains already have the liquidity, users and financial applications. What they lack is a way for regulated money to move without showing everyone everything,