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Singapore, Singapore, March 10th, 2025, Chainwire

Foresight Ventures, a leading crypto VC firm, announces participation in a $10 million Series A funding round of August, an on-chain prime brokerage and execution platform. The round was led by Dragonfly Ventures with participation from fellow notable venture capitals - 6th Man Ventures (6MV), FinTech Collective, Robot Ventures, Maven11, SCB Limited, and others. This investment accelerates August’s on-chain prime brokerage capabilities, with a portfolio margin system enabling institutions to use staked assets and yield-bearing positions as collateral for structured products, OTC derivatives, and credit. With seamless cross-margining and enhanced capital efficiency, clients can hedge DeFi portfolios with CeFi rails—all within a single on-chain account. August supports 12+ blockchains, 250+ tokens, and 70 protocols, unlocking liquidity across any liquid asset.

In a world where more assets are getting tokenized, and continue to move on-chain, August provides the most capital-efficient infrastructure for trade execution, maximizing liquidity and capital optimization.

August facilitates over $7 billion in monthly transaction volume across lending, DeFi, and OTC transactions, and algorithmic swaps with $400M+ in loans originated across lending, DeFi, and OTC transactions, and algorithmic swaps. The company rebranded to underscore its commitment to building trusted financial infrastructure for a crypto industry recovering after the collapse of centralized finance (CeFi). August provides institutions, protocols, and trading desks with a comprehensive suite of on-chain financial tools, including Smart contract multi-signature accounts, Trade execution, Borrowing and lending, Options and structured products, Tri-party collateral management, Cross-margining, and structured DeFi strategies. Clients supported today include both institutional hedge funds and principal trading firms, as well as protocols such as Upshift, the first decentralized application built on August, with a total value locked (TVL) of around $300M.

"The events of 2022 following the collapse of large centralized finance counterparties, more liquidity and volume has moved on-chain over the past two years, demonstrating that transparency and risk management are non-negotiable," said Aya Kantorovich, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of August. "August is setting a new standard for capital-efficient and institutionally viable digital asset trading, where trust is no longer assumed—it's built into the infrastructure itself.", said Alexandre Elkrief, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of August.

Forest Bai, co-founder of Foresight Ventures, noted “August is restoring the trust the market lost in DeFi lending and OTC transactions following some previous black swan incidents. Supporting the August team aligns with Foresight Ventures' longer-term vision to help bring usable crypto products to retail and institutional investors. He added “The potential of the intersection of TradFi capital optimization, DeFi, OTC, and algorithmic swaps in particular, is promising, and we believe the August team has the right zeal to capture more market share. With the United States at the forefront, global sentiment is increasingly favorable towards crypto, presenting a market opportunity that August can leverage with the new funding.”

By bringing on-chain verifiability to these services, August eliminates the hidden risks that have plagued CeFi. With August, credit and counterparty risk can be monitored and mitigated in real time.

"FTX and 3AC didn't fail due to a lack of institutional interest in digital assets," said Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Capital. "They failed because risk was obfuscated, and counterparty exposure was unmanageable. August provides real-time risk measurement, programmatic collateral management, and default transparency."

“We are thrilled to double down on August, the leader in On-chain Capital Markets. August combines the speed and composability of DeFi with the risk management tools required by the world's largest institutions. Now these benefits will be available to the public via Upshift. The future of finance is now,” adds Carl Vogel, General Partner at 6th Man Ventures.

About Foresight Ventures

Foresight Ventures is the first and only crypto VC bridging East and West. With a research-driven approach and offices in the US and Singapore, they are a powerhouse in crypto investment and incubation. Their premier media network includes The Block, Foresight News, BlockTempo, and Coinness. They invest in the most daring innovations. They are dedicated to partnering with visionary projects and top teams to help them succeed, reshaping the future of digital finance and beyond.

For more information, users can visit: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

For media requests, users can contact media@foresightventures.com. 

About August

August, an on-chain prime brokerage and execution platform that enables users to borrow, lend, trade, and clear across any DeFi and CeFi application with any form of liquid collateral. August supports all DeFi primitives, including lending, borrowing, spot execution, over-the-counter options, and derivatives.

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