a16z Partner: Why lead the $15 million seed round of funding from Legend

Author: Chris Dixon, partner of a16z crypto; translated by: 0xjs@Golden Finance

I am pleased to announce that a16z will lead the $15 million seed round of funding for Legend, which simplifies DeFi and helps bring the next 100 million users to the chain.

a16z's 2024 Cryptocurrency Status Report estimates that currently has 30-60 million active cryptocurrency users per month . While DeFi activity has grown, it has also become more complex and remains too complex for many.

We think of Legend as a compass, pointing out the direction for simpler user experience and wider adoption for DeFi. Legend's first product is an embedded smart contract wallet, allowing users to borrow, lend or exchange across chains without the risk of manual wallet connection or interaction with malicious websites. Since their official debut in October last year, their waitlist has received more than 400,000 registrations.

Legend is founded by Jayson Hobby, Geoffrey Hayes and Mykel Pereira. Jayson, Geoffrey and Mykel have all worked at DeFi pioneer Compound.

Geoffrey is one of the inventors of the Compound protocol and co-founder of Compound Labs. Before Jayson was CEO, Mykel and Jayson worked together in product and design at Compound Labs.

Compound introduced a model that DeFi is still in play today. It was one of the earliest truly decentralized protocols that established revenue farming and helped define the role of governance tokens through its GovernorAlpha and GovernorBravo frameworks.

With user-facing product expertise and empathy for DeFi developers, Jayson, Geoffrey and Mykel are the perfect team to address the user experience challenges that still hinder DeFi adoption.

We are excited to support the Legend team as they lead DeFi in a new and compelling direction.