Binance Labs has invested $10 million in Helio Protocol to facilitate its transformation into a liquidity staking platform.
Currently built on BNB Chain, Helio aims to utilize this new funding to expand its platform onto other chains. A spokesperson from Binance Labs stated, “Helio's goal is to launch on Ethereum and subsequently on Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and zkSync.”
Previously, Helio only offered stablecoin minting services, allowing users to mint HAY, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, backed by overcollateralized BNB. This functionality is similar to Maker's DAI and the recently launched GHO stablecoin by Aave.
In July, Helio Protocol merged with staking provider Synclub, and during the same month, it announced the diversification of collateral to support HAY.
Since then, Helio BNB deposits have seamlessly transformed into a basket of LST tokens, including AnkrBNB (ANKR), snBNB (Synclub), BNBx (Stader), and stkBNB (Pstake). Although users' account balances are denominated in BNB, they have the option to withdraw any of the mentioned LST tokens.
As of now, Helio ranks as the 13th largest DeFi protocol on BNB Chain, with 11,000 HAY holders contributing $300 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), including $260 million staked in Synclub's validator nodes, making it the second-largest validator on BNB.