Avalon Labs, the issuer of the BTC-backed stablecoin USDa, has raised $10 million to grow its Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

The Series A funding round was led by Framework Ventures and included contributions from UXTO Management, Presto Labs and Kenetic Capital, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday.

Avalon aims to evolve BTC from a digital store of value to a more active financial instrument that can serve a range of different purposes.

Users can unlock the value stored in their BTC by collateralizing it for USDa it at a fixed borrowing rate of 8%. The token reached $700 million in total value locked (TVL) earlier this month.

Along with its stablecoin, Avalon offers bitcoin-backed lending, yield generating savings accounts and a credit card.

Stablecoins are a type of digital token whose value is pegged to that of another currency, normally the U.S. dollar. Their purpose is to give users the option of protecting their funds from volatility associated with cryptocurrencies without having to remove them from the crypto ecosystem altogether.

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