Gyroscope, a crypto startup that claims to be building a unique stablecoin, announced it has raised $4.5 million in a seed funding round.

Placeholder VC and Galaxy Ventures co-led the round, with Maven 11, Archetype, Robot Ventures, Balancer Labs co-founder and CEO Fernando Martinelli and others participating, Gyroscope said.

The round was closed in January 2022, but Gyroscope is making it public now because the protocol's codebase is substantially completed and it's gearing up for a full launch. Gyroscope was founded in 2021 by Gudgeon, Ariah Klages-Mundt and Daniel Perez, all Ph.D. candidates who wrote papers on stablecoin design and DeFi risk. 

Gyroscope aims to solve the issues facing stablecoins today, including risk, adoption and sustainability. The project is a "new third path between centralized and algorithmic stablecoins," according to Gudgeon. He said Gyroscope's stablecoin, known as gyro dollar and assigned the ticker GYD, is non-custodial and designed to be fully reserve backed.

(By Yogita Khatri)