PANews reported on October 1st that Lava, a Bitcoin-backed lending platform, announced it has closed a $17.5 million Series A extension funding round and launched a new USD yield product. This round was backed by several angel investors, including Peter Jurdjevic of the Qatar Investment Authority and former executives from Visa and Block (formerly Square).

The newly launched USD Yield product allows users to provide USD funds to provide liquidity for Bitcoin-collateralized loans on the platform and earn a yield, currently offering an annualized yield (APY) of up to 7.5%. Lava stated that all loans are collateralized solely by Bitcoin, with a collateralization ratio exceeding 200%.

Lava's previous Series A funding round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.