Author: Nicky, Forestight News
With privacy coins like ZEC recently experiencing price surges, the privacy sector has once again become a focus of market attention. a16z crypto recently emphasized on social media that "as cryptocurrencies reach more mainstream users, the need for privacy is more urgent than ever."
Against this backdrop, privacy blockchain project Seismic announced the completion of a new $10 million funding round, marking the second time this year that a16z crypto has led an investment in the project. The project has now completed two funding rounds, totaling $17 million. In March 2025, it announced a $7 million seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Polychain, 1kx, and others; on November 12th, it completed another $10 million funding round, again led by a16z crypto, with new investors including Amber Group. The funds will primarily be used for technology research and development and ecosystem expansion.
Project positioning and technical features
Seismic is a privacy-preserving blockchain designed specifically for fintech scenarios. Built on the EVM, the project allows developers to use the familiar Solidity language, with privacy settings controlled only through additional syntax. This design reduces the learning curve for developers while providing essential privacy protections.
The core technical features of this project are reflected in three aspects. First, Seismic implements default privacy protection settings through protocol-level encryption and secure hardware support. Second, the project uses Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology, rather than a zero-knowledge proof scheme; all nodes must run within the TEE to ensure data security. Third, the system adds masked data types, including masked integers, booleans, and addresses, enabling developers to easily handle privacy-sensitive data.
Furthermore, Seismic Reth, as its native execution client, further enhances privacy capabilities: it supports private storage, encrypted transactions, and integrates six new pre-compiled contracts (such as AES-GCM encryption and ECDH key exchange), making it easy for developers to quickly invoke privacy features. This client was open-sourced in October 2024 to lower the barrier to entry for developers.
Seismic was founded by Lyron Co Ting Keh. Lyron holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Stanford University. He previously founded an edtech company, developed a Ruby on Rails training platform, and participated in the development of tools for privacy projects such as Zcash and Aztec.
Core engineer Peter He previously led the development of a dedicated blockchain framework for Ethereum applications and is skilled in distributed systems and privacy technologies. He is currently responsible for the technical implementation of Seismic. Business development lead Terence focuses on promoting fintech collaborations, aiming to extend Seismic's privacy capabilities to more financial scenarios. While the entire team has not been publicly disclosed, their publicly available resumes show that many members come from organizations such as Wintertermute, Google X, and Apple R&D.
In September of this year, Brookwell, the first application built on Seismic, was officially launched. This fintech product, developed by entrepreneurs Ravi and Rohan, aims to allow users to earn DeFi yields while using traditional payment channels.
Brookwell chose to build on Seismic primarily due to its privacy protection capabilities. The application handles deep personal financial transactions, including rent payments and payroll, and this sensitive data is not suitable for public visibility on a public blockchain. Through Seismic's privacy-preserving technology, Brookwell can connect cryptocurrency with traditional financial systems while protecting user privacy. Waitlist applications are currently open on the project's official website.
