Dharma Labs Raises $7 Million From Green Visor, Coinbase and Polychain

That's the thesis of Dharma Labs, which built the Dharma protocol for decentralized lending businesses.

Its first product, Dharma Lever, is in a closed alpha release now, enabling loans for traders and large crypto holders.

Now the startup has secured $7 million to build out the product in a round led by Green Visor Capital, a fintech-focused venture capital firm.

"In the same way that Uber made it both easy and cheap to get a ride from anywhere in the world, we believe Dharma Lever will make accessing margin lending easy and cheap for anyone in the world."

Dharma Lever's website promises a few advantages over the existing solutions for credit in crypto, a service that is expected to be primarily used for traders to make investments on margin.

Dharma Lever also promises better loan rates over those offered on exchanges.

"Without a central point of failure, Dharma's financial services simply 'can't be evil,'" the company said, with a wink toward Google.

"In an industry where economies are natively digital, we believe Dharma's technology will become a necessary piece of infrastructure for future growth."

"Dharma's lending product makes it easy for developers and people to create loans that are trustless and managed on-chain. We view companies like Dharma, and their Lever product, as a sign that the crypto ecosystem is maturing, and an important step on the path to a more open financial system."

Noting that Hollander, Dharma's founder, is a former Coinbase engineering intern, Choi added, "We're proud to support our alumni as they progress in their crypto careers and make new and novel contributions to crypto."