Across, an emerging startup specializing in interoperability, has successfully secured $41 million in a strategic token sale led by renowned venture capital firm Paradigm. The initiative aims to tackle the persistent fragmentation within the Ethereum ecosystem, seeking to bring about greater unity across its network.
According to a press release shared with Cryptonews, notable participants in the token sale included Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and Sina Habibian.
This latest funding round builds on a previous $10 million private token sale that took place in 2022, involving investors such as Hack VC, Placeholder, and Blockchain Capital. With this recent capital infusion, Across has now accumulated a total of $51 million in funding.
Across asserts that its platform facilitates instantaneous connections between Ethereum and Layer-2 networks, supporting various ecosystems such as Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Linea, Scroll, zkSync, and Polygon. The startup further simplifies decentralized application (dapp) integration by eliminating the necessity for separate bridging solutions.
It's supposed to be 4 seconds, but most of the times it is quicker! Only 3 seconds from @arbitrum to @inkonchain with @AcrossProtocol pic.twitter.com/lDGb9xfDio
— PVM 
(@pvmihalache) March 3, 2025
The newly raised $41 million will be allocated toward product development and to enhance Ethereum’s roll-up-centric roadmap, according to the company.
Additionally, the funding is aimed at increasing the adoption of the ERC-7683 standard, which is currently backed by over 50 protocols.
Furthermore, Across has achieved significant milestones, reporting over $19 billion in total transaction volume, with $1 billion recorded in January 2025 alone.
In its pursuit of strengthening the Ethereum ecosystem, Across is also focused on expanding its intents-based technology, which allows users to execute cross-chain actions within seconds. This technology is described as central to Across’s innovative efforts.
Intents-based technology empowers users to specify their desired actions through a single transaction request, enabling transactions such as token deposits across chains, coin swaps, and fund bridging. Across manages the asset bridging and interaction with smart contracts seamlessly, simplifying the process for users.
“Across pioneered intent-based interoperability and used it to build the leading bridge in crypto,” noted Dan Robinson, General Partner at Paradigm.
Hart Lambur, co-founder of Risk Labs, which oversees the Across and UMA Protocols, emphasized the need for Ethereum users to have a fast and seamless experience. He stated, “The next billion users won’t tolerate waiting,” highlighting the urgency of addressing Ethereum’s existing fragmentation.
“The reality is that users today are juggling multiple chains and dealing with Ethereum’s fragmentation – this needs to change,” Lambur expressed. “Ethereum must feel like a unified network, no matter how many chains are involved, and that has been our mission from the start.”
You can get to @unichain in seconds for cents using Across or any dApp that has Across integrated. 
https://t.co/3QaUovZ0yg
— Across (@AcrossProtocol) March 4, 2025
In a significant collaboration, Across teamed up with Uniswap Labs last year to co-create the ERC-7683 standard for cross-chain intents on Ethereum. This development allows Web3 applications to execute intricate, multi-step transactions across chains as a single request for a unified network of relayers to process.
Supported by over 50 protocols—including Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism—the ERC-7683 standard is bolstered by contributions from the Ethereum Foundation’s L2 Interop working group.
In February 2025, Across announced its plans to support cross-chain transfers for Layer-2 Unichain’s public mainnet from the very first day of its launch, facilitating connections between this chain and the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
