The privacy sector is booming, a detailed explanation of a16z's consecutive lead investment in two rounds of the privacy Blockchain Seismic.

Author: Nicky, Foresight News

As privacy coins like ZEC have recently seen a price increase, the privacy sector has once again become the focus of market attention. a16z crypto recently posted on social media emphasizing that “as cryptocurrencies reach more mainstream users, the demand for privacy is more urgent than ever.”

In this context, the privacy blockchain project Seismic announced the completion of a new round of financing amounting to 10 million USD, which marks the second time a16z crypto has led investment in this project this year. The project has completed two rounds of financing, totaling 17 million USD. In March 2025, it announced that it had secured 7 million USD in seed round financing, led by a16z crypto with participation from Polychain, 1kx, and others; on November 12, it completed another round of financing for 10 million USD, with a16z crypto continuing to lead and new investors including Amber Group, with funds primarily used for technology R&D and ecosystem expansion.

Project positioning and technical features

Seismic is a privacy-preserving blockchain designed specifically for fintech scenarios. The project is built on EVM, allowing developers to use the familiar Solidity language for development, with additional syntax to control privacy settings. This design reduces the learning curve for developers while providing the necessary privacy protection capabilities.

The core technical features of the project are reflected in three aspects. Through protocol layer encryption and secure hardware support, Seismic achieves default privacy protection settings. The project adopts Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology instead of zero-knowledge proof schemes, requiring all nodes to run in TEE to ensure data security. The system introduces new types of obfuscated data, including obfuscated integers, boolean values, and addresses, enabling developers to conveniently handle private data.

In addition, Seismic Reth, as its native execution client, further enhances privacy capabilities: it supports private storage, encrypted transactions, and integrates 6 new precompiled contracts (such as AES-GCM encryption, ECDH key exchange), making it easier for developers to quickly access privacy functions. This client was open-sourced in October 2024 to lower the barrier for developers to access.

Seismic was founded by Lyron Co Ting Keh, who holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Stanford University. He has previously founded an education technology 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 the Ethereum application-specific blockchain framework, specializing in distributed systems and privacy technology, and is currently responsible for the technical implementation of Seismic. Business development head Terence focuses on promoting fintech collaborations, aiming to extend Seismic's privacy capabilities to more financial scenarios. Although the team is not fully disclosed, public resumes indicate that many members come from institutions such as Wintermute, Google X, and Apple R&D.

In September this year, the first application built on Seismic, Brookwell, 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 mainly for its privacy protection capabilities. The application handles deep personal financial transactions, including rent payments and salary disbursements, which involve sensitive data that should not be publicly visible on a public chain. With Seismic's privacy protection technology, Brookwell can connect cryptocurrencies with traditional financial systems while protecting user privacy. The project's official website has now opened applications for the Waitlist.