Agora, co-founded by Jan Van Eck’s son Nick Van Eck, has successfully raised $12 million in a seed funding round led by Dragonfly to launch a new stablecoin.

According to the latest social media post published by Agora, Drake Evans and Joe McGrady also co-founded the initiative. The funding round was led by the crypto venture firm Dragonfly. Other key contributors included General Catalyst and Robot Ventures.

Huge congrats to the @AgoraDollar team. https://t.co/g9o3d56nO2

— VanEck (@vaneck_us) April 2, 2024

Agora to Serve International Customers

Agora planned to back its stablecoin with a mix of cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and overnight repurchase agreements. This combination aims to anchor the stablecoin’s value to these secure and liquid assets.

The initiative’s parent company was registered in Delaware, while its stablecoin operations are headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. The company plans to offer its product exclusively to non-U.S. users.

“Until there’s federal legislation for stablecoins in the US, we’re going to focus primarily on customers outside of the US,” said Van Eck.

Kyle DaCruz, VanEck‘s Director of Digital Assets Product, announced that VanEck is set to oversee a reserve fund for Agora.

“There is a need to have transparent and trustworthy institutions managing the assets of these digital dollars,” said DaCruz.

“The exciting future of stablecoins is one in which audited and transparent stablecoin reserves are standard and we are looking forward to helping Agora build that future,” stated DaCruz.

New Stablecoin Targeting Institutional Partners

Van Eck said that there would still be market space for a new entrant alongside the two leading stablecoin issuers Tether and USDC.

According to Van Eck, the company will focus on engaging institutional clients and partners globally rather than individual retail users outside the U.S. and not issue a governance token as part of this strategy.

“Where stablecoins really moved the needle are places like Argentina, Southeast Asia, and so we’re heavily focused on being the best partner stablecoin to partners,” said Van Eck. “So those range from exchanges to custodians to dapps to trading firms.”

Agora intended to establish revenue-sharing agreements with its partners. This arrangement means that yields or profits generated would not be directly distributed to individual holders.