Solana ecosystem project Orca has concluded an $xviii million Series A investment round led by some of the biggest venture funds in crypto, offering farther prove that high-profile investors are nifty to back SOL-based startups.

Orca, which operates equally a decentralized exchange, will use the funds to go on developing its automatic market maker solutions for Solana, the visitor announced Wednesday. The raise comes less than eight months after the project was launched past a two-member team consisting of Yutaro Mori and Grace Kwan.

In addition to Three Arrows Upper-case letter, Polychain, Placeholder and Coinbase Ventures, Serial A participants included Spring Capital, Sino Global Majuscule, Defiance Capital, Zee Prime, Collab+Currency and Solana Uppercase.

Orca aims to differentiate itself from other automatic market makers by delivering a simplified DEX experience. Information technology was one of the start protocols to launch on the Solana blockchain, which is at present valued at over $39 billion. As Cointelegraph reported, the S network experienced a major outage last week tied to an initial DEX offering for Grape Protocol.

Related: Smashing crypto adoption barrier? Solana aims to do its own 'affair'

Decentralized exchanges have received considerable attention from investors looking to capitalize on some of the biggest trends in blockchain. DEXs merits to solve the myriad issues plaguing legacy platforms while also delivering innovative trading solutions and lower barriers to entry for new participants.

Currently, the top DEXs by trading book are Uniswap, PancapeSwap and SushiSwap. Daily volume across all DEXs reached $v.5 billion on Tuesday, according to Coingecko.

The manufacture'southward rapid growth over the past yr appears to have caught the attending of regulators, with the United states of america Securities and Exchange Committee reportedly investigating Uniswap. Specifically, the U.Due south. securities regulator is seeking more information about the company's marketing and investor services, as reported by The Wall Street Periodical.