InceptionLRT Collapses Just 6 Months After $3.5M Seed Funding—Where Did the Money Go?
Another crypto startup bites the dust—fast.
InceptionLRT, the liquid restaking protocol that launched with fanfare earlier this year, is shutting down. The twist? It burned through its $3.5 million seed round in half a year. Investors are left scratching their heads.
The rise and faceplant
Six months ago, VCs threw cash at InceptionLRT’s promise of ‘democratizing restaking.’ Today? The project joins the graveyard of overhyped DeFi experiments. No pivot, no last-minute save—just a quiet pull of the plug.
The finance jab
Another day, another ‘disruptive’ crypto project proving that seed funding often buys little more than expensive failure theater. At least the auditors got paid.
A polished protocol, but no staying power
From the start, InceptionLRT aimed high, offering a decentralized, permissionless way for users to restake assets and access reward-bearing tokens across DeFi. The protocol launched more than 15 liquid restaking tokens (LRTs), integrated with over 60 DeFi platforms, and passed eight independent security audits.
The infrastructure was ready; however, the users didn’t come.
Inception did not fail for a lack of support, as its January 2025 seed round raised about $3.5 million, with backing from a who’s who of crypto investors.
According to data on CypherHunter, participants included BlackDragon, Chorus Ventures, DEXTForce Ventures, GAINS Associates, DSRV Labs, The Rollup Ventures, DuckDAO, and CSP DAO, alongside high-profile angels such as Rachid Ajaja, Josh Hannah, Tal Cohen, and others.
But funding only gets you so far. Without enough liquidity incentives, the team couldn’t make restaking appealing beyond a small niche of power users.
The restaking space is still finding its feet
InceptionLRT’s shutdown comes during a transitional period for the restaking ecosystem. Leading protocols like EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Ether.fi are still in the thick of building out markets where staked assets can be reused for additional layers of security.
In theory, restaking increases capital efficiency and network resilience. In practice, it’s not that straightforward. Inception’s experience, strong tech, real integrations, yet limited traction, highlights just how tricky it can be to balance innovation with usability and incentives.
The team isn’t pulling the plug abruptly. Instead, they’ve left the protocol running so users can withdraw their funds safely.
For now, InceptionLRT will be remembered as one of the most promising restaking projects that couldn’t quite stick the landing. It adds to the growing list of teams who aimed to build the financial infrastructure of the future—and learned, in real time, how hard that still is to do.
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