Decentralized substitution aggregator 1inch Network has ended a sizable Serial B investment round, raising $175 1000000 every bit role of a broader effort to aggrandize protocol utility and increase admission to liquidity within the decentralized finance, or DeFi, market.

The investment round vastly exceeded the initial target of $lxx million amid agile participation from leading venture funds, 1inch Network disclosed Wednesday. Crypto-finance unicorn Bister Group led the funding round, which comprised roughly l investors. VanEck, Jane Street, Fenbushi Capital, Alameda Inquiry, Celsius, Nexo, Tribe Capital and Gemini Frontier Fund were among the investors.

1inch Network will employ the funds to increase its capacity for addressing the ongoing regulatory changes impacting the DeFi marketplace. The funding volition also be used to onboard institutional clients, build new protocols and expand the utility of the 1INCH token, which has a full market place capitalization of roughly $650 million at the time of writing.

Related: 6 Questions for Anton Bukov of 1inch Network

As Cointelegraph recently reported, 1inch Network surpassed $85 billion in cumulative merchandise book in Nov roughly two years after launching. Protocol co-founder Anton Bukov said DeFi is going to witness exponential growth over the next three to five years, with decentralized exchanges bookkeeping for a larger share of the market.

1inch Network's nonprofit arm has also targeted developers to champion future protocol upgrades. In July, 1inch Foundation launched a $3 million grants programme to incentivize developers to contribute to the protocol.

DeFi, which has already seen exponential growth since mid-2020, is comprised of a wide assortment of companies and protocols seeking to disintermediate the financial system. More than than $273 billion worth of value has been locked into this diverse ecosystem — a effigy that'southward expected to grow as the crypto bull market continues into 2022.