PANews reported on October 1st that Lava, a Bitcoin-backed lending platform, announced it has closed a $17.5 million Series A extension funding round and launched a new USD yield product. This round was backed by several angel investors, including Peter Jurdjevic of the Qatar Investment Authority and former executives from Visa and Block (formerly Square).
The newly launched USD Yield product allows users to provide USD funds to provide liquidity for Bitcoin-collateralized loans on the platform and earn a yield, currently offering an annualized yield (APY) of up to 7.5%. Lava stated that all loans are collateralized solely by Bitcoin, with a collateralization ratio exceeding 200%.
Lava's previous Series A funding round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.



Bitcoin’s market cycles may stretch longer as ISM manufacturing data remains weak, hinting at extended macro headwinds and slower business recovery. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has historically aligned with major peaks in Bitcoin’s market cycles — a pattern that, if repeated, could imply a longer-than-usual cycle this time around.The correlation between the ISM PMI and Bitcoin’s (BTC) price was first popularized by Real Vision’s Raoul Pal and has since gained traction among macro-focused crypto analysts.“All 3 past Bitcoin cycle tops have broadly aligned with this monthly, oscillating index,” analyst Colin Talks Crypto noted, referencing the recurring overlap between Bitcoin’s market highs and the PMI’s cyclical peaks.Read more