Seismic Raises $10M Led by a16z to Build the Next-Generation Privacy Blockchain for Fintech

Seismic Secures $10 Million in New Funding Led by a16z

Seismic, a privacy-focused blockchain project, has closed a new $10 million funding round led by a16z crypto, with additional participation from Amber Group and other institutional investors. This continued investment highlights the rising demand for robust financial privacy infrastructure. With total funding now at $17 million, Seismic will channel these resources into foundational technology development and ecosystem expansion, accelerating the rollout of privacy chains in fintech.

Seismic: Strategic Positioning and Technical Approach

(Source: Seismic)

Rather than building a general-purpose public blockchain, Seismic aims to be the privacy-preserving computing backbone for fintech applications. Its EVM-compatible architecture lets developers use Solidity to build DApps, while privacy parameters can be set with additional syntax. This reduces development complexity and safeguards sensitive information.

Seismic’s technology is designed around “default privacy,” featuring:

• Protocol-level encryption and secure hardware
  All data is protected at the protocol level, eliminating dependence on third-party vendors.
• Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
  Every node operates on validated secure hardware, which mitigates the risk of data leakage.
• Support for multiple shielded data types
  Integers, booleans, addresses, and more can be encrypted, allowing privacy functionality to be seamlessly built into smart contracts.

These capabilities position Seismic as an ideal solution for high-privacy financial use cases such as payroll processing and personal financial data management.

Seismic Reth: Native Execution Client for Enhanced Privacy

Seismic has developed its native execution client, Seismic Reth, expanding privacy features while retaining full EVM ecosystem compatibility. Supported functions include:

• Private storage
• Encrypted transactions
• Six new precompiled contracts: AES-GCM, ECDH, and other cryptographic operations

Open-sourced in October 2024, this toolkit enables developers to integrate privacy features directly. This minimizes the need for major architectural changes. It also lowers the technical barrier to entry.

Seismic’s Founding Team

Founder Lyron Co Ting Keh holds degrees in computer science and mathematics from Stanford. He previously founded an EdTech company and contributed to privacy projects like Zcash and Aztec. Lead engineer Peter He developed Ethereum specialized chain frameworks and has extensive expertise in distributed systems and privacy. As business development lead, Terence focuses on fintech partnerships and drives Seismic’s adoption in real-world finance.

The team’s collective experience spans top technology and crypto organizations, including Wintermute, Google X, and Apple R&D. This background gives the project significant credibility and execution strength.

Brookwell Launches: Seismic Privacy Chain’s First Real-World Application

In September 2025, Brookwell—a fintech app built on Seismic—launched, including rent payments, payroll, private financial transactions, and DeFi yield integration, targeting personal financial privacy.

Reasons to use Brookwell include:

• Secure sensitive data (such as salary amounts and transaction recipients)
• Support for hybrid operations across both traditional financial channels and crypto assets
• Ability to perform data computation and verification under privacy conditions

Brookwell’s waitlist is now open and is attracting early adopters eager for private financial services.

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Conclusion

Seismic’s recent funding and technical advances demonstrate that privacy chains are expanding beyond Web3, increasingly integrating with fintech. With the open-source release of Reth and the launch of Brookwell, Seismic is poised to become the core infrastructure for financial-grade privacy, driving deeper connections between Web3 and traditional finance. As privacy becomes a default requirement in financial operations, Seismic is well positioned to lead this industry-wide transformation.