Matt Cantieri, Crypto Lead at Microsoft's M12, Officially Joins Terraform Labs as the General Manager of Anchor Protocol

SEOUL, South Korea, May 27, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Terraform Labs (TFL), the South Korean company behind the Terra public blockchain network, has landed Matt Cantieri as the General Manager (GM) of Anchor Protocol in a decisive move for the firm. Cantieri, who led crypto efforts for M12 (Microsoft's venture capital arm) over the past 5 years, will lead the sell-side campaign and fintech integration efforts while overseeing Anchor -- Terra's high-yield savings protocol that has accumulated more than $750 million in TVL within one month of its launch.                        

"If you believe Terra is the future of payments and investing, which I do, then savings (via Anchor) is another key piece of the puzzle," says Cantieri. "Over the course of history, the money that wins is the one most useful to its holders. By providing users significantly more utility across all financial primitives, Terra will shape how people think about and interact with their hard-earned money."

For the last 5 years, Matt has led crypto efforts for M12, Microsoft's early-stage venture capital arm. In addition to M12 investment and partnership initiatives, Matt worked closely with senior Microsoft leadership to craft an ecosystem development strategy that has had a profound impact on how crypto startups interact with Microsoft. Prior to M12, Matt led BD at Adallom, a cloud app security platform acquired by Microsoft in 2015 for $300 million.

An insatiable curiosity drove Matt to discover Ethereum at a crypto conference in Shanghai in 2016, which sparked an interest to pursue crypto full-time.

"As a VC, you're always on the lookout for where top talent is migrating," says Cantieri. "After two weeks in Shanghai, it became apparent that some of the best minds in finance, economics, and technology were leaving prestigious gigs to build something immensely disruptive together. Once you see it, you can't unsee it."

Matt became acutely selective in his decisions around crypto projects after listening to hundreds of crypto pitches at M12, notable for an extremely high bar for investment. When Matt met Do Kwon, the Co-Founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, in mid-2020, he knew instantly that Do's unique blend of talent, drive, charisma, and vision would lead Terra to become one of the most important companies in crypto.

"When Do asked me to help lead Anchor, it was a no-brainer," continues Cantieri.

Cantieri now takes the reins of Anchor Protocol, the fixed-rate (e.g., 20% APY) savings protocol built on the Terra network that officially launched in mid-March. Anchor's unique position as a DeFi money market with fixed-rate 20% APY savings for stablecoins depositors and an accessible, hardened API makes it a prime candidate to puncture the glass ceiling of mainstream DeFi adoption.

In his role as GM of Anchor, Matt will help shape the protocol and take it mainstream, with the goal for Anchor to be the "Stripe for Savings" by connecting to financial apps everywhere via a turnkey API. The design space for 20% APY fixed-rate yield is enormous. And with $750 million in TVL already under tabs amid a backdrop of surging interest in DeFi and a yield-starved macroeconomic environment -- the product-market fit is already evident.

For media inquiries, please contact Nick Rodriguez at (310) 260-7901 or Nick(at)MelrosePR(dot)com.

About Terraform Labs

Terra is a Tendermint-based, public PoS blockchain network built on the Cosmos SDK. Terra is the first and most successful algorithmic stablecoin network where Terra's native asset, LUNA, collateralizes a suite of fiat-pegged stablecoins that can be swapped in a multi-fiat forex market baked into the network's protocol -- including UST -- the fastest-growing stablecoin in crypto. Terra's trifecta of financial primitives built on the Terra blockchain includes the payment app Chai with 2 million active users, the synthetic assets protocol Mirror with more than $2 billion in TVL, and the high-yield savings protocol, Anchor, which has accumulated more than $750 million in TVL within a month of launch. As demand for Terra's stablecoins increases via applications built on the network, LUNA stakers capture the value of the network in swap fees, transaction fees, and a reduced supply of LUNA tokens.

Media Contact

Nick Rodriguez, Melrose PR, 3102607901, [email protected]

SOURCE Terraform Labs (TFL)