Lending protocol Echelon launches debt-driven Move appchain

Echelon, a decentralized lending protocol on Aptos, has launched Echelon Chain, a debt-driven Move appchain.

The appchain, built on Initia’s Interwoven Stack, leverages Celestia’s modular blockchain technology, the Echelon team announced on Nov. 28.

Echelon Chain’s debut follows the release of the Echelon Roadmap, highlighting over $100 million in total value locked and $132 million in borrowed assets. The appchain represents Echelon’s strategy to dominate the Move ecosystem’s decentralized finance market.

By integrating Initia’s Interwoven Stack, Echelon Chain brings significant advantages to the ecosystem, including LayerZero onboarding, access to Celestia-native assets, native USDC, and enshrined oracles.

The platform is designed for debt management and capturing modular assets, offering atomic cross-chain composability with Initia layer-1 and a native liquidity hub.

In August this year, Echelon raised $3.5 million in seed funding from venture capital firms led by Amber Group, with participation from Laser Digital, Saison Capital, Re7, Selini Capital, and Interop Ventures.

The funds were earmarked for expanding access to high-performance DeFi and real-world asset markets, introducing cross-chain deposit vaults, and hiring smart contract and full-stack engineers.

Echelon’s public testnet is scheduled for later this year, with the mainnet launch aligned with Initia’s rollout.