NEAR protocol has managed to close substantial funding round from top cryptocurrency investors in preparation for a further DeFi-oriented advance.

NEAR Protocol has closed $150 million in funding from high-profile investors, reported CoinDesk.

Some of the names include Alameda Research, Su Zhu’s Three Arrows Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and others.

The funding reportedly happened through a private token sale. It was completed in two weeks which is indicative of the high interest in the protocol.

Speaking on the matter was Ashwin Ramachandran – a General Partner at Dragonfly, who said:

Near has done a great job from a technology standpoint, and we want to help them achieve a level of developer, user, ecosystem adoption which reflects their current level of technology innovation.

The price at which the token sale happened was not disclosed.

Yet, after news broke out, NEAR’s price skyrocketed, and it currently eyes $20.