$125 Million: Orchid Is Raising One of 2018's Biggest Token Sales

Orchid Labs is raising $125 million in a SAFT sale, filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveal.

According to a Form D published on April 20, Orchid has raised roughly $36.1 million out of a planned $125.59 million. Per the Form D filing, 42 investors have taken part in the sale of SAFTs – or Simple Agreements for Future Tokens – thus far. The SAFT gives accredited investors the right to claim blockchain tokens at a later date, and the investors involved must meet certain SEC-mandated income or asset thresholds in order to participate.

The startup is seeking to build an alternative to Tor, the anonymous browser software – Orchid's white paper argues that Tor can be compromised due to a lack of network nodes. It also aims to provide an alternative to virtual private networks (VPN), which require users to trust the provider.

Orchid's solution allows bandwidth users and providers to exchange ethereum-based Orchid tokens, which the firm hopes will incentivize greater participation than the Tor network has enjoyed. By executing these micropayments through the ethereum blockchain, Orchid has designed its network to be decentralized, in contrast to VPNs.

The firm raised $4.7 million in October from a raft of top-tier venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Polychain Capital and Sequoia.

Orchid's co-founder and CEO Steven Waterhouse told CoinDesk at the time:

"This is about anti-surveillance and anti-censorship, the ability to not be tracked. We see this not just in China or the Middle East, but in this country, in states that are considered to be free. If you go back in history, there was a lot more concern about privacy on the internet before Facebook."

Waterhouse told CoinDesk in October that his focus on private internet browsing began with the personal experience of being hacked.

"That really woke me up," he said.

Orchid image via Shutterstock.