History of Injective (INJ)

Injective (INJ) was founded in 2017 by Eric Chen and Albert Chon. Designed as a decentralized finance protocol, it focuses on enabling a decentralized trading experience for users. The project was conceived with the goal of addressing some of the critical shortcomings seen in traditional finance and centralized exchanges (CEXs), particularly regarding user control and transparency. What made Injective’s inception stand out was its ambition to bridge the gap between decentralized finance (DeFi) and legacy financial systems, leveraging blockchain technology to offer an efficient, trustless trading environment.

After its initial development phase, the project gained notable attention in 2018 when it received backing from Binance and prominent venture capitalists like Pantera Capital during the fundraising rounds. The early investment allowed the founding team more resources to further refine their technological offerings. Binance, in particular, played a significant role, as Injective was among the first projects to be incubated by the Binance Labs arm. This association helped the project start establishing its legitimacy within the crypto space, given Binance’s reputation and large user base.

By 2019, Injective Protocol had started making headway by proposing a decentralized derivative trading platform that would lower the entry barriers for participants. This was one of the earliest indications of the Injective protocol’s inclination towards derivatives trading within the borderless scope of DeFi. During this period, the founding team also started emphasizing the importance of layer 2 scaling solutions. Injective’s final solution was framed as built on top of Ethereum, utilizing the Cosmos SDK for scalability and optimized performance.

2020 marked a pivotal moment when the project launched its mainnet. Injective stood apart from other blockchain projects by enabling decentralized exchanges (DEXs) with full compatibility across Ethereum and Cosmos, thanks to its cross-chain architecture. Around this same period, the project launched its native utility and governance token, INJ. The token fulfilled several purposes within the Injective ecosystem, ranging from governance rights to usage for staking and liquidity incentives.

There were multiple advancements thereafter, including partnerships with notable DeFi projects and continuous release of upgrades. Over time, Injective’s commitment to offering a decentralized exchange free from barriers, high fees, and intermediaries has stayed consistent, even as the DeFi ecosystem has grown ever more complex. Throughout its history, one of Injective’s standout attributes has been pushing the boundaries of what a decentralized financial ecosystem can achieve, particularly through advanced financial derivatives and cross-chain infrastructure.