Pharos Network, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain founded by former AntChain and Alibaba engineers, has launched its testnet following a seed funding round of $8 million led by Faction and Hack VC. The blockchain is designed for real-world adoption, offering institutional-scale decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world asset (RWA) integration with capabilities including 30,000 transactions per second (TPS), one-second finality, modular infrastructure, and zero-knowledge-based KYC/AML compliance. The project emphasizes extensive on-chain and off-chain tasks for users, although details on potential airdrops remain unclear. The launch has been recognized for combining institutional-grade security and is seen as a step toward mass-scale RWA adoption.