Highlights of this Issue
According to PANews incomplete statistics, there were 21 blockchain investment and financing events globally last week (2.12-2.18), with a total fund size exceeding $140 million, as follows:
- DeFi announced 5 investment and financing events, among which the developer of Ethereum stablecoin USDe, Ethena Labs, announced the completion of a $14 million strategic round of financing.
- NFT and Metaverse field announced 1 investment and financing event: NFT collateral lending platform MetaStreet announced the completion of a $25 million financing.
- Chain Games track announced 4 investment and financing events, among which the chain game studio Overworld announced that it has raised $10 million in seed round financing.
- Infrastructure and Tools track announced 8 financings, among which the full-chain interoperability protocol Analog received $16 million in seed and strategic round investments, led by Tribe Capital.
- Other Web3/Encryption-related projects announced 3 financings, among which the decentralized automatic response system Drosera completed a $1.55 million seed round of financing, with participation from UDHC and others.
DeFi
The developer of Ethereum stablecoin USDe, Ethena Labs, announced the completion of a $14 million strategic round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of $3 billion. Dragonfly, Brevan Howard Digital, and the family office Maelstrom of BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes jointly led the investment, with participation from PayPal Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Avon Ventures, Binance, Deribit, Gemini, and Kraken, among others. This round of financing began at the end of last December and ended this week. According to previous reports, Ethena completed a $6 million seed round of financing last year, with Hayes participating through the family office Maelstrom. Hayes is also a founding advisor of Ethena.
Former President of FTX.US's Cryptocurrency Company Architect completes a $12 million financing
Brett Harrison, former president of FTX US, tweeted that his cryptocurrency startup company Architect has completed a $12 million financing, led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital, with participation from CMT Digital, ParaFi Capital, A Capital, Twelve Below, Coinbase Ventures, SALT Fund, SV Angel, and Third Kind Venture Capital, among others. Architect has raised a total of $17 million to date. Architect is an institutional DeFi platform, which completed a $5 million financing in January last year. Harrison previously served as the technology head of Citadel Securities and was appointed to lead FTX's business in the United States in 2019. In September 2022, Brett Harrison announced his resignation as president of FTX US.
Blueprint Finance completes a $7.5 million financing, led by Hashed and Tribe Capital
On-chain credit protocol Blueprint Finance announced the completion of a $7.5 million financing, led by Hashed and Tribe Capital, with participation from SALT, Kyber, Hypersphere, Lightshift, Awesome People Ventures, Veris Ventures, Kronos Research, WWVentures, Avalanche Foundation, Terra Nova, and Hyperithm. It aims to solve the liquidation problems in the cryptocurrency market. Blueprint Finance's flagship product is the Concrete Protocol, which is an application chain designed specifically for on-chain debt and credit, aiming to provide higher returns, liquidation protection, and advanced cross-DeFi prediction capabilities, starting with the currency market.
IntentX recently announced the completion of a strategic financing round, raising a total of $1.8 million. This round of financing was led by Selini Capital, with participation from Orbs, Mantle Ecofund, Mirana, Kronos Research, and Manifold Trading. The financing aims to strengthen IntentX's cooperation with market makers and the DeFi ecosystem. IntentX is a decentralized exchange that relies on its solution network to provide perpetual cryptocurrency trading functions. This financing will support further integration of IntentX with market makers and plans to disclose more details of the solutions in the future.
Hydro Protocol announces the completion of a new round of financing, with participation from Injective and others
Liquidity staking protocol Hydro Protocol announced on the X platform that it has completed a new round of financing, with participation from Injective, Vessel Capital, Moonhill Capital, SkyVision Capital, Exnetwork Capital, Quantstamp, BlackDragon, Trinito, verse2, PAKA, coinseeker.co, CSP DAO, ODIG, DoraHacks, and a high-quality angel investment team. The amount of financing was not disclosed. It is reported that Hydro Protocol is a native LSD+LSDfi protocol built on Injective, which went live on the mainnet on January 31, 2024, and the current TVL of the protocol exceeds $100 million.
NFT & Metaverse
NFT collateral lending platform MetaStreet completes a $25 million financing
NFT & Metaverse
NFT collateral lending platform MetaStreet announced the completion of a $25 million financing, with participation from Andrew Kang, dingaling, GMoney, MrBlock, DCF God, Dingaling, Sisyphus, Spencer, FreeLunchCapital, Jae Chung, GoodAlexander, and others. Following the $24 million seed and risk round financing in 2022, MetaStreet's total financing amount has reached $49 million. According to previous reports, MetaStreet announced the launch of the ERC404 governance token MSTR, aiming to address project liquidity adjustments and explore the synergy between NFTs and governance tokens. MetaStreet claims that MSTR will redefine NFT finance while driving the project into the final stage of decentralization.
Chain Games
Chain game studio Overworld completes a $10 million seed round financing, led by Hashed and others
Chain game studio Overworld announced that it has raised $10 million in seed round financing. The leading investors include Hashed, The Spartan Group, Sanctor Capital, and Galaxy Interactive, with participation from Hashkey, Big Brain Holdings, and Foresight Ventures. The funds will be used directly for game creation, and Overworld is currently recruiting for multiple roles in the studio. The studio is developing its first game, temporarily named Overworld, which is a Web3 free action role-playing game based on the Xterio token, featuring anime-style art design.
Web3 game platform Ultiverse completes a $4 million strategic round financing, led by IDG Capital
AI-driven Web3 game production and publishing platform Ultiverse completed a $4 million strategic round financing, led by IDG Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, MorningStar Ventures, Taiko, ZetaChain, Manta Network, DWF Ventures, and Jacob KO (partner at Superscrypt). Ultiverse was founded in 2022 and is an AI-based Web3 game production and publishing platform. The team consists of experts in gaming, technology, and blockchain projects. As of December 2023, Ultiverse has over 7.3 million registered users and over 830,000 monthly active users. Previous investors include Binance Labs, Sequoia Capital, DeFiance Capital, Emirates Consortium, MorningStar Ventures, GSR Ventures, Foresight Ventures, among others, with a post-investment valuation of $150 million.
Web3 game service provider Exverse completes a $3 million financing, with participation from Epic Games and others
Dubai-based Web3 game service provider Exverse completed a $3 million financing, led by Cogitent Ventures, Cointelligence, and Moonrock Capital, with participation from KuCoin Labs, Epic Games, Seedify, and ChainGPT, among others. Exverse is currently focused on developing a first-person shooter Web3 game using Epic Game's Unreal Engine 5, and the new funds will be used to expand operations and accelerate development progress.
Chain game developer Ginger Joy completes approximately $1.26 million in Pre-Seed round financing
The Web3 branch of the UK-based mobile game developer Matchingham Games, Ginger Joy, completed a £1 million (approximately $1.26 million) Pre-Seed round financing. The company plans to use these funds to develop an interoperable blockchain-based mobile game ecosystem. Ginger Joy launched its first "Fundora" party racing game on the Android platform in October 2023.
Infrastructure & Tools
Full-chain interoperability protocol Analog completes a $16 million financing, led by Tribe Capital
The full-chain interoperability protocol Analog received $16 million in seed and strategic round investments. This round of financing was led by Tribe Capital, with participation from NGC Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, NEAR, Orange DAO, Samara Asset Group, Balaji Srinivasan, and others. Analog co-founder Victor Young stated that this round of financing was achieved through Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), and the post-financing comprehensive diluted valuation of Analog will increase to $120 million. Analog is a cross-chain communication tool for interoperability between blockchain networks.
Modular blockchain infrastructure developer Lava Network completed a $15 million seed round financing, jointly led by Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital, and Tribe Capital, with participation from North Island Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Alliance DAO, Finality Capital Partners, and executives from Celestia, Cosmos, StarkWare, Filecoin, and other blockchain ecosystems. Lava plans to launch its mainnet in the first half of this year. Currently, Lava has 26 employees, with 20 of them being blockchain engineers.
MPC wallet company Fordefi completes a $10 million financing, led by Electric Capital
MPC wallet company Fordefi announced the completion of a $10 million financing, led by Electric Capital, with participation from Paxos and Alchemy, among others. Fordefi is expanding its self-custody MPC wallet product to retail-oriented service platforms, such as exchanges, fintech platforms, and Web3 companies, and further reducing interaction risks with DeFi applications. According to previous reports, Fordefi completed an $18 million seed round financing in 2022, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Pantera Capital and Jump Crypto.
NFT & Metaverse
Company Helika, which provides data analysis and infrastructure services for traditional and Web3 games, announced the completion of an $8 million Series A financing, with investment from Pantera, Animoca, Diagram, and Sfermion. Helika's product and service suite, driven by artificial intelligence, can integrate data from multiple chains, social media, and games, and convert it into actionable insights for game studios to improve user acquisition, retention, and engagement, thereby driving profit growth.
Cryptocurrency payment platform KeynesPay completes a $5.5 million Pre-Seed round financing
The digital asset financial services group Keynes Group announced that its third-party payment platform KeynesPay has completed a $5.5 million Pre-Seed round financing, with a pre-investment valuation exceeding $50 million. New investors include large institutional investors, Web3 institutions, and strategic partners. This round of financing will be used to deepen KeynesPay's payment ecosystem layout in the virtual asset industry, accelerate the diversification of licensed payment business products, and promote the group's compliance and innovative development globally. The core business of Keynes Group also includes Keynes Capital, a global asset management company specializing in blockchain technology and digital assets, Keynes Pool, a global Bitcoin mining machine service provider, KeChat, an on-chain social platform, and Keynes IE, a global Web3 education platform and social network.
Web3 verification protocol Witness completes a $3.5 million seed round financing, led by Coinbase Ventures
Web3 verification protocol Witness has completed a $3.5 million seed round financing, led by Haun Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. The funds raised will be used to develop a verification protocol to address gas fees and scalability issues in the crypto space, with project team members mainly from Paradigm, Google, and Facebook.
Web3 digital identity startup Metropolis completes a $1.2 million financing
Web3 digital identity startup Metropolis announced the completion of a $1.2 million financing, with participation from Cointelegraph Accelerator, Lamina1 Ecosystem Fund, ACS, Outlier Ventures, Protocol Labs, Primal Capital, Zephyrus Capital, Cluster Capital, EthLizards, Acacia Digital, Block Consult, IBC, and several strategic angel investors. It is reported that Metropolis is about to conduct a public token sale and disclose token economics and product development roadmap.
DePIN infrastructure DePHY completes seed round financing, with a valuation of $40 million
DePIN infrastructure DePHY has completed a seed round financing of several million dollars, with a valuation of $40 million. Investors include Blockchain Builders Fund, Foresight Ventures, IoTeX, Paramita, FutureMoneyGroup, Waterdrip Capital, DefinanceX, PAKA, and Candaq Fintech Group. The funds raised will be used to expand and operate the developer community and platform projects. In addition, DePHY will deploy a trusted Decentralized Identifier (DID) solution on Solana and has recently received funding from the Solana Foundation. DePHY is an integrated DePIN framework that can significantly reduce the cost and time frame associated with DePIN project development. DePHY provides open-source hardware solutions, decentralized messaging layers, and automatic token economic execution for all DePIN projects.
Others
Luxury watch trading platform WATCHES.IO completes a $1.9 million pre-seed round financing, led by Lemniscap
Luxury watch trading platform WATCHES.IO announced the completion of a $1.9 million pre-seed round financing, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Builder Capital, Soft Holdings, Darkside Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Marin Ventures, and numerous angel investors. WATCHES.IO uses encryption technology to provide Web3 users with a seamless experience for purchasing, trading, and investing in watches.
Decentralized automatic response system Drosera completes a $1.55 million seed round financing, with participation from UDHC and others
Decentralized automatic response system Drosera announced the completion of a $1.55 million seed round financing, with participation from Anagram, Arrington Capital, UDHC, Comfy Capital, Bodhi Ventures, Metamatic, BaseDAO, Asymmetric, Zeal Capital, Everstake, 01Node, Marin Ventures, Infinite Capital, and NxGen. Drosera is an automated protocol for detecting and reducing financial losses from exploiting vulnerabilities, abstracting the complexity of creating monitoring systems and automatic response capabilities, suitable for decentralized applications. Drosera provides a framework for creating and executing automatic responses to events on the Ethereum network.
Web3 incubator Mercure DAO raises $1.5 million
Web3 incubator Mercure DAO announced the raising of $1.5 million in private funds, which will be used to incubate Web3 projects and expand brand growth. Mercure DAO provides comprehensive solutions tailored for Web3 success, including project incubation, connections, and marketing.
Venture Capital Institutions
Venture capital firm RW3 Ventures has successfully raised $60 million for its RW3 Ventures Fund I LP to invest in early-stage blockchain and Web3 companies. The fund emphasizes investing in teams seeking to disrupt real-world industries and business models using blockchain technology. Lead investors include The Raptor Group and Mubadala Capital, a wholly-owned asset management subsidiary of the global sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company, headquartered in Abu Dhabi.
Venture capital institution Global Millennial Capital completes its first $20 million fund raising
Venture capital institution Global Millennial Capital Ltd. (GMCL), which introduces data science concepts into traditional investment processes, announced the successful closure of its first $20 million venture capital fund in an oversubscribed private subscription round. The fund is led by the Qatar-based Al Attiyah family office and will invest in highly scalable technology companies focused on intellectual property. GMCL uses a data-driven research approach to identify investment opportunities in the global technology sector and reduce investment biases. Established in 2021, the company has invested in 15 early-stage growth technology companies, covering decentralized finance, blockchain technology, and other fields. GMCL also adopts a "Profit with Purpose" investment model, emphasizing the impact on society and financial inclusivity through quantifying the tangible and intangible effects of investment, supporting the construction of technology companies that can change the interaction of the new digital economy.
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