Highlights of this Issue
According to PANews incomplete statistics, there were 25 blockchain investment and financing events globally last week (5.20-5.26), with a total funding scale exceeding $270 million, a significant increase compared to the previous week. An overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 8 investment and financing events, among which the Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp raised $9 million, with SCB Limited and Laser Digital leading the investment.
- Web3 Games announced 1 investment and financing event, with RPG blockchain game Aria completing a seed round of financing. Folius Ventures, Spartan Group, and Merit Circle led the investment.
- NFT field announced 1 investment and financing event, with Singapore collectible design company Mighty Jaxx securing an additional $11 million in Series A financing.
- DePIN announced 1 investment and financing event, with the DePIN project Blockless, which focuses on providing computing power support, raising $8 million in two early rounds of financing.
- Infrastructure and Tools track announced 8 financings, including zero-knowledge hardware startup Cysic completing a $12 million pre-Series A financing, with HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures leading the investment.
- Other Blockchain/Crypto Applications announced 8 financings, including Web3 social media platform Farcaster securing $150 million in financing, with Paradigm leading the investment and a16z crypto participating.
DeFi
Liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO completes $9 million financing through private token sale
The Ethereum liquidity re-staking platform Kelp DAO raised $9 million in a private token sale round, with a valuation of $90 million. This round of financing was led by SCB Limited from the Bahamas and the crypto division of Nomura Global, Laser Digital, jointly investing $3.5 million. Other investors include Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, and Draper Dragon.
Amitej Gajjala, co-founder of Kelp, stated that this round of financing was completed in March when Kelp's total value locked (TVL) was approximately $300 million, which has now increased to around $961 million. Kelp plans to use this funding to expand its liquidity re-staking services on blockchains such as Bitcoin, Solana, and BNB Chain, and is expected to launch 1-2 new chains in the third quarter of this year.
The decentralized derivative trading platform ELFi Protocol announced the completion of two strategic rounds of financing, raising a total of $5 million, with the latest round led by IDG Capital and KuCoin Ventures. ELFi Protocol has been launched on the Arbitrum testnet and is conducting public beta testing for Genesis NFT.
The Scroll ecosystem DeFi project Pencils Protocol announced the completion of a $2.1 million seed round of financing, with a current valuation of $25 million. Participants include OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Galxe, Gate.io Labs, Aquarius, Presto, and Agarwood, as well as individual investors such as Sandy Peng and Ashley Xiong, partners of V Fund, David Gan, co-founder of Inception Capital, Ryan Li, founder of Cyberconnect, and Lucia Zhang, co-founder of Arcanum Capital. Through collaboration with Scroll, Pencils Protocol utilizes zero-knowledge technology to build a Layer-2 solution, focusing on scalable private dApp development and the principle of fair release, providing on-chain asset services to users.
DeFi platform Zaros raises $1.8 million in financing
DeFi platform Zaros has raised $1.8 million in financing, with participation from SNZ Holdings, Seven Capital, Cogitent Ventures, DCI Capital, Antony Sassano, Fernando Martinelli, Kieran Warwick, Andy Chen, Kevin Lu, and others. Zaros aims to enhance perpetual futures trading by using liquidity staking tokens (LST) and liquidity re-staking tokens (LRT). Zaros has introduced unilateral liquidity pools (ZLP Vault) for LST tokens such as Lido and LRT tokens such as EigenLayer. Liquidity providers (LP) earn actual ETH income from trading fees in the perpetual futures market. These LPs act as market makers and receive ERC20 tokens representing their equity, thereby maintaining the composability of DeFi.
The option protocol IVX, based on the Berachain native, announced the completion of a $1.2 million seed round of financing, led by Animoca Ventures and AVID3, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Web3Port, Cogitent Ventures, Forbole, SerDAO, Autistic Waterfowl Venture Capital, and several angel investors. IVX is built on the Berachain Polaris EVM technology stack, providing zero-day expiry (0DTE) options for crypto assets in a permissionless and secure manner, allowing buyers to have no liquidation risk and achieve high leverage exposure with minimal capital. Its IVX Artio testnet is currently open.
Bitcoin infrastructure platform RunesFi raises $400,000 in financing, with participation from Cogitent Ventures
The Bitcoin infrastructure platform RunesFi announced the completion of a $400,000 financing round, with participation from Cogitent Ventures, Oddiyana Ventures, Lavender Capital, WeeHODL, Zephyrus Capital, and Samurai Starter. RunesFi primarily utilizes the Runes protocol to support various infrastructure products for the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem.
Web3 Games
According to Aria's official Twitter account, RPG blockchain game Aria has announced the completion of a seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by Folius Ventures, Spartan Group, and Merit Circle, with participation from institutions such as Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands, Formless Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Selini Capital, Bitscale Capital, LiquidX, 32-Bit Ventures, and angel investors including Miles Deutscher. The amount of funding has not been disclosed.
NFT
Singapore collectible design company Mighty Jaxx has secured an additional $11 million in the extension of its Series A+ financing. In March 2022, the company raised $20 million in the first round of Series A+ financing. With this latest investment, Mighty Jaxx has raised over $51 million to date. Sunova Capital and East Ventures participated in the latest round of financing. East Ventures led the first round of financing, with investors such as Mirana Ventures, KB Investment, and Korea Investment Partners also participating. The first round of financing closed with a valuation of over $200 million, but Mighty Jaxx did not disclose the final valuation. In addition to the UK, Mighty Jaxx also has offices in China and the United States and has been operating in these countries since its establishment. The company plans to expand its business in the US and Europe this year and use the new funds to support this growth.
Founded in 2012, the company has collaborated with well-known companies such as Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, and Netflix to create limited edition collectibles, with customers in 90 countries. After entering the NFT market through series adventures like Inked Stories: Medusa, Mighty Jaxx is now focusing on blockchain infrastructure, including registering its collectibles on the blockchain.
DePIN
Blockless, a project focused on providing computing power support, has announced the raising of $8 million in two early rounds of financing. Blockless stated that NGC Ventures led the $3 million pre-seed round of financing, and M31 Capital and Frachtis jointly led the $5 million seed round of financing. Other investors in these two rounds of financing include No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures, and Plassa Capital. Butian Li, co-founder of Blockless, stated that the testnet is planned to be launched in the coming weeks, with the mainnet and native BLESS token set to be launched in the third quarter.
Infrastructure & Tools
Zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware startup Cysic has announced the completion of a $12 million pre-Series A financing, led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures. The new funds will be used to accelerate the generation of ZK proofs in a faster, more cost-effective, user-friendly, and decentralized manner. Earlier reports indicate that Cysic completed a $6 million seed round of financing in February last year, with Polychain Capital leading the investment and other investors including Hashkey, SNZ Holding, A&T Capital, ABCDE, and Web3.com Ventures.
Layer 2 network Plume Network raises $10 million in seed round financing, led by Haun Ventures
The Layer 2 network Plume Network, focused on bringing real-world assets (RWA) onto the chain, has raised $10 million in a seed round of financing led by Haun Ventures. Other participating investors include Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures. Plume Network is a modular Layer 2 network compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), designed to compliantly bring various asset categories onto the chain using efficient and secure blockchain technology. Currently, Plume is in private testnet with over 80 RWA and DeFi projects building on its network, including collectibles, alternative assets, synthetic assets, luxury goods, real estate, lending protocols, and perpetual decentralized exchanges.
Interoperability protocol Stripchain raises $10 million in financing, led by Sora Ventures
Stripchain has raised $10 million in the latest round of financing, aiming to simplify the blockchain user experience. This round of financing was led by Sora Ventures, with participants including Hyperithm, Shima Capital, Hypersphere, Mechanism, Ascending Assets, and angel investors Santiago Santos, Stephane Gosselin from Frontier Research, and Ryan Selkis from Messari. Stripchain is an interoperability protocol designed to achieve large-scale chain abstraction, allowing users to interact with decentralized applications without having to focus on the underlying blockchain system. The protocol is led by the pseudonymous researcher "0xnovachrono," as well as Isa Sertkaya and Narayana Pryusty. Based on a system called stripVM, the protocol allows applications to communicate and coordinate across different protocols, with a focus on the transaction layer and the use of authorization proof systems. Stripchain is currently in the private testing phase and is expected to launch a testnet in the coming months.
Fantom Foundation completes $10 million strategic financing, led by Hashed
Fantom Foundation Completes $10 Million Strategic Financing, Led by Hashed
Fantom Foundation has completed a $10 million strategic financing round, led by Hashed, with participation from UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, Aave Foundation, as well as angel investors Stani Kulechov, Robert Leshner, Michael Egorov, Fernando Martinelli, Tarun Chitra, and Sam Kazemian. The funds from this round of financing will be used to support the Sonic Foundation, strategic growth, and ecosystem development, with a focus on enhancing liquidity for automated market makers and blue-chip pools in the currency market. Additionally, Fantom Foundation announced plans to establish the Sonic Foundation and Sonic Labs before launching the Sonic blockchain. The Sonic Foundation will manage governance and funds, while Sonic Labs will focus on the development of decentralized applications.
Decentralized Governance Infrastructure Dora Factory Completes $10 Million Strategic Financing
Decentralized governance infrastructure Dora Factory has announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing round. This round of financing was led by Nomad Capital, No Limit Holdings, Cloud Nine Capital, UVM Signum Blockchain Fund of United Overseas Bank, Web3 Ventures, Calvin Liu of Eigenlayer, and OG Interop Ventures within the Cosmos ecosystem. The raised funds will be used to accelerate the strategic expansion of Dora Factory's decentralized governance and public goods funding technology system. Dora Factory is a decentralized governance and public goods technology protocol. Its core products include the open, permissionless, governance-focused Cosmos SDK application chain Dora Vota, the anonymous privacy voting infrastructure aMACI, and the multi-chain quadratic funding process for democratizing public goods funding. This financing will further drive the application and long-term strategic expansion of Dora Factory's technology stack.
MultiVM Raises $6.9 Million in Financing, with Inception Capital Participating
Web3 venture capital firm Inception Capital and Lattice jointly participated in the $6.9 million early financing of the Ethereum L2 execution environment MultiVM. MultiVM is building a new type of ZK Rollup on Ethereum, unifying multiple virtual machines and languages, allowing EVM developers to expand beyond the Ethereum ecosystem, while non-EVM developers can also expand into the Ethereum ecosystem.
MANTRA Completes New Strategic Financing Round, with Laser Digital Participating
MANTRA has announced the completion of a new strategic financing round, with participation from Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of global financial services giant Nomura Securities, to accelerate MANTRA's goal of building the RWA Layer 1 blockchain in the Middle East and Asia. The specific amount of financing and valuation has not been disclosed.
Open Source EVM Blockchain Platform Nexis Network Completes Private Round of Financing, with Castrum Istanbul Participating
Open source EVM blockchain platform Nexis Network has announced the completion of a private round of financing, with participation from Castrum Istanbul. The specific amount and valuation have not been disclosed. Nexis Network is designed for decentralized projects and applications to create a transparent, community-driven ecosystem, supporting Ethereum-based dApps and DeFi protocols, using its native token NZT for transactions, payments, and staking to achieve consensus.
Other
Social Media:
Web3 Social Media Platform Farcaster Completes $150 Million Financing, Led by Paradigm
Web3 social media platform Farcaster has completed a $150 million financing round, led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, and others. The new funds will be used to increase daily active users and recruit more engineers. Farcaster is a decentralized social media platform based on Optimism, allowing users to better control their data and developers to enhance the platform through mini-applications. Earlier reports revealed that Farcaster developer Merkle Manufactory was set to complete a financing round led by Paradigm, with an estimated valuation of around $1 billion. Farcaster previously raised $30 million in March 2022, with a16z leading the investment.
Cryptocurrency Applications:
US Blockchain Company Alphaledger Completes $9.5 Million Series A Financing
US blockchain startup Alphaledger has announced the completion of a $9.5 million Series A financing, led by EJF Capital, with participation from KDX. Additionally, Alphaledger announced a partnership with Tradeweb Markets, one of the major over-the-counter fixed income securities markets. Alphaledger's platform aims to simplify the asset origination and settlement process, with a focus on increasing transparency, reducing costs, and decreasing settlement times for financial institutions. It is reported that Alphaledger previously issued the first blockchain-based US municipal bond and completed a seed round of financing of nearly $6 million in 2021. Tradeweb currently supports approximately $15 trillion (nominal value) in trades daily.
Web3 Weather Network WeatherXM Completes $7.7 Million Series A Financing, Led by Lightspeed Faction
Cryptocurrency-driven weather station network and weather data provider WeatherXM, headquartered in Athens, Greece, has raised $7.7 million in a Series A financing round. This round of financing was led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Protocol Labs, Borderless Capital, Arca, Alumni Ventures, Placeholder VC, and Red Beard Ventures, among others. WeatherXM plans to use the funds to expand its global weather station network, enhance data collection and analysis capabilities, and provide users with more accurate and real-time weather information.
Web3 Entertainment Studio Feature Completes $1.9 Million Financing
Web3 entertainment studio and technology company Feature has completed a $1.9 million financing, with participation from InterVest, 2PunksCapital, Avalanche, Acme Innovation, and Sterling.VC. Feature connects audiences with brands using its Smart Content™ smart contract technology, with automatic rewards generated for each interaction, creating new revenue streams.
Inscriptions & Runes:
RunesTerminal has announced the completion of a financing round, with the specific amount undisclosed. Investors include Cogitent Ventures, CMS Holdings, Waterdrip Capital, IAngels, Pentos Ventures, Zephyrus Capital, THE CMS, Ran Neuner (CNBC host), Laser Digital, GBV Capital, DuckDAO, Fusion7 Venture Capital, Pragma Ventures, and others. RunesTerminal is a Launchpad project within the Rune ecosystem and plans to launch RunesScan, RunesPad, RunesEtcher, and RunesBook. RunesTerminal announced last week that it is integrating the Runes protocol on the Sei Network.
Consulting Services:
Crypto Governance Consulting Company MetaLeX Completes $2.75 Million Seed Round Financing
MetaLeX, founded by cryptocurrency lawyer Gabriel Shapiro, has announced the completion of a $2.75 million seed round financing, led by Cyber Fund, with the company's valuation reaching $27.5 million. MetaLeX is a hybrid enterprise that combines a law firm and a technology company, dedicated to providing governance standardization solutions for decentralized processes in crypto projects.
Web3 Freelance Service Platform Sorbet Completes New Financing Round, with Participation from Adaverse
Web3 freelance service platform Sorbet has announced the completion of a new financing round, with participation from the venture fund and accelerator Adaverse. The specific amount and valuation information has not been disclosed. It is reported that this investment is also part of Adaverse's $10 million investment plan. By eliminating fees and intermediaries for freelancers, Sorbet aims to drive more creative professionals into the Web3 industry. Its tools allow freelancers to seamlessly receive payments in stablecoins, enabling them to have direct and fair interactions with clients.
Cryptocurrency Mining:
SolarX Completes $3 Million Financing through Tenset Launchpad
Environmentally friendly cryptocurrency mining project SolarX has announced the completion of a $3 million financing through Tenset Launchpad and has joined the Tenset incubator. SolarX is primarily advancing a decentralized mining model powered by solar energy, and the new funds raised will drive the release of its native token and the launch of corresponding services and products.
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