Highlights
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 25 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (10.28-11.3), with a total funding scale exceeding $280 million, significantly increasing compared to the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 6 financing events, including the native BTC stablecoin protocol bitSmiley.io, which completed a $10 million Series B funding round;
- Web3 gaming announced 4 financing events, including the developer of the Web3 game PARAVOX, 81RAVENS, which completed $4.5 million in funding, led by Digital Hearts Holdings and Gree Ventures;
- AI announced 1 financing event, with AI data collection startup Sapien completing a $10.5 million seed round, led by Variant;
- DePIN announced 1 financing event, with the Ethereum-based blockchain solar company Glow completing $30 million in funding, led by Framework and Union Square Ventures;
- Infrastructure and tools announced 12 financing events, including the Optimism Foundation providing 25 million OP tokens (approximately $42 million) to Kraken to support its Layer-2 network development;
- Other blockchain/crypto applications announced 1 financing event, with the community-oriented Web3 content platform Libraro completing a phase one seed round, led by Ayre Ventures.
DeFi
Founders Fund leads Infinex's "sponsored" NFT financing, raising $67 million
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund participated in Infinex's "sponsored" NFT financing model, helping it achieve a fundraising goal of $67 million. This financing attracted venture capital, angel investors, and community supporters through the sale of Patron NFTs, with other participating institutions including Wintermute Ventures, Framework Ventures, and Solana Ventures. Individual investors included Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov. Infinex, founded by Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, aims to build a decentralized trading experience to compete with centralized exchanges. The platform currently has a total locked value of $125 million and will focus on achieving features such as spot trading, derivatives, and fiat on-ramps to further approach the service level of centralized exchanges.
BTC native stablecoin protocol bitSmiley.io completes $10 million Series B funding
The BTC native stablecoin protocol bitSmiley.io announced the completion of a $10 million Series B funding round, with participation from institutions including MH Ventures, Veris Ventures, Side Door Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, Pragma, NewTribe Capital, Kinetic Kollective, Perlon Capital, IBC, GuildQB, NxGen, Dutch Crypto Investors, Aegis Ventures, ZC, Skyland Ventures, and Cypher Capital. This funding will drive innovation and development in the Bitcoin-supported DeFi space. bitSmiley.io plans to expand its cross-chain trading and BTCFi infrastructure through partnerships with platforms like ZetaChain and Babylon.
The Bitcoin liquid staking platform PumpBTC announced the completion of a $10 million seed round, led by SevenX Ventures and Mirana Ventures, with participation from well-known institutions such as UTXO and Mantle Ecosystem Fund, and attracted several industry partners including Quantstamp and Veda. This funding will help PumpBTC launch a new product, BTC-Fi, which is a CeDeFi BTC liquidity vault that combines CeFi-level security with DeFi's BTC yield optimization, providing automated yield strategies that allow Bitcoin holders to maximize returns. Since its launch in July 2024, PumpBTC has been deployed on over 10 public chains, attracting a total locked amount of 3,400 BTC (approximately $240 million) and collaborating with over 70 projects to build a multi-chain, multi-partner ecosystem, further promoting the development of CeDeFi.
The Monad ecosystem liquid staking protocol Magma announced the completion of a $3.9 million seed round, with participation from Bloccelerate, Animoca Ventures, CMS Holdings, Maelstrom, Veil VC, Builder Capital, Infinity Ventures, RockTree Capital, Wise3 Ventures, Stake Capital, and Relayer Capital. Angel investors participating in this financing include Meltem Demirors, Kartik Talwar, Mike Silagadze, Alan Curtis, and Ben Lakoff. Magma is a decentralized liquid staking protocol built on the Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain Monad Network. Users of Magma will be able to stake their Monad tokens in exchange for gMONAD, a liquid staking token (LST). Magma is also building MEV infrastructure for Monad to enhance the performance of the Monad network. Magma users will be able to utilize their LST to earn re-staking rewards through Ether.Fi.
Crypto insurance brokerage Native completes $2.6 million seed round, led by Nexus Mutual
The decentralized insurance platform Nexus Mutual supports the new crypto insurance brokerage Native, which has secured $2.6 million in seed funding led by Nexus Mutual. Native will provide $20 million in on-chain insurance for each risk and operate a capital pool on Nexus Mutual to enhance industry insurance capacity. Native CEO Ben Davies stated that this initiative aims to address the long-standing issue of insurance shortages in the crypto industry and promote growth in the sector. Additionally, Nexus Mutual has launched an insurance product called Base DeFi Pass, which provides unified coverage for mainstream protocols including Uniswap, Compound, and Morpho through Coinbase's Layer 2 network, Base. This product, developed by OpenCover, covers risks such as smart contract vulnerabilities and hacking attacks. OpenCover CEO Jeremiah Smith noted that the Base DeFi Pass simplifies the insurance purchasing process, catering to users' "set it and forget it" insurance needs.
Stablecoin project CAP Labs announced the completion of a $1.9 million Pre-Seed round, with participation from Kraken Ventures, Robot Ventures, ANAGRAM, ABCDE Labs, SCB Limited, and several individual investors.
CAP Labs is building a scalable crypto-native stablecoin; these stablecoins will connect users to the full range of crypto-native yields: MEV, arbitrage, and other types of yields; its mainnet is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2025.
Web3 Gaming
Alliance Games completed a $5 million Series A funding round, led by Animoca Brands and Asymm Ventures, with participation from The Spartan Group, Dialectic, Kyros Ventures, Coin98 Ventures, and investors Loi Luu and Sebastien. Including its previous seed round, Alliance Games' total funding has reached $8 million. Alliance Games is a decentralized AI infrastructure built specifically for gaming, utilizing distributed computing power to democratize access to advanced AI tools, enabling developers of all sizes to unleash creativity and enhance player experiences.
Web3 game PARAVOX's developer 81RAVENS completes $4.5 million funding
The developer of the Web3 game PARAVOX, 81RAVENS, announced the completion of a new funding round of $4.5 million, co-led by Digital Hearts Holdings and Gree Ventures. The injection of this new capital will accelerate development and marketing, driving the game's continued expansion on Solana. PARAVOX is a 3v3 competitive shooting game, and its global open Alpha phase has seen over 100,000 downloads on the Epic Games Store. To celebrate the migration to Solana, PARAVOX has launched a limited edition Solana-themed skin.
On-chain game developer Delabs Games announced on the X platform the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with participation from TON Ventures. The specific financing amount and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. The new funds will be used for the growth of Delabs Games and to deploy its game projects on the TON blockchain. Previously, Delabs Games' PC game "Rumble Racing Star" and space survival game "Space Frontier" were built on the Polygon blockchain, but in July of this year, Delabs Games began expanding into the TON ecosystem and launched the Telegram click game Giga Chad Bat.
VanEck has invested in Web3 game startup Gunzilla Games
VanEck announced that its private crypto fund has invested in the game startup Gunzilla Games, marking the asset management company's second bet on Web3 gaming. Matt Maximo from VanEck posted on the X platform that Gunzilla is the developer of the dystopian cyberpunk shooting game "Off The Grid," where players can earn Gunzilla's native GUN tokens. Maximo stated, "We believe cryptocurrency is a tool to enhance the gaming experience and improve monetization strategies."
AI
AI data collection company Sapien completes $10.5 million seed round, led by Variant
AI data collection startup Sapien announced the completion of a $10.5 million seed round, led by venture capital firm Variant, with participation from Primitive Ventures, Animoca, Yield Game Guild, and HF0. Angel investors including YGG founder Gabby Dizon and SoftBank Vision Fund alumnus Kevin Jiang also participated in this round of financing. Sapien is led by Rowan Stone, co-founder of Coinbase Layer 2 network Base, and Trevor Koverko, founder of Polymath. The platform incentivizes global data providers through USDC stablecoins or reward points. Users must stake funds to participate in work, and those who perform well can receive additional rewards, while any cheating will result in the forfeiture of the stake. Sapien currently provides data support for 17 large enterprises, including Alibaba and Baidu, and has attracted over 100,000 AI data annotators.
DePIN
Ethereum-based blockchain solar company Glow has completed $30 million in financing, led by Framework and Union Square Ventures. Glow operates a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) composed of solar power plants in the United States and India, aiming to promote the development and management of clean energy through blockchain technology.
Infrastructure & Tools
U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced that it will build a Layer-2 network called Ink based on Optimism's OP Stack framework, becoming part of the "Superchain" ecosystem. In an agreement reached earlier this year, the Optimism Foundation agreed to provide Kraken with 25 million OP tokens, which were valued at approximately $100 million at the time, now worth about $42.5 million. This agreement allows Kraken to use OP Stack to create its custom Layer-2, with tokens being unlocked in monthly batches. Additionally, Kraken becomes another major participant using OP Stack technology to develop a Layer-2 network, following Coinbase, Uniswap, and Sony, further promoting the rapid expansion of the Optimism ecosystem.
Privacy security computing network Nillion announced the completion of a new round of financing totaling $25 million, led by Hack VC, with participation from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors. To date, its total financing has exceeded $50 million. Nillion was founded three years ago with the aim of creating a privacy-secure computing network through decentralized and privacy-enhancing technologies such as secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption, providing better protection services for high-value data. Nillion has built the world's first blind computing infrastructure, capable of providing private data storage and computing functions for AI agents, data markets, private DeFi, healthcare analytics, and more.
Ellipsis Labs completes $21 million new round of financing to launch Layer 2 blockchain Atlas
The team behind the Solana ecosystem DEX Phoenix, Ellipsis Labs, has completed a new round of financing totaling $21 million, including $20 million raised from Haun Ventures and $1 million from other investors, to accelerate the launch of the Layer 2 blockchain Atlas, focused on verifiable finance. Ellipsis aims to address key issues in DeFi, such as inefficient price discovery and high transaction costs, which make decentralized finance platforms difficult to compete with traditional financial systems. Ellipsis plans to apply its experience from building Phoenix to Atlas, which was initially launched as a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum, aiming to connect liquidity pools from Ethereum and Solana. Key features will include low-latency transaction processing, reliable oracle updates, and sorting for non-custodial on-chain price discovery. Previous news indicated that Ellipsis completed a $20 million Series A round led by Paradigm in April.
Bitcoin rollup project Citrea completes $14 million Series A financing, led by Founders Fund
The Bitcoin rollup project Citrea announced the completion of a $14 million Series A financing, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, with participation from angel investors such as Erik Voorhees and Balaji Srinivasan. Citrea aims to utilize zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to transform Bitcoin into a programmable asset, introducing Ethereum-like smart contract capabilities. Citrea employs the BitVM computing model, making it compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing applications on Ethereum to be deployed on Citrea without modification. Citrea stated that Bitcoin lacks scalable solutions in the DeFi space, and without enhancing its usability, it may gradually become marginalized. Through ZK technology, Citrea expands the capacity of Bitcoin's block space, providing a foundation for supporting diverse on-chain applications and preventing Bitcoin's position in decentralized finance from being affected.
Rollup-as-a-Service platform Gelato completes $11 million A+ round financing, led by Hack VC
The Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform Gelato raised $11 million in its latest A+ round of financing, led by Hack VC, with participation from institutions such as Animoca Brands, IOSG Ventures, and Bloccelerate VC. This financing will be used to expand the team and services, supporting more enterprise-level rollup applications, aiming to become the preferred platform for launching blockchain projects. Gelato's new clients include Kraken's Layer 2 blockchain Ink, which is expected to launch on the mainnet in early 2025. Ink will be part of the Ethereum Superchain ecosystem, utilizing Optimism's OP Stack architecture. This financing brings Gelato's total funding to $23.2 million.
Ethereum scaling infrastructure company Spire Labs completes $7 million seed round financing
The Ethereum scaling startup Spire Labs has completed a $7 million seed round of financing, led by Maven 11 Capital and Anagram, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, Digital Currency Group, and others. The funds will be used to develop "Based Stack," a rollup framework that helps developers deploy Ethereum Layer 2 application chains (appchains). Kaito Yanai, co-founder of Spire Labs, explained that Based Stack allows appchains to use Ethereum Layer 1 as a sorting layer, ensuring Ethereum's composability, fairness, and censorship resistance. Additionally, Based Stack supports the internalization of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value), allowing appchains to capture the MEV they generate. Spire plans to launch the first testnet of Based Stack by the end of this year and go live on the mainnet in the first quarter of 2025.
Blockchain software company OpenOrigins, which focuses on combating deepfakes, announced the completion of $4.5 million in financing, led by Galaxy Interactive, with valuation information not yet disclosed. Founded in 2021, OpenOrigins uses blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of photos, videos, and other digital content to combat false media, with relevant information recorded on the Hyperledger blockchain. The new funds will be used to expand into global markets such as India and the United States.
Security protocol Phylax Systems completes $4.5 million Pre-Seed round financing
Security protocol Phylax Systems has completed a $4.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Nascent and Figment Capital, with other participants including Robot Ventures, Hash3, Bankless Ventures, Breed VC, Public Works, Banteg, Hari Mulackal, Laurence Day, Ryan Lackey, Nic Carter, Nader Dabit, and Eric Wall. The company will use these funds to develop The Credible Layer, a hacker prevention protocol. Currently, it is building a credible layer, which is a proactive security layer that allows dApps to define hacker prevention rules and communicate them to block builders, specifying the states they want to prevent. It functions as a coordination mechanism between dApps and the underlying layer, ensuring the sovereignty and security of dApps. Regarding the transparency of the credible layer, anyone can view the security rules of the dApp and verify their execution. dApps pay fees for this verification, ensuring their assets are protected.
The team behind the Solana scaling infrastructure platform Termina, Nitro Labs, has raised $4 million in a seed round of financing, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Animoca Ventures, Borderless Capital, Finality Capital, Race Capital, and No Limit Holdings. Additionally, undisclosed angel investors from the Solana Foundation, Jump Crypto, and Spartan also joined this round of financing. Nitro Labs founder Yiwen Gao revealed that this round of financing was completed this summer, using a SAFE structure with token warrants, and declined to disclose the company's valuation. Termina is described as an open-source platform designed to enable developers to easily deploy custom Solana Rollups or SVM "network extensions," essentially Layer 2 networks.
Startup Axal, focused on developing autonomous agent networks, announced the completion of $2.5 million in pre-seed financing, led by CMT Digital, with other participants including a16z Crypto Startup School, Escape Velocity, IDG Vietnam, and Artichoke Capital. Axal plans to use the funds to expand its team and launch its first product, Axal Autopilot, an autonomous agent-driven trading automation platform that provides users with personalized trading strategies, including price tracking, on-chain trade execution, and yield management. Axal founder Ash Ahmed stated that the company is committed to developing verifiable autonomous agents to simplify users' lives with practical automation features, rather than just creating tokens or entertainment products.
London-based KRNL Labs announced the completion of $1.7 million in pre-seed round financing, aiming to create the largest multi-chain software registry in the Web3 space. This round of financing is supported by notable investors, including TRGC, Superscrypt, Ryze Labs, Builder Capital, Blockchain Founders Fund, WAGMi Ventures, STIX, YAP Capital, and several strategic angel investors. KRNL Labs is dedicated to building a decentralized computing node package management system through cross-chain communication, similar to the Node Package Manager (npm) in JavaScript development. The platform supports cross-chain modular execution sharding, enabling developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) that leverage multiple blockchains simultaneously, improving efficiency and scalability.
Saudi Web3 provider Tharawat Green Exchange completes $450,000 financing, with participation from Adaverse
Saudi Arabia-based Web3 provider Tharawat Green Exchange has completed $450,000 in financing, with participation from the Web3 and blockchain investment fund Adaverse. The project aims to leverage blockchain technology for environmental sustainability, aligning with Saudi Vision 2030. The new funds will support infrastructure and blockchain development, strengthen sales and marketing, and assist in obtaining Vera certification for its carbon credits.
Others
Community-oriented Web3 content platform Libraro completes Phase One seed round financing, led by Ayre Ventures
Community-oriented Web3 content platform Libraro announced the completion of its seed round financing (Phase One), led by Ayre Ventures, with specific financing amounts and valuation information not disclosed. The new funds will be used to expand its Web 3 loyalty program and on-chain author identity features, prevent copyright infringement, and enhance transparency in content ownership and distribution rights.
Investment Institutions
Web3 data and entertainment company Redacted Group announced the launch of a new early-stage crypto fund, Redacted Fund, to support Web3 startups and game developers. The fund is backed by Saison Capital, Expert Dojo, and Frekaz Group, and has already invested in seven initial projects within the Redacted ecosystem, namely: Biptap, LegendaryWeb3, Hub.xz, Numa social, Spaace.io, Ammalgam, and iAgentProtocol. The Redacted Fund will primarily provide assistance in listing strategies and token economics development. It is reported that the fund will soon launch the RDAC token and allocate a portion of the tokens to the portfolio under the Redacted Fund as an additional incentive for growth, using RDAC tokens to improve and iterate products while validating product-market fit.
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