Highlights
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 18 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (12.1-12.7), with a total funding scale exceeding $344 million. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi reported 7 investment and financing events, including decentralized exchange Ostium, which completed a $20 million Series A financing led by Jump Trading and others;
- The Web3+AI sector reported 2 investment and financing events, with decentralized AI network DeepNode raising a total of $5 million in two rounds of financing;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector reported 3 investment and financing events, including testing tool Antithesis used by the Ethereum network, which completed a $105 million Series A financing led by Jane Street;
- The Centralized Finance sector reported 3 investment and financing events, including stablecoin application Fin, which raised $17 million, led by Pantera Capital;
- The Other Web3 Applications sector reported 3 investment and financing events, with prediction market Opinion revealing it has completed a new round of financing worth tens of millions of dollars;
- Additionally, 2 listed companies completed financing for crypto treasury strategies: Lion Group signed a $10 million private placement financing agreement, allocating $8 million to purchase BTC.
DeFi
Decentralized exchange Ostium, founded by Harvard graduates, has completed a $20 million Series A financing, with a post-investment valuation of approximately $250 million, led by General Catalyst and Jump Trading, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, and GSR. Ostium has previously raised a total of about $8 million. The platform focuses on perpetual contract trading of real-world assets such as commodities and stocks, aiming to provide transparent and efficient exposure to the U.S. market for overseas investors outside the U.S. The co-founder and CEO stated that their goal is not to directly compete with crypto-native perpetual contract protocols like Hyperliquid, but to challenge traditional online brokers like Robinhood and eToro. The Ostium team currently has 15 employees, and this round of financing will be used to expand the non-crypto user market, targeting the pain points of system opacity and technological lag faced by overseas investors accessing the U.S. market through traditional brokers.
DeFi protocol Zoo Finance, focused on releasing locked token liquidity, announced the completion of an $8 million strategic round of financing. Zoo Finance's core product is the pioneering LVT (Liquidity Vault Token) & LNT (Liquidity Node Token) protocol, which transforms locked ownership tokens into tradable digital assets by splitting locked tokens into VT (locked tokens) and YT (yield tokens). This innovation enables on-chain over-the-counter trading for SAFT and node holders, creating new opportunities for future token yield trading.
This round of strategic financing was led by Bitrise Capital, with participation from Signum Capital, Certik Ventures, TOP, CGV Funds, and Cryptomeria. To date, Zoo Finance has raised a total of $10 million, with previous investors including CMS Holdings, Big Brain Holdings, DefinanceX, Pragma Ventures, HG Ventures, YBB Capital, 0xVentures, and Aquarius Financials.
On-chain yield protocol Axis completes $5 million financing, led by Galaxy Ventures
On-chain yield protocol Axis has completed a $5 million private financing round, led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, FalconX, GSR, Maven 11, CMS Holdings, and Aave Chan Initiative founder Marc Zeller. The subscription amount for this round was oversubscribed four times. The project aims to introduce market-neutral strategies on-chain, having deployed $100 million in capital during its closed testing phase, achieving a Sharpe ratio of 4.9.
Axis provides uncorrelated returns across different assets such as USD, Bitcoin, and gold through a multi-asset yield center. Its first USD-pegged asset, USDx, generates yield using an arbitrage engine, with plans to expand to Bitcoin and gold assets. The protocol will be deployed on a stablecoin-specific chain, Plasma, supported by Bitfinex, to reduce operational costs and integrate infrastructure such as Chainlink proof of reserves and Veda custody. The team stated that they plan to launch their first Origin Vault this year, aiming to raise up to $1 billion in deposits before a public token sale and full protocol launch in early 2026.
On-chain yield platform Altura completes $4 million financing
On-chain yield platform Altura has completed $4 million in financing, led by Ascension, with participation from European private equity firm Moonfare, InnoFinCon, and others. The platform aims to provide transparent, risk-controlled on-chain stable yields for ordinary users and institutions through professional quantitative strategies. Altura employs a single on-chain treasury structure to generate yields through market-neutral strategies such as capturing cross-exchange price differences, obtaining funding rate for hedging positions, and allocating interest-bearing assets, targeting an annualized return of 20%-30% in normal market conditions.
On-chain money market LayerBank completes $2.3 million Pre-Seed round financing
LayerBank announced the completion of a $2.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing. Investors in this round include Move Industries CEO Torab Torabi, Coin Bureau Chinese, DVchain, Taiko, Rootstock, and several angel investors and ecosystem contributors. The new funds will be used to advance the development and release of its native token ULAB, which is designed as the foundation for the platform's long-term value capture and incentive model. LayerBank plans to hold its token generation event (TGE) on the Movement Network. LayerBank is a universal liquidity and on-chain money market, currently supporting over 150 markets across more than 17 chains, aiming to provide lending and yield strategies through a unified chain abstraction experience.
Haiku completes $1 million Pre-Seed financing, dedicated to simplifying DeFi execution processes
Decentralized trading infrastructure project Haiku has completed a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing led by Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Auros, Frostlight, Daedalus Syndicate, and Biconomy CEO Ahmed Al-Balaghi. Haiku proposes a "declarative trading" model that allows users to define target states, with the system automatically executing complex strategies, supporting 20 chains and over 45 protocols, aiming to drive DeFi from cumbersome operations to one-click execution.
RWA (Real World Assets) tokenization platform OpenEden announced the completion of strategic financing, with investors including Ripple, Lightspeed Faction, Gate Ventures, and other well-known institutions. This round of financing will be used to expand its RWA tokenization service platform while promoting the scaled development of its regulated yield-bearing stablecoin USDO and tokenized U.S. Treasury fund TBILL. OpenEden founder and CEO Jeremy Ng stated that this financing will help provide compliant products that meet both traditional and decentralized finance standards. By 2025, the RWA tokenization market is expected to double in size, and OpenEden's TBILL fund has become the preferred choice for institutional investors, with its assets under management growing more than tenfold in two years. This round of funding will also support US.
AI
Decentralized AI network DeepNode has raised a total of $5 million in two rounds of financing
Decentralized AI network DeepNode has raised a total of $5 million in two rounds of financing: the first round was a $2 million seed round at a valuation of $25 million, followed by a $3 million strategic round at a valuation of $75 million. DeepNode's seed round financing involved participation from community members and received support from key network validators, including WildSageLabs from RoundTable21, Rizzo from DNA, and infrastructure partner Gateway.FM. The strategic round was led by a consortium of Web3 and AI infrastructure investors, including Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, TBV, IOBC Capital, Fomo Ventures, and Nestoris.
AI platform TrueNorth, focused on the financial sector, has completed a $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing. This round was led by CyberFund, with participation from Delphi Labs, SNZ, GSR, and Ocular. The funds raised will be used to develop a "financial intelligence reasoning layer," an AI specifically designed for the financial sector that does not produce hallucinations when dealing with funds.
TrueNorth aims to build AI infrastructure dedicated to the financial sector, addressing the hallucination and latency issues that general models encounter in financial decision-making processes. Currently, the platform has over 40,000 users on its waiting list. The platform transforms the expertise of elite traders into AI agents through structured manuals, real-time data integration, and proprietary models trained specifically on market logic.
Infrastructure & Tools
Startup Antithesis, focused on stress testing distributed systems, has completed a $105 million Series A financing round. This round was led by Jane Street, with participation from Amplify Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Tamarack Global, First In Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, and Hyperion Capital, as well as individual investors including Patrick Collison, Dwarkesh Patel, and Sholto Douglas. The new funds will be used to expand the engineering team, enhance automation, and develop global market channels.
The company employs deterministic simulation testing technology to provide production-level failure rehearsal services for blockchain and financial systems. The Antithesis platform can simulate real network environments on a large scale, accurately reproducing edge case failures to help engineers identify system vulnerabilities that are difficult to reproduce in traditional debugging processes. The company revealed that the Ethereum network used its services to simulate extreme scenarios before the "Merge" upgrade, and its clients now span the financial, AI, and blockchain sectors, with revenue growth exceeding 12 times in the past two years.
Financial blockchain company Digital Asset Holdings LLC has completed a new round of financing totaling $50 million, with investors including BNY Mellon, Nasdaq Inc, S&P Global, and iCapital. Earlier this year, the company completed a $135 million financing round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from Citadel Securities, IMC, and Optiver.
Digital Asset Holdings is known for developing the public blockchain Canton Network, which supports asset tokenization and handles financial transactions, allowing users to determine the confidentiality of information. Several institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Tradeweb Markets, have used or participated in managing the Canton Network.
Bitcoin-native interoperability protocol Portal to Bitcoin has announced the completion of $25 million in financing, led by JTSA Global, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital, and others. Alongside the new funding, the company launched an atomic over-the-counter trading platform, promising "instant, trustless cross-chain settlement for large block trades." The protocol focuses on providing a Bitcoin-pegged cross-chain OTC trading market for institutions and large investors, utilizing hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) across multiple chains and Bitcoin Taproot contracts to facilitate the exchange of native Bitcoin with native assets on integrated blockchains in a non-custodial manner, emphasizing the reduction of trust assumptions in transactions.
DAT
(These transactions are not included in this financing weekly report statistics)
Lion Group signs a $10 million private placement financing agreement, allocating $8 million to purchase BTC
U.S. listed company Lion Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: LGHL) announced the signing of a securities purchase agreement amendment, which will generate a total of $9.984 million through convertible bond financing. The company plans to use $8 million of the net proceeds to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) as corporate treasury reserves.
UK listed company Hamak Strategy has completed a £2.5 million financing round, with the funds raised to support its Bitcoin treasury strategy and gold exploration in Africa. Earlier news on July 30 reported that UK listed company Hamak Gold purchased its first 20 Bitcoins. On October 15, it was reported that UK listed company Hamak Strategy secured £35 million in financing to support its investments in gold and Bitcoin.
Centralized Finance
N3XT, founded by former Signature Bank executives, raises a total of $72 million in three rounds of financing
Blockchain-based bank N3XT, founded by former Signature Bank executives, has completed three rounds of financing, raising a total of $72 million, with the most recent round completed in October. The company has received support from several venture capital firms, including Paradigm, HACK VC, and Winklevoss Capital. N3XT was founded by Scott Shay, the founder and former chairman of Signature Bank. Jeffrey Wallis, who previously served as the Director of Digital Assets and Web3 Strategy at Signature Bank, is now the CEO of N3XT.
Stablecoin application Fin completes $17 million financing, led by Pantera Capital
Stablecoin application Fin, founded by former Citadel employees, has announced the completion of $17 million in financing, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Samsung Next. The application aims to leverage stablecoin technology to provide cross-border and large payment services, enabling global fast transfers without complex operations. Its design supports users in transferring funds to other Fin users, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency wallets, claiming that transaction fees will be significantly lower than traditional banking channels. Fin primarily targets scenarios involving large cross-border or domestic transfers, such as addressing payment efficiency issues in import and export trade. The application has not yet officially launched, with plans to initiate a pilot program among import and export industry companies next month. The company's revenue will come from transfer fees and interest on stablecoin reserves.
French crypto savings platform Bitstack has announced the completion of $15 million in Series A financing, led by 13books Capital, with participation from AG2R LA MONDIALE, Plug and Play Ventures, Serena, Stillmark, and Y Combinator. The company claims to have over 300,000 active users in France, with total savings exceeding €300 million in Bitcoin, and revenue growth of 10 times over the past two years; it has obtained a license from the French AMF under MiCA and operates in multiple European countries. The company will accelerate the launch of the VISA debit card "Stackback" rewards and euro accounts (including French IBAN), with card testing set to begin on January 13, 2026, for 5,000 selected users.
Others
Prediction Market:
Opinion Reveals Completion of Several Million Dollar New Round of Financing at BBW Event
At the event co-hosted by Opinion, Aster, and WLFI during BBW, the Opinion team disclosed that it has recently secured several million dollars in financing support. The funds will be used to advance the development of a prediction market ecosystem based on the BNB Chain, user growth plans, and infrastructure development.
Prediction Market DeFi Layer Gondor Completes $2.5 Million Financing, Testing Version to Launch Next Week
Prediction market DeFi layer Gondor announced the completion of $2.5 million in financing and will launch a testing version next week, which will support borrowing against Polymarket positions as collateral and trading with 2x leverage. Subsequently, the leverage will be expanded to 4-5 times through cross-margining.
DePIN:
Web3 Robotics Company XMAQUINA Completes New Round of Financing, Led by Borderless
Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA announced the completion of its latest round of financing, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Waterdrip Capital, vVv, and Clairvoyant Labs, as well as strategic angel investors from Arkstream Capital, LD Capital, and KuCoin Ventures, all participating in the third wave of the Genesis Auction on the same terms as the public. Other notable participants in previous auction rounds include Moonrock Capital, MH Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Generative Ventures, and Mulana Capital.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
