Last week, there were a total of 23 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

According to Chain Catcher statistics, from February 22 to February 28, the blockchain industry experienced a total of 23 investment and financing events, marking the week with the highest number of financings recently. The focus was mainly on sectors such as DeFi, NFT, Polkadot ecosystem, Layer 2, and infrastructure, with DFG, Oasis Capital, Candaq, and Delin Capital being the most active. In addition, a16z, NGC, Alameda Research, Genesis Block Ventures, and CMS Group also participated.

DeFi:

1. DeFi asset protocol Convergence Protocol completes $2 million financing, led by Hashed

On February 23, CoinDesk reported that the DeFi asset protocol Convergence Protocol completed $2 million in financing, led by Hashed, with participation from NGC Ventures, Genesis Block Ventures, Alameda Research, CMS Group, Kenetic Capital, and Paul Veradittakit from Pantera, as well as individual investors including Liang Xinjun, co-founder of Fosun Group. The funds will be used to advance the development of Convergence's testnet and mainnet, with plans to publicly sell its native token by the end of March.

Convergence aims to establish "unforeseen liquidity" through automated market makers (AMM), bringing real-world assets into decentralized finance. Through a "two-layer" network, the project allows "wrapped" tokenized securities issued by collaborating projects, enabling investors and fund managers to trade on the AMM.

2. Electric Capital and Nascent Ventures invest $1.25 million in CoinFLEX platform token FLEX Coin

On February 24, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange CoinFLEX announced that Electric Capital, Nascent Ventures, Bering Waters, and several other private investors have invested $1.25 million in its platform token FLEX Coin. CoinFLEX's decentralized trading platform Notes.finance was launched last week, offering exchange, liquidity provision, and staking features.

In August 2019, CoinFLEX completed over $10 million in financing, with investors including Polychain Capital, Divergence Digital Currency, NGC Ventures, Distributed Capital, Struck Capital, and "Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver.

3. DeFi wholesale brokerage service provider Oxygen completes $40 million financing, led by Alameda Research

On February 24, The Block reported that Swiss DeFi wholesale brokerage service provider Oxygen completed $40 million in financing, led by Alameda Research, with participation from MultiCoin, Genesis Capital, and CMS. Oxygen will launch on Serum and integrate the travel application Maps.me's wallet functionality.

According to previous reports, FTX will conduct the Oxygen (OXY) IEO on March 11 at 21:00. Oxygen is a DeFi wholesale brokerage service built on the Solana blockchain, powered by Serum's on-chain infrastructure.

4. On-chain foreign exchange trading protocol DFX completes over $5 million seed round financing, led by Polychain and True Ventures

On February 24, decentralized foreign exchange trading protocol DFX completed over $5 million in seed round financing, led by Polychain Capital and True Ventures, with participation from Boost VC, Hex Capital, Lemniscap, CMS Holdings, Castle Island Ventures, FBG Capital, DeFi Alliance, Divergence Ventures, and SRC Capital, as well as strategic advisors Noah Jessop, Daniel Que, Nemil Dalal, Russell Verbeeten, and Michael Dunworth.

Kevin Zhang, co-founder of DFX and former senior engineer at ConsenSys, stated that DFX is building infrastructure for on-chain foreign exchange trading and creating a new market for non-USD stablecoins, opening DeFi applications to audiences of these non-USD stablecoins. DFX will initially launch liquidity mining with three non-USD stablecoins (CADC, EURS, and XSGD).

5. DeFi smart contract building platform DeFi Wizard completes $750,000 financing, with participation from X21 Digital and AU21 Capital

On February 25, DeFi smart contract building platform DeFi Wizard announced it has completed $750,000 in financing, with investors including X21 Digital, AU21 Capital, TRG Capital, DeltaHub Capital, NGC Ventures, and ExNetwork.

According to the official description, DeFi Wizard is a dashboard that allows users to build DeFi smart contracts, collateral contracts, liquidity mining contracts, etc., related to ERC20, BEP20, and EDST with just a few clicks, and provides real-time analytics. Currently, over five projects are already using DeFi Wizard's staking services.

6. On-chain incentive protocol DaFi completes $900,000 financing, with participation from ten institutions

On February 25, on-chain incentive protocol DaFi completed $900,000 in private financing, with participants including LD Capital, Rarestone Capital, Spark Capital, AU21 Capital, Amplifi, Twin Apex, Polymer Capital, SL2 Capital, Morningstar Ventures, and MoonRock Capital.

DaFi stated that it will conduct a public sale in the coming weeks and disclose details of its token economic model. DaFi can reward users based on their adoption levels, and each decentralized network can create synthetic assets dTokens related to its protocol adoption to reward users.

7. DeFi insurance protocol InsurAce completes $3 million strategic financing, with participation from Alameda and HashKey among others

On February 26, DeFi insurance protocol InsurAce announced it has completed $3 million in strategic financing, receiving investments from Alameda Research and HashKey Capital, with seed round investors DeFiance Capital, ParaFi Capital, Hashed, and Signum Capital continuing to follow up. Notable investment institutions participating include IOSG Ventures, imToken Ventures, LongHash Ventures, Hash Global, Tembusu Partners, Factorial Ventures, as well as angel investors Maple Leaf Capital, Wang Qiao, Kerman Kohli, and others.

The InsurAce team stated that while making significant progress in this round of financing, InsurAce will also continue to focus on product and market directions, providing revolutionary product design that combines insurance and investment functions with an excellent user experience. The InsurAce testnet will go live this week, with plans for a public token sale soon.

Polkadot Ecosystem:

1. Polkadot ecosystem data infrastructure component Kylin Network completes $2.7 million private round financing

On February 23, Web3 ecosystem data infrastructure component Kylin Network announced it has completed $2.7 million in private round financing, with investors including Freecompany, DFG, Longhash, Master Ventures, Dealean Capital, Brilliance Ventures, and Ceras Ventures, and seed round investors CMS, AU21 Capital, and Rarestone Capital increased their investments in the private round.

According to previous reports, in November 2020, Kylin Network announced it completed seed round financing, with investors including Digital Strategies, SigNum Capital, PNYX Ventures, AU21 Capital, Moonrock Capital, CMS, ZMT Capital, Tenzor Capital, and Rarestone Capital. Kylin Network aims to establish a cross-chain platform to power the data economy on Polkadot, becoming the data infrastructure for DeFi and Web 3.0 applications on Polkadot, providing verified, secure, cost-effective, and easy-to-coordinate data sources and data analysis.

2. Polkadot ecosystem DAO infrastructure Idavoll Network completes $1.5 million strategic financing, with participation from dozens of institutions

On February 25, Polkadot ecosystem DAO infrastructure Idavoll Network announced it has completed $1.5 million in strategic financing, with participation from dozens of institutions, including DFG, Spark Digital Capital, Oasis Capital, YBB Foundation, Hashwei Ventures, Chain Capital, GAINS Associates, ZBS Capital (Cryptodiffer), ZBG Capital, AC Capital, Gate.io, Bitblock Capital, Onemax Capital, Blockhunter Capital, Magnus Capital, and others.

Idavoll Network is a DAO infrastructure based on the Substrate development framework and is one of the first DAO projects funded by the Web3 Foundation Grant. Any organization can create and manage cross-chain DAO platforms based on Idavoll. The team stated that the Alpha internal testing version of Idavoll is expected to go live by the end of March.

3. Polkadot ecosystem project TrustBase completes first round of million-dollar financing, with participation from dozens of institutions

On February 25, TrustBase, a Polkadot parachain based on the independent smart contract language Subscript, announced it has completed its first round of million-dollar financing, with participating institutions including Candaq, Delin Capital, DFG, BTX Capital, AU21, Waterdrop Capital, OASIS CAPITAL, Angelone, HappyBlock, Polkafund, Hot Labs, CoinsGroup, ChainCapital, and Crypto Capital.

In the official follow-up plan, TrustBase will carry out a series of related activities around developer ecology, CC2 testnet, slot auctions, and NFT sales, and is expected to be listed on exchanges in the second quarter of 2021, opening TBE trading to global investors.

Infrastructure:

1. Cross-chain yield optimization protocol ETHA Lend completes $1.6 million financing, plans to launch mainnet in Q2

On February 22, cross-chain yield optimization protocol ETHA Lend completed $1.6 million in financing, led by AU21 Capital, DFG, and Privcode Capital, with follow-up investors including Vector Capital, Chain Capital, PNYX Venture, Lancer Capital, Oasis Capital, TRG Capital, Candaq Capital, Dealean Capital, Inclusion Capital, Origin Capital, ZB Capital, YBB Foundation, AC Capital, and Hotbit.

ETHA Lend is a cross-chain yield optimization protocol on the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. With the completion of this round of financing, the ETHA Lend team will accelerate product development and plans to launch the mainnet in the second quarter of 2021. Additionally, ETHA Lend will launch the basic utility features of the ETHA Lend protocol in the third quarter, including credit authorization. Currently, the ETHA Lend smart contract is being audited by blockchain smart auditing firm Certik.

2. Crypto payment company Bottlepay completes approximately $15 million seed round financing, with participation from fund manager Alan Howard

On February 23, crypto payment startup Bottlepay raised £11 million (approximately $15 million) in its seed round financing, with investors including hedge fund manager Alan Howard, co-founder of Brevan Howard, venture capital firm FinTech Collective, financial services company NYDIG, and tech entrepreneur Phil Doye. Bottlepay will use the funds to expand its team and further develop platform features.

Bottlepay was founded by Pete Cheyne, co-founder of Partnerize, aiming to help businesses make small digital payments for their users. After shutting down its service platform in December 2019, Bottlepay relaunched last summer, offering instant payment features for traditional currencies and Bitcoin.

3. Supply chain finance project Centrifuge completes $4.3 million financing, led by Galaxy Digital and IOSG

On February 23, supply chain finance blockchain project Centrifuge completed $4.3 million in financing through a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), led by Galaxy Digital and IOSG, with participation from Rockaway, Fintech Collective, Moonwhale, Distributed Capital, TRGC, and HashCIB.

Centrifuge's blockchain is developed based on Parity Substrate and can directly use a set of libraries, modules, and technologies to build blockchains. Centrifuge has launched the Ethereum-based lending Dapp "Tinlake" and the Centrifuge Chain mainnet's general functionality, allowing investors and borrowers to finance their own asset pools and tokenize real assets.

4. Decentralized API indexing protocol THE APIS completes $950,000 private round financing

On February 26, decentralized API indexing protocol THE APIS announced it has completed private round financing, raising a total of $950,000, with participation from Blackdragon, Fairum Ventures, Insignius Capital, and Exnetwork Capital.

THE APIS aims to provide developers with a low-threshold, highly usable service, allowing developers' applications to interact across multiple protocols.

NFT Related:

1. NFT art issuance platform FM Gallery completes several hundred thousand dollars in seed round financing, with participation from NGC and others

On February 23, NFT art and trendy toy issuance platform FM Gallery announced it has completed several hundred thousand dollars in seed round financing and launched its official platform wah.art and art community. Participating in the seed round were institutions and investors including NGC Ventures, Continue Capital, Altonomy, and investors Mable Jiang, Kai, and Xinshu Dong.

FM Gallery is an asset issuance solution for the NFT sector Layer 2, targeting the current art market and trendy culture market, focusing on art fragmentation gameplay and introducing the concept of DAO to build a fan-governed community.

2. NFT lending platform NFTfi completes $890,000 financing, with participation from Coinfund, 1KX, and The LAO

On February 26, NFT lending platform NFTfi announced it has completed $890,000 in financing, with investors including Coinfund, 1KX, Collab+Currency, Maven 11, and The LAO, as well as strategic investor Animoca Brands.

Additionally, this round of financing included a range of developers and collectors in the NFT and DeFi fields, including Roham Gharegozlou (CEO of Dapper Labs, creator of NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties), Sebastien Borget (COO of The Sandbox), Johnathan Gabler (founding partner of Outlier Ventures), Andrew Steinwald (founder of Zima Red, Sfermion), Snowfro (founder of Artblocks), and Roberto Ceresia (founder of ark.gallery and Wrapped Punks).

The funds will be used to expand platform functionality, increase support for other blockchains like Flow, and develop governance tokens for community ownership.

3. Fantasy football game Sorare completes $50 million financing, led by Benchmark Capital

On February 25, fantasy football game Sorare announced it has completed $50 million in financing, led by Benchmark Capital (an early supporter of Uber, Twitter, and eBay), with other investors including venture capital firm Accel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and Barcelona forward and Messi's teammate Antoine Griezmann. This round of financing brings Sorare's total fundraising amount to $60 million. Sorare currently has 12 employees and plans to expand its team, currently working on creating a mobile application.

According to previous reports, in July 2020, Sorare completed $4 million in seed round financing, led by e.ventures, with existing investors Partech, Fabric Ventures, Semantic Ventures, Cygni Capital, and World Cup champion André Schürrle participating. In December 2020, Sorare received $4.3 million in investment from Gerard Piqué, a star of FC Barcelona.

4. Interactive content creation platform Playcent completes $1 million financing, set to conduct IDO on Poolz on March 7

On February 28, interactive content creation platform Playcent, targeting DApps, games, and NFTs, announced it has completed $1 million in financing, with investors including Genesis Block Ventures, Lotus Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, Phoenix, Blocksync Ventures, Moondot Capital, 18 ventures, Psquare Capital, and Chronos Ventures. Additionally, Playcent will conduct an IDO on Poolz for whitelist users at 1:00 AM Beijing time on March 7, 2021, opening two pools, one for public participants and one for POOLZ holders.

Playcent is a decentralized platform for DApps, games, and NFTs, currently in beta. The team’s co-founder and CEO Sandeep Sudagani previously worked in business development at blockchain investment firm Kratos Partners, while another co-founder, Jaykishan Nammily, served as a senior engineer at Maximl. The Playcent platform token PCNT will be available on Ethereum and Polygon (formerly Matic Network).

Layer 2:

1. a16z leads $25 million Series A financing for Ethereum scaling solution Optimism

On February 25, crypto venture fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced it led a $25 million Series A financing for Ethereum scaling solution Optimism. In mid-January, the Optimism team began the soft launch (trial operation) of the Optimistic Ethereum scaling solution mainnet, with plans to launch the public mainnet in March.

Optimistic Ethereum is a scaling solution that offers complete cross-layer portability without the need to rewrite smart contracts.

2. Layer 2 computing oracle network CUDOS completes £10 million financing

On February 26, global computing network CUDOS announced it has completed over £10 million in funding through multiple rounds of financing. Major strategic investors participating in the fundraising include Moonrock Capital, GBV, Spincrypto Capital, Coinvision Research, BlackDragon Research, MoonWhale Ventures, Outlier Ventures, DoublePeak, Psquare Capital, CSP DAO, Crypto Snack, Exnetwork Capital, DuckDAO, Brilliance Ventures, BMW Capital, and Floem Capital.

CUDOS provides a Turing-complete Layer-2 computing oracle solution, bridging blockchain developers to the off-chain world of data, APIs, and computing power, significantly enhancing performance and reducing costs for blockchain applications and services, including decentralized finance (DeFi).

Asset Management, Banking, and Industrial Blockchain:

1. Digital asset bank Anchorage completes $80 million Series C financing, led by Singapore's GIC

On February 25, digital asset bank Anchorage announced it has completed $80 million in Series C financing, led by Singapore's government investment fund GIC, with participation from a16z, Blockchain Capital, Lux, and Indico.

This round of financing is primarily aimed at expanding digital banking services to meet the growing demand for participation in the digital asset space, especially from enterprises and traditional financial institutions. Additionally, Anchorage stated that they are early supporters of decentralized finance (DeFi) and will strive to bring DeFi to more institutions.

2. Industrial blockchain company Paperless Technology secures tens of millions in Series B financing

On February 25, leading industrial blockchain company Paperless Technology announced it has secured tens of millions of RMB in Series B financing, with continued investment from existing shareholder and founder of SAIF Partners, Yan Yan. This round of financing will be used to increase investment in core blockchain technology research and development and to expand a high-quality talent team.

Founded in 2016, Paperless Technology is a provider of blockchain technology and services, with core personnel coming from Hyperledger, IBM's China blockchain, and CBDC core development teams. In terms of commercial implementation, the company was one of the first to propose and promote a blockchain PaaS platform (Paperless BaaS), aiming to lower the threshold for product implementation. The company provides solutions for over 70 industries around mainstream blockchain application directions such as supply chain finance, data governance, industrial internet, smart cities, and traceability. Currently, Paperless has become a core supplier officially recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is actively participating in the construction of multiple "Spark Chain Network" nodes, helping local governments and enterprises build a digital transformation foundation for "blockchain + industrial internet," leading the way in new infrastructure for blockchain.

3. Digital asset management firm Blofin secures $10 million in Series A+ investment, led by SIG

On February 28, Blofin CEO Matt Hu announced that Blofin raised $10 million in Series A+ financing, led by SIG, with follow-up investments from Matrix, Lingfeng Capital, Superchain Capital, Jackdaw Capital, and others. Matt Hu emphasized that after this round of financing, Blofin will cover more trading platforms and institutions globally, acquire more effective data, and optimize investment models. Currently, Blofin is applying for digital asset management licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore, and other regions, and plans to provide compliant digital asset management services for professional investors in more countries and regions.

Blofin is a Cayman Islands-based digital asset management firm that has established a quantitative database covering real-time data from over 40 exchanges and data from more than 200 global quantitative teams. Currently, Blofin's overseas institutional clients have an asset management scale of $120 million, with a monthly trading volume exceeding $15 billion.