Last week, the number of financing cases in the cryptocurrency market reached a new high for the year, exceeding 30 cases | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, between March 1 and March 7, there were at least 30 investment and financing events in the blockchain industry, making it the week with the highest number of financing events this year. The focus was mainly on sectors such as DeFi and the Polkadot ecosystem, with investment institutions like DFG, NGC, CMC Holdings, AU21, and GBV participating at least four times.

1. Polkadot:

1. Governance Infrastructure Dora Factory on Polkadot Ecosystem Completes Second Round of Financing

On March 1, the governance infrastructure Dora Factory on the Polkadot ecosystem completed its second round of financing, with participation from Fundamental Labs, Signum Capital, CMS Holdings, Hypersphere Ventures, ID Theory, OK Block Dream Fund, LongHash Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, NEO EcoFund, Gate.io, Horizon Capital, Kernel Ventures, JRR, The LAO, and DuckDAO. Dora Factory has not disclosed the financing amount.

Dora Factory stated that it will provide pluggable modular tools for developer communities and decentralized organizations, including incentives, fundraising, donations, governance, arbitration, and more. The infrastructure of Dora Factory will ultimately become an open system where developers can create governance modules and receive incentives.

2. Polkadot Ecosystem Synthetic Asset Issuance Protocol Shadows Network Completes $1.64 Million Financing

On March 1, the Polkadot ecosystem synthetic asset issuance protocol Shadows Network completed $1.64 million in financing, with participation from dozens of investment institutions including Alphabit, A195 Capital, AU21 Capital, Bitcoin.com, Aries Labs, Blocksync Ventures, Candaq, Chain Capital, Consensus Lab, DFG, DuckDAO, DAO Ventures, GBV, JRR Crypto, Master Ventures, NGC Ventures, Oasis Capital, PolkaFund, RioFund, and 3Commas.

Shadows Network is a DeFi synthetic asset issuance protocol developed based on Substrate. Previously, Shadows Network had received a grant from the Web3 Foundation and will soon launch liquidity mining.

3. Polkadot Ecosystem Currency Market Protocol Konomi Completes Private Placement Financing

On March 1, the Polkadot ecosystem currency market protocol Konomi Network announced the completion of private placement financing, with investors including Amplifi, Blocksync, CMS, Dream Fund, LD Capital, DFG, Coin98 Ventures, FBG Capital, Titans Ventures, AU21 Capital, Genesis Block, Altonomy, Zonff Partners, Candaq, and 4 Season.

Konomi, based on the Substrate underlying technology framework, provides users with a complete cross-chain asset management solution, aiming to seamlessly connect financial applications on Ethereum to the Polkadot ecosystem. From liquidity protocols to lending markets and ecological asset management, it offers users a complete asset management experience.

4. Polkadot-based Insurance Protocol Tidal Finance Completes $1.8 Million Private Financing, Hypersphere Leads

On March 2, The Block reported that the open programmable insurance market Tidal Finance on the Polkadot ecosystem announced the completion of $1.8 million in private financing, led by Hypersphere Ventures, with participation from Spartan Capital, Kenetic Capital, and QCP Capital. Tidal Finance co-founder and CEO Chad Liu stated that with the new funds, Tidal is expected to launch its protocol in mid-April. Tidal has been in development since September last year and is expected to launch its testnet in about two weeks.

Tidal Finance has the capability to create custom insurance pools for one or more assets across multiple chains, maximizing capital efficiency by rewarding pool creators with a portion of deposit earnings. Its public market nature will effectively enhance capital efficiency by promoting competition between different funding pools.

5. Polkadot Ecosystem Project Apron Network Completes New Round of Private Financing

On March 3, the decentralized infrastructure platform Apron Network in the Polkadot ecosystem announced the completion of its latest round of private financing, with participation from CMS Holdings, Spark Digital Capital, Monday Capital, Republic, and AU21 Capital, while NGC Ventures, DFG, and Vega Ventures continued to follow up. Apron Network has not disclosed the investment amount.

Apron Network aims to establish a decentralized infrastructure service network platform, providing decentralized network services based on blockchain technology for application developers, users, and infrastructure operators. Apron Network will provide middleware infrastructure service support for multiple public chains, including Polkadot, Kusama, Ethereum, BSC, Heco, Filecoin, Helium, and Layer 2. In January of this year, Apron Network completed seed round financing, with investments from Vega Ventures, PAKA, NGC Ventures, Digital Renaissance Foundation, DFG, and Candaq.

6. Polkadot Ecosystem DEX Polkadex Completes $3 Million Seed and Private Round Financing, Token PDEX to be Launched in the First Half of the Year

On March 5, NewsBTC reported that the decentralized exchange Polkadex in the Polkadot ecosystem announced the completion of $3 million in seed and private round financing, with investment institutions including LD Capital, Kenetic Capital, Block Dream Fund, NGC, QCP, AU21 Capital, CMS Holdings, PNYX Capital, Genesis Block Capital, JRR Group, Cluster VC, GBIC, Momentum 6, and Outlier Ventures.

Polkadex is a peer-to-peer decentralized exchange based on Substrate, which will launch its ERC-20 token PDEX through an initial token offering in the first half of 2021.

2. DeFi:

1. DeFi Derivatives Exchange Kine Completes $7 Million in Two Rounds of Financing, Plans to Launch Mainnet in March

On March 1, decentralized derivatives exchange Kine announced the completion of $7 million in two rounds of financing, led by renowned Silicon Valley angel investors Naval Ravikant and Alexander Pack, with other investors including Huobi Labs, OKEx's Block Dream Fund, Blockchain Capital, Spartan Group, Divergence Capital, CMS Holdings, Ascensive Assets, Bixin Ventures, DeFi Alliance, Origin Capital, Hypersphere, NGC, SevenX, and Red Chain Capital.

Kine draws on the "Peer-to-Pool" liquidity pool trading model promoted by Synthetix and is building an on-chain derivatives trading protocol that supports multi-collateral assets and cross-margin leverage. It plans to complete the initial version development and launch large-scale public testing within the first quarter of this year, and launch the Kine mainnet built on Ethereum, with Layer 2 migration and fully decentralized deployment planned for the second quarter, gradually supporting the trading of derivatives for various traditional assets.

2. Decentralized Options Protocol SIREN Markets Completes $4 Million Financing, 1kx and Spartan Group Lead

On March 2, decentralized options protocol SIREN Markets announced the completion of $4 million in financing, led by 1kx and Spartan Group, with other participants including CMS Holdings, Blockfolio founder Edward Moncada, Robot Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, and WikiHow founder Jack Herrick. SIREN Markets stated that this round of financing will be used to increase security audits and expand the team.

SIREN Markets previously raised $1.2 million in December 2020 from Spartan Group, CMS Holdings, QCP, Robot Ventures, Mechanical Capital, Edward Moncada, and Dialectic. SIREN Markets officially launched at the end of February and will release 5 million tokens through Balancer's liquidity bootstrapping pool at 12 AM Beijing time on March 3, lasting for three days.

3. Decentralized Finance Startup General Protocols Completes $3 Million Seed Round Financing

On March 2, decentralized finance startup General Protocols announced the completion of $3 million in Series A financing, with investors including early Bitcoin adopters Marc De Mesel, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver, and early Bitcoin adopters and BCH supporters Christopher Wu, Margus Kokk, and Mike Komaransky.

General Protocols is a Bitcoin startup aimed at bringing DeFi products to Bitcoin Cash, with its protocol AnyHedge being an open-source derivatives tool that exchanges and OTC platforms can embed, allowing them to create new markets using smart contracts. In May 2020, General Protocols raised over $1 million in seed round financing, with investors including Marc De Mesel and BCH "opinion leader" Molecular.

4. DAOSquare Completes Seed Round Financing, Investors Include Youbi, SNZ, and IOSG

On March 2, DAOSquare announced the completion of seed round financing, with investment institutions including Youbi, SNZ, IOSG Ventures, GBV, MetaCartel Ventures China, Mask Network, BR Capital, and other individual investors including DODO co-founder Dai Dai. DAOSquare stated that this round is valued at $15 million but did not disclose the financing amount.

DAOSquare was born in the Ethereum community MetaCartel, dedicated to building an incubator for the Web3 era, aiming to become the Y Combinator of the Web3 era. DAOSquare plans to launch the core components of the incubator in April this year, based on a DAO concept incubation system, and initiate the first global incubation program.

5. DeFi Smart Wealth Management Platform SIL.Finance Announces Completion of $1.3 Million Private Round Financing

On March 3, DeFi smart wealth management platform SIL.Finance announced the completion of private round financing, raising a total of $1.3 million. This round was co-led by Axia8 Ventures and Jinkai Capital, with participation from Genesis Block Ventures, Everest Venture Group, Lotus Capital, Cabin VC, AU21, and other early undisclosed supporters from home and abroad.

SIL.Finance is a decentralized multi-wealth management platform based on smart contracts, continuously optimizing pain points and improving efficiency to meet the wealth management needs of DeFi users. The platform serves as a strategic financial tool, allowing individuals to participate in arbitrage in the DeFi market while possessing and accumulating real liquidity compared to other liquidity pools. Additionally, its characteristics of speculative benefits from financial derivatives will help users with diversified investment planning.

6. DeFi Protocol Sovryn Raises $10 Million Through Token Sale

On March 3, Bitcoin-based DeFi protocol Sovryn announced that it has raised $10 million through a token sale. Sovryn co-founder Yago stated that the funds raised will remain in the protocol's treasury, and the community will decide how to use them.

Sovryn is a decentralized Bitcoin trading and lending platform.

7. Babylon Finance Completes $1.9 Million Seed Round Financing and Issues Governance Token BABL

On March 5, the community-driven decentralized asset management protocol Babylon Finance announced the completion of $1.9 million in seed round financing, with a valuation of $10 million. Investors include Semantic Ventures, Joseph Young, DeFi Alliance, Harvest.finance, Meltem Demirors, Fomosaurus, Dialectic Capital, Nick Chong, Coinlist Seed, Maple Leaf Capital, Konstantin Lomashuk, Angel DAO, Cluster Capital, and The Daily Ape founder Darren Lau.

In addition, Babylon Finance will issue a governance token BABL and plans to distribute 69% of the governance token BABL to the community as participation rewards; 10% of the total supply of governance tokens will be allocated to the team with a four-year vesting period; 19% of the total supply will be allocated to seed investors, advisors, and partners; and 2% will be reserved for future investors.

8. Decentralized Cross-Chain Protocol DeCus Completes Seed Round Financing, DeFi Protocols and Public Chains Participate

On March 4, decentralized cross-chain protocol DeCus announced the completion of seed round financing, with participation from not only professional investment institutions but also DeFi protocols and public chains, which can accelerate the adoption of the DeCus protocol. Specific participants include SevenX, FBG, Puzzle Ventures, DODO co-founder Dai Shichao, dForce Labs, Conflux, Parallel Ventures, MCDEX, and others, with the investment amount not yet disclosed.

DeCus is composed of several Tsinghua University Yao Class alumni, with its first product being a trusted and efficient fully decentralized BTC cross-chain bridge, which will launch a test version and Ethereum cross-chain Layer 2 solution in early April, while simultaneously conducting security audits and open sourcing.

3. NFT:

1. BCUG Vault Completes Private Financing for BCUG Token, Led by Lede Capital and Others

On March 3, BCUG Vault completed private financing for the BCUG token, with investors including Lede Capital, AU21 Capital, GBV Capital, Moonrock Capital, Mapleblock Capital, Master Ventures, Genblock Capital, Lotus Capital, and Momentum 6.

BCUG Vault is a complex DeFi + NFT mechanism system built on Blockchain Cuties Universe, providing a true "Play2Earn" concept and adjusting the incentive mechanisms for game developers, players, traders, and community members.

2. NFT Platform Mintable Receives Investment from Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban

On March 4, NFT creation and trading platform Mintable announced that it has received investment from billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, with more seed round financing news to be announced in the coming weeks.

Mintable provides a one-stop ERC-721 token management service, allowing users to easily create and trade NFT digital works in seconds.

3. 2Badger DAO Completes $21 Million Financing, with Participation from 0xB1, Polychain, Parafi, and Others

On March 4, the decentralized organization Badger DAO, focused on bringing Bitcoin into DeFi, announced the completion of $21 million in treasury diversification financing, with investors including 0xB1, Polychain Capital, Parafi Capital, and Blockchain Capital. Badger stated that the treasury diversification strategy will continue, and more strategic partners may be introduced in the coming months.

Previously, the Badger DAO community's BIP 37 governance proposal had been approved, which will diversify the composition of the Badger DAO treasury by introducing strategic partners. The proposal suggested allocating 66,700 to 840,000 BADGER from the treasury to strategic partners within three months, with these tokens unlocking over 12 months.

4. NFT Decentralized Autonomous Organization Yield Guild Games Completes $1.3 Million Financing, Led by Delphi Digital

On March 4, NFT decentralized autonomous organization Yield Guild Games (YGG) announced the completion of $1.3 million in financing, led by Delphi Digital, with other investors including Scalar Capital, BlockTower Capital, gumi Cryptos Capital, Ascensive Assets, and Youbi Capital. YGG will use this funding to improve its protocol for distributed investment in the emerging NFT space.

As a decentralized autonomous organization, YGG primarily helps investors pool assets and stake NFTs for profit, ultimately sharing the returns with supporters. Currently, YGG focuses mainly on the gaming NFT sector. A YGG spokesperson stated, "Just like real estate, virtual economic activities in games will take place on virtual land. Due to the scarcity of virtual land, the demand for virtual land in blockchain games will continue to increase."

5. NFT Creation Platform Curio Completes $1.2 Million Financing

On March 6, NFT creation platform Curio completed $1.2 million in financing, led by Future Perfect Ventures, with participation from A195 Capital, Long Hash Ventures, Moon Whale Ventures, former CEO of Time Inc. and Fox Entertainment executive Rich Battista.

Curio is a digital collectibles marketplace in the art and entertainment sector, collaborating with well-known figures in the arts and entertainment industry. Its goal is to connect fans with the characters, stories, and scenes they know and love. Currently, they are working with the UK television production company Fremantle to help produce digital NFT collectibles licensed from the American TV series "American Gods."

4. Layer2:

1. ZK Rollup Scaling Team Matter Labs Completes Series A Financing, USV Leads

On March 1, Ethereum ZK Rollup scaling solution Matter Labs announced the completion of Series A financing, led by Union Square Ventures (USV), with previous investors Placeholder, 1kx, and Dragonfly continuing to participate. Additionally, zkSync's ecosystem partners, including Aave, Balancer, 1inch, Curve, Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Huobi, Loopring, Argent, MYKEY, imToken, Flexa, ZKValidator, and CoinGecko, are involved, but specific financing amounts have not been disclosed.

Matter Labs aims to build a scalable blockchain using zero-knowledge proofs. It is committed to solving scalability and privacy issues based on distributed ledger technology and is developing secure, scalable, programmable, and privacy-preserving blockchain technology.

2. Layer2 DAO Basic Protocol Metis Completes $1 Million Angel and Seed Round Financing

On March 2, Layer2 DAO basic protocol Metis, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, announced the completion of $1 million in angel and seed round financing, with investors including Ralf P. Gerteis, P1X Capital, Waterdrip Capital, DFG, Chain Capital, AC Capital, Block.power Combinator, Hotbit, SSSnodes, Crasolum, Kernel Ventures, CatcherVC, Jubi Labs, and former TRON co-founder Liu Ming.

The Metis team revealed that the funds from this financing will mainly be used for the development of the Layer2 architecture for Optimistic Rollup hard forks and market expansion. Additionally, Metis will release a new Layer2 DAO architecture design at the end of March and initiate a community NFT airdrop.

5. Others:

1. Blockchain Technology Group Finboot Completes £2.4 Million Financing

On March 1, London-based enterprise blockchain technology group Finboot completed £2.4 million in financing through equity, with investors including the Development Bank of Wales, multi-energy company Repsol (through its private equity investment fund Repsol Corporate Venturing), and New Look founder Tom Singh.

Finboot was founded in 2016 and operates in the UK and Spain, being the SaaS company behind MARCO, a set of blockchain applications and middleware solutions that unlock blockchain capabilities for enterprises.

2. Canadian Cryptocurrency Exchange CoinSmart Completes $3.5 Million Seed Round Financing

On March 2, Canadian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSmart announced the completion of 4.5 million Canadian dollars (approximately $3.5 million) in seed round financing. The funds will be used to expand CoinSmart's platform into the European market and support operational changes.

CoinSmart is dedicated to helping users deploy their holdings in a timely manner.

3. UK Crypto Service Company BCB Group Completes $4.5 Million Financing

On March 2, UK crypto service company BCB Group raised $4.5 million in a financing round led by North Island Ventures and Blockchain.com Ventures, with participation from Pantera, L1 Digital, and Pack Capital. BCB Group CEO Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie stated that they will strive to obtain more licenses to enter Switzerland and Singapore and plan to raise funds again later this year.

BCB Group is the first digital asset financial services company in the UK and Switzerland to implement dual regulation, dedicated to breaking boundaries in the digital asset space and focusing on providing commercial accounts and cryptocurrency market liquidity for institutional clients. Their service scope includes commercial banking, global payment platforms, cryptocurrency, foreign exchange trading, and digital custody.

4. Crypto Tax Automation Platform TaxBit Completes $100 Million Series A Financing, Led by Paradigm and Tiger Global

On March 3, crypto tax automation platform TaxBit announced the completion of $100 million in Series A financing, led by Paradigm and Tiger Global, with other investors including PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith, Anthony Pompliano, former Venmo COO Michael Vaughan, Galaxy Digital, Valar Ventures, Collaborative, Global Founders Capital, Album Ventures, TTV Capital, and Original Capital.

Founded in 2018, TaxBit automates processes such as cryptocurrency tax compliance for businesses, consumers, and governments, aiming to drive cryptocurrency adoption through compliant automated tax processes. In July 2020, TaxBit raised $5 million in seed round financing, with investors including TTV Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Collaborative Fund, Winklevoss Capital, Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Table Management, and Album VC.

5. Consensus and Data Layer LazyLedger Labs Completes $1.5 Million Seed Round Financing, Plans to Launch Testnet by Year-End

On March 4, blockchain project LazyLedger Labs announced the completion of $1.5 million in seed round financing, with investors including Interchain Foundation, Binance Labs, Maven 11, KR1, Signature Ventures, Divergence Ventures, Dokia Capital, P2P Capital, Tokonomy, Cryptium Labs, and Ramsey Khoury. Mustafa Al-Bassam told The Block, "With the new funds, LazyLedger will expand its development team and plans to launch the testnet by the end of this year, with the mainnet going live by the end of 2022."

LazyLedger was co-founded by Mustafa Al-Bassam, who holds a PhD in blockchain from University College London, former Tendermint engineer Ismail Khoffi, and former ConsenSys Layer 2 researcher John Adler. LazyLedger Labs co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam stated that LazyLedger is developing a pluggable consensus and data availability layer "LazyLedger," allowing anyone to quickly deploy decentralized blockchains. LazyLedger relies on both Optimistic Rollup and data availability proof technologies.

6. Mining Company Compass Mining Completes $1.7 Million Financing Led by Galaxy Digital

On March 4, crypto mining company Compass Mining completed $1.7 million in financing led by Galaxy Digital, with participation from CMT Digital, CoinFund, Coinshares, Rarestone Capital, and BlockFi CEO Zac Prince.

Compass Mining operates a two-sided marketplace that brings together Bitcoin mining hardware suppliers and buyers seeking to purchase mining machines.

7. Supply Chain Startup KoineArth Raises $1.8 Million, Led by YourNest Venture Capital

On March 5, blockchain-based supply chain startup KoineArth completed $1.8 million in financing, led by YourNest Venture Capital, with participation from Lumis Partners and existing investor Inventus India. The new funds will be used for product development and market expansion.

KoineArth was founded by Praphul Chandra in 2018, providing solutions for inventory visibility, invoice financing, and contract execution.

8. Financial Application Eco Completes $26 Million Financing, Led by a16z

On March 6, financial application Eco announced the completion of $26 million in financing, led by a16z, with participation from over a hundred funds including Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund, Activant Capital, Slow Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Valor Capital Group. Previously, it had completed $8.5 million in financing led by Pantera Capital and Expa, bringing the total financing amount to $35 million.

Eco aims to provide users with high-interest storage and payment rebate functions, primarily by collaborating with compliant custodians of crypto assets.
9. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Company DMG Raises Approximately $70 Million Through Private Placement

On March 7, publicly traded DMG Blockchain Solutions, a vertically integrated blockchain and cryptocurrency technology company, announced that it has completed a previous sale of its common stock ("Common Stock") and warrants to purchase common stock ("Warrants") to U.S. and foreign institutional investors, raising approximately $70 million ("Private Placement").