Last week, there were a total of 25 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, between May 3 and May 9, there were a total of 25 public financing events in the blockchain industry, primarily focused on DeFi and NFT sectors, with data analysis tools also beginning to attract interest from large institutions. Notably, the Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso completed a $250 million Series C investment, reaching a post-financing valuation of $2.2 billion, making it the largest financing deal of the week. Among the investment institutions, AU21, LD Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Capital were the most active this week.

1. DeFi

1. Decentralized digital asset management platform Qredo completes $11 million seed round financing

On May 4, decentralized digital asset management platform Qredo completed an $11 million seed round financing, led by G1, Gumi Cryptos, Maven 11, Spartan Group, 1kx, and Kenetic, with participation from Amnis Ventures, Artus, CMS Holdings, and others.

Qredo is a digital asset management platform and product suite that uses a brand new Layer 2 blockchain protocol, allowing users to seamlessly transfer and operate Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other mainstream cryptocurrencies.

2. Polkadot DeFi project Equilibrium completes $8.5 million financing

On May 4, the Polkadot DeFi project Equilibrium completed $8.5 million in financing, with the funds to be custodied by London-based cryptocurrency custodian Copper. Previously, Equilibrium raised $2.2 million from investors including CMS Holdings, LD Capital, and Signum Capital.

Equilibrium is an all-in-one interoperable DeFi suite, the first cross-chain digital asset market to combine credit lending, synthetic asset generation, and trading.

3. Ethereum 2.0 staking protocol Lido completes $73 million financing, led by Paradigm

On May 6, Ethereum 2.0 staking protocol Lido Finance (LDO) completed a $73 million financing round led by Paradigm, which purchased $51 million worth of LDO tokens from the LidoDAO treasury at a price of 15,120 ETH. Other investors in the remaining $22 million financing include Coinbase Ventures and Three Arrows Capital. Lido's Chief Marketing Officer Kasper Rasmussen stated that after completing the financing, Lido plans to implement stETH integration in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem as well as in other proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains like Solana and Terra.

A proposal initiated by the Lido community to "sell 10% (100 million) of the LDO token supply to Paradigm and other strategic partners" has been approved.

4. Asset exchange protocol Bondly receives investment from OKEx Blockdream Ventures, both parties will explore the NFT field deeply

On May 6, asset exchange protocol Bondly announced that it received investment from OKEx Blockdream Ventures, and both parties will explore the NFT field deeply, providing services and resource support for the development of high-quality blockchain projects in the NFT space. Bondly stated that on one hand, it will provide LaunchPad services for high-quality projects cooperating with OKEx BDV in the form of NFTs; on the other hand, both parties will bring excellent brands to the NFT trading platform BProtect and will collaborate with OKExChain ecological assets in innovative NFT forms.

5. Cross-chain aggregation protocol O3 Swap receives investment from SoftBank, trading address count exceeds 100,000

On May 7, cross-chain aggregation protocol O3 Swap received investment from SoftBank in Singapore, with the investment amount undisclosed. As of now, the number of trading addresses has exceeded 100,000, completing over 180,000 transactions.

O3 Swap launched its beta version on April 25, opening up exchange and cross-chain pool functions. O3 Swap has collaborated with Poly Network to create a cross-chain trading pool, allowing users to achieve one-click cross-chain trading of native assets across different chains.

6. Long-tail loan provider Moma completes $2.25 million financing, led by Fundamental Labs and SevenX Ventures

On May 7, decentralized finance protocol Moma Protocol completed $2.25 million in financing, led by Fundamental Labs and SevenX Ventures, with participation from AU21 Capital, DFG Capital, FBG Capital, X21 Digital, and others.

Moma Protocol meets the loan needs of long-tail assets by providing a proprietary smart contract factory that combines the advantages of Uniswap and Compound to generate an unlimited number of customizable loan pools, thereby bringing more assets into the current lending market to increase liquidity, diversity, and scalability in the DeFi ecosystem. The first mainnet iteration of the protocol is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2021.

7. Synthetic asset issuance and trading platform Crafting Finance completes seed round financing

On May 7, Polkadot ecosystem synthetic asset issuance and trading platform Crafting Finance announced the completion of seed round financing, with the investment amount undisclosed. Domestic and foreign institutions AU21 Capital, CMS Holdings, Continue Capital, LD Capital, and Spark Digital Capital participated.

Crafting Finance integrates synthetic asset issuance and trading services. Users can mint synthetic assets by staking various collateral (BTC, ETH, DOT, KSM, CRF) on its issuance platform Forge, and then trade various synthetic assets (stablecoins, bonds, derivatives, etc.) on its synthetic asset exchange Kingsman.

8. Synthetic asset protocol XCarnival completes multi-million dollar seed round financing

On May 7, synthetic asset protocol XCarnival announced the completion of multi-million dollar seed round financing, led by Fundamental Labs, Zonff Partners, NGC, with participation from AU21, DFG, LD Capital, and others.

XCarnival is a next-generation synthetic asset protocol that pioneers a time-limited auction liquidation mechanism, aiming to build leasing, pawning, and lending businesses for non-standard assets. At the same time, XCarnival provides various synthetic asset templates to help users quickly create financial products. The first version of XCarnival is being developed on the BSC chain, while also advancing development on ETH Layer 2 and Solana.

2. NFT & Chain Games

1. Virtual avatar technology company Genies completes $65 million financing, led by Bond Capital

On May 4, avatar technology company Genies completed a $65 million Series B financing, led by Bond Capital, with participation from Dapper Labs, Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, and others.

The funds will be used to invest in the technology behind the Genies avatar system and to expand Genies' digital goods and NFT marketplace on Dapper Labs' Flow blockchain.

2. NFT fashion brand RTFKT completes $8 million financing, led by a16z

On May 5, according to multiple fashion media reports, NFT virtual fashion brand RTFKT completed $8 million in financing, led by a16z, with participation from Galaxy Digital, Shrug Capital, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, Behance co-founder Scott Belsky, artist Fewocious, and former LVMH Chief Digital Officer Ian Rogers. RTFKT will use the funds to recruit more employees (engineers, designers, and gaming experts) and build a digital trading market.

RTFKT is combining custom-designed trendy shoes with the unique, tradable characteristics of blockchain's NFT technology. Its digital objects have high collectibility, AR visibility, and can be exchanged for physical items at any time.

3. NFT social platform Showtime completes $7.6 million financing, with participation from Paradigm and 3LAU

On May 6, NFT social platform Showtime announced the completion of a $7.6 million seed round financing, with participants including Paradigm, crypto enthusiast and NFT pioneer 3LAU, Robinhood engineer Jaren Glover, Dragonfly Capital, and several companies or individuals in the NFT field.

Showtime is an NFT social platform founded by crypto entrepreneur Alex Masmej. In February of this year, Showtime completed a pre-seed round financing led by Dragonfly Capital, with investment from Robot Ventures and others.

4. Solana ecosystem NFT auction protocol Burnt Finance completes $3 million financing

On May 6, Solana ecosystem NFT auction protocol Burnt Finance announced the completion of $3 million in financing, with investors including Injective Protocol, Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, HashKey Capital, and others.

The Burnt Finance protocol uses the BURNT token for governance and will focus on the NFT auction market.

5. NFT platform Bitski completes $19 million Series A financing, led by a16z

On May 7, NFT platform Bitski completed a $19 million Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from American rapper Jay-Z, YouTube blogger MrBeast, professional tennis player Serena Williams, crypto enthusiast and NFT pioneer 3LAU, and others. To date, Bitski has raised approximately $23.4 million.

Bitski has now shifted to the NFT market, aiming to help mainstream brands and celebrities bypass the crypto complexities of the early market, thus providing NFT access for early partners like Adidas and connecting the community, creators, and brands.

6. NFT asset aggregation auction platform Element receives $11.5 million financing

On May 7, NFT asset aggregation auction platform Element announced that it received $11.5 million in angel round financing led by SIG and Dragonfly Capital, with a valuation of $50 million for this round, involving 10 institutions and several individual investors. Element founder Wang Feng stated that this round of financing will be used for talent recruitment, product design, establishing extensive cooperation with global NFT projects, and promoting community building.

Element is registered in the Cayman Islands and was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Wang Feng and technical partner Zhang Hongliang. It is expected to enter commercialization testing around the end of May or June, aiming to provide NFT asset selection through the capture and analysis of on-chain data.

3. Others

1. Privacy public chain Secret Network completes $11.5 million financing, led by Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital

On May 4, the privacy public chain Secret Network, built on Cosmos SDK and Tendermint, completed $11.5 million in financing, led by Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital, with participation from Spartan Group and Skynet Trading. The financing will primarily support the growth of applications on Secret Network, including its DeFi and NFT ecosystems.

Secret Network is a privacy-focused blockchain protocol that allows decentralized applications to use encrypted data that will not be disclosed, enabling developers to build new types of powerful, permissionless, privacy-preserving applications. Its proof-of-stake network is used for staking and managing network fees.

2. Crypto data analysis company Coin Metrics completes $15 million Series B financing led by Goldman Sachs

On May 6, crypto data analysis company Coin Metrics announced the completion of $15 million in Series B financing led by Goldman Sachs, with other investors including existing investors Castle Island Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, and Fidelity Investments. Additionally, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Mathew McDermott and the head of its blockchain and crypto expansion work will join the Coin Metrics board. Coin Metrics stated that this financing will accelerate the company's global expansion and enable further product innovation.

Coin Metrics is headquartered in Boston and provides clients with analysis of blockchain data. In March 2020, Coin Metrics raised $6 million in Series A financing, led by Highland Capital Partners.

3. Decentralized Q&A protocol Upshot completes $7.5 million financing, led by Framework Ventures, CoinFund, and Blockchain Capital

On May 6, decentralized Q&A protocol Upshot announced the completion of $7.5 million in financing, led by Framework Ventures, CoinFund, and Blockchain Capital, with participation from Slow Ventures, CMS, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, and others.

Upshot's Upshot One utilizes a design mechanism called "Peer Prediction" to incentivize people to answer questions honestly, serving as a method to identify high-quality answers.

4. Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso completes $250 million Series C financing, led by Coatue and Tiger Global

On May 6, Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso completed a $250 million Series C investment, reaching a post-financing valuation of $2.2 billion, with leading investors including hedge fund Coatue and American investment firm Tiger Global, along with other investors such as Paradigm, BOND, and Valor Capital Group. Bitso co-founder and CEO Daniel Vogel stated that the financing will be used to continue expanding access to cryptocurrencies and broaden operational scope.

Founded in 2014, Bitso's core product is a cryptocurrency exchange, also focusing on services such as remittances, loans, and interest-bearing accounts. Bitso claims to hold over 95% of the cryptocurrency market share in Mexico and over 60% in Argentina.

5. Grayscale's parent company DCG strategically invests in South Korean exchange Gopax operator Streami

On May 7, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Gopax operator Streami announced that it received strategic investment from Grayscale's parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), which has become its second-largest shareholder, with the investment amount undisclosed.

Gopax was established in 2017 and provides digital asset trading services.

6. Crypto wallet Exodus completes $75 million financing through public offering

On May 7, crypto wallet Exodus completed $75 million in financing through a public offering. Exodus stated that it will use the funds to maintain platform expansion, software development, and marketing.

Founded in 2015, Exodus is a multi-asset software wallet that has previously received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer Class A common stock under Reg A+.

7. DApp data analysis company DappRadar completes $5 million Series A financing

On May 8, DApp data analysis company DappRadar announced the completion of $5 million in Series A financing, with major investors including Prosus Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, and NordicNinja VC.

DappRadar is headquartered in Lithuania and provides services such as application market data tracking and analysis to developers and users. In September 2019, DappRadar raised $2.33 million in seed round financing, led by Naspers Ventures, the venture capital arm of South African internet giant Naspers, with other investors including Blockchain.com Ventures and Angel Invest Berlin.

8. Crypto retail broker Bitpanda receives €10 million ($12.16 million) Series B extension financing

On May 8, Austrian-based crypto retail broker Bitpanda announced that it received €10 million (approximately $12.16 million) in Series B extension financing. In March, Bitpanda completed a $170 million Series B financing at a valuation of $1.2 billion, led by Valar Ventures and DST Global.

Bitpanda, headquartered in Vienna, was formerly known as Coinimal GmbH (which underwent rebranding) and was established in 2014 as a leading cryptocurrency retail broker in Europe. In September 2020, Bitpanda completed a $52 million Series A financing led by Valar Ventures, the venture fund of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

9. Polkadot ecosystem cross-chain wrapped asset protocol Knit Finance completes $1 million financing

On May 8, Polkadot ecosystem cross-chain wrapped asset protocol Knit Finance completed $1 million in financing, with major investors including DAO Maker, AU21 Capital, and LD Capital.

Knit Finance is a cross-chain wrapped asset protocol in the Polkadot ecosystem, aiming to aggregate synthetic assets from various chains and off-chain assets to enable cross-chain trading and lending functionalities.

10. Polkadot DAO infrastructure SubDAO receives investment from Huobi DeFi Labs

On May 8, Polkadot DAO infrastructure SubDAO received investment from Huobi DeFi Labs, with the investment amount undisclosed. It is reported that the SubDAO team has completed the first grant from the Web3 Foundation and passed the review, and is currently developing its second grant. SubDAO will also participate in the parachain auction, with specific auction plans to be announced soon.

SubDAO is the Polkadot DAO infrastructure, founded by a team consisting of a former Technical Team Leader at IBM and early developers of Polkadot.

11. Decentralized freelance platform Freela raises $1.4 million, led by AU21 Capital

On May 8, the DeFi-supported autonomous DAO decentralized freelance recruitment platform Freela announced that it has completed a $1.4 million private placement financing, led by AU21 Capital. Other strategic investors and partners include Skynet Trading, BSCPad, Polygon, Huobi HECO Chain, Lotus Capital, DAO Capital, and others. Additionally, Freela will conduct IDOs on BSCPad (May 27) and Poolz.

Freela is the first DAO supported by DeFi in its category, featuring self-governance capabilities, and is a B2B peer-to-peer commission trading platform that matches skilled freelancers through an intuitive user interface, providing a platform for job postings globally. It introduces a unique innovative model through professional mediation to ensure a win-win situation between employers and employees.