RootData November Data Summary: Financing Amount Soars, Projects Cluster to Launch Mainnet and Tokens

Author: Biscuit & Gu Yu, RootData
In November 2023, the investment and financing data in the cryptocurrency sector once again reached remarkable figures, with a total financing amount of $1.18 billion and over 90 financing events. This data not only breaks the record for nearly a year but also marks a warming trend in the investment and financing market. At the same time, a wave of projects such as Pyth and Chainflip issued tokens or launched mainnets in November, attracting significant market attention.

Financing Trends in the Cryptocurrency Sector Over the Past Two Years
In this article, we will focus on specific financing data, active investors, trending projects, and other aspects to present the changing trends in the cryptocurrency market.

I. Financing Data

The total financing amount in the cryptocurrency sector in November was $1.197 billion, a month-on-month increase of 173.84% and a year-on-year decrease of 5.38%. The number of financing events was 90, a month-on-month increase of 20% and a year-on-year decrease of 15%.
Specifically, the significant increase in financing amount in November was mainly driven by several large financing events. This month also saw the highest number of large financing events (over $100 million), which were:

• On November 21, Phoenix Group completed an IPO financing of $370 million.
• On November 29, Wormhole completed a financing of $225 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
• On November 15, Blockchain.com completed a Series E financing of $110 million at a valuation of $7 billion.
  In the previous months of 2023, only three large financing events occurred, namely Worldcoin's Series C financing of $115 million (05-25), LayerZero's Series B financing of $120 million (04-04), and Ledger's financing of €100 million at a valuation of €1.3 billion (03-30).
  
  In terms of financing amounts, well-known projects in the $10 million to $100 million range include the EVM-compatible Layer2 network Blast, wallet infrastructure Privy, and distributed AI computing platform Ritual, among others. Additionally, the $3 million to $5 million range was the most common, with notable projects including smart contract wallet Pimlico, space-themed game Citadel, decentralized derivatives MYX Finance, and Web3 social protocol Sleek…
  Seed rounds remain the hottest financing stage, with 29 projects completing seed round financing in November, accounting for as much as 50.88%.
  
  Moreover, there were 7 merger and acquisition events in November, with the most notable being the acquisition of two leading crypto media outlets: Foresight Ventures acquired The Block for $70 million, and Bullish Exchange acquired CoinDesk. Additionally, Terraform Labs acquired asset dashboard platform Pulsar Finance, and CoinGecko acquired blockchain indexer Zash.
  The rapidly increasing number of M&A events indicates that leading players in the cryptocurrency sector are accelerating their strategic layouts, seeking quality targets to address their strategic shortcomings and expand ecological synergies.

II. Active Investors

Foresight Ventures, established in 2021, has participated in 25 rounds of investment over the past year. The most frequent co-investors are HashKey Capital (14 times) and SevenX Ventures (11 times), with the most investments in sectors including infrastructure, social entertainment, and gaming.
In November, Foresight Ventures significantly increased its investment frequency, recording 6 investments, including 5 financings and 1 direct acquisition (The Block). This reflects Foresight Ventures' ample financial strength and strong market confidence. Additionally, Foresight Ventures' affiliated exchange Bitget also invested HKD 710 million in the compliant exchange BC Group in Hong Kong.
Apart from this, institutions such as Andreessen Horowitz, Spartan Group, HashKey Capital, and Shima Capital disclosed 4-5 investments in the same month.
In November, many investment institutions launched new funds related to cryptocurrency, providing more diverse financing options for crypto startups, including:

• Menlo Ventures announced the completion of $1.35 billion in fundraising, primarily investing in blockchain, gaming, and other directions.
• Lightspeed Faction launched a $285 million early-stage crypto fund.
• Web3 venture capital firm MarsX Capital announced the establishment of a $100 million first-phase fund.
• Polygon launched a $90 million ecosystem development fund.
• French investment firm Serena launched a new €100 million fund, focusing on blockchain, AI, and quantum technology.
• Web3 venture capital firm AC Capital is launching a new $20 million fund.
• Singapore venture fund Leo Ventures launched a new $10 million fund, intending to invest in Web3 and other fields.

III. Trending Projects

Based on a large amount of user search data from RootData, we have summarized some of the projects with the highest user search volume in November, including:
1. Pyth Network
Pyth Network is the next-generation price oracle solution designed to provide on-chain valuable financial market data to projects, protocols, and the public through blockchain technology, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, foreign exchange, and commodities. The network aggregates first-party price data from over 70 trusted data providers and publishes it for use by smart contracts and other on-chain or off-chain applications.
2. Celestia
Celestia is a modular blockchain network aimed at building a scalable data availability layer to enable the next generation of scalable blockchain architecture—modular blockchains, designed to allow anyone to easily deploy their own blockchain with minimal overhead. Celestia scales by decoupling execution from consensus and introducing new data availability sampling.
3. Blast
Blast is an EVM-compatible optimistic rollup with native yield. On Blast, users' balances automatically compound and earn additional Blast rewards.
4. Aleo
Aleo is a developer platform for building fully private, scalable, and cost-effective applications. Using zero-knowledge cryptography, Aleo moves smart contract execution off-chain to enable various decentralized applications that are both fully private and scalable to thousands of transactions per second.
5. Backpack
Backpack is the next-generation cryptocurrency exchange and multi-chain wallet. Backpack's technology provides a self-custody solution that integrates multi-party computation (MPC) technology to ensure the security of funds.
6. LayerZero
LayerZero is a cross-chain interoperability protocol designed for lightweight messaging across chains. LayerZero provides trusted and guaranteed messaging with configurable trustlessness.
7. Derivio
Derivio is a structured derivatives ecosystem that offers synthetic derivatives, providing risk-adjusted rewards for traders with smart leverage while offering deep liquidity pools for cryptocurrency operators to hedge effectively.
8. Scroll
Scroll is Ethereum's native zkEVM Layer 2 solution. It achieves native compatibility with existing Ethereum applications and tools. Scroll processes off-chain transactions and publishes succinct correctness proofs on-chain. This results in higher throughput and lower costs compared to the Ethereum base layer.
9. Blur
Blur is an NFT marketplace for professional traders, offering aggregation features, portfolio analysis, and zero market fees.
10. Chainflip
Chainflip is a cross-chain liquidity network that enables cross-chain trading between different blockchains. It is similar to Uniswap but allows users to trade between major blockchains without any wrapped tokens, special wallets, or dedicated software.

IV. Project Updates

In November, RootData also recorded many projects' mainnet launches and new token issuance events, helping users understand important project dynamics in the market and grasp earlier alpha opportunities.
Recent mainnet launches include:
1. SDX
SDX (Solana Derivatives Exchange) is a DeFi options automated market maker (AMM) aimed at establishing a new trading venue for crypto options. On SDX, users can buy and sell fully collateralized, cash-settled European options, including call options, put options, and vertical spread strategies. Users also participate as market makers, providing assets to AMM Pools and earning passive income from bid-ask spreads and capital usage fees.
2. Socrates
Socrates is a web3 social media and entertainment platform that combines social networking and gaming networks. Leveraging the potential of technology, Socrates creates an inclusive space where users can profit by participating in multiple-choice quizzes, freely expressing their thoughts, and engaging in meaningful debates. The platform has created an innovative incentive model where any interaction requires an investment in the prize pool for questions, with rewards distributed after the questions conclude. The more interaction, discussion, and debate around each question, the higher the potential rewards.

3. IntentX
IntentX is a decentralized derivatives exchange based on intent, offering perpetual futures trading. The platform leverages various cutting-edge technologies, including LayerZero, cross-chain communication protocols, account abstraction, and a groundbreaking request-for-quote (RFQ) architecture that addresses key challenges in delivering on-chain derivatives.

4. Nocturne
Nocturne is a protocol enabling privacy and composable accounts on Ethereum. Nocturne allows users to store or receive assets in private addresses within EOAs and contracts. In the future, users can prove ownership of privacy assets in a zero-knowledge manner for any transaction or private transfer. In October, Nocturne completed a $6 million seed round financing.

5. Beoble
Beoble is a communication infrastructure and ecosystem that allows users to chat between wallets. Its products include a web-based chat application and a toolkit that allows Dapps to integrate. In November, Beoble completed $2 million in pre-seed round financing.

6. Mu Exchange
Mu Exchange is a decentralized perpetual contract exchange (Perp-DEX) that offers leveraged trading using yield-bearing tokens ($sDAI) as collateral. Even after opening a position, users can continue to earn DAI savings rate yields while trading.

7. ZKP2P
ZKP2P is building a fiat entry point supported by zk proofs. Its smart contracts execute proof verification and custody functions. The entry process will require two transactions. First, users will post orders to the on-chain order book. Then, when off-rampers submit order claims, users will choose claims completed on Venmo, generate proofs through confirmation emails, and then submit the proofs on-chain to unlock fUSDC. The exit process will require a Venmo ID. Additionally, users need to mint fUSDC directly from the contract.

8. Bioniq
Bioniq is a Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace that leverages the Internet Computer to save time and costs through asset packaging.

9. Derivio
Derivio is a structured derivatives ecosystem that offers synthetic derivatives, providing risk-adjusted rewards for traders with smart leverage while offering deep liquidity pools for cryptocurrency operators to hedge effectively.

Recent projects that launched tokens include:

1. Vertex (VRTX)
Vertex is a decentralized derivatives protocol for trading spot and perpetual contracts on an order book. With an industry-leading trading engine and integrated currency market, Vertex's cross-margin product suite is designed for both professionals and beginners. In April 2022, Vertex Protocol completed $8.5 million in seed round financing.

2. Chainflip (FLIP)
Chainflip is a cross-chain liquidity network that enables cross-chain trading between different blockchains. It is similar to Uniswap but allows users to trade between major blockchains without any wrapped tokens, special wallets, or dedicated software. In May 2022, Chainflip completed $10 million in financing.

3. Cradles (CRDS)
Cradles is a time-elapsing virtual world game that offers players a living, breathing virtual world that continues to evolve and progress, simulating time and physical laws just like in real life. Cradles is also a subscription-based blockchain game, where players need to purchase a monthly subscription card to access the game. In February 2022, Cradles completed $5 million in private placement financing.

4. Pyth Network (PYTH)
Pyth Network is the next-generation price oracle solution designed to provide on-chain valuable financial market data to projects, protocols, and the public through blockchain technology, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, foreign exchange, and commodities. The network aggregates first-party price data from over 70 trusted data providers and publishes it for use by smart contracts and other on-chain or off-chain applications.

5. MultiBit (MUBI)
MultiBit Bridge provides a secure and efficient bridging mechanism that allows seamless token transfers between the ETH chain, BNB chain, and BTC network. MultiBit Bridge connects ERC20 tokens with BRC20 tokens, enhancing the liquidity of BRC20 tokens and facilitating the growth and development of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

6. SHRAPNEL (SHRAP)
SHRAPNEL is a AAA-level FPS game where skill-based competition, creative modeling tools, and true digital ownership are all powered by blockchain technology. As a competitive multiplayer first-person shooter, SHRAPNEL bundles a rich set of player creation tools that combine combat, creation, management, and connection into a community where players own the platform and decide its future. In October of this year, SHRAPNEL completed $20 million in Series A financing.

7. RepubliK (RBK)
RepubliK is a Web3 content creation platform where content creators can connect with their audiences and utilize built-in smart contracts to handle the monetization process. In October of this year, RepubliK completed $2.3 million in seed round financing.

8. Prisma Finance (PRISM)
Prisma Finance is a DeFi-native protocol focused on unlocking the full potential of Ethereum liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Through Prisma, users can use liquid staking tokens as collateral to mint fully collateralized stablecoins (acUSD). This stablecoin will be incentivized on Curve and Convex Finance, providing users with additional rewards such as trading fees, CRV, CVX, and PRISMA.

9. Holdstation (HOLD)
Holdstation is a decentralized derivatives platform that offers traders the opportunity to trade various assets with leverage of up to 500 times. Holdstation features a user-friendly interface and a range of advanced trading tools, empowering traders to capitalize on market opportunities and potentially profit from price fluctuations across various markets.

10. TOUCH (TFT)
TOUCH is building a Web3 community that helps users interact with fans and create value. Its TouchRoom is a decentralized, censorship-resistant, power-decentralized, consensus-driven web3 community product. Creators can establish FAN Rooms to facilitate collaboration between creators and fans while sharing the community's growth benefits within this Web3 community.
Due to space limitations, the above is part of the mainnet and token information. For more complete and timely data, please visit the RootData official website (https://www.rootdata.com/zh/) for more information.