Last week, there were a total of 30 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with a cumulative financing of approximately 146.5 million USD | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
Solana developer platform Helius has completed over $20 million in financing, with participation from Haun Ventures and others; cryptocurrency trading platform TrueX has completed $9 million in financing, with participation from Hack VC and others; Web3 gaming company Ambrus Studio has completed several million dollars in financing, led by The Spartan Group.Organizer: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from September 16 to September 22, 2024, there were a total of 30 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing of approximately $146.5 million.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and DeFi tracks. Popular projects include the FHE blockchain network octra, Bitcoin infrastructure Bool Network, Bitcoin full-chain lending protocol Blend, and Web3 video game platform Forge.
In addition, the decentralized clearing network Yellow Network completed a $10 million seed round financing, led by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, with participation from Consensys, GSR, NxGen, MV Global, Gate Labs, ZBS Capital, Moonrock Capital, Math, Cobo, NOIA Capital, and LD Capital.
*（List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: * Rootdata）
1. Infrastructure
FHE blockchain network octra completes $4 million Pre-Seed round financing, led by Finality Capital
FHE blockchain network octra has completed $4 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Finality Capital, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Karatage, Presto, Builder Capital, and others.
octra is launching a public WASM sandbox to demonstrate the efficiency of hypergraph in FHE, and is in the final stages of development, with the mainnet expected to launch next year.
It is reported that Octra is an FHE blockchain network that supports isolated execution environments, with most of its codebase developed in languages such as OCaml, AST, ReasonML, and C++.
Mask Network acquires DID and gaming extension Nametag
According to official news, Mask Network announced the acquisition of the decentralized identity (DID) and gaming extension Nametag, with the specific amount not disclosed.
Nametag allows users to create personalized tags and manage their digital identities on major platforms such as Twitter, Google, and Discord.
Tether announces strategic investment of $1.5 million in Sorted Wallet
Tether announced a strategic investment of $1.5 million in Sorted Wallet, aimed at enhancing financial inclusion in Africa and South Asia.
Sorted Wallet provides secure and convenient cryptocurrency transactions for individuals in developing regions without bank accounts or with insufficient banking services. The platform is designed for feature phones and low-power smartphones, catering to users who cannot access advanced technology, offering non-custodial wallets to promote economic empowerment and financial inclusion.
Foresight Ventures announces multi-million dollar strategic investment in Layer1 blockchain Aptos
According to The Block, Foresight Ventures announced a multi-million dollar strategic investment in Layer1 blockchain Aptos.
The funds will be used to accelerate product development, enhance liquidity, and support the development of Aptos' scalable and upgradeable Layer1 blockchain infrastructure.
Bitcoin infrastructure Bool Network has completed $2 million in seed round financing, with participation from Antalpha Ventures, ViaBTC Capital, Spark Digital Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Web3port, Satoshi Lab, D11 Labs, Sharding Capital, and others. These funds will be used to further develop Bool Network's decentralized infrastructure, focusing on unlocking the potential of BTCFi.
Bool Network is committed to providing self-custody solutions for Bitcoin holders, supporting users to seamlessly participate in DeFi scenarios such as stablecoins, Restaking, and cross-chain bridges in a self-custody environment through the combination of original DHC technology and Taproot.
Since its launch, Bool Network has served over 1 million users, with a cumulative transaction volume of 12 million on the testnet, and the total transaction volume on the pioneer network has exceeded $300 million.
Solana developer platform Helius announced the completion of $21.75 million in financing, with participation from Haun Ventures, Founders Fund, Foundation Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Chapter One, and Spearhead.
Modular blockchain developer Hemi Labs completes $15 million financing, led by Binance Labs
Modular blockchain developer Hemi Labs has completed $15 million in financing, led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital, and Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Crypto.com, HyperChain Capital, Alchemy, SALT Fund, Kelly Capital, Sunflower Capital, DNA Fund, Web3 Ventures, Quantstamp, TRGC, UTXO, Artichoke Capital, SNZ Holding, Capital6, IBG Capital, Protein Capital, MON Ventures, SV5, Impossible Finance, Wu Jihan (Bitcoin Deer), and George Burke (Portal).
Hemi Labs will use the funds to develop and launch Hemi Network, which has already launched its incentivized testnet, with plans to launch the mainnet in the fourth quarter.
According to RootData, Hemi Network is a modular Layer 2 network that facilitates Ethereum smart contract functionality protected by the Bitcoin network. The chain introduces the Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM), which allows developers to create smart contracts that interact with the Bitcoin state, unlocking Bitcoin-based DeFi applications, including staking, lending markets, and democratized MEV markets.
Bitget and Foresight Ventures announce strategic investment of $30 million in TON blockchain
Bitget and Foresight Ventures announced a strategic investment of $30 million in the TON blockchain. This investment aims to strengthen the development of Telegram-based projects, focusing on click-to-earn games such as Hamster Kombat and Notcoin.
Bitget and Foresight stated that through this new investment, they plan to "deepen their involvement in TON blockchain governance and future development plans." The statement noted: "This investment will be allocated through the acquisition of TON tokens."
According to Blockworks, Solana-based gaming company MagicBlock has completed $3 million in pre-seed financing, with participation from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The company plans to use the new funds to expand its team and develop technology, including bringing its game engine to the Solana mainnet and collaborating with online gaming.
MagicBlock was founded in September 2023 and is currently developing a game engine that allows video games to run entirely on-chain.
According to The Block, zero-knowledge proof generation layer Fermah has completed $5.2 million in seed round financing, led by a16z's CSX and Lemniscap, with participation from Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital, Daemon Ventures, and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan and Sandeep Nailwal.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Fermah is a universal zero-knowledge proof generation layer. It acts as a marketplace, with suppliers including GPU and FPGA. On the demand side, Fermah can generate proofs for any instance using ZK.
Layer 2 protocol RISE Chain completes $3.2 million seed round financing, led by Finality Capital
According to The Block, Layer 2 protocol RISE Chain has completed $3.2 million in seed round financing, led by Finality Capital, with participation from Orange DAO, DACM, ether.fi Ventures, P2 Ventures, MH Ventures, Public Works, Vitalik Buterin, Stani Kulechov, Anthony Sassano (also known as sassal.eth), DCF God, and others.
RISE Chain aims to unlock a new generation of Gigagas applications. The RISE tech stack provides throughput of over 1 billion gas per second, achieving this breakthrough through incremental technological improvements, addressing execution and state access issues, including pevm—the fastest public EVM execution engine, continuous execution, versioned Merkle trees, and RiseDB.
According to CoinDesk, the internet infrastructure network Pipe Network, which supports crypto incentives, has completed $10 million in financing, led by Multicoin Capital.
David Rhodus, CEO of Permissionless Labs, the startup building Pipe Network, stated that the vision is to quickly scale CDN nodes where they are most needed by borrowing existing computing power. Their computers will help end-users access cached content that may be difficult to deliver quickly due to distance from the hosting servers.
Pipe Network will be built on the Solana network and plans to launch its testnet at the Breakpoint conference in Singapore.
2. DeFi
Bitcoin full-chain lending protocol Blend recently announced the completion of seed round financing, led by well-known investor Mario Nawfal and IBC Group, with participation from Hackquest Community Fund, with specific amounts and valuations not disclosed. At the same time, Blend has also been selected for the Open Campus accelerator supported by Animoca Brands and Hackquest, as well as BTC Studio initiated by Wanwu Island and Waterdrop Capital.
Blend is a full-chain lending protocol aimed at Bitcoin assets, committed to providing efficient liquidity solutions for users by introducing Bitcoin as collateral. Blend plans to first deploy its protocol on public chains such as Arbitrum and Base, and will integrate decentralized Bitcoin asset solutions such as dlcBTC to further unlock the earning potential of Bitcoin and promote its deep application in the DeFi field.
Mario Nawfal is a well-known entrepreneur and investor in the United States, whose Twitter Spaces have invited global political and business leaders and well-known investors, including Elon Musk and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. It is reported that Blend plans to co-host a Twitter Space event with Mario Nawfal to promote its lending protocol to the senior Bitcoin user community in the United States, further expanding Blend's influence in the cryptocurrency community.
Solana on-chain asset trading platform Drift has completed $25 million in Series B financing, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Blockchain Capital, Primitive Ventures, and Folius Ventures.
Cindy Leow, co-founder of Drift Labs, stated that her goal is to build a set of financial service tools on Solana, including spot and derivatives trading as well as prediction markets, to make Drift "the Robinhood of cryptocurrency."
According to RootData, Drift Protocol is an on-chain asset trading center based on Solana, providing services such as Perps and prediction markets.
According to Bloomberg, two former executives from Coinbase are launching a cryptocurrency platform called TrueX, which will use PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD as its preferred trading token. PYUSD issuer Paxos will provide third-party custody services for TrueX users. TrueX will initially be open to U.S. institutions and some international institutions in certain regions.
Additionally, Paxos is also one of the investors participating in the seed round financing of this startup, with TrueX raising $9 million from venture capitalists such as RRE Ventures and Hack VC.
Before co-founding TrueX, Vishal Gupta served as the trading head at Coinbase, where he oversaw the launch of the USDC stablecoin during his tenure at Circle. Patrick McCreary previously served as a senior engineer at Coinbase. Both have worked at Goldman Sachs.
Liquid staking protocol Amnis Finance on the Aptos blockchain has completed $2 million in financing, co-led by Borderless Capital and OKX Ventures. Aptos Labs, Arkgrow Pte Ltd, Ambush Capital, Gate Ventures, Sky Vision Capital, Old Fashion Research, Chorus One Venture, Re7, and Flowdesk participated.
This new funding will enable Amnis Finance to accelerate the integration of its liquid staking solution within the Aptos DeFi ecosystem. The platform will continue to enhance its services within Aptos while expanding its influence through strategic partnerships.
According to RootData, Amnis Finance is a liquid staking protocol that allows users to easily maximize the returns of APT tokens while unlocking liquidity.
Oracle-based perpetual contract DEX Filament announced the completion of $1.1 million in seed round financing, led by Lingfeng Innovation Fund, with participation from Halo Capital and Spyre Group. Other major participants include angel investors from well-known Web3 projects such as Polygon, Router Protocol, Stakecito, Chorus One, Archerman Capital, and former core contributors from Binance, Sei, and Tendermint.
Filament is developed by a team that has worked at Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Persistence, Nethermind, and Open Status, and is built on the Sei network.
The platform introduces a new hybrid model that combines compartment-based liquidity pools with order books, enabling it to operate efficiently under low liquidity conditions.
On-chain perpetual DEX LogX announced the completion of $4 million in strategic round financing, bringing its total financing amount to $10.1 million, with participation from Hashed Emergent, Cumberland VC, Saison Capital, Gate Labs, DWF Labs, Antler, Coinswitch Ventures, Wagmi Ventures, Kairos Capital, and others.
LogX will use the new financing to develop into a DeFi super application, offering leveraged prediction markets and exotic perps while expanding to TON, Solana, Bitcoin, Move, and EVM ecosystems.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, LogX completed $6.1 million in seed round financing earlier this year, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and others.
3. AI
Web3 startup Vana announced the completion of $5 million in strategic financing, led by Coinbase Ventures. Thus, Vana's cumulative financing amount has reached $25 million.
Vana aims to build a network of user-owned data pools, addressing the issue of insufficient training data for AI models through blockchain technology, while providing internet users with a way to earn income. Vana plans to establish a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) network that allows members to aggregate data accumulated from social media platforms such as Reddit, LinkedIn, or X, and sell these datasets to AI researchers.
Previously, Vana raised $18 million in Series A financing led by Paradigm.
4. Gaming
Web3 video game platform Forge announced the completion of a new round of financing on the X platform, with participation from Sui Network, Ava Labs, Chris Wang (founder of ThunderCore protocol), Dingaling, and consulting firm AP Collective, with specific financing amounts and valuation information not disclosed.
Forge plans to use the new funds to expand its blockchain-based Web3 video game platform, supporting players in integrating their gaming achievements and activities into their profiles while providing social engagement and gaming rewards.
Gamified full-chain liquidity aggregation innovation protocol 0xAstra announced the successful completion of $3 million in seed round financing. This round of financing brought together numerous well-known investment institutions and leading projects, including Ace Redpoint, Animoca Brands, Folius Ventures, Skyland Ventures, Orbiter, and Ultiverse.
0xAstra injects vitality into full-chain liquidity and stimulates on-chain interaction through a unique gamified strategy. With deep cooperation with leading blockchain ecosystems, 0xAstra provides a richer and smoother cross-chain trading experience, taking the potential of liquidity aggregation and restaking to new heights. Since its launch, 0xAstra has connected dozens of mainstream L1 and L2 networks, and in just over two months, the platform's cumulative transaction volume has exceeded $90 million, demonstrating remarkable growth momentum.
The 0xAstra team consists of seasoned experts from the cryptocurrency, gaming, and internet fields, who have successfully launched multiple gaming products with over a million users and millions of dollars in revenue. Through this financing, 0xAstra aims to lead a new wave of innovation in the DeFi space, creating a more vibrant and interactive decentralized financial ecosystem for global users.
Web3 gaming company Ambrus Studio completes multi-million dollar financing, led by The Spartan Group
Ambrus Studio recently completed multi-million dollar Series A financing, led by Spartan Group, with follow-on investments from top investment institutions such as IVC, SUI Foundation, Knight Capital, Goodwater Capital, and ZeePrime Capital. The studio will launch its first Telegram game, E4C: Demon Hunter, on September 16.
Ambrus Studio plans to launch a web3 game incubation platform E4C and is committed to developing and incubating high-quality games based on blockchain technology, while meeting the needs of both web2 and web3 gamers through a long-term stable development strategy. As the first Telegram mini-app game launched by E4C, Demon Hunter holds significant strategic importance for the long-term development of Ambrus Studio.
5. Others
DWF Labs announces strategic investment in Memecoin Launchpad platform GraFun
According to Chainwire, DWF Labs announced a strategic investment in the Memecoin Launchpad platform GraFun, with specific amounts not disclosed. The two parties have also reached a strategic partnership, with GraFun primarily supporting the launch and trading of meme coins on the BNB chain.
Jupiter announces acquisition of full-chain AMM aggregation platform Coinhall
At the Solana Breakpoint conference, in addition to acquiring the Solana browser SolanaFM, Solana ecosystem DEX aggregator Jupiter also announced the acquisition of the full-chain AMM aggregator Coinhall.
According to the crypto data platform Rootdata, Coinhall provides real-time prices, charts, trading aggregation, and analysis for all AMM DEXs in the Terra, Juno, Near, and Cosmos ecosystems.
Breaking: Solana liquidity aggregator Jupiter announces acquisition of Solana browser SolanaFM
At the Solana Breakpoint conference, Solana liquidity aggregator Jupiter announced the acquisition of Solana browser SolanaFM. Jupiter is designed to connect all decentralized exchange (DEX) markets with AMM pools, aiming to create the best decentralized trading platform and the largest DAO in the cryptocurrency space. SolanaFM Explorer is a user-centric Solana blockchain explorer that simplifies trading information and reduces the complexity of visualizing capital flows.
Velo Labs receives second strategic investment from UOB Venture Management
According to Cointelegraph, Velo Labs has received a second strategic investment from UOB Venture Management (UOBVM), a private equity and venture capital subsidiary of United Overseas Bank, with specific amounts not disclosed.
It is reported that United Overseas Bank has a market capitalization of approximately SGD 54 billion (as of September 2024) and manages total assets exceeding SGD 500 billion. Velo Labs will provide Web3-based financial solutions and settlement networks for value transfer.
According to Cointelegraph, the decentralized clearing network Yellow Network has completed $10 million in seed round financing, led by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, with participation from Consensys, GSR, NxGen, MV Global, Gate Labs, ZBS Capital, Moonrock Capital, Math, Cobo, NOIA Capital, and LD Capital.
Yellow Network is a new type of decentralized clearing network aimed at addressing inefficiencies in cryptocurrency.
Solana ecosystem smart device company Cudis completes $5 million financing, led by Draper Associates
According to CoinDesk, Solana ecosystem smart device company Cudis announced the completion of $5 million in financing, led by Draper Associates.
CUDIS's smart ring uses the Solana blockchain to protect biometric data, providing gamified health challenges and equipped with personalized AI coaches to offer actionable insights and rewards for healthy behaviors.
Prediction market Limitless Network completes $3 million seed round financing, led by 1confirmation
According to Coindesk, prediction market Limitless Network has completed $3 million in seed round financing, led by 1confirmation, with participation from Paper Ventures, Collider, and Public Works.
The company is building a prediction market on the Layer 2 network Base created by Coinbase (COIN).
