Last week, there were a total of 20 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, raising approximately $2.205 billion | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
Cryptocurrency payment company Mesh has completed a $82 million Series B funding round, led by Paradigm; MGX invests $2 billion in Binance and acquires a minority stake in Binance; Shaga has completed a $4 million funding round, led by IOSG Ventures.Organizer: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from March 10 to March 16, 2025, there were a total of 20 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately $2.205 billion.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and AI tracks. Popular projects include the decentralized infrastructure Offline Protocol, the crypto payment company Mesh, the crypto lending protocol Templar Protocol, and the Solana ecosystem staking infrastructure Rakurai.
In addition, the Solana ecosystem DePIN project Shaga announced the completion of $4 million in financing, led by IOSG Ventures, with investors including Everyrealm, Amber Group, MH Ventures, and several angel investors.
*(List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: * Rootdata）
I. Infrastructure
The blockchain platform MemeCore, focused on meme coins and decentralized innovation, has completed a token round financing with participation from Waterdrip Capital, CatcherVC, and IBC Group. This financing marks an important step for MemeCore in building its ecosystem and integrating blockchain technology with meme culture.
In addition to investment, MemeCore will further collaborate with Waterdrip Capital, CatcherVC, and IBC Group to explore potential strategic partnerships. These collaborations may include ecosystem expansion plans, joint development of blockchain infrastructure, and establishing partnerships with the rich portfolio projects of the three institutions. With the professional resources and industry influence of these investment institutions, MemeCore aims to enhance the utility of its ecosystem, strengthen market positioning, and promote widespread adoption in the Web3 space.
MemeCore CEO Jun stated, "MemeCore is committed to creating a decentralized 'playground' that empowers meme communities and blockchain projects. The support from Waterdrip Capital, CatcherVC, and IBC Group not only recognizes our vision but also provides us with strategic guidance and industry resources to accelerate our growth. We look forward to working closely with new partners to drive meaningful innovation and create long-term value for our ecosystem."
According to Chainwire, the on-chain AI model verification and leasing market Aura has completed $5.5 million in seed round financing, led by Daxos Capital, Manifold Trading, and Selini Capital, with Hermeneutic Investments participating.
With the completion of this round of financing, Aura is accelerating its technology roadmap and preparing for the next phase of platform development.
Decentralized infrastructure Offline Protocol has completed $1.1 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Portal Ventures, with participation from Seed Club Ventures and angel investors Paul Taylor, Rushi Manche, Rahim Noorani, and others. The funds raised will be used to develop its privacy-resistant censorship network.
The decentralized infrastructure of Offline Protocol enables seamless peer-to-peer communication, offline payments, and local-first applications without relying on centralized servers or traditional networks.
Axelar Foundation discloses completion of $30 million AXL token sale
According to The Block, the Axelar Foundation has announced a strategic AXL token sale worth $30 million. The foundation stated on Tuesday that several cryptocurrency investors participated in this token sale, including Arrington Capital, Distributed Global, Electric Capital, Laser Digital, C² Ventures, Plassa Capital, and Wagmi Ventures. However, the foundation declined to disclose the sale price or valuation of the AXL tokens. The Axelar Foundation plans to expand the use of dollars through stablecoins and support the institutional tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) through its interoperability protocol.
A spokesperson for the foundation stated that these investments were made "in recent months." "Some of the investments involved purchasing unlocked AXL tokens from the Axelar Foundation's community project allocation, which will be subject to a new lock-up period ranging from six to twelve months." This means that the Axelar Foundation is not the only seller in this transaction. The spokesperson declined to disclose the identities of other sellers. Other sellers may have facilitated the transaction through over-the-counter (OTC) trading, where investors acquired AXL tokens that are already in circulation.
According to the foundation's spokesperson, the latest $30 million investment announced by the Axelar Foundation, combined with the previous $100 million raised through multiple rounds of financing and a public token sale, further increases its total investment amount.
Crypto payment company Mesh completes $82 million Series B financing, led by Paradigm
Crypto payment company Mesh announced the completion of $82 million in Series B financing to expand its stablecoin-based payment settlement network. This round of financing was led by Paradigm, with participation from ConsenSys, QuantumLight, Yolo Investments, Evolution VC, Hike Ventures, Opportuna, and AltaIR Capital.
Mesh aims to build a payment network that connects crypto wallets, exchanges, and payment service providers, allowing users to pay with crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL, while merchants can choose to settle in USDC, PYUSD, or RLUSD.
According to Fortune, blockchain startup Arda, founded by former JPMorgan digital asset strategy head Oli Harris, has completed $3 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Lightshift Capital. Arda aims to reform the real estate industry through blockchain technology, providing a digital platform for the real estate economy and using distributed ledger technology to store data.
Harris stated that Arda will serve as a central "operating system" for property ownership, helping other companies execute transactions by aggregating data and building blockchain infrastructure. The platform will create a "continuously evolving historical record" for each property, similar to CARFAX for used cars or personal credit scores, allowing buyers, sellers, and financial institutions to access verifiable and tamper-proof records instantly.
Arda plans to achieve profitability by charging a fixed fee for viewing real estate data and transaction fees for updating specific property data and processing transactions. The financing will be used to develop product prototypes, hire engineers, and establish partnerships with real estate developers and related businesses.
II. DeFi
Crypto lending protocol Templar Protocol completes $4 million Pre-Seed round financing
According to official news, the crypto lending protocol Templar Protocol announced the completion of $4 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from Robot Ventures, Digital Asset Capital Management, Proximity Labs, Blackdragon Capital, NEAR Protocol, and several strategic angel investors. This funding will accelerate Templar's development roadmap and product launch.
Templar Protocol is a startup dedicated to developing a crypto lending platform for Bitcoin and other digital assets, aiming to allow users to borrow Bitcoin or other assets without relying on centralized institutions. The team plans to launch the protocol in the second quarter of 2025. In the future, Templar will expand support for more assets and enhance privacy features, including differential privacy and zero-knowledge proofs.
Crypto payment company MoonPay acquires stablecoin company Iron
According to CNBC, crypto payment giant MoonPay is intensifying its push into the enterprise market by acquiring API-first stablecoin infrastructure startup Iron. This is MoonPay's second major acquisition in two months, highlighting its ambition to capture the rapidly growing stablecoin payment market.
MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright stated in an interview, "We believe everyone will have a digital currency wallet, whether it's within a bank account or existing independently. We are building backward compatibility with the existing financial system."
Soto-Wright likened this acquisition to PayPal's acquisition of Braintree, which processed credit card transactions for companies like Meta, with a total payment volume of nearly $600 billion last year. Soto-Wright said, "This is our Braintree moment; Iron's technology positions MoonPay to become the authoritative infrastructure provider for enterprise stablecoin solutions."
Ethena partners with Initia, stablecoin USDe token to be integrated into Initia ecosystem
Initia disclosed on social media that Ethena has announced a strategic partnership with the blockchain network Initia, and its stablecoin USDe will be integrated into the Initia ecosystem.
This collaboration includes three main aspects: first, an incentive-based INIT-sUSDe native liquidity pair will be established, providing Ethena rewards, INIT staking rewards, and exchange fees for liquidity positions; second, Ethena will provide rewards for applications in the Initia ecosystem that use its assets as core components, including full-stack applications like Cabal, Echelon, and Rave; third, Ethena will invest in the Initia ecosystem, starting with Echelon.
Solana ecosystem staking infrastructure Rakurai announced the completion of $3 million in seed round financing, led by ANAGRAM, with participation from Colosseum, Slow Ventures, Robot Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, P2P.org, GlobalStake, and cyber•Fund. The new funds will support the launch of high-performance nodes and utilize proprietary scheduling and pipeline optimization to increase TPS.
According to official news from Vest, the company announced the completion of $5 million in financing to build The Universal Risk Engine. This round of financing was led by Jane Street, Selini Capital, Amber Group, QCP, Big Brain Holdings, Mozaik Capital, and other institutions, with executives from financial giants like BlackRock and Citadel participating.
Vest replaces the fragmented individual risk assessment needs with a verifiable, neutral framework. Financial participants no longer need to rely on trust but can use shared, objective risk models that dynamically adjust based on market conditions.
III. AI
According to Chainwire, the decentralized creative AI platform Sogni AI has completed $2 million in financing, co-led by Comma3 Ventures and Republic Ventures, with participation from Contango Digital, Oyster Ventures, ARC, DEXT Force Ventures, Nosana, Formless Capital, Gecko Ventures, and more Web3 investors and industry veterans.
Sogni AI was founded by former executives from CoinMarketCap and has launched a decentralized GPU network called Supernet, aimed at supporting AI-driven content creation. The network provides rendering speeds 176 times faster than traditional cloud services by distributing workloads on decentralized infrastructure.
IV. Gaming
Shaga completes $4 million financing, led by IOSG Ventures
The Solana ecosystem DePIN project Shaga announced the completion of $4 million in financing, led by IOSG Ventures, with investors including Everyrealm, Amber Group, MH Ventures, and several angel investors.
Shaga aims to reshape the gaming experience, breaking through hardware bottlenecks to provide ultra-low latency and high-performance gaming, designed to allow billions of players worldwide to enjoy an exceptional gaming experience. By adopting edge computing technology, Shaga offers users a cloud gaming experience, enabling anyone to set up nodes and share games. Players can participate in the DePIN network at a lower cost and with lower latency without needing to purchase specialized hardware, significantly lowering the entry barrier to the ecosystem.
Previously, Shaga had just completed $1 million in angel round financing in June 2024.
According to Venturebeat, Web3 game developer M10 has completed $3 million in seed round financing, with investors including Sui Foundation, GSR, Big Brain Holdings, Monoceros, Blockchain Founders Fund, and Presto Labs.
The company aims to address core issues in the free-to-play game model, particularly overly aggressive monetization methods. M10 is developing a competitive multiplayer shooter game that creates new gaming business models through blockchain technology, allowing players to create and monetize their own value. The developer team members come from AAA game projects such as Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption 2, and GTA V.
V. Others
MGX invests $2 billion in Binance and acquires a minority stake in Binance
According to official news, cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Abu Dhabi-based AI and advanced technology investor MGX announced a $2 billion investment deal, marking Binance's first institutional investment to date and a significant step in promoting digital asset adoption and strengthening the role of blockchain in global finance. This is the largest single investment in a cryptocurrency company and the largest investment in cryptocurrency (stablecoins) ever.
It is reported that this investment represents MGX's first foray into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, acquiring a minority stake in Binance as part of a broader strategy to support the transformative impact of blockchain on society.
Runes marketplace and launch platform Odin.fun, launched by Bioniq founder Bob Bodily, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, led by Taproot Wizards, with specific investment amounts not disclosed. The new funds are intended to support the development of DeFi on the Bitcoin chain.
It is reported that after the transaction is completed, Odin.fun will remain independently operated and continue to be led by Bob Bodily.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Odin.fun is a Runes marketplace and launch platform founded by the creator of the Bitcoin ordinal market Bioniq and inspired by Pump.fun.
According to official news, the decentralized user protocol platform PoPP announced the completion of the final round of $6 million financing before its TGE, bringing the total financing amount to $12 million. Investors in this round include Oasis Labs, X-Labs, Becker Ventures, InnoAlpha, Blocklike Ventures, and others.
PoPP provides users with dynamic on-chain identity labels by analyzing on-chain behavior, accurately matching DApps, and offering developers privacy-protected precise audience targeting. After the financing is completed, PoPP will advance the PoPP AI-Profile, building a Web3 user ecosystem, optimizing the smart matching experience, and expanding more application scenarios.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, PoPP uses blockchain technology to construct users' personal metaverse social relationships, allowing everyone to issue programmable soul-bound tokens and non-fungible tokens to carry their social relationships, organizational relationships, rights certificates, and works, enabling everyone who contributes to the community to gain benefits and helping users discover more valuable souls and content on the platform.
