According to incomplete statistics from CoinVoice, there were more than 24 project financing cases in the blockchain field announced this week (3.4-3.8), with 5 financings worth tens of millions. Zama, an open source cryptography company that helps developers build privacy-preserving applications, announced the completion of a $73 million Series A round of financing, co-led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, which is also the largest financing event this week. Other popular projects include Solana ecological DePIN protocol io.net, decentralized artificial intelligence network Sahara, Sui ecological lending protocol Scallop, etc. In terms of subdivisions, investment and financing amounts this week focused on infrastructure and AI. The following is an overview of this week’s financing events.
Spirit Blockchain Capital strategically invests in NFT data platform CryptoSlam
Blockchain and digital asset investment institution Spirit Blockchain Capital announced that it has made a strategic investment in the NFT cross-chain data analysis platform CryptoSlam and reached a partnership with it. The specific amount has not yet been disclosed. It is reported that CryptoSlam was founded by Randy Wasinger in 2018. It mainly provides NFT system transaction data analysis, information aggregation and other services to the encryption community. (Globenewswire)
OKX Ventures strategically invests in DeBox, a decentralized organization with social attributes
According to official news, OKX Ventures has strategically invested in DeBox, a decentralized organization with social attributes. DeBox is a DAO decentralized organization for social communication that integrates Web3 experience. It has features such as the management of on-chain assets and transaction data. Tools such as DeSwap can realize interaction with mainstream public chains in the market, including Ethereum. , Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync Era, etc. DeBox's daily messages exceed 100 million, its transaction size exceeds US$120 million, and its DAO tools are used more than 20,000 times a month. These are all achieved by more than 690,000 mobile community members. Dora Yue, founder of OKX Ventures, said: "OKX Ventures has been committed to building a Web3 application with tens of millions of users participating. DeBox, which aims to serve the community, supports one-click wallet login and decentralized management. In addition to providing each user with In addition to providing native NFT as avatar, decentralized identity authentication DID can be used to build digital assets belonging to the user circle. What is even more exciting is that DeBox can interact with other Web3 decentralized applications DApp in real time, as In the Bitcoin community, with the rapid development of the ecosystem, we believe that DeBox's rich interactive experience, efficiency and lightness can help the exponential growth of Web3."
Zama completed US$73 million in Series A financing, led by Multicoin Capita and others
Zama, an open source cryptography company that helps developers build privacy-preserving applications, announced the completion of a $73 million Series A round of financing, co-led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with Metaplanet, Blockchange Ventures, Vsquared Ventures and Stake Capital as well as Filecoin founders Juan Benet and Solana Co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Ethereum co-founder and Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood participated in the investment. Zama co-founder and CEO Rand Hindi said in an interview that Zama has completed this financing in two rounds over the past two years. This is an equity round, bringing Zama's total funding to date to more than $80 million, Hindi said, declining to comment on the valuation. As part of the Series A round, Filecoin’s Benet and Multicoin’s Kyle Samani, among others, have joined Zama’s board of directors. It is reported that the company has built a confidential smart contract protocol called fhEVM that allows developers to build privacy-preserving applications. fhEVM currently only works on the EVM blockchain. Hindi said Zama is working to support L1 blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana in the future. Crypto projects including modular blockchain developer Inco, Layer 2 developer Fhenix, and Shiba Inu developer are already using Zama’s FHE technology. Zama plans to use the new financing to continue research and development of its FHE tools. Hindi said Zama has achieved a 100x performance improvement since its early research, and now it's aiming for another 1,000x performance improvement to support large-scale applications. In addition to building tools for the blockchain industry, Zama develops custom solutions for the artificial intelligence, healthcare, financial services, and government security industries.
Blast ecological lending protocol Orbit Protocol receives strategic investment from Manifold
Blast ecological lending protocol Orbit Protocol recently announced on the X platform that it has received strategic investment from Manifold and established a partnership with it.
KuCoin Ventures strategically invests in Bitcoin DeFi ecological project bitSmiley
KuCoin Ventures announced a strategic investment in the Bitcoin DeFi ecological project bitSmiley on the X platform. According to previous news in January, bitSmiley completed its first round of token financing, led by OKX Ventures and ABCDE, with participation from CMS Holdings, Foresight Ventures, LK Venture, Silvermine Capital, and related individuals from Delphi Digital and Particle Network.
Indian social network voting app Hunch completes US$23 million in financing and plans to expand into Web2 and Web3 markets
Indian social network voting app Hunch announced the completion of $23 million (approximately Rs. 190 crore) in financing, led by Alpha Wave and Hashed Emergent. It is reported that Hashed Emergent is an early-stage blockchain venture capital firm. Hunch can create survey voting projects to vote on topics in finance, games and other fields. Hunch plans to become the preferred platform for voting in the Web2 and Web3 market fields.
Bison Labs completes Pre-Seed round of financing
Bison Labs announced the completion of a Pre-Seed round of financing, aiming to create a second-layer Bitcoin network with Trustless and on-chain sovereign Rollup solutions. The round was led by Portal Ventures, with participation from UTXO Fund, Domo (creator of BRC-20), Magic Eden’s Chief Product Officer Linus Chuang, Waterdrip Capital, Bitcoin Startup Labs, Satoshi Lab, and other strategic investors. Bison Labs is a sovereign rollup scheme using ZK proof on Bitcoin, with the smallest trust assumptions and highest security on the market. Unlike existing Layer 2 solutions, Bison Labs prioritizes a trustless system that requires no external trust assumptions through client-side verification and securing assets in co-hosted DLCs. This method ensures security and prevents the key from being leaked. To date, Bison Labs has more than 15 teams building ecological applications on its platform, and is extending its support to EVM and Rust0 VM, as well as CairoVM. Bison Labs CEO Jay emphasized the importance of a native smart contract ecosystem focused on Bitcoin. Unlike many other layer 2 solutions that are designed with a generic "multi-signature" approach, Bison introduces a trustless and node-free way to secure the network. Bison Labs sets a new security standard with client-side verification to directly share a layer of Bitcoin security.
Bitcoin Ordinals wallet Oyl completes $3 million in financing
Bitcoin Ordinals wallet Oyl completed US$3 million in equity financing, led by Arca, a venture capital institution that has previously focused on investing in the Ethereum NFT field. Other investors include crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes and the anonymous founder of the BRC-20 token standard Domo, as well as NFT funds Kanosei and FlamingoDAO, etc. It is reported that Oyl will be officially launched in the next few weeks and provide a platform for "in-wallet" trading of Ordinals. (CoinDesk)
Bitcoin trading application Oyl completes $3 million in pre-seed round of financing, led by Arca
Bitcoin trading application Oyl has completed a $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by venture capital firm Arca, with participation from BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes and BRC-20 creator Domo.
It is reported that Oyl is building a trading platform called "Oyl Wallet" for the Bitcoin ecosystem to provide "in-wallet" trading functions for Bitcoin Ordinals. The platform will be launched in the coming weeks.
Synnax Tech, a digital asset credit rating project, completed a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing
Synnax Tech, an artificial intelligence-based digital asset credit rating project, announced the completion of a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing on the Synnax hopes to build an AI-driven credit rating standard for the digital asset industry and use decentralized networks to solve core issues such as opaque data in the current digital asset rating market.
Blockchain security infrastructure company Firewall completed a $3.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Hack VC and others
Blockchain security infrastructure company Firewall announced the completion of a $3.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, co-led by North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital and Hack VC. Firewall is currently developing firewall solutions for blockchain networks to prevent smart contracts from being exploited, and the new funds will be used to expand the team to support community building and marketing efforts. (TheBlock)
Modular blockchain project Blackwing completed $4.5 million in financing, led by Hashed and Gumi Cryptos
The modular blockchain project Blackwing announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$4.5 million, led by Hashed and Gumi Cryptos. The new funds will be used to develop a modular Layer 2 blockchain to support liquidation-free leverage transactions of crypto assets and help users Reduce the risk of forced liquidation.
Cosmos ecological development platform Cosmology completed a US$5 million seed round of financing, with participation from HashKey and others
Cosmos ecological development platform Cosmology completed a US$5 million seed round of financing, led by Galileo and Lemniscap, with participation from Dispersion, HashKey, Tuesday Capital, Osmosis Foundation, Chorus One and Informal Systems. Cosmosology provides a full-stack development environment, including Tendermint developer tools, Cosmos SDK and Internal Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. The project did not disclose the valuation of this round of financing.
Solana ecological DePIN protocol io.net completed US$30 million in Series A financing, led by Hack VC
According to official news, Solana ecological DePIN protocol io.net announced the completion of $30 million in Series A financing, led by Hack VC, SevenX Ventures, Multicoin Capital, 6th Man Ventures, M13, Delphi Digital, Solana Labs, Aptos Labs, Foresight Ventures, Longhash , ArkStream Capital, Animoca Brands, Continue Capital, MH Ventures and OKX, as well as industry leaders including Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenk, Aptos founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu and Perlone Capital’s Jin Kang. . Funds raised will be used to build the world’s largest decentralized GPU network and address the AI computing shortage.
AI video generation tool Haiper completes US$13.8 million in seed round financing, led by Octopus Ventures
AI video generation tool Haiper completed a $13.8 million seed round of financing, led by Octopus Ventures and participated by 5Y Capital. Haiper completed a $5.4 million Pre-Seed round of financing in April 2022, with angel investors including Phil Blunsom and Nando de Freitas. It is reported that Haiper was launched by former DeepMind members Yishu Miao and Ziyu Wang. Users can generate videos for free on the Haiper website by entering text prompts, although there are certain limitations. Haiper is planning to expand its video generation capabilities and is already exploring commercial use cases with companies such as JD.com.
Web3 social platform Beoble completed strategic round of financing, Animoca Brands participated in the investment
Web3 social platform Beoble announced the completion of a strategic round of financing, with Animoca Brands participating, but the specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. Beble will provide its chat capabilities to Animoca Brands-related companies and projects to enhance community engagement and interactivity across the Web3 ecosystem. (Cryptonews)
Security infrastructure company Firewall completes US$3.7 million in financing, led by Hack VC and others
According to The Block, security infrastructure company Firewall completed $3.7 million in pre-seed financing. This round of financing was co-led by North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital and Hack VC. Funds raised will be used to expand the current team of six full-time employees, develop technology and support community building and marketing efforts.
Firewall is developing firewall solutions for blockchain networks to prevent smart contract vulnerabilities.
Crypto risk analysis company Agio Ratings has completed approximately $4.6 million in financing
Crypto risk analysis and rating company Agio Ratings announced the completion of two rounds of financing totaling approximately $4.6 million, a $3.2 million seed round in October 2023 and a $1.35 million Pre-Seed round in May 2022. Its seed round of financing was led by Superscrypt, with participation from Portage, MS&AD Ventures and others. Agio Ratings hopes to become the "Moody's" in the crypto industry, mainly helping market makers, brokers and lenders in the digital asset ecosystem assess cryptocurrency counterparty risks. It has currently rated 32 cryptocurrency companies and plans to Its service scope has expanded to more than 70 companies.
Crypto transaction fee hedging protocol Hedgehog completes $1.5 million in pre-seed round of financing
Crypto transaction fee hedging protocol Hedgehog has announced the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed funding round with participation from Marshland Capital, Tenzor Capital, Prometeus Ventures, 3Commas Capital, and Nothing Research. Hedgehog aims to solve the problem of large fluctuations in crypto transaction fees and provide users with tools to deal with price fluctuations in cryptocurrency transaction fees. (TheBlock)
Multi-chain asset trading platform Taproot Labs announces strategic investment from Waterdrip Capital
Taproot Labs announced a joint strategic investment from Waterdrip Capital, Satoshi Lab and Negentropy Capital.
It is reported that Taproot Labs focuses on the development of Bitcoin application layer Layer2 and a multi-chain asset trading platform based on the Lightning Network Taproot Assets Protocol. Currently, it has launched two product lines, Taproot Chain and Taproot Exchange. Taproot Labs will provide stable and high-speed development for the BTC ecological construction. , secure application layer solutions.
Mirror L2 completes first round of financing with participation from UTXO, Conflux and IMO Ventures
Mirror L2 announced the completion of its first round of financing from UTXO (Bitcoin magazine’s investment arm), Conflux and IMO Ventures. Mirror L2 (MirrorL2.com) is a decentralized Proof of Stake (POS) BTC L2 network that is EVM compatible and utilizes BTC as GAS. It is reported that the Mirror L2 team has professional academic background and project experience, and comes from Microsoft, Google, MIT, Yao Class of Tsinghua University, Samsung, Hyundai, Conflux, Decus, etc. The concept of Mirror comes from professional papers, which explains the algorithm of the grid group multi-signature system, realizes the joint multi-signature governance of hundreds of nodes and truly decentralized Bitcoin pledge, and also takes into account the multi-signature efficiency of Bitcoin pledge. At the same time, the security of the pledge is guaranteed.
DeFi prime broker Arkis completes $2.25 million in Pre-Seed financing
DeFi prime broker Arkis recently announced the completion of $2.25 million in pre-seed financing, led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from G1 Ventures, Blocklabs and Roosh Ventures.
Baanx completed US$20 million in Series A financing, Ledger and others participated in the investment
Crypto payments company Baanx has raised $20 million in Series A funding, with participation from Ledger, Tezos, Chiron and British Business Bank. To date, Baanx has raised more than $30 million in total funding. Funds from this round will be used by Baanx to launch its service in the United States and Latin America this year.
Decentralized AI network Sahara completes US$6 million in seed round financing, led by Polychain Capital
Decentralized artificial intelligence network Sahara announced the completion of a $6 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital. Samsung Next, Matrix Partners, Motherson Group, dao5, Geekcartel, Canonical Crypto, Nomad Capital, Dispersion Capital, Alumni Ventures, Tangent Ventures and Coho Deeptech participated, as well as angel investor Sandeep Nailwal. Sahara is a trustless, permissionless and privacy-centric network that creates customized autonomous knowledge agents for individuals and businesses. By leveraging its decentralized network, users can leverage their intellectual capital to explore monetization opportunities through artificial intelligence. .
British digital bank Monzo completed a new round of financing of US$430 million, led by Red Shirt China and Tencent
British digital bank Monzo announced the completion of a new round of US$430 million in financing, led by CapitalG, the independent venture capital arm of Google parent company Alphabet, with participation from Redshirt China, Tencent, and Passion Capital. It is reported that the new funds will be used to accelerate expansion plans, including re-entering the US market. Monzo first forayed into investment products in 2023 and now has more than 9 million retail customers in the UK, adding 2 million customers in 2023 alone.
On-chain points startup Stack completes US$3 million in seed round financing, led by Archetype
According to The Block, on-chain points infrastructure startup Stack completed a $3 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by venture capital firm Archetype, and included Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, A.Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Nadav Hollander, and Henri Stern. , Cooper Turley and Colin Armstrong participated in the investment.
It is reported that Stack has built a framework for allocating and tracking points on the chain, including point distribution, rankings and trustless token exchange. Users can use points to exchange for ERC-20 tokens, ETH or other assets.
Privasea completes US$5 million in seed round financing, Binance Labs participates in investment and incubation
DePIN+AI project Privasea announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing. Early investment institutions include Binance Labs, MH Ventures, K300, Gate Labs, 1NVST, Zephyrus Capital, etc. It is reported that Privasea has integrated FHEML into the distributed computing power crowdfunding network and combined it with its independently developed DePIN mining machine to form an FHE computing power network that supports all L1 and L2. Funds from this round of financing will be used for the construction of the FHEML network and the promotion of the “Proof of Human” Dapp using FHE technology.
