Compiled by: Golden Finance
This week, 12 blockchain startups raised $63.4 million in funding. The largest round was raised by Renzo, which raised $17 million. Three projects received seed and pre-seed funding, and eight projects received other rounds of funding.
The biggest round of financing this week
1.Renzo
Renzo raised $17 million in a funding round from Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital, Maven 11 Capital, Figment Capital, Protagonist, SevenX Ventures, Bankless Ventures, 280Capital, Antalpha Ventures, ConsenSys, L2 Iterative Ventures (L2IV), and Karatage.
About Renzo
Renzo is an Ethereum re-staking protocol based on EigenLayer. It simplifies the complexity of re-staking on EigenLayer, providing users with a more accessible and liquid way to participate in the process. Renzo allows users to deposit Ether, and in the future, Liquidity Staking Tokens (LSTs) in exchange for ezETH, a Liquidity Re-staking Token (LRT) that can be used in DeFi applications. The protocol recently launched its Beta mainnet, aiming to support more blockchains and expand its services to Layer 2 networks and other Layer 1 networks.
Pre-seed and seed rounds
2.Zeek
Zeek Network raised $3 million in a seed round from OKX Ventures (formerly OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Animoca Brands, Mask Network, Arche Fund (Coin98 Ventures), Summer Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, Aspen Digital, CatcherVC, Panony, Hardbank, and MapleLeafCap.
About Zeek
3.Ordinox
Ordinox raised $1 million in a pre-seed round of funding from Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM), Coin Merge Strategy (CMS), UTXO Management, Hidden Street Capital, Sats Ventures, STS Digital, Plassa Capital, domo, and Outlier Ventures.
About Ordinox
Odinox is a simple DeFi application chain built using the Tendermint consensus engine, the Cosmos-SDK state machine, and the GG20 threshold signature scheme (TSS). As an independent Layer 1 decentralized exchange (DEX), it allows users to exchange various assets on Bitcoin, such as BRC20 and Runes, in exchange for EVM assets such as USDC and USDT, providing transparent and fair pricing without the need for a central intermediary. By leveraging continuous liquidity pools and protecting assets directly in on-chain vaults, Ordinox ensures integrity and security by maintaining assets on the original parent chain while enabling cross-chain exchanges.
4.Bitwise
Bitwise raised $2.5 million in seed funding.
About Bitwise
Bitwise is a crypto asset management company known for managing the world’s largest crypto index fund and as a pioneer in investment products covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, decentralized finance, and crypto-focused equity indices.
Other investment rounds
5.Particle Network
Particle Network raised $15 million in its Series A funding round from The Spartan Group, gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC), SevenX Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Hashkey Capital, MH Ventures, UOB Venture Management, Flow Traders, and SNZ Holding.
Introduction to Particle Network
Particle Network is a full-stack, data-driven and composable Web3 data and development platform. Its core product is a login and wallet middleware solution that helps developers integrate user-friendly web3 authentication solutions into their decentralized applications. Particle Network's tools are available on all Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains as well as Solana and Tron, supporting multiple chains. Its goal is to become a full-stack middleware platform for web3 developers.
6.Gudchain
Gudchain raised $5 million in a funding round from Mechanism Capital, Morningstar Ventures, Manifold, and SkyVision Capital, among others.
Introduction to Gudchain
Gudchain is a groundbreaking blockchain platform designed to advance gaming by removing barriers to entry for players. Originally commissioned by Highstreet World, the platform now enables developers to launch frictionless web3 games that seamlessly integrate virtual and real world economies.
7.Range Exchange
Rango Exchange raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Binance Labs Fund, Nomad Capital, and Foresight Ventures, among others.
Rango Exchange Overview
Rango is a multi-chain super aggregator platform designed for DEXs and bridges, aiming to find the fastest, cheapest and most secure crypto trading path for users. The platform supports more than 20 blockchains, more than 10 bridges/DEXs and 6 wallets, and performs complex exchanges by combining DEXs, DEX aggregators and cross-chain solutions into a user-friendly interface. It aims to provide higher liquidity, better prices and simplified multi-chain exchanges, becoming the preferred platform for DEX and bridge transactions in the crypto world.
8.Router Protocol
Router Protocol raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round from Wintermute, Banter Capital, Luganodes, Woodstock, Raven, DeFi Capital, and individual investors Amrit Kumar, Zaki Manian, Surojit Chatterjee, Keone Hon, Anurag Arjun, and Aniket Jindal.
Introduction to Router Protocol
Router Protocol is a cross-chain messaging protocol that leverages a mesh network architecture to enable seamless communication between different blockchains. It offers a range of products, including Voyager (a flexible widget) and an SDK called CrossTalk, all built on a decentralized network using the Cosmos SDK.
9.ZKX
ZKX raised $3.1 million in a strategic funding round from Flowdesk, Global Coin Research (GCR), and Dewhales Capital.
About ZKX
ZKX is the first permissionless derivatives trading protocol based on StarkNet, StarkWare’s L2 network that utilizes ZK rollups technology.
10.Sonic
Sonic raised $12 million in its Series A funding round from BITKRAFT Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Big Brain Holdings, Sanctor Capital, Sky9 Capital, OKX Ventures (formerly OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Mirana Ventures, MH Ventures, Cypher Capital, and Mask Network.
Sonic and Introduction
Sonic is the first atomic SVM chain based on the concurrent scaling framework HyperGrid, which enables independent game economies on Solana. It provides a fast, low-cost on-chain gaming experience, seamless atomic interoperability with Solana's base layer, and supports the deployment of dApps from EVM chains to Solana. Sonic provides games with composable game primitives, a sandbox environment for developers, and a comprehensive game monetization infrastructure.
11.Wasabi
Wasabi raised $3 million in a funding round from Electric Capital, Alliance DAO (formerly DeFi Alliance), Memeland, Canonical Crypto, Spencer Ventures, Sharding Capital, Cygaar, and individual investors Zhuoxun Yin, Luca Netz, Santiago R. Santos, and DCF God.
About Wasabi
Wasabi is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that supports leveraged trading of meme coins and NFTs, aiming to provide an effective price discovery mechanism for long-tail assets. Users can use the support of real assets to trade long, short, and collateralized leverage on these assets, thereby eliminating counterparty risk.
12.Artfi
Artfi raised $80,000 in a public sale.
About Artfi
Artfi is a financial and art-tech company that democratizes investment in high-priced artworks through fractionalization and blockchain technology. By transforming famous artworks into multiple NFTs, Artfi enables retail investors to collectively own and trade shares of these artworks, gaining access to the exclusive fine art market.
