Highlights of this issue

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 23 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (11.25-12.1), with a total funding scale exceeding $150 million, showing an increase compared to the previous week. An overview is as follows:

  • In the DeFi sector, 8 financing events were announced, among which the stablecoin infrastructure project usdx.money announced the completion of $45 million financing, with participation from NGC and others.

  • The Web3 gaming track announced 2 financing events, among which the Web3 game studio Qooverse announced the completion of Pre-Seed round financing, led by Paper Ventures.

  • The NFT sector announced 1 financing event: Animoca Brands strategically invested in Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo, Inc.

  • The infrastructure and tools track announced 6 financing events, among which the modular L1 network U2U Network completed $13.8 million in financing, with participation from KuCoin Ventures and others.

  • Other blockchain/crypto applications announced 3 financing events, among which the predictive market BRKT.gg announced the completion of $1.75 million in seed round financing, led by Foresight Ventures.

  • The centralized finance sector announced 3 financing events, with Deutsche Bank joining Partior's $80 million Series B financing as a strategic investor (previously disclosed to raise over $60 million).

DeFi

usdx.money announced the completion of $45 million financing, with participation from NGC and others.

Stablecoin infrastructure project usdx.money announced the completion of $45 million financing, with a valuation of $275 million. Investors in this round include NGC, BAI Capital, Generative Ventures, and UOB Venture Management, with some investments made in the form of warrants. Previous investors also include Dragonfly Capital and Jeneration Capital.

Trump family's crypto project WLFI received a $30 million investment from Sun Yuchen.

Tron founder Sun Yuchen invested $30 million in former President Trump's DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI), becoming the largest investor in the project. Sun Yuchen stated on the X platform: 'The U.S. is becoming a blockchain center, and the rise of Bitcoin is credited to Trump.' A WLFI spokesperson stated in a statement: 'Several significant purchases have already occurred in recent weeks, and we are confident about future success. More developments like this are expected in the coming weeks and months.'

Schuman Financial completed $7.36 million in seed round financing, led by RockawayX.

Schuman Financial completed $7.36 million in seed round financing in September this year, led by RockawayX, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Kraken Ventures, Nexo Ventures, Gnosis VC, Delta Blockchain Fund, and Bankless Ventures. EURØP will be first issued on Ethereum and Polygon chains, with plans to integrate more blockchains and DeFi protocols in the future, while also listing on major European crypto exchanges. The company will also build an ecosystem that includes SEPA integration, banking channels, and custodial cooperation with top global banks (such as Société Générale).

Crypto yield protocol developer Avant completed $6.5 million in seed round financing.

Crypto yield protocol developer Avant announced the completion of $6.5 million in seed round financing, with participation from Superlayer, Avalaunch, GoGoPool, Daybreak Digital, and Linda Kreitzman. Avant's founder Rhett Shipp stated that the company focuses on its existing contacts and angel investor network rather than targeting well-known crypto venture capitalists; Avant was established in June this year, began informal discussions with investors in May, but only started formal fundraising in October; this round of financing has ended earlier this month, and the financing structure is a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), with Avant's post-financing valuation reaching $25 million.

It is reported that Avant issued a stable value token called avUSD, which can be staked to earn savUSD (the yield version of avUSD). The protocol operates on the Avalanche blockchain. Although avUSD itself does not generate yield, it is intended for various DeFi activities such as lending. By staking avUSD to obtain savUSD, users can earn yield. According to Avant's website, the current annual yield rate (APY) for savUSD is 34%.

OpenTrade completed $4 million in seed round expansion financing, led by AlbionVC.

London fintech company OpenTrade announced the completion of $4 million in seed round expansion financing, led by AlbionVC, with existing investors a16z Crypto and CMCC Global participating. This financing will be used to expand operational scale, enhance product functionality, and develop additional services, including yield products supporting new asset types. Since its establishment at the end of 2022, OpenTrade has processed over $100 million in transaction volume, providing stablecoin yield products based on real assets (such as U.S. Treasury bonds) for clients including WOO X and Littio, with annual yields ranging from 3% to 6%, without the cost and complexity of capital returning to the traditional banking system.

Bleap completed $2.3 million in seed round financing, led by Ethereal Ventures.

Former Revolut employees Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes founded the 'Blockchain Bank Account' Bleap, which completed $2.3 million in seed round financing led by Ethereal Ventures. Other participants include institutions such as Maven11, Alliance DAO, and executives from Revolut, Phantom, and OKX. After this round of financing, the company's valuation reached $10 million. Bleap is a self-custody stablecoin payment application that allows users to make stablecoin payments through a linked Mastercard, enjoying zero conversion fees and up to 2% cashback. The application is based on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum, supports stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, and plans to fully launch in Q1 2025. Bleap combines blockchain technology with banking services to offer decentralized finance (DeFi) yield and fee-free global transfer services. Additionally, Bleap is registering as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in Poland and plans to launch its own token by 2026.

DeFi liquidity restart protocol Tren Finance completed seed round financing with participation from Maven Capital and others.

DeFi liquidity restart protocol Tren Finance announced the completion of seed round financing, with participation from Contango Digital Assets, Maven Capital, Moonrock Capital, OIG Capital, Spyre Capital, and others. Specific financing amounts and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. Tren Finance currently primarily provides liquidity proof and pegging to support re-collateralized LP, money market deposits, and re-staking positions.

Vanilla Finance completed Pre-Seed round financing, led by Paper Ventures.

Telegram ecosystem trading platform Vanilla Finance announced the completion of Pre-Seed round financing, led by Paper Ventures, UOB Ventures, and ABCDE Labs, with participation from HTX Ventures, Ocular, Openspace, Y2 Ventures, Signum Capital, and angel investors from projects such as STEPN and Scroll. Specific amounts have not yet been disclosed. It is reported that Vanilla Finance plans to use the funds to expand its market product range, focusing on deploying digital economy services in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

NFT

Animoca Brands strategically invested in Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo, Inc.

Animoca Brands announced a strategic investment in Pudgy Penguins' parent company Igloo, Inc., demonstrating confidence in the growth potential of the consumer crypto market and the NFT industry.

Web3 Games

Web3 game studio Qooverse completed Pre-Seed round financing, led by Paper Ventures.

Web3 game studio Qooverse announced the completion of Pre-Seed round financing, led by Paper Ventures, with participation from Animoca Brands, Merit Circle, and a group of angel investors. Specific financing amounts have not yet been disclosed. Qooverse was founded by a creative team that has worked at Tencent and Goldman Sachs and is currently developing casual social games based on social platforms like Telegram, with plans to launch a token TGE in early 2025.

Web3 ARPG chain game Runesoul completed $1 million in seed round financing, led by Accelbyte.

Web3 ARPG chain game Runesoul announced the completion of $1 million seed round financing at a valuation of $20 million, with investments from Accelbyte and IGC. Runesoul focuses on building an innovative Web3 ARPG gaming experience, aiming to combine on-chain economic systems with high-quality game content to attract global players and blockchain community users.

Infrastructure & Tools

Modular L1 network U2U Network completed $13.8 million in financing.

Modular L1 network U2U Network completed $13.8 million in financing, with participation from KuCoin Ventures, Chain Capital, IDG Blockchain, Cointelegraph, V3V, JDI Ventures, Tesseract, IBG, Blockhive, Maxx Capital, UB Ventures, etc. The raised funds will support the continuous development of U2U Network's Subnet technology. U2U Network is a Layer 1 blockchain that uses DAG technology and is EVM-compatible. The innovative subnet technology of U2U Network allows developers to create scalable and flexible subnets, making it an ideal platform for efficient DePIN development. U2U Network consists of former employees of Ethereum, Google, and Infina.

BNB Chain ecosystem re-collateralization infrastructure Kernel has cumulatively completed $10 million in financing, with participation from Binance Labs.

BNB Chain ecosystem re-collateralization infrastructure Kernel has announced that it has raised a total of $10 million across several rounds of financing, with investors including Binance Labs, SCB Limited, Laser Digital, Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Draper Dragon, DACM, CYPHER, ArkStream Capital, HTX Ventures, Avid VC, GSR, Cluster Capital, Longhash Ventures, Via BTC, Side Door Ventures, NOIA, and DWF Labs. It is reported that Kernel is a core re-staking infrastructure project focused on BNB Chain, Kernel is about to launch its mainnet, and it will introduce KERNEL tokens to unify the governance and incentive measures of Kelp, Kernel, and Gain, rewarding early supporters and promoting ecosystem development.

Talus Network completed $6 million in financing led by Polychain Capital, with a valuation of $150 million.

High-throughput blockchain protocol Talus Network completed $6 million in strategic financing led by Polychain Capital, with a valuation of $150 million. This round of financing also attracted investors including Foresight Ventures, Animoca, Geek Cartel, and Echo, as well as several well-known angel investors. The funds will be used to expand the Talus ecosystem, including Protochain, Nexus framework, and 'AI dating experience' applications. This brings Talus's total financing to $9 million.

Talus is dedicated to supporting decentralized AI agents, with its developed Talus Agents managing DeFi portfolios, DAO governance fund allocations, and in-game NPC tasks. Users can jointly own and trade these on-chain assets. Additionally, the platform plans to launch TAI tokens for transaction fee payment and resource allocation. As an ecosystem case, Talus will launch the 'AI Bae' application by the end of the year, providing users with personalized AI companions, generating exclusive virtual avatars by connecting TikTok, and supporting chat, social betting, and tokenized interactions.

Rarimo completed $2.5 million financing, with participation from Vitalik Buterin and others.

Decentralized digital identity infrastructure Rarimo announced the completion of a $2.5 million Vision round financing, with investors including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Celestia co-founder Nick White, Aztec co-founder Zac Williamson, and Arnaud Schenk, among other leaders in blockchain and zero-knowledge proof (ZK) fields. This round of financing aims to promote Rarimo's vision of fully decentralized digital identity and will migrate to Ethereum Rollup in the first quarter of 2025 to enhance accessibility. Rarimo's core technology, the ZK identity registry, has been applied in various fields, including election voting and decentralized social graph construction. Vitalik Buterin stated that Rarimo uses ZK technology to package existing identity authentication methods, which is an effective strategy for protecting privacy and enhancing trust.

No-code Telegram mini program launcher SODA secured Pre-Seed round financing led by Gagra Ventures.

No-code Telegram mini program launcher and cryptocurrency distribution infrastructure SODA announced the completion of Pre-Seed round financing, led by Gagra Ventures, with participation from Kenny Li (founder of Manta Network and p0x Labs), Marat Khichikov (executive partner at Bitfury Group), Seb (founder of Sophon) and Omakase (early contributor of Sushiswap). Specific amounts and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. SODA supports Memecoin developers to utilize Telegram as a distribution channel, expected to launch in December 2024 initially supporting Solana, EVM, and TON blockchains, with plans to expand to Sui, Aptos, etc.

Lnfi Network completed Pre-Seed round financing with participation from HashKey Capital and others.

Lnfi Network (formerly NostrAssets) announced it has completed Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from HashKey Capital, UTXO Management, CMS Holdings, Waterdrip Capital, Wolf's Clothing and others. Specific amounts and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. The new funds will support its expansion of the lightning and bitcoin order book exchange LN Exchange, aiming to elevate the lightning network from an instant payment protocol to a comprehensive financial ecosystem. Previously, Lnfi Network released its token economics, with 60% allocated to the community, and 10% distributed for pre-launch trading mining rewards and airdrops.

Others

Predictive market BRKT.gg completed $1.75 million in seed round financing.

Predictive market BRKT.gg announced the completion of $1.75 million seed round financing, led by Foresight Ventures, with participation from Orange DAO, V3V Ventures, MEXC Ventures, 280Capital, Triton Liquid Fund, Movement, Silvermine Capital, and Nibiru Chain. BRKT.gg is a decentralized predictive market powered by Movement. In less than six months, it has attracted over 300,000 users.

Left Bank Chip Wisdom released an RWA project in the agricultural field and completed a 10 million yuan equity financing.

Left Bank Chip Wisdom (Shanghai) Data Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Left Bank Chip Wisdom”) released an RWA project in the agricultural field - the “Malux Grape RWA” project, and completed a 10 million yuan equity financing. It is reported that “Malux Grape” is one of the most representative agricultural product brands in Shanghai, with a development history of over 40 years. In conjunction with the development of the “Malux Grape” industrial chain, the Shanghai Data Exchange has joined forces with the Malux Town Economic Development Service Center, Left Bank Chip Wisdom, “Malux Grape” planting enterprises, as well as infrastructure service providers, information security service providers, law firms, accounting firms, asset appraisal companies and other businesses to explore innovative applications of data elements. Among them, Left Bank Chip Wisdom, as the project operator, integrates agricultural products and agricultural production data into project assets based on the core architecture of the SwiftLink management platform, relying on the tradable attributes of the project operator's shares to ensure the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of information disclosure.

BSC ecosystem Meme coin issuance platform BabyGOUT completed $500,000 in seed round financing, led by Crypto Labs.

The Meme coin fair issuance platform BabyGOUT based on the BSC public chain announced the completion of $500,000 in seed round financing, led by Crypto Labs, with participation from Panther Capital and others. It is reported that BabyGOUT is a fair issuance platform for Meme coins based on the BSC public chain, allowing users to launch immediately tradable tokens without providing liquidity. Additionally, BabyGOUT is the first ecological project of the BSC public chain MEMECoin GOUT community.

Centralized Finance

Deutsche Bank joined Partior's $80 million Series B financing as a strategic investor.

Singapore blockchain fintech company Partior announced that Deutsche Bank joined its Series B financing as a strategic investor, with a total financing amount of $80 million in this round. Previously, Partior raised over $60 million in Series B financing, led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from J.P. Morgan, Jump Trading, Standard Chartered Bank, Temasek, and Valor Capital Group. Partior aims to expand cross-border settlement capabilities with Deutsche Bank's support, developing functions such as instant foreign exchange swaps and multi-bank payments. Deutsche Bank will join its platform as the euro and dollar settlement bank and strengthen the capabilities of its recently launched dbX cross-border payment ecosystem. Since its establishment in 2021, Partior has processed over $1 billion in transactions, providing real-time clearing and settlement services based on blockchain that simplify global payment processes and enhance transparency and efficiency.

Solana-based investment platform Margarita Finance completed $1 million in Pre-Seed round financing.

Margarita Finance announced the completion of $1 million Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from Tomahawk.VC, Outrun Ventures, G-20 Group, N&V Capital. Additionally, Margarita Finance also received funding from the Solana Foundation. Margarita Finance is an investment platform built on the Solana blockchain that brings Wall Street-style structured products into the cryptocurrency world, offering returns through customizable 'yield boosters'. Users can select their own crypto assets, lock-up periods, and target yields, with the platform employing options strategies to generate returns.

Crypto investment platform BitSave completed Pre-A round financing, led by Leo Capital.

Bangalore-based crypto investment platform BitSave announced the completion of Pre-A round financing, led by Leo Capital, with specific financing amounts and valuation data not yet disclosed. Its core service currently targets professionals and high-net-worth individuals (HNI) by providing cryptocurrency index products that primarily track the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index. The platform plans to use the new funds to support the acquisition of business licenses and expand its crypto investment business into other Asian countries.

Investment Institutions

Alchemy launched a $10 million grant fund to support Arbitrum Orbit builders.

Web3 development company Alchemy announced a $10 million grant fund for builders of the Arbitrum Orbit chain. For those initiating the construction of the Orbit chain: Alchemy will provide each team with a credit line of up to $500,000, fully covering the infrastructure stack.