According to incomplete statistics from CoinVoice, more than 9 blockchain project financing cases were announced this week (9.30-10.4). There were 2 financings of tens of millions of dollars this week, including OpenAI's announcement that it raised $6.6 billion in a new round of financing, with a post-financing valuation of $157 billion. Thrive Capital led the investment, which was the largest financing event this week. Other popular projects include decentralized AI training network Nodepay, full-stack decentralized development tool Layer, metaverse project SecondLive, etc. Among the investment and financing segments, the infrastructure field was relatively hot this week. The following is a list of financing events this week.
Binance Labs Announces Investment in ZKsync âElastic Chainâ Sophon
According to market news, Binance Labs announced an investment in ZKsync's "elastic chain" Sophon. The specific amount has not been disclosed. It is reported that Sophon uses Matter Labs' modular open source framework to build a second-layer network. The main network will be launched next month and the token will be deployed soon. It is reported that the total amount of financing for Sophon has exceeded US$70 million so far.
TON Ecosystem Animation IP Content Platform RoOLZ Completes $1 Million Private Fundraising, TON Participates in Investment
TON ecosystem animation IP content platform RoOLZ announced the completion of a $1 million private round of financing, with participation from TON, Contango Digital Assets, and Yolo Investments. The specific valuation information has not been disclosed. The new funds will be used for its expansion on the Telegram/TON ecosystem, combining blockchain technology with animation, supporting users to participate in tasks powered by GODL tokens, interact with mobile animation content, and collect NFTs.
SecondLive Completes $12 Million Funding, Led by Crypto.com
The metaverse project SecondLive announced the completion of a $12 million private financing round, led by Crypto.com, with participation from Capital Spark, Cypher Capital, Meta Estate, Taisu Ventures, New Tribe Capital, Bit Value Capital, Titans Ventures, Newave Capital, CSP DAO, and others.
This brings SecondLive's total funding to $15 million, with Binance Labs leading the seed round. SecondLive is active on 8 major blockchains including BNB Chain, Ethereum and TON, with over 5 million registered users and 1.81 million UGC and AIGC digital assets. Its GenAI technology is driving innovation in scenarios, roles and social interactions, and boosting the development of space networks.
Decentralized AI training network Nodepay completes new round of financing, Animoca Brands and others participate
Nodepay, a decentralized AI training network, recently announced on X that it has completed a new round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Jump Crypto, Elevate Ventures, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, NGC Ventures, etc. The specific financing amount and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. According to reports, Nodepay is promoting a decentralized ecosystem where users can own, access and build innovative artificial intelligence models.
OpenAI completes $6.6 billion in new round of financing with a valuation of $157 billion, led by Thrive Capital
OpenAI announced that it has raised $6.6 billion in a new round of financing, with a post-financing valuation of $157 billion, led by Thrive Capital. According to Crunchbase data, OpenAI has raised a total of $17.9 billion.
According to the New York Times, Thrive invested approximately $1.3 billion in this round of OpenAI financing and has an exclusive option to invest up to $1 billion more at the same valuation before 2025. Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity Investments and MGX participated in the investment.
(The Wall Street Journal) reported that Microsoft's investment was close to $1 billion, Nvidia pledged $100 million, and SoftBank invested $500 million.
Layer, a full-stack decentralized development tool developer, completes $6 million in financing, led by 1kx
Layer, a developer of full-stack decentralized development tools, announced the completion of a $6 million seed round of financing, led by 1kx, with participation from Fabric Ventures, Arrington Capital and IOBC, as well as angel investors including Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Rok Kopp and Mike Silagadze of Ether.fi, and former BlackRock employee Paul Taylor. It is reported that Layer allows developers to write applications that can run anywhere using languages ââsuch as rust, and its upcoming product "Layer SDK" allows developers to build new layers on top of Ethereum and run full-stack blockchain applications, including smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, UIs, and verifiable off-chain services.
Web3 game studio Moonray Studio raises $8.25 million in two rounds of funding
Web3 multiplayer battle arena game development studio Moonray Studio announced that it has raised $8.25 million in two rounds of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures and Cardano, and has also established a game development partnership with Digital Void, a streaming content partnership with Reel FX, and user acquisition partnerships with game guilds such as YGG, Snack Club and Unix. Moonray uses blockchain technology to enhance the gaming experience through asset ownership, customizable NFTs and token rewards. The new funds are intended to be used to launch a mobile version of the Autobattler game in the first quarter of next year.
Decentralized credit rating platform Synnax completes a new round of strategic financing, Wintermute Ventures and TON
Wintermute Ventures announced on the X platform that it and TON Ventures have made a strategic investment in the decentralized credit rating platform Synnax. As of now, Synnax's total financing amount has reached 1.55 million US dollars. The new funds will support the development of Synnax's credit intelligence rating protocol and its Telegram applet SynQuest to build a decentralized and transparent credit market and optimize the credit rating industry by obtaining predictive analysis through decentralized data sources.
Base Ecosystem Fund participated in Sundial Mirage Pre-Seed round of financing
Sundial Mirage posted on X that through Coinbase Ventures, Base Ecosystem Fund has participated in its ongoing Pre-Seed round of financing.
Yuanbi Technology Completes $7.8 Million Series A1 Financing, with Sequoia China, Solana Foundation and Others Participating
According to official news, Yuanbi Technology announced the completion of a US$7.8 million A1 round of financing, with participation from Sequoia China, Hivemind Capital, Aptos Labs, Hash Global, SNZ Capital, Solana Foundation, Anagram and Upward Capital. Yuanbi Technology said that this round of financing will connect the company to the Web2 and Web3 worlds and continue to contribute to the construction of the Hong Kong Web3 ecosystem. According to reports, on July 18, 2024, Yuanbi Technology announced that its subsidiary Yuanbi Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. has been included in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s Stablecoin Issuer Sandbox Program. At the same time, Yuanbi Wallet Technology Co., Ltd., another subsidiary of Yuanbi Technology, has obtained a stored value payment facility (SVF) license issued by the HKMA and will officially operate at the end of 2023. This A1 round of financing is another important progress for Yuanbi Technology after its seed round of financing in 2020. Yuanbi Technology has been supported by original shareholders including ZhongAn Digital Asset Group Co., Ltd., HashKey Group, Dragonfly, Bright Venture and Eminent Vision. This has brought multi-faceted ecological support to Yuanbi Technology, including Hashkey's global compliant trading platform, Web3 infrastructure including Hashkey Chain, and ZhongAn Digital Assets' custody and asset management capabilities.
