All the crypto projects listed in our article have received impressive venture capital backing. Issuing their own assets looks like a logical decision for most of them
In the cryptocurrency sector, venture capital investments often serve as an indicator of the potential of emerging projects. The year 2024 has already seen several high-profile token issues, with projects such as zkSync or LayerZero attracting significant attention and listing on major exchanges.
Journalist Colin Wu's WuBlockchain team has compiled a list of cryptocurrency projects that have received significant venture capital investment but have yet to issue their own tokens. This list gives an idea of which projects could become prominent players in the crypto market once their assets are launched and listed on exchanges.
Early entrants to these projects in the testing phase will likely be able to qualify for an eirdrop of tokens at launch.
Monad
Investment: $244 million from Paradigm, OKX Ventures, DragonFly Capital and other funds
Category: Blockchain
Monad is being developed as a standalone blockchain compatible with Ethereum applications. The new network will support smart contracts, conduct transactions at faster speeds, in larger volumes and with lower fees. According to the press release, Monad will compete with the Solana and Sui networks.
Aleo
Investment: $298 million from a16z, Placeholder, Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Polychain Capital
Category: Blockchain
Aleo is a data privacy-oriented blockchain. The developers plan to create a network with simple tools to create out-of-the-box applications based on the concept of zero-knowledge proof, that is, when the system can confirm the correct data, but without revealing personal information.
Magic Eden
Investment: $157 million from Electric Capital, Greylock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Paradigm
Category: NFT
Magic Eden is one of the largest NFT marketplaces. In April, the marketplace attracted attention by implementing a marketplace for Runes tokens, an NFT analog based on the bitcoin blockchain.
Berachain
Investment: $142 million from Brevan Howard Digital, Polychain Capital, Framework and others
Ventures.
Category: Blockchain
Berachain is a project that grew out of the popular NFT collection Bong Bears, after which it planned to launch its own blockchain focused on decentralized financial applications (DeFi).
Babylon
Investment: $96 million from Paradigm, Polychain Capital, Galaxy, Amber Group and others
Category: Stacking
Babylon is a protocol designed to endow bitcoin with steaking capabilities on networks that run on the Proof-of-Stake algorithm. Bitcoin runs on a Proof-of-Work algorithm, and its work is supported by mining, not staking.
Fuel Network
Investment: $81 million from Blockchain Capital, Stratos Technologies, Spartan Group The Spartan Group and others
Category: Blockchain
Fuel Network is Ethereum's Layer 2 (L2) solution. Utilizes proprietary designs, differentiating L2s such as Optimism and Arbitrum, and plans to provide higher security and throughput relative to competitors.
Scroll
Investment: $80 from Polychain Capital, IOSG Ventures, Bain Capital Crypto and others
Category: Blockchain
Scroll is a tier 2 solution designed to mashup the Ethereum blockchain. It utilizes convolution technologies and zero-disclosure proofs. Like competing L2 solutions intends to improve the bandwidth of the ether network by computing outside the network of the second cryptocurrency.
Avail
Investment: $70 million from DragonFly Capital, Founders Fund, HashKey Capital and others.
Category: Infrastructure
Avail is a modular solution designed to process and store data for blockchain applications. Avail has already been integrated into Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, StarkWare and zkSync.
Zora
Investment: $60 million from Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Kindred Ventures and others
Category: NFT
Zora is a blockchain platform designed specifically to interact with NFTs, making them easier to create, distribute and trade.
Karak
Investment: $48 million from Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others
Category: Infrastructure
Karak is a multi-network platform that allows re-deployment of crypto-assets into staking (re-staking). The protcol functionality allows the use of different tokens to support the operation of decentralized applications, not just native coins like ETH.
The WuBlockchain team additionally highlights projects with investments from the venture capital arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to the authors, they may release tokens as early as the second half of 2024. Among them are Babylon, Xterio, Movement, Tabi, Puffer, Solv, Zest, Zircuit, StakeStone and Lorenzo
At the same time, most of the projects with investments from the exchange launched tokens through the Binance Launchpool platform. Probably, we can expect the same from some of the listed projects.