In a week that has sent ripples through the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, a series of high-profile investment deals and strategic partnerships have injected over $121 million into new projects. This week’s financing roundup covers a wide range of crypto’s most pressing difficulties and potential prospects, from artificial intelligence solutions addressing copyright and privacy concerns to zero-knowledge-proof technology strengthening decentralized markets.
Vessel Finance Secures $10 Million in Seed Funding
A zero-knowledge-driven order book exchange called Vessel Finance has raised $10 million in seed funding. Notable investors in the round included Sequoia, Algorand Foundation, IMO Ventures, Folius Ventures, Incuba Alpha, and co-founders of Scroll, Sandy Peng and Ye Zhang.
The money will go toward creating a thorough layer-3 network for the decentralized banking industry. By using ZK-proofs to protect user assets and stop criminal activity, this network seeks to improve user experience, interoperability, and functionality.
In order to promote innovation and expansion within its ecosystem, Vessel Finance intends to increase partnerships with significant industry players. Additionally, in an effort to promote community involvement and reward early backers, the firm has introduced Vessel Voyage, its first mainnet incentive program.
Chaos Labs Raises $55 Million in Series A Funding
$55 million has been raised in a Series A fundraising round by Chaos Labs, a crypto firm with headquarters in New York that specializes in on-chain risk management solutions. Venture capital company Haun Ventures led the investment, with participation from PayPal Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Spartan Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Slow Ventures.
The firm was established in 2021 with the goal of extending its platform to meet the increasing demand for automated risk management in decentralized finance. Previously, Chaos Labs has served over 20 protocols, and its client base has quadrupled.
With this investment, Chaos Labs will be able to enhance its portfolio of products that provide real-time data and risk assessment capabilities. With the use of these techniques, DeFi systems should be less prone to human mistakes in risk management and more sensitive to market volatility.
Essential Blockchain Project Secures $11 Million in Series A Funding
Essential is a blockchain startup that has garnered $11 million in Series A investment. Archetype led the round, in which a number of other well-known investors took part.
The project’s goal is to replace traditional transaction-based interactions with the use of users’ “intents” to achieve desired outcomes. In order to minimize on-chain calculation and enhance user experience, this method uses off-chain computing via a network of solvers.
Essential is launching “Pint,” an entirely novel programming language for programmable intentions intended for blockchain builders as part of its ongoing development. Big Brain Holdings, Spartan, Amber Group, and IOSG all contributed to the investment round.
Sahara AI Raises $43 Million for Decentralized AI Service
$43 million has been raised for Sahara AI, a blockchain platform that promotes artificial intelligence provenance and sovereignty. Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, and Polychain Capital led the round, and Samsung, Matrix Partners, Foresight Ventures, and other investors also participated.
With the rise of AI capabilities, the platform seeks to solve issues with copyright, privacy, and resource access. The blockchain-based solution from Sahara AI aids in securing ownership and providing just remuneration for consumers, data suppliers, and application developers.
This financing round addresses new issues in the widespread application of AI tools and continues the rising trend of projects integrating blockchain and AI to provide decentralization to AI engines.
Riot Platforms Increases Stake in Bitfarms
The third-biggest Bitcoin miner on Wall Street, Riot Platforms Inc., has purchased an extra million common shares from competitor Bitfarms Ltd. With this deal, which is estimated to be worth $2.28 million, Riot now owns 85.3 million shares of Bitfarms or 18.9% of the company.
Riot’s prior unsolicited $950 million offer to purchase Bitfarms was turned down prior to this deal. Riot withdrew the first offer, but it didn’t stop putting pressure on Bitfarms’ management; among other things, it called a special shareholder meeting in order to replace several board members.
The continued hostilities between the two businesses have caused Bitfarms to undergo changes, one of them being the resignation of co-founder and chair Nicolas Bonta. Riot has hinted that it could take other steps, such as changing its stance or suggesting more modifications to Bitfarms’ board structure.
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