Compiled by: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, from September 16 to September 22, 2024, there were 30 public investment and financing events in the blockchain and encryption industry, with a total financing of approximately US$146.5 million.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and Defi tracks. Popular projects include FHE blockchain network octra, Bitcoin infrastructure Bool Network, Bitcoin full-chain lending protocol Blend, and Web3 video game platform Forge.
In addition, the decentralized clearing network Yellow Network completed a $10 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, and participated by Consensys, GSR, NxGen, MV Global, Gate Labs, ZBS Capital, Moonrock Capital, Math, Cobo, NOIA Capital and LD Capital.
(List of projects that raised more than $5 million last week, data source: Rootdata)
1. Infrastructure
FHE blockchain network octra completes $4 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Finality Capital
FHE blockchain network octra completed a $4 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Finality Capital, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Karatage, Presto, Builder Capital and others.
Octra is releasing a public WASM sandbox to demonstrate the efficiency of hypergraph in FHE. Octra is in the final stages of development and the mainnet is expected to be launched next year.
It is reported that Octra is a FHE blockchain network that supports isolated execution environment, and most of the code base is developed in languages such as OCaml, AST, ReasonML and C++.
Mask Network acquires DID and gaming extension Nametag
According to official news, Mask Network announced the acquisition of decentralized identity (DID) and game extension Nametag. The specific amount has not been disclosed.
According to reports, Nametag enables users to create personalized tags and manage their digital identities on major platforms such as Twitter, Google and Discord.
Tether announces $1.5 million strategic investment in Sorted Wallet
Tether announced a strategic investment of $1.5 million in Sorted Wallet, an investment aimed at increasing financial inclusion in Africa and South Asia.
Sorted Wallet provides secure and convenient cryptocurrency transactions, providing access to funds for unbanked and underbanked individuals in developing regions. Designed for feature phones and low-powered smartphones, the platform is designed to meet the needs of users who do not have access to advanced technology, providing a non-custodial wallet that promotes economic empowerment and financial inclusion.
Foresight Ventures announces multi-million dollar strategic investment in Layer1 blockchain Aptos
According to The Block, Foresight Ventures announced a multi-million dollar strategic investment in Layer1 blockchain Aptos.
The funds will be used to accelerate product development, enhance liquidity, and support the growth of Aptos’ scalable and upgradeable Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure.
Bitcoin infrastructure Bool Network completes $2 million seed round of financing, with Antalpha Ventures and others participating
Bitcoin infrastructure Bool Network has completed a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Antalpha Ventures, ViaBTC Capital, Spark Digital Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Web3port, Satoshi Lab, D11 Labs, Sharding Capital, etc. These funds will be used to further develop Bool Network's decentralized infrastructure, focusing on unleashing the potential of BTCFi.
Bool Network is committed to providing self-custody solutions for Bitcoin holders. Through the combination of the original DHC technology and Taproot, Bool Network supports users to seamlessly participate in DeFi scenarios such as stablecoins, Restaking and cross-chain bridges in a self-custody environment.
It is reported that since its launch, Bool Network has served more than 1 million users, the cumulative transaction volume of the test network has reached 12 million, and the total transaction volume of the pilot network has exceeded US$300 million.
Solana developer platform Helius completes over $20 million in financing, with participation from Haun Ventures and others
Solana developer platform Helius announced that it has completed a $21.75 million financing round, with participation from Haun Ventures, Founders Fund, Foundation Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Chapter One and Spearhead.
Hemi Labs, a modular blockchain developer, completes $15 million in financing, led by Binance Labs and others
Modular blockchain developer Hemi Labs has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Crypto.com, HyperChain Capital, Alchemy, SALT Fund, Kelly Capital, Sunflower Capital, DNA Fund, Web3 Ventures, Quantstamp, TRGC, UTXO, Artichoke Capital, SNZ Holding, Capital6, IBG Capital, Protein Capital, MON Ventures, SV5, Impossible Finance, Jihan Wu (BitDeer) and George Burke (Portal).
Hemi Labs will use the funds to develop and launch the Hemi Network. The Hemi Network incentivized testnet is now live, and the company plans to launch the mainnet in the fourth quarter.
According to RootData, Hemi Network is a modular layer 2 network that facilitates Ethereum smart contract functionality secured by the Bitcoin network. The chain introduces the Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM). HVM allows developers to create smart contracts that interact with the Bitcoin state, unlocking Bitcoin-based DeFi applications, including staking, lending markets, and a democratized MEV market.
Bitget and Foresight Ventures announce $30 million strategic investment in TON blockchain
Bitget and Foresight Ventures announced a $30 million strategic investment in the TON blockchain. The investment is intended to strengthen the development of projects based on Telegram, focusing on click-to-earn games such as Hamster Kombat and Notcoin.
Bitget and Foresight said that with the new investment, they plan to "get more deeply involved in TON blockchain governance and future development plans." "The investment will be distributed through the acquisition of TON tokens," the statement said.
Solana gaming company MagicBlock completes $3 million pre-seed financing, with a16z participating
According to Blockworks, MagicBlock, a Solana-based gaming company, has completed $3 million in pre-seed financing, with venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) participating. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its team and develop technology, including introducing its game engine to the Solana mainnet and collaborating with online games.
It is reported that MagicBlock was founded in September 2023 and is currently developing a game engine that allows video games to run entirely on the chain.
Zero-knowledge proof generation layer Fermah completes $5.2 million seed round of financing, led by a16z CSX and Lemniscap
According to The Block, the zero-knowledge proof generation layer Fermah has completed a $5.2 million seed round of financing, led by a16z's CSX and Lemniscap, with participation from Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital, Daemon Ventures, and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan and Sandeep Nailwal.
According to RootData, a Web3 asset data platform, Fermah is a general-purpose zero-knowledge proof generation layer. It acts as a market, with supply side including GPUs and FPGAs. On the demand side, Fermah can generate proofs for any instance that uses ZK.
Layer 2 protocol RISE Chain completes $3.2 million seed round of financing, led by Finality Capital
According to The Block, Layer 2 protocol RISE Chain completed a $3.2 million seed round of financing, led by Finality Capital, with participation from Orange DAO, DACM, ether.fi Ventures, P2 Ventures, MH Ventures, Public Works, Vitalik Buterin, Stani Kulechov, Anthony Sassano (also known as sassal.eth), DCF God and others.
It is reported that RISE Chain aims to open a new generation of Gigagas applications. The RISE technology stack provides a throughput of more than 1 billion gas per second, which can achieve this breakthrough through step-by-step technical improvements, solving execution and state access problems, including pevm-the fastest public EVM execution engine, continuous execution, versioned Merkle tree and RiseDB.
Internet infrastructure network Pipe Network completes $10 million financing, Multicoin Capital leads the investment
According to CoinDesk, Pipe Network, an Internet infrastructure network that supports crypto incentives, has completed a $10 million financing round led by Multicoin Capital.
David Rhodus, CEO of Permissionless Labs, a startup that built Pipe Network, said that in the conception, people can quickly expand CDN nodes where they are most needed by lending existing computing power. Their computers will help end users access cached content that may be difficult to deliver quickly because it is far away from the hosting server.
Pipe Network will be built on the Solana network and plans to launch a testnet at the Breakpoint conference in Singapore.
2. Defi
Bitcoin full-chain lending protocol Blend completes seed round financing, Mario Nawfal and IBC Group lead the investment
Blend, a Bitcoin full-chain lending protocol, recently announced the completion of its seed round of financing, which was led by well-known investors Mario Nawfal and IBC Group, and participated by Hackquest Community Fund. The specific amount and valuation have not been disclosed. At the same time, Blend was also selected for the Open Campus accelerator supported by Animoca Brands and Hackquest, as well as the BTC Studio initiated by Wanwudao and Waterdrop Capital.
It is reported that Blend is a full-chain lending protocol for Bitcoin assets, dedicated to providing users with efficient liquidity solutions by introducing Bitcoin as a collateral asset. Blend plans to first deploy its protocol on public chains such as Arbitrum and Base, and will connect to decentralized Bitcoin asset solutions such as dlcBTC to further release Bitcoin's interest-bearing ability and promote the in-depth application of Bitcoin in the DeFi field.
Mario Nawfal is a well-known American entrepreneur and investor. His Twitter Spaces has invited global political and business leaders and well-known investors including Elon Musk and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. It is reported that Blend plans to co-organize Twitter Space events with Mario Nawfal to promote its lending protocol to senior Bitcoin users in the United States and further expand Blend's influence in the cryptocurrency community.
Solana on-chain asset trading platform Drift completes $25 million Series B financing, led by Multicoin Capital
Solana's on-chain asset trading platform Drift has completed a $25 million Series B financing round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Blockchain Capital, Primitive Ventures and Folius Ventures.
Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow said her goal is to make Drift the “Robinhood of crypto” by building a suite of financial services tools on top of Solana, including spot and derivatives trading and prediction markets.
According to RootData, Drift Protocol is an on-chain asset trading center based on Solana, providing services such as Perps and prediction markets.
Crypto trading platform TrueX completes $9 million in financing, with Hack VC and others participating
According to Bloomberg, two former Coinbase executives are launching a cryptocurrency platform called TrueX, which will use PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD as its preferred trading token. PYUSD issuer Paxos will provide third-party custody services for TrueX users. TrueX will first be open to US institutions and some international institutions in certain regions.
Additionally, Paxos was one of the investors that participated in the startup’s seed round, where TrueX raised $9 million from venture investors including RRE Ventures and Hack VC.
It is reported that before co-founding TrueX, Vishal Gupta served as the head of trading platform at Coinbase. During his tenure at Circle, he was responsible for overseeing the launch of the USDC stablecoin. Patrick McCreary previously served as a senior engineer at Coinbase. Both of them worked at Goldman Sachs Group.
Liquidity staking protocol Amnis Finance completes $2 million financing, led by OKX Ventures and Borderless Capital
Amnis Finance, a liquidity staking protocol on the Aptos blockchain, has completed a $2 million financing round, led by Borderless Capital and OKX Ventures. Aptos Labs, Arkgrow Pte Ltd, Ambush Capital, Gate Ventures, Sky Vision Capital, Old Fashion Research, Chorus One Venture, Re7 and Flowdesk also participated in the investment.
The new funding will enable Amnis Finance to accelerate the integration of its liquidity staking solution within Aptos’ DeFi ecosystem. The platform will continue to focus on enhancing its services within Aptos while expanding its reach through strategic partnerships.
According to RootData, Amnis Finance is a liquidity staking protocol that allows users to easily maximize returns on APT tokens while unlocking liquidity.
Oracle-based perpetual contract DEX Filament completes $1.1 million seed round of financing, led by Lingfeng Innovation Fund
DEXFilament, a perpetual contract based on oracle, announced the completion of a $1.1 million seed round of financing, led by Lingfeng Innovation Fund, with participation from Halo Capital and Spyre Group. Other major participants include angel investors from well-known Web3 projects such as Polygon, Router Protocol, Stakecito, Chorus One, Archerman Capital and CoinBureau, as well as former core contributors from Binance, Sei and Tendermint.
Filament was developed by a team that previously worked at Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Persistence, Nethermind, and Open Status, and is built on the Sei Network.
The platform introduces a novel hybrid model that combines compartment-based liquidity pools with order books, allowing it to operate efficiently in low liquidity conditions.
On-chain perpetual DEX LogX completes $4 million strategic round of financing, with DWF Labs and others participating
On-chain perpetual DEX LogX announced the completion of a $4 million strategic round of financing, bringing its total financing amount to $10.1 million. Hashed Emergent, Cumberland VC, Saison Capital, Gate Labs, DWF Labs, Antler, Coinswitch Ventures, Wagmi Ventures, Kairos Capital and others participated in the investment.
LogX will use the new funding to develop into a DeFi super application, providing leveraged prediction markets and exotic perps, while expanding to the TON, Solana, Bitcoin, Move, and EVM ecosystems.
According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, LogX completed a US$6.1 million seed round of financing in February this year, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital and others.
3. AI
Web3 startup Vana completes $5 million strategic round of financing, bringing total financing to $25 million
Web3 startup Vana announced that it has completed a $5 million strategic financing led by Coinbase Ventures. So far, Vana’s cumulative financing has reached $25 million.
Vana aims to build a network of user-owned data pools, solving the problem of insufficient training data for AI models through blockchain technology, while providing a way for Internet users to earn income. Vana plans to establish a network of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that allow members to pool data accumulated from social media platforms such as Reddit, LinkedIn, or X, and sell these data sets to AI researchers.
Previously, Vana received $18 million in Series A funding led by Paradigm.
4. Games
Web3 video game platform Forge completes new round of financing, Sui Network and others participate
Web3 video game platform Forge announced on X Platform that it has completed a new round of financing. Sui Network, Ava Labs, Chris Wang, the founder of ThunderCore protocol, Dingaling, and consulting company AP Collective participated in the investment. The specific amount of financing and valuation information have not been disclosed yet.
It is reported that Forge plans to use the new funds to expand its blockchain-based Web3 video game platform, supporting players to integrate game achievements and activities into their personal profiles while providing social participation and game rewards.
0xAstra, an innovative gamified full-chain liquidity aggregation protocol, completes $3 million seed round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands and others
0xAstra, an innovative protocol for gamified full-chain liquidity aggregation, announced the successful completion of a $3 million seed round of financing. This round of financing brought together many well-known investment institutions and leading projects including Ace Redpoint, Animoca Brands, Folius Ventures, Skyland Ventures, Orbiter and Ultiverse.
0xAstra uses a unique gamification strategy to energize full-chain liquidity and stimulate on-chain interaction. With deep cooperation with leading blockchain ecosystems, 0xAstra provides a richer and smoother cross-chain trading experience, pushing the potential of liquidity aggregation and re-staking to a new level. Since its launch, 0xAstra has connected to dozens of mainstream L1 and L2 networks. In just over two months, the platform's cumulative transaction volume has exceeded US$90 million, showing an amazing growth momentum.
The 0xAstra team is composed of senior experts in the fields of cryptocurrency, games, and the Internet. They have successfully launched a number of game products with over one million users and millions of dollars in revenue. Through this round of financing, 0xAstra hopes to lead a new round of innovation in the DeFi field and create a more dynamic and interactive decentralized financial ecosystem for global users.
Web3 gaming company Ambrus Studio completes multi-million dollar financing, led by The Spartan Group
Ambrus Studio recently completed a multi-million dollar Series A financing round led by Spartan Group, with participation from top investment institutions such as IVC, SUI Foundation, Knight Capital, Goodwater Capital, and ZeePrime Capital. At the same time, it will launch its first telegram game E4C: Demon Hunter on September 16.
It is reported that Ambrus Studio will launch the web3 game incubation platform E4C, and will devote itself to the development and incubation of high-quality games based on blockchain technology, and through a long-term and stable development strategy, it will meet the needs of both web2 and web3 game players. As the first telegram mini-app game launched by E4C, Demon Hunter has important strategic significance for the long-term development of Ambrus Studio.
V. Others
DWF Labs announces strategic investment in Memecoin Launchpad platform GraFun
According to Chainwire, DWF Labs announced a strategic investment in the Memecoin Launchpad platform GraFun. The specific amount has not been disclosed. The two parties have also reached a strategic partnership. GraFun mainly supports the launch and trading of Meme coins on the BNB chain.
Jupiter announces acquisition of full-chain AMM aggregation platform Coinhall
At the Solana Breakpoint conference, in addition to acquiring the Solana browser SolanaFM, the Solana ecosystem DEX aggregator Jupiter also announced the acquisition of the full-chain AMM aggregator Coinhall.
According to crypto data platform Rootdata, Coinhall provides real-time prices, charts, trade aggregation and analysis of all AMM DEXs in the Terra, Juno, Near and Cosmos ecosystems.
Breaking: Jupiter, the liquidity aggregator on Solana, announced the acquisition of Solana browser SolanaFM
Liquidity Aggregators on Solana at Solana Breakpoint
Jupiter announced the acquisition of Solana’s browser SolanaFM. It is reported that Jupiter is a tool that can connect all decentralized exchanges (DEX) markets and AMM pools to cross different decentralized exchanges, aiming to create the best decentralized trading platform and the largest DAO in the cryptocurrency field. SolanaFM Explorer is a user-centric Solana blockchain browser that simplifies transaction information and reduces the complexity of visualizing capital flows.
Velo Labs receives second strategic investment from UOB Venture Management
According to Cointelegraph, Velo Labs has received a second strategic investment from UOB Venture Management (UOBVM), a private equity and venture capital subsidiary of United Overseas Bank. The specific amount has not been disclosed.
It is reported that UOB's market capitalization is approximately S$54 billion (as of September 2024) and its total assets under management exceed S$500 billion. Velo Labs will provide Web3-based financial solutions and settlement networks to enable value transfer.
Decentralized clearing network Yellow Network completes $10 million seed round of financing, led by Ripple co-founder
According to Cointelegraph, the decentralized clearing network Yellow Network has completed a $10 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, and Consensys, GSR, NxGen, MV Global, Gate Labs, ZBS Capital, Moonrock Capital, Math, Cobo, NOIA Capital and LD Capital participated.
Yellow Network is a new decentralized clearing network designed to solve the inefficiencies of cryptocurrency.
Solana Ecosystem Smart Device Provider Cudis Completes $5 Million in Financing, Led by Draper Associates
According to CoinDesk, Cudis, a smart device manufacturer in the Solana ecosystem, announced the completion of a $5 million financing round led by Draper Associates.
It is reported that the smart ring developed by CUDIS uses the Solana blockchain to protect biometric data, provides gamified health challenges, and is equipped with a personalized AI coach that provides actionable insights and rewards for healthy behaviors.
Prediction market Limitless Network completes $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1confirmation
According to Coindesk, the prediction market Limitless Network has completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1confirmation, with participation from Paper Ventures, Collider and Public Works.
The company reportedly built the prediction market on Base, a Layer 2 network created by Coinbase (COIN).
