Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 27 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (12.9-12.15), with a total funding scale exceeding $540 million, significantly increasing compared to the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 10 financing events, including Bitcoin trading and self-custody application Relai, which completed a $12 million Series A financing;
- Web3 Gaming announced 1 financing event, with the decentralized trading card game Fantasy.Top completing a $4.25 million seed round led by Dragonfly;
- AI announced 4 financing events, including the crypto AI startup Exabits, which completed a $15 million seed round led by Hack VC;
- Infrastructure and Tools announced 6 financing events, with Avalanche raising $250 million through a private token sale;
- Other Blockchain/Crypto Applications announced 3 financing events, including Solana ecosystem tokenization platform AgriDex, which completed $4 million in strategic financing led by Portal Ventures;
- Centralized Finance announced 2 financing events, including Web3 banking service provider Klickl, which announced the completion of an oversubscribed $25 million Series A financing.
DeFi
Bitcoin trading and self-custody application Relai completes $12 million Series A financing
Bitcoin trading and self-custody application Relai completed a $12 million Series A financing, planning to expand into the European market and apply for MICA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulatory approval. This round of financing was led by Bitcoin-focused venture capital firm Ego Death Capital, contributing $4 million, with participation from Plan B Bitcoin Fund, Timechain, and Solit Group. Relai is headquartered in Switzerland, and its "non-custodial" model is favored, with the app's cumulative downloads exceeding 400,000. Co-founder and CEO Julian Liniger stated that the new funds will significantly drive company growth and help more European users understand and access Bitcoin.
Lava completed a $10 million Series A financing led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, providing users with services to borrow dollars against Bitcoin collateral, with the slogan "Save in Bitcoin, Spend in Dollars." This round of financing received support from Keith Rabois, Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, Jon Chu, and Joey Krug. Lava's core innovation allows users to "self-custody" their assets, avoiding the platform holding Bitcoin, thus reducing the risk of bankruptcy due to overlapping risks like those faced by Genesis, BlockFi, and Celsius. Additionally, Lava emphasizes risk resistance, does not issue tokens, and the Series A financing is purely equity financing.
Stablecoin-driven financial platform KAST completed a $10 million seed round financing, co-led by Peak XV and HongShan. It is reported that Peak XV and HongShan are Indian and Chinese investment firms that spun off from investment giant Sequoia last year. Partners from DST Global and Goodwater Capital also participated in this round of investment. The company plans to launch savings products and expand remittance services while continuing to focus on stablecoin-based infrastructure. KAST is a stablecoin-driven financial platform targeting emerging markets, allowing customers to hold and spend stablecoins through traditional payment channels. KAST has also issued credit cards that can be used in standard merchant networks, enabling users to spend their stablecoins at merchants that do not support crypto transactions. KAST declined to disclose user numbers or valuation but stated that its growth exceeded expectations in the first four months of operation.
DeFi platform SMARDEX completes $4.5 million seed round financing
DeFi platform SMARDEX announced the completion of $4.5 million in seed round financing, which was conducted through the public sale of its governance sub-token sUSDN. It also disclosed that RA2 TECH had previously invested $12 million in SMARDEX's development. Additionally, SMARDEX announced the launch of the synthetic dollar token USDN, along with a Delta Neutral strategy that ensures those shorting ETH by minting USDN are always balanced with those going long on ETH within the SMARDEX platform. This is controlled by smart contracts to ensure positions always have equal weight. SmarDex is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that utilizes an innovative automated market maker (AMM) algorithm to address impermanent loss and potentially convert it into impermanent gains. SmarDex operates across multiple blockchain networks, including Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base.
Neptune Protocol announced the completion of $3.9 million in seed round financing, with investors including Bloccelerate, Animoca Ventures, CMS Holdings, Maelstrom, Veil VC, Builder Capital, Infinity Ventures, RockTree Capital, Wise3 Ventures, Stake Capital, Optic Capital, and Relayer Capital, as well as angel investors Meltem Demirors and Kartik Talwar. The funds will be used to launch the Eclipse ecosystem's over-collateralized native stablecoin USDN based on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) and support protocol security audits and team expansion. USDN aims to enhance capital efficiency through a decentralized lending model, with the mainnet expected to launch in the fourth quarter.
DeFi protocol Spicenet completes $3.4 million seed round financing, led by Hack VC
DeFi protocol Spicenet announced the completion of $3.4 million in seed round financing, co-led by Hack VC and Magnus Capital, with participation from TPC Ventures, Public Works, WAGMI Ventures, DoraHacks, P-OPS Team, The Rollup Ventures, and several angel investors. Spicenet is a unified, composable liquidity layer, with its underlying technology being Celestia. The protocol integrates solutions and market makers into one network and allows for two forms of liquidity from other chains without bridging assets to Spicenet, with its unified margin system improving capital efficiency. Spicenet is about to launch its private testnet, with final bug fixes underway.
Decentralized derivatives protocol Symmio announced it has completed $3.1 million in financing, with investment institutions such as Spartan Group, Orbs, MCLB, and Blockchain Founders Fund investing approximately $2.1 million, while MS2 Capital, GMoney, and Prime Ventures are early investors in the company. Symmio is an intent-driven derivatives clearing layer aimed at addressing liquidity and fragmentation issues in DeFi, currently supporting four networks: Arbitrum, Base, BSC, and Mantle. The project revealed plans to launch its token TGE on December 16 to introduce the token on the Base blockchain, with initial liquidity provided through the SYMM/ETH trading pair on Aerodrome Finance.
Perena's founder, Anna Yuan, former head of stablecoins at the Solana Foundation, announced the establishment of the stablecoin trading infrastructure project Perena and raised approximately $3 million in a pre-seed round financing led by Borderless Capital. Perena's goal is not to launch a new stablecoin but to build an on-chain system that provides efficient trading liquidity support for emerging stablecoin issuances. Yuan stated that Perena aims to become a "neutral layer" supporting stablecoin issuers, addressing the current liquidity fragmentation among various stablecoins. Perena plans to establish a swap pool on Solana similar to Ethereum's Curve 3pool, supporting rapid exchanges of up to seven stablecoins and providing stablecoin holders with opportunities to earn additional income through lending assets. Additionally, Perena plans to develop a "synthetic currency" based on collateralized debt positions (CDP), providing a more resilient solution than traditional fiat currencies through stablecoin support.
Superform raises $3 million in financing, led by VanEck Ventures
Superform Labs completed a $3 million strategic financing round led by VanEck Ventures, bringing the total funding to $9.5 million. This financing will support the launch of SuperVaults, focusing on optimizing on-chain yield management, simplifying user experience, and ensuring fund security. The first product, SuperUSDC, has been launched, which is a USDC stablecoin yield vault on the Ethereum chain, allowing users to maximize passive income through a single transaction. Additionally, SuperUSDC will expand to other chains, providing users with more high-yield opportunities.
Decentralized lending protocol Yei Finance announced the completion of a $2 million seed round financing. This round was led by Manifold, with participation from DWF Ventures, Kronos Research, Outlier Ventures, Side Door Ventures, and WOO. Additionally, it received support from the Sei Foundation, as well as angel investors from Gauntlet, Scallop CMO 0xZHUANG, and other industry veterans. Yei Finance is a leading decentralized lending protocol in the Sei ecosystem, dedicated to reducing risks through modular design. Since the launch of its mainnet Yei v1, the protocol has rapidly developed, surpassing a total locked value (TVL) of $130 million within three months and establishing strategic partnerships with industry-leading projects and teams such as LayerZero, OKX, Bitget, Gate.io, Stargate, Elixir, and Frax. The new funds will be used to drive the research and optimization of cross-chain lending protocols, further enhancing capital efficiency and expanding the market.
Web3 Gaming
The decentralized trading card game Fantasy.Top, powered by Blast, has announced the launch of the platform's second iteration, Fantasy V2, while completing a $4.25 million seed round financing led by Dragonfly and supported by Manifold Ventures. The new capital will be used to improve Fantasy's core products and help it expand into a broader social media space. Fantasy.Top is a SocialFi trading card game (TCG) launched on May 1 on the Blast mainnet by a creator known as Travis Bickle. Fantasy.Top has stated that its goal is to become the ultimate financial infrastructure for online creators to monetize their content on a large scale.
AI
Crypto AI startup Exabits completes $15 million seed round financing, led by Hack VC
Crypto AI startup Exabits has completed a $15 million seed round financing, with a valuation of $150 million, led by Hack VC, along with several other undisclosed investors. Exabits co-founder Hoansoo Lee stated that Exabits began fundraising in July this year and completed this round in October. He declined to comment on the structure of this round of financing but indicated that a token will be launched in the future. This seed round financing brings Exabits' total funding to $20 million. Exabits is focused on GPU tokenization and previously conducted an undisclosed Pre-Seed financing round, followed by another undisclosed strategic financing round led by Portal Ventures, totaling approximately $5 million.
Hyperbolic completes $12 million Series A financing, led by Polychain Capital and Variant
Open AI cloud service provider Hyperbolic announced the completion of a $12 million Series A financing round, led by Polychain Capital and Variant, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, Chapter One, Bankless Ventures, and Faction. Hyperbolic Labs is an open AI cloud platform focused on providing GPU resources and AI services.
Web3 AI agent project ChainAware.ai completes new round of financing, led by ChainGPT Labs
Web3 AI agent project ChainAware.ai announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by ChainGPT Labs, with participation from coinix. Specific investment amounts and valuation information have not been disclosed. The new funds are intended to support its predictive analytics for fraud detection and wallet behavior assessment on Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, and TON networks, enhancing Web3 security and user engagement.
AI-driven data security solution Privasea completes new round of financing, with participation from Lunar Labs Capital
Privasea, supported by Binance Labs, has completed a new round of financing with participation from Lunar Labs Capital. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed. Privasea previously received investments from OKX Ventures and others to support its development of an AI-driven FHEML solution, providing scalable computing resources for AI tasks through a decentralized computing network.
Infrastructure & Tools
Avalanche raises $250 million from investors including Galaxy
Despite the Avalanche Foundation holding approximately $3 billion worth of AVAX tokens, it still raised $250 million through a private token sale. This financing was led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital, with participation from over 40 companies, including SkyBridge and Morgan Creek Digital.
Hengfeng International completes $100 million financing to build Web3 ecosystem FO-X
According to The Block, Hengfeng International announced the completion of $100 million in financing, with Chairman Qian Fenglei personally contributing $50 million, and the remaining funds coming from 50 investors. This round of financing will be used to build the Web3 ecosystem FO-X (fo.com), with the first product being the instant messaging software FoChat, positioned as a Web3 investment communication platform for ordinary users. The FO-X project has assembled a team of top talents from the IT and finance sectors, with members from well-known listed companies and Wall Street in the United States. FoChat will integrate crypto technology with AI agents, providing 24/7 news, asset management tools, and features such as wallet address monitoring, fund flow analysis, and smart contract security detection. The platform will help users understand blockchain technology through gamified tasks and promises to introduce a community governance (DAO) mechanism.
Smart contract platform Waterfall Network completes $11.6 million new round of financing
Smart contract platform Waterfall Network announced the completion of $11.6 million in a new round of financing, with participation from Bolt's Capital, Alpha Token Capital, and Enflux, providing funds to advance its research and development. The new funds will be used to strengthen the platform's infrastructure, simplify nodes, and further improve the system. Waterfall Protocol is set to launch in July 2024 and is a Layer 1, scalable, decentralized smart contract platform developed by software company BlueWave based on DAG technology and fast finality PoS consensus. It is designed for Dapp development, aiming to provide scalability, security, and truly decentralized governance while being compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Blockchain startup Commonware has completed $9 million in financing, led by Haun Ventures and Dragonfly Capital, and received funding from numerous well-known cryptocurrency developers, including Smokey the Bera from BeraChain, Zaki Manian from Cosmos, Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer, Dan Romero from Farcaster, and Mert Mumtaz from Helius. Commonware was founded by former Ava Labs Vice President of Engineering Patrick O’Grady, providing "anti-framework" tools that offer highly customizable blockchain building modules for developers. Commonware has released several tools, including the consensus mechanism Simplex Consensus, aimed at surpassing the limitations of traditional frameworks to provide more efficient solutions for developers and users.
Crypto asset forensics and cybersecurity company CAT Labs has completed a $5.4 million seed round financing. M13 led the round, with existing investors Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital, and Hash3 participating. This round of financing brings the company's total funding to $9.7 million. CAT Labs, founded last year, is a startup focused on combating crypto crime, specializing in digital asset recovery and cybersecurity: helping recover cryptocurrency assets from digital evidence (such as hackers' computers or phones) and preventing digital asset theft while protecting user infrastructure. The company currently has 14 employees; according to the company, the team has collectively assisted in dismantling over 300 criminal entities throughout their careers.
Layer1 blockchain Mandala Chain completes $1 million Pre-Seed round financing
Layer1 blockchain Mandala Chain announced the completion of a $1 million Pre-Seed round financing, led by Harbour Industrial Capital, with participation from O-DE Capital, NLS Ventures, and strategic Polkadot ecosystem partners. This funding will enable Mandala Chain to scale its operations, establish strategic partnerships, and expand its influence in emerging markets. Mandala Chain is a blockchain platform that seamlessly integrates government and enterprise applications with public and retail applications. It aims to bridge the gap between the emerging blockchain market and the global blockchain market, with its first application scenario in Indonesia.
Others
Crypto Mining:
Decentralized protocol Prosper completes strategic financing
Decentralized protocol Prosper has acquired 7,000 ASIC miners from BITMAIN, with a total computing power of 1 EH/s (of which 250 PH/s is already operational), and completed strategic financing. Partners include Metalpha, BIT Mining, Animoca Brands, and others. Prosper enhances DAO governance efficiency by tokenizing institutional-grade computing power into on-chain assets, distributing Bitcoin rewards to $PROS holders, and plans to delegate over 200 BTC to activate the total locked value (TVL). The future goal is to add 5 EH/s of computing power, expand ecosystem partnerships, and create a leading decentralized Bitcoin mining protocol.
RWA:
Solana ecosystem tokenization platform AgriDex completes $4 million strategic financing
Solana ecosystem tokenization platform AgriDex has completed $4 million in strategic financing, led by Portal Ventures, with participation from Endeavour Ventures, Hawkwood Capital, HU Investments, FS Ventures, and Sycamore Gap Management Ltd. Company. Angel investors participating in this round include Tobechi Bolanle Taiwo from Palantir, Anna Yuan from Perena, Crypto Rand, and Michaël van de Poppe. This round of financing consists of a mix of equity and tokens, valuing AgriDex at $28.5 million. AgriDex is a tokenization platform based on Solana, focusing on agricultural products. Following this round of financing, AgriDex plans to tokenize $4.5 billion in trade commitments, expanding into new commodity areas such as cocoa in West Africa and wheat in Eastern Europe, while collaborating with Plume Network to provide trade financing loans to support agricultural orders.
Tokenization company Uranium Digital completes $1.7 million Pre-Seed round financing
Tokenization company Uranium Digital announced the completion of $1.7 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Portal Ventures, with participation from Framework Ventures, Karatage, and several angel investors. Uranium Digital is a startup focused on the uranium market through tokenization. The company utilizes blockchain tokens to represent uranium ore, enabling seamless transactions in this traditionally underfunded and heavily regulated field. The tokens simplify the trading process, while the underlying uranium remains securely stored, with physical delivery limited to licensed buyers.
DePIN
DePIN project Soarchain completes $4.5 million financing
DePIN project Soarchain announced the completion of $4.5 million in financing, with participation from Taisu Ventures, BlockBuilders, Hyperithm, Plug and Play, Alpha Ventures, QC Ventures, Chorus One, Cogitent Ventures, Evo Labs, and Elevate Ventures. Soarchain is a DePIN project that integrates artificial intelligence and modularity, incorporating users' vehicles into a secure real-time data network to support advanced applications that enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
Centralized Finance
UAE-based Web3 banking service provider Klickl announced the completion of an oversubscribed $25 million Series A financing, bringing the company's valuation to $125 million. This round was co-led by Web3Port Foundation and Aptos Labs, with other investors including Summer Ventures, Heritage Horizon Capital, and V2 Capital.
Klickl plans to use this round of financing to accelerate the development of its global Web3 banking business and launch Klickl Labs and Klickl Foundation in Q4 2024. As a strategic partner, Web3Port Foundation will support Klickl's expansion through its investment and acceleration platform, promoting the large-scale application of Web3 technology. Additionally, Aptos Labs will provide technical support to Klickl with its Layer 1 blockchain technology.
Cross-border crypto payment company Sphere has completed a $5 million financing round led by Coinbase Ventures and Kraken Ventures. The company plans to use this latest round of financing to further invest in regulatory compliance and risk management functions. Founded in 2022 by Arnold Lee and Luigi Charles, Sphere aims to create a "crypto version of Stripe." Stripe is a cross-border payment company that handles fiat currency transactions. Sphere integrates with global fintech companies and licensed currency exchange services, enabling businesses to transfer funds using stablecoins across different countries.
Investment Institutions
Beam Ventures to launch first $150 million game-focused fund in Abu Dhabi
Beam Foundation announced the launch of Beam Ventures, the first venture fund focused on the gaming sector in Abu Dhabi, with a fund size of $150 million, aimed at accelerating the development of promising founder projects and promoting Abu Dhabi as a global gaming hub.
The fund plans to attract top talent through its accelerator program, supporting the development of early-stage Web3 gaming and AI startups while helping Abu Dhabi build a thriving gaming ecosystem.
Venture fund Topology Ventures raises $75 million to invest in AI and decentralized networks
Former Google engineer Casey Caruso has founded the crypto venture capital fund Topology Ventures, which has raised $75 million. The fund will invest in cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, decentralized networks, neural technology, aerospace, and robotics.
Cendana Capital and Accolade Partners are the main investors in the fund, which has raised three times its original target. Other limited partners include Marc Andreessen from a16z, Bob Goodman, managing partner at Bessemer, Ethan Kurzweil, a former member of Bessemer now owning the Chemistry fund, and co-founders of OpenAI and co-authors of GPT-4, as well as Paris Hilton.
Galxe launches Gravity EVM upgrade and establishes a $50 million ecosystem fund
Web3 identity authentication and rewards platform Galxe has announced a new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) upgrade for its Gravity blockchain and established a $50 million fund to support the development of the network ecosystem. Galxe co-founder Charles Wayn stated that the $50 million fund aims to encourage development activities on its recently launched Gravity network, which is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 network designed to help developers launch new user-centric applications and even auxiliary blockchains. Wayn also mentioned that Galxe has provided an additional $5 million in developer funding for the network. The ecosystem fund is supported by venture capital firms including HashKey Capital, DAO5, and Lattice.
DWF Labs announces the launch of a $20 million AI Agent fund
DWF Labs has announced the launch of a $20 million fund focused on supporting the development of autonomous AI agents (AI Agents). The initiative aims to promote Web3 projects and develop next-generation AI agent solutions with the potential to transform industries and redefine the digital economy. Eligible projects can receive comprehensive support, including cloud server credits of up to $100,000 to accelerate their growth and adoption.
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