Highlights of this Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 17 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (March 3 - March 9); the total funding exceeded $257 million, an increase compared to the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 3 financing events, including Berachain's liquid staking protocol Infrared, which completed $14 million in Series A funding led by Framework Ventures;
- The Web3 gaming sector announced 2 financing events, including AI-driven gaming solution iAgent Protocol, which completed $3 million in funding;
- The Web3+AI field announced 3 financing events, including Validation Cloud, which completed $15 million in Series A funding led by True Global Ventures;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced 6 financing events, including DoubleZero Foundation, which completed $28 million in funding at a $400 million valuation, led by Dragonfly and Multicoin Capital;
- The Other category announced 1 financing event, with Web3-focused accelerator Web3Labs completing a new round of strategic financing;
- The Centralized Finance sector announced 2 financing events, including French crypto trading company Flowdesk, which completed $102 million in funding led by HV Capital.
DeFi
Berachain's liquid staking protocol Infrared completed $14 million in Series A funding, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Citizen X, Halo Capital, No Limit Holdings, NGC Ventures, and Selini Capital. This round of financing was conducted using the SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) model. Following a $2.25 million strategic round led by Binance Labs and a seed round of $2.5 million, Infrared's total financing has reached $18.75 million. Infrared is incubated by the Berachain Foundation and has launched two liquid staking tokens, iBGT and iBERA, corresponding to Berachain's governance token BGT and gas token BERA, respectively. Currently, the protocol's TVL exceeds $1.7 billion, making it the largest protocol in the Berachain ecosystem. The Berachain mainnet officially launched in February, but controversy arose due to issues with investor and internal holding ratios, leading to a 57% drop in the BERA token since its issuance on February 6.
Derivatives trading protocol MYX Finance announced the completion of a strategic round of funding, with participation from leading institutions such as FL Foundation, Woyong, D11 Labs, HashKey Capital, and Metalpha. Among them, D11 Labs and HashKey Capital previously participated in MYX Finance's seed round funding.
According to official news from Coral Finance, the project has completed $3 million in angel round funding, with investors including Taisu Ventures, Gate Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, Web3Port Fund, Mask Network, and Formless Capital. Additionally, strategic investors GoPlus Security, UFLY Labs, and ecosystem supporter Movement Foundation also participated. Currently, Coral plans to build a DeFi portfolio solution on the Movement mainnet. Coral Finance primarily constructs a pre-market asset trading mechanism to help users trade before the project's TGE (Token Generation Event). In the future, Coral will also introduce AI-powered AlphaVault products to enhance returns and trading opportunities.
Web3 Games
AI-driven gaming solution iAgent Protocol completed $3 million in funding
AI-driven gaming solution iAgent Protocol announced the completion of $3 million in funding, with participation from Alpha Liquid Terminal, Lydian Labs, double jump.tokyo Inc., Cointribune, Alliance, Frekaz Group, Expert Dojo, IBC Group Official, PG, and Q42. It is reported that iAgent enables gamers to create, own, and monetize gaming AI agents, allowing players to train their AI agents through game visuals, supported by DePIN, thereby creating a new category of digital assets on the blockchain through decentralized GPU computing.
Mysten Labs acquires game development platform Parasol
Sui development company Mysten Labs has acquired game development platform Parasol, with the acquisition amount undisclosed. Parasol is an end-to-end platform composed of gaming experts from Japan and the United States, allowing game developers to seamlessly integrate blockchain infrastructure into their games.
AI
AI-based crypto infrastructure company Validation Cloud announced the completion of $15 million in Series A funding, led by True Global Ventures, with participation from Cadenza, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, and AP Capital. The valuation for this round of funding was not disclosed. It is reported that this is Validation Cloud's third round of financing, and since its establishment in 2017, its total financing has reached $30.8 million. Validation Cloud offers three main products to support blockchains based on the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Validation Cloud's products include token staking functionality, software to connect computers to PoS networks, and access to data analyzed by AI. The company provides its products on several popular blockchains, including Solana, Ethereum, Base, Aptos, and Binance Chain. Validation Cloud's revenue comes from commissions on rewards earned by customers using its services to stake tokens, as well as subscription fees for using its software.
Decentralized AI protocol Prime Intellect completed $15 million in funding, led by Founders Fund
Decentralized AI protocol Prime Intellect announced that it has completed $15 million in funding, led by Founders Fund, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Andrej Karpathy (EurekaAI, Tesla, OpenAI), Clem Delangue (Hugging Face), Dylan Patel (SemiAnalysis), Tri Dao (Together.AI), Balaji Srinivasan (Network School), Emad Mostaque (Stability AI, Intelligent Internet), Jake Medwell (co-founder of 8VC), Brendan McCord (Cosmos Institute), and Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon). This brings its total funding to over $20 million. It is reported that Prime Intellect is building a peer-to-peer protocol for computation and intelligence that will enable the collective creation, ownership, and access of sovereign open-source AI. The Prime Intellect protocol is currently running on a testnet, building a trustless, community-driven ecosystem where contributors will benefit from the models they help create.
Decentralized AI network Fortytwo completed $2.3 million in Pre-Seed round funding
Decentralized AI network Fortytwo announced the completion of $2.3 million in Pre-Seed round funding, led by Big Brain Holdings, with participation from CMT Digital, Escape Velocity, Chorus One, and mentatgroup. It is reported that Fortytwo is a decentralized AI network that leverages collective intelligence by connecting consumer devices running small AI models. This approach enables scalable and cost-effective AI inference without relying on centralized data centers. By installing nodes on personal computers, users can contribute to a global AI infrastructure, with each additional node enhancing the network's intelligence.
Infrastructure & Tools
Cross-chain protocol Across completed $41 million in funding, led by Paradigm
Focusing on cross-chain interoperability, Across Protocol completed $41 million in token financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and angel investor Sina Habinian. This round of financing is conducted in two phases, scheduled for completion in Q2 and Q4 of 2024, with a total funding amount reaching $51 million. Across specializes in intent-driven cross-chain transactions, allowing users to transfer assets across chains with a single request, with an average transaction time of less than 5 seconds. Its technology is based on the ERC-7683 standard, which has been adopted by over 50 protocols, including Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism, and is used for Uniswap's cross-chain bridging functionality. To date, Across has processed a cumulative transaction volume of $19 billion, with over $1 billion in transactions in January 2025 alone.
Startup DoubleZero Foundation completed $28 million in funding at a $400 million valuation, led by Dragonfly and Multicoin Capital, with participation from Foundation Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, DBA, Borderless Capital, Superscrypt, and Frictionless. According to insiders, DoubleZero Foundation is currently seeking "strategic partners" to pursue additional strategic financing at a $600 million valuation, with strategic financing still ongoing.
It is reported that DoubleZero is building a "new type of internet" to enhance blockchain performance, with a vision to establish a global private cable network, which will enable blockchains to transmit data more efficiently than over the public internet. The project is seen as a key technology for Solana's plan to achieve one million transactions per second. DoubleZero is opening its permissioned testnet to Solana validators and RPCs, with plans to gradually expand to other chains. Its cable network connects dedicated lines operated by Jump Crypto, RockawayX, Distributed Global, Latitude, and Terraswitch, and is welcoming more contributors. DoubleZero also announced the launch of its permissioned testnet today, making the DoubleZero network available for Solana validators and RPCs.
Privacy blockchain project Seismic completed $7 million in seed round funding, led by a16z crypto
Seismic announced the completion of $7 million in seed round funding, led by a16z crypto, with participation from Polychain, NGC Ventures, dao5, and 1kx. The funds will be used to develop a privacy-focused blockchain. Seismic aims to address the transaction transparency issues faced by current L1 blockchains by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that all transaction data on the chain remains private and preventing user data exposure. Team members come from well-known companies like Wintermute, possessing deep expertise in cryptography, compilers, and distributed systems. Seismic stated that this funding will accelerate the construction of the Seismic ecosystem, making it an important infrastructure for future privacy blockchains.
Acki Nacki completed over $6 million in funding, with participation from Hack VC and others
According to an official announcement from Acki Nacki, its network node presale has successfully completed, raising over $6 million, with investors including Kingsway Capital, K5 Global, Blockchain.com, Original Capital, and Hack VC. Acki Nacki employs a "Bitcoin-style Proof of Stake" design, with no pre-mining, airdrops, or token distribution; the $NACKL token will be released through mining over 60 years. Its Gossip Ignite decentralized launch protocol was launched on January 29, 2025, and the mainnet will officially go live after 75% of validators join. Currently, the network's testnet has over 5 million users, aiming to promote the vision of a truly decentralized "world computer."
MEV infrastructure FastLane Labs completed $6 million in funding, led by Figment Capital and others
MEV infrastructure FastLane Labs announced the completion of $6 million in funding, led by Figment Capital and DBA, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and CHORUS ONE. The new funds will be used to build a comprehensive liquid staking token on Monad. FastLane Labs is committed to building a long-term MEV ecosystem on Monad, allowing users, dApps, and stakers to benefit. Previously, in May 2023, FastLane Labs completed $2.3 million in funding, led by Multicoin Capital.
Endless Web3 Genesis Cloud completed strategic round funding, with participation from Foresight Ventures and others
The distributed intelligent component protocol Endless Web3 Genesis Cloud announced the completion of strategic round funding, primarily from several institutions and well-known investors, including Foresight Ventures. This funding is planned to accelerate the development of Endless's component-based development platform, AI Agent toolchain, and ecosystem construction, as well as key aspects of project product development, ecosystem development support, long-term development reserves, and market and strategic cooperation, promoting Endless to become a super connector from Web2 to Web3, and between AI and Web3.
Endless is a distributed intelligent component protocol aimed at lowering the threshold for Web2 applications to transition to Web3, providing developers with a one-stop Web3 application development platform, and offering users a Web2-level experience. Endless supports a public chain that supports the Move language and integrates various AI large model capabilities and plugins, aiming to become the best connector for AI and Crypto, allowing developers to build Crypto AI applications more simply and quickly.
Others
Web3Labs completed a new round of strategic financing
Web3 accelerator Web3Labs recently completed a new round of strategic financing, with investments from emerging investment group Avenir Group, Mirana Ventures, OSL Group, and Gao Feng Innovation Venture Capital Fund. This round of financing will focus on strengthening global ecosystem building, deepening connections with international mainstream exchange ecosystems, and leveraging specialized financial service capabilities to inject new momentum into the Web3 ecosystem. After completing the financing, Web3Labs will comprehensively upgrade its ecosystem service system: on one hand, it will collaborate with leading exchange partners to create a full-cycle acceleration platform covering project acceleration and primary market investment; on the other hand, it will actively explore integration paths with traditional markets. Additionally, Web3Labs has initiated discussions with several international brokerage firms to explore plans for an IPO in 2025, aiming to establish a two-way empowerment channel between Web3 and traditional capital markets.
Centralized Finance
Flowdesk completed $102 million in funding to expand trading and liquidity business
French crypto trading company Flowdesk completed $102 million in funding, with 90% being equity financing and 10% being debt financing. This round of financing was led by HV Capital, with existing investors Eurazeo, Cathay Innovation, and ISAI VC participating, and the debt financing portion provided by a fund managed by BlackRock. Flowdesk plans to use the funds to expand its over-the-counter derivatives trading business, launch a crypto lending department, and establish a new office in the UAE. The company also plans to double its workforce in the next 12 months and strengthen regulatory compliance to actively respond to the implementation of the EU MiCA regulations.
Cryptocurrency broker August completed $10 million in Series A funding, led by Dragonfly Ventures
Cryptocurrency broker August completed $10 million in Series A funding, led by Dragonfly Ventures, with participation from SCB Limited, 6th Man Ventures, and Foresight Ventures. The valuation for this round of funding has not been disclosed. August will use the newly raised funds to develop marketing strategies, hire more employees, and continue developing new technologies.
It is reported that August is a brokerage firm focused on cryptocurrency, helping large financial institutions such as hedge funds and family offices earn returns on cryptocurrency investments through lending and trading. Most of August's revenue comes from trading spreads, and the company charges clients transaction fees for each trade. The company previously raised $6 million in seed funding in 2023.
Investment Institutions
Foundation Capital launches a new $600 million fund to invest in AI, crypto, and other fields
Foundation Capital announced the launch of its 11th flagship fund, sized at $600 million, aimed at seeking so-called "zero billion dollar markets" in the fields of artificial intelligence, fintech, and cryptocurrency. It is reported that Foundation Capital is an investor in AI chip company Cerebras and was the first institutional investor in the blockchain platform Solana. The newly launched fund is expected to avoid multi-stage, multi-region, and multi-strategy approaches, instead continuing to focus on finding investment opportunities in the early stages.
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