Last week, there were a total of 33 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, raising approximately $256 million | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

Organizer: Cookies, RootData

According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from May 20 to May 26, 2024, there were a total of 33 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a total financing amount of approximately $256 million.

From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and DeFi tracks. The decentralized social network Farcaster completed a $150 million Series A financing at a valuation of $1 billion, with Binance Labs announcing an investment in Aevo and OKX Ventures announcing an investment in Monad. Other popular projects include the triple yield re-staking protocol Kelp DAO, digital infrastructure Dora Factory, and Scroll yield and auction platform Pencils Protocol.

In addition, the Fantom Foundation announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing round, led by Hashed, with participation from UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, SoftBank, Aave Foundation, and others. The funds from this round will be used to support the Sonic Foundation, as well as for strategic growth and ecosystem development, with a particular focus on enhancing the liquidity of automated market makers and blue-chip pools in the money market. This move aims to attract users from Ethereum and other Layer 2 networks.

*（List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: * Rootdata）

I. Infrastructure

1. Decentralized social protocol Farcaster completes $150 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm
The decentralized social protocol Farcaster has completed a $150 million Series A financing at a valuation of $1 billion, led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, and others. The project stated that ample funding allows Farcaster to continue iterating on developer primitives such as channels and direct messaging, while also focusing on growth and retaining daily active users of the protocol.

According to a Dune Analytics dashboard created by Pixelhack, as of May 20, Farcaster's 7-day daily active user count was close to 45,000, an increase of 30% since the peak of the Frames craze on February 11. (Source link)

2. Interoperability protocol Stripchain completes $10 million financing, led by Sora Ventures
The interoperability protocol Stripchain has completed $10 million in financing, with this round led by Sora Ventures and participation from Hyperithm, Shima Capital, Hypersphere, Mechanism, and Ascensive Assets.

It is reported that this startup allows developers to create commands called "intents" to perform operations such as transferring data between blockchains. Based on a system called stripVM, it will enable applications to communicate and coordinate with different protocols.

Additionally, the main difference between this solution and other interoperability protocols is its focus on the transaction layer and the use of a proof-of-authority system. Early interoperability solutions targeted the protocol layer (e.g., Cosmos's inter-blockchain communication protocol) or the contract layer through bridging, while Stripchain facilitates data transfer at the user layer. (Source link)

3. Multi-chain DAO infrastructure Dora Factory completes a new round of $10 million strategic financing, with participation from Nomad Capital
DAO-as-a-service infrastructure Dora Factory announced the completion of a new round of $10 million in strategic financing, with participation from Nomad Capital, No Limit Holdings, Sky9 Capital, Singapore UOB-Signum Blockchain Fund, Interop Ventures, and others. This financing will accelerate the adoption and strategic expansion of Dora Factory's decentralized governance and public goods funding technology stack.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Dora Factory is a multi-chain DAO infrastructure that provides multi-chain authorization, privacy voting, bounty services, and other infrastructure for startup teams and DAOs. Dora Factory offers a playground that allows for easy creation of DAOs with cool features to meet their key needs in governance, fundraising, collaboration, and management. (Source link)

4. DePIN project Blockless completes a total of $8 million in two rounds of financing
DePIN project Blockless has completed a total of $8 million in pre-seed and seed rounds, with NGC Ventures leading the pre-seed round, and M31 Capital and Frachtis co-leading the seed round, with participation from No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures, and Plassa Capital.

Co-founder Butian Li stated that Blockless plans to launch a testnet in the coming weeks and a mainnet along with the native BLESS token in the third quarter. (Source link)

5. MANTRA completes a new round of strategic financing, with participation from Laser Digital
MANTRA announced that it has completed a new round of strategic financing, with participation from Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of global financial services giant Nomura. This round of financing aims to accelerate MANTRA's goal of building a Layer 1 blockchain for RWA in the Middle East and Asia, with specific financing amounts and valuations not yet disclosed. (Source link)

6. Ethereum L2 execution environment MultiVM completes $6.9 million financing, with participation from Inception Capital
Inception Capital stated on social media that it has participated in a $6.9 million early financing round for the Ethereum L2 execution environment MultiVM, alongside Lattice. MultiVM is a Layer 2 zk-rollup designed for multi-language smart contract development. It provides fast performance and ensures secure communication through cross-virtual machine calls, essentially allowing each virtual machine to run on a single unified Ethereum rollup. The project has evolved from the decentralized trading platform Spin on NEAR. (Source link)

7. Layer 2 network Plume Network completes $10 million seed round financing, led by Haun Ventures
Layer 2 network Plume Network, focused on bringing real-world assets (RWA) on-chain, has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Haun Ventures. Other participating investors include Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures.

Plume Network co-founder and CEO Chris Yin stated that the company began negotiations with investors in April and ultimately raised four times the planned amount, concluding the financing earlier this month. Previously, Plume Network raised $1.6 million through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) and token warrant round, which ultimately amounted to $2 million and is part of the $10 million seed round announced today.

Plume Network plans to launch a public incentive testnet in the coming weeks and a mainnet later this year. This financing will be used to expand the team, particularly in engineering, marketing, and community functions.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Plume Network is a Layer 2 platform focused on bringing physical assets (RAW) onto the blockchain. It offers fast transactions and low-cost diversified asset investments, such as art and green energy. (Source link)

8. ZK hardware startup Cysic completes $12 million pre-A round financing, led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures
Zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware startup Cysic announced the completion of $12 million in pre-A round financing, led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures. The new funds will be used to accelerate the generation of ZK proofs in a faster, more cost-effective, user-friendly, and decentralized manner.

Cysic completed $6 million in seed round financing last February, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Hashkey, SNZ Holding, A&T Capital, ABCDE, and Web3.com Ventures. (Source link)

9. Web3 payment service platform Unlockit completes €1.4 million Pre-Seed round financing, led by Eaglestone Capital Partners
Web3 payment service platform Unlockit announced the completion of €1.4 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Eaglestone Capital Partners, with participation from Portugal Ventures and existing investors Reorganiza and Republica.

It is reported that Unlockit, headquartered in Portugal, currently focuses on the real estate market, using blockchain payment software to simplify transactions and reduce speculation and fraud. (Source link)

10. Bitcoin infrastructure platform RunesFi completes $400,000 financing, with participation from Cogitent Ventures
Bitcoin infrastructure platform RunesFi announced the completion of $400,000 in financing, with participation from Cogitent Ventures, Oddiyana Ventures, Lavender Capital, WeeHODL, Zephyrus Capital, and Samurai Starter. RunesFi enhances DeFi functionality using the Runes protocol, aiming to build the first decentralized exchange (DEX) on Runes, a sculptor for creating and distributing new runes, and various infrastructure products supporting the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem, laying the foundation for the large-scale adoption of DeFi on Bitcoin. (Source link)

II. CeFi

1. Turkish fintech company Colendi completes $65 million Series B financing, led by Citi Ventures
Turkish fintech startup Colendi raised $65 million in its latest Series B financing, achieving a valuation of $700 million. This financing was led by Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citigroup, with other investors including Migros Ticaret AS, Sepil Ventures, Re-Pie Asset Management, Finberg, and Hedef Holding. Colendi co-founder and CEO Bulent Tekmen stated that existing investors also participated in this round of financing.

It is reported that Turkish banking regulators have approved Colendi's application to establish a digital bank in 2023. Tekmen stated that the oversubscribed Series B financing provides the necessary funds to establish Colendi Bank. The company plans to dual-list in Istanbul and London and expects to be ready for an initial public offering (IPO) by 2026. Based in Istanbul, Colendi launched a new round of financing in March, aiming to raise over $150 million by the end of this year. Tekmen expects that after this round of financing, Colendi's valuation will reach $1 billion, thus becoming a "unicorn" company.

Currently, Colendi has 17 million users in Turkey, with plans to expand into populous emerging markets including Pakistan and Indonesia, ultimately aiming for a target of 1 billion users. This financing will support Colendi's mission to become a major digital banking entity in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Turkic countries. (Source link)

2. Blockchain startup Alphaledger completes $9.5 million Series A financing, led by EJF Capital
U.S. blockchain startup Alphaledger announced the completion of $9.5 million in Series A financing, led by EJF Capital, with participation from KDX. It is reported that Alphaledger issued the first blockchain-based U.S. municipal bond using its permissioned blockchain, having previously completed $6 million in seed round financing in 2021. (Source link)

III. DeFi

1. Ethereum re-staking protocol Kelp completes $9 million token financing at a $90 million valuation, led by SCB Limited and Laser Digital
Ethereum re-staking protocol Kelp announced the completion of $9 million in token financing at a valuation of $90 million, led by SCB Limited and Laser Digital (Nomura's cryptocurrency division), with participation from Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Draper Dragon, DACM, Cypher Capital, GSR, HTX Ventures, and DWF Ventures. Additionally, angel investors such as Scott Moore from Gitcoin, Sam Kazemian from Frax Finance, Marc Zeller from Aave Chan Initiative, Saurabh Sharma from Jump Crypto, and Amrit Kumar from AltLayer also participated in this round of investment.

Protocol co-founder Amitej Gajjala stated that Kelp DAO is expected to "launch governance tokens soon" and that "legal and exchange due diligence is currently underway."

According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, Kelp DAO is a triple yield re-staking protocol based on EigenLayer. rsETH is a liquidity re-staking token (LRT) issued by Kelp DAO, designed to provide liquidity for non-liquid assets deposited into re-staking platforms (such as EigenLayer). (Source link)

2. ELFi Protocol completes a total of $5 million in two rounds of strategic financing
The decentralized derivatives trading platform ELFi Protocol has completed a total of $5 million in two rounds of strategic financing, with the latest round led by IDG Capital and KuCoin Ventures.

ELFi Protocol is a decentralized derivatives trading platform with isolated and cross-margin modes, zero-risk high yields on USDT/USDC, and a super combination of LSD assets. ELFi Protocol has launched on the Arbitrum testnet and is conducting a public beta test for Genesis NFTs. (Source link)

3. DeFi platform Zaros completes $1.8 million financing, with participation from Cogitent Ventures
DeFi platform Zaros announced the completion of $1.8 million in financing, with participation from SNZ Holdings, Seven Capital, Cogitent Ventures, DCI Capital, and angel investors such as Antony Sassano, Fernando Martinelli, Kieran Warwick, Andy Chen, and Kevin Lu.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Zaros is a liquidity hub for on-chain derivatives, dedicated to bringing real yields, capital efficiency, and deep liquidity to LST holders. Zaros plans to launch its token and announce market maker partnership information by the end of May. (Source link)

4. Launched Pencils Protocol based on Scroll completes $2.1 million seed round financing, with participation from OKX Ventures
Launched Pencils Protocol (PenPad) based on Scroll has completed $2.1 million in seed round financing, with investors including OKX Ventures (formerly OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Animoca Brands, Galxe (formerly Project Galaxy), Gate Labs, Presto Labs, Sandy Peng, and Ryan Li.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that Pencils Protocol is a next-generation decentralized platform that provides auction services for blockchain-native assets and RWA, offering users a unified leveraged yield aggregation service to maximize asset utilization.

5. Options protocol IVX completes $1.2 million seed round financing, led by Animoca Ventures
The native options protocol IVX based on Berachain has completed $1.2 million in seed round financing on the X platform, led by Animoca Ventures and AVID3, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Web3Port, Cogitent Ventures, Forbole, SerDAO, Autistic Waterfowl Venture Capital, and a number of angel investors, with valuation data not yet disclosed.

IVX is built on the Berachain Polaris EVM tech stack, providing zero-day-to-expiry (0DTE) options for crypto assets in a permissionless and secure manner, allowing buyers to have no liquidation risk and enabling users to achieve high leveraged exposure with minimal capital. Its IVX Artio testnet is now open. (Source link)

IV. Gaming

1. Solana GameFi project Song of Rising has received strategic investment from Softbank
The Solana-based GameFi project Song of Rising has completed a new round of strategic financing, with Softbank Consulting, a subsidiary of Softbank, participating as a lead investor, and both parties will accelerate the joint promotion of the Solana GameFi ecosystem.

It is reported that Song of Rising is developed by a Steam game development team and is a creative pixel-style metaverse project that not only integrates NFT asset interactions but also builds DeFi modules and metaverse scenarios, allowing users to fully enjoy the two-dimensional leisure gaming experience brought by GameFi in a relaxed and casual atmosphere. (Source link)

V. NFT & Metaverse

1. Collectibles design company Mighty Jaxx completes $11 million A+ round financing
Singapore-based collectibles design and manufacturing company Mighty Jaxx has completed $11 million in A+ round financing to drive growth in the U.S. and Europe.

ChainCatcher previously reported that Mighty Jaxx completed $10 million in financing on August 12, 2021, with this round led by Tencent, and participation from Korea Investment Partners, KB Investment, and others. (Source link)

VI. Others

1. Runes Launchpad project RunesTerminal announces completion of a financing round, led by Cogitent Ventures
Runes Launchpad project RunesTerminal announced on its social media platform the completion of a financing round, with specific amounts undisclosed. Investors include Cogitent Ventures, CMS Holdings, Waterdrip Capital, Satoshi Lab, IAngels, Pentos Ventures, Zephyrus Capital, THE CMS, Ran Neuner (CNBC host), Laser Digital, and others.

RunesTerminal is an infrastructure provider for the Runes protocol, with products including the Runes browser, Runes marketplace, and Runes encyclopedia. (Source link)

2. Web3 weather network WeatherXM Network completes $7.7 million Series A financing, led by Lightspeed Faction
Web3 weather network WeatherXM Network announced the completion of $7.7 million in Series A financing, led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Protocol Labs, Borderless Capital, Arca, Alumni Ventures, Placeholder VC, Red Beard Ventures, Metaplanet, GS Futures, Consensys Mesh, Westerly Ventures, dlab, Eleftherios Diakomichalis, and Juan Benet.

It is reported that the company plans to use this investment to develop its team and network and continue research and development in supporting crypto-enabled weather hardware and decentralized infrastructure. WeatherXM has deployed over 5,000 stations in more than 80 countries, producing various weather station hardware devices that collect local environmental data, collaboratively building a unique ground sensor weather network.

According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, Weather XM is a Web3 weather network that uses crypto incentives to improve prediction accuracy. Weather XM's personal weather stations allow owners to become weather station operators and earn rewards by collecting and verifying data. (Source link)

3. AI-driven creator community MUA DAO announces completion of a new round of financing, with participation from Wu Jihan and others
AI-driven creator community MUA DAO announced the completion of a new round of financing, with investment institutions including Avalanche, ByteTrade, Rocktree Capital, and individual investor Wu Jihan among others.

The team officially released the MUA-7648 universal asset multi-chain protocol, supporting the one-click transformation of full-chain digital assets into 3D, accelerating asset modularization, and supporting the issuance and royalty recursion of asset splitting and combination, achieving high liquidity and enhancement of asset value.

At the same time, the team released a new $MUA economic model, with 45% allocated for community incentives. Users actively participating in official activities, holding various MUA assets, and contributing to the MUA-7648 protocol will receive corresponding airdrop incentives based on their activity levels.

Additionally, the MUA7648 x Mantle BigFun NFT-Fi joint airdrop party will kick off on May 30, supported by nearly 30 leading BTC and ETH NFT & inscription projects and the Mantle Ecological Foundation. The prize pool includes $MUA and $MNT, with a total value exceeding $500,000. The event includes diverse gameplay such as creating and trading MUA7648 assets, invitation leaderboards, and specific asset bonuses. MUA will continue to launch a series of airdrop activities.

4. Cryptocurrency governance consulting firm MetaLeX completes $2.75 million seed round financing
Founded by cryptocurrency lawyer Gabriel Shapiro, MetaLeX announced the completion of $2.75 million in seed round financing, with the company's valuation reaching $27.5 million. This round of financing was led by Cyber Fund.

Additionally, the Web3 asset data platform RootData shows that MetaLeX is a new way to serve the legal, governance, and operational needs of the crypto community, built around a unique on-chain protocol and off-chain legal arrangements specifically designed for the new cybernetic economy. (Source link)