Last week, there were a total of 25 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with a cumulative financing of approximately 230 million USD | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
Bitcoin mining company Digihost completes $4 million private placement financing; smart account development company Rhinestone completes $5 million seed round financing, led by 1kx; Binance Labs announces investment in MyShell.Organizer: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from August 12 to August 18, 2024, there were a total of 25 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately $230 million.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and DeFi tracks. Popular projects include the crypto startup Chaos Labs, modular smart account developer Rhinestone, Web3 game studio Autoverse Studios, stablecoin 2.0 infrastructure company WSPN, and Bitcoin infrastructure developer Satflow.
In addition, Layer 2 development company Parfin completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures, L4 Venture Builder, and Núclea.
*（List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: * Rootdata）
I. Infrastructure
Decentralized AI infrastructure KIP Protocol announced the completion of a $5 million private financing round, co-led by Animoca Ventures and Tribe Capital. Other investors include GBV Capital, DWF Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, and others. To date, KIP Protocol has completed a total of $10 million in financing.
As the world's first underlying protocol supporting Decentralized Retrieval-Augmented Generation (dRAG), KIP Protocol provides cutting-edge Web3 infrastructure, enabling app developers, model creators, and data owners to achieve seamless deployment, monetization, and complete ownership in Web3. KIP Protocol offers comprehensive tools and services aimed at breaking the monopoly barriers in the AI industry, providing a fairer environment for AI developers and consumers. This round of financing will further promote KIP Protocol's mission of decentralized AI development by creating powerful and secure decentralized AI solutions that drive unprecedented applications and innovations.
Previously, KIP Protocol announced a partnership with leading AI agent entertainment platform Moemate to lead 3 million Web2 AI users into Web3. KIP also received $10 million in fund management rights from Open Campus to jointly layout and explore the "DeAI + Education" landscape, working together to build a leading decentralized AI-driven online learning education platform OCU, providing personalized learning experiences and redefining decentralized education. Through these collaborations, KIP has achieved real use cases for decentralized AI.
Bitcoin Mining Company Digihost Completes $4 Million Private Placement Financing
Bitcoin mining company Digihost announced the completion of a $4 million private placement financing, including the sale of 3,636,363 shares of the company at a price of $1.1 per unit, with the net proceeds used for acquisitions related to infrastructure expansion and general working capital purposes.
Crypto Startup Chaos Labs Raises $55 Million in Series A Financing, Led by Haun Ventures
According to Coindesk, New York-based crypto startup Chaos Labs, which focuses on on-chain risk management tools, recently raised $55 million in a Series A financing round led by Haun Ventures, with participation from F-Prime Capital, Slow Ventures, Spartan Capital, as well as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Galaxy Ventures, and PayPal Ventures.
The company plans to use the funds to expand its platform to meet the growing demand for automated risk management in decentralized finance (DeFi). The number of clients for Chaos Labs has tripled over the past year, helping over 20 protocols, including Aave, GMX, and Jupiter, achieve product security monitoring and growth. Founder and CEO Omer Goldberg stated that Chaos Labs aims to automate certain risk management tasks through tools such as dashboards, real-time data oracles, and risk alerts, making DeFi platforms more agile in responding to market fluctuations and reducing human error.
Stablecoin payment platform Sling Money announced the completion of $15 million in Series A financing, led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Ribbit Capital and Slow Ventures. This round of financing will help Sling Money advance its mission of global payments. Transfers on Sling Money use Pax Dollar (USDP), a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company. USDP and its reserves are strictly regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Sling Money leverages stablecoin technology and a user-friendly interface to enable users to make instant transfers between over 50 countries at nearly zero cost. The company previously raised $5 million in a seed round led by Ribbit Capital.
Smart Account Development Company Rhinestone Completes $5 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by 1kx
According to The Block, modular smart account developer Rhinestone has completed a $5 million seed round financing, led by 1kx. CoinFund, Lattice, Heartcore, and Yuan Ventures also participated.
It is reported that Rhinestone is building a platform to create a secure ecosystem for smart account modules and achieve permissionless wallet innovation. Rhinestone will enable any developer to build a smart account module that can pair with front-end components, allowing users to easily install, remove, or replace their accounts. Previously, Rhinestone was selected as one of the 18 projects in the Ethereum Foundation's ERC-4337 account abstraction funding round.
Layer 2 Development Company Parfin Completes $10 Million Series A Financing, Led by ParaFi Capital
According to The Block, Layer 2 development company Parfin has completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures, L4 Venture Builder, and Núclea.
It is reported that the company will continue to conduct a second Series A financing round, expecting to raise a total of $16 million, with the new funds used to develop its Rayls network and expand its global business.
Blockchain Platform Sahara AI Completes $43 Million Financing, Led by Binance Labs
Decentralized AI blockchain platform Sahara AI announced the completion of $43 million in Series A financing, led by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital, with participation from Samsung, Matrix Partners, Thai Commercial Bank, dao5, Alumni Ventures, Geekcartel, Nomad Capital, Mirana Ventures, and others.
It is reported that the new funds will be used to further expand its global team, enhance the performance of its AI blockchain, and accelerate the development of its developer ecosystem.
AI Smart Layer Rivalz Network Completes $9 Million Financing, Participated by Delphi Ventures
According to Cointelegraph, AI smart layer Rivalz Network has completed $9 million in financing, with participation from Delphi Ventures, D1 Ventures, Gate.io, Magnus Capital, and Cogitent Ventures. Rivalz Network aims to transform the AI field by introducing the first AI smart layer.
According to Foresight News, stablecoin 2.0 infrastructure company WSPN has completed $30 million in seed round financing, led by Foresight Ventures and Folius Ventures, with participation from Hash Global, Generative Ventures, Yunqi Partners, and RedPoint China.
It is reported that WSPN is a next-generation stablecoin infrastructure company aimed at providing users with safer, more efficient, and transparent payment solutions by establishing a global compliance system and a new payment ecosystem. WSPN includes core members such as CTH, Paxos, and Visa, with over 10 years of experience in payment and stablecoin operations. Currently, WSPN has obtained compliance licenses in multiple major countries and regions, and has the support of over 30 exchanges, more than 10 mainstream wallets, and dozens of large payment institutions and market makers.
II. DeFi
Full-chain derivatives liquidity layer project Orderly Network announced the completion of $5 million in strategic round financing, with participation from OKX Ventures, Manifold Trading, Presto Labs, LTP, Nomad Capital, and Origin Protocol. The new funds will be used to develop new products and enhance its on-chain liquidity.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization Goldilocks DAO Completes $1.5 Million Seed Round Financing
Decentralized autonomous organization Goldilocks DAO announced the completion of $1.5 million in seed round financing, led by Hack VC and Shima Capital, with participation from AtkaBlockchain, Rana, and Public Works. Specific valuation information has not been disclosed, and the new funds will be used to develop a set of DeFi and NFTfi protocols.
Currently, GoldilocksDAO allows users to trade tokens, provide liquidity, and participate in NFT-based loans.
According to RootData, Goldilocks is a DAO dedicated to developing custom DeFi infrastructure for Berachain.
Bitcoin infrastructure developer Satflow announced the completion of $7.6 million in seed round financing, led by Variant Fund, with participation from Nascent, UTXO Management, Coinbase Ventures, Hash3, CMS Holdings, Asymmetric, Sora Ventures, Memeland, Robot Ventures, and Bitcoin Frontier Fund.
Satflow will focus on providing infrastructure for market makers and high-frequency traders, elevating Bitcoin L1 to institutional-grade quality and enhancing decentralization.
Satflow stated, "We are currently developing privately, but details for early access will be announced soon."
Blockchain Infrastructure Essential Completes $11 Million Series A Financing, Led by Archetype
Intent-based blockchain infrastructure project Essential announced the completion of $11 million in Series A financing, led by Archetype, with participation from IOSG, Spartan, Mirana, Amber Group, Maven 11, Bodhi Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Heartcore Capital, Selini, DCLM, and PropellerHeads, as well as founders and angel investors from Celestia, Hashflow, Enso, Barter, LI.FI, Astaria, GlueX, Bebop, and Sorella.
The new financing will be used to drive Essential's goal of redesigning blockchain interactions from declarative, intent-based architecture principles to make blockchain technology more intuitive and accessible for developers and users worldwide.
Meanwhile, Essential launched Pre-Alpha Devnet for early developers to deploy and test declarative applications on Essential without permission.
Additionally, Essential introduced Pint, a constraint-based programmable intent language that allows developers to directly constrain the state on the Essential blockchain. In Web3, the open Essential technology stack provides developers with the opportunity to experiment in a declarative environment for the first time. The official developer documentation has been released, including Essential specifications, Pint documentation, and quick start guides, inviting developers worldwide to test and build on Essential.
According to The Block, liquidity protocol Ion Protocol, targeting staked and re-staked assets, has completed $4.8 million in financing, with participation from Gumi Capital Cryptos, Robot Ventures, BanklessVC, NGC Ventures, Finality Capital, and SevenX Ventures. To date, its total financing amount has reached $7 million.
It is reported that the new funds will be used to support and develop a native yield model called Nucleus, aimed at addressing the monetization issues of rollups and appchains, and may help promote new use cases for decentralized applications within its ecosystem.
III. AI
According to The Block, Crunch Lab has completed $3.5 million in seed round financing led by crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital. This financing also received support from Factor Capital, Fabric VC, and Elixir Capital, bringing the total financing amount for the startup to $5.3 million.
Crunch Lab is a core contributor to CrunchDAO, a platform that provides AI researchers with opportunities to participate in distributed machine learning competitions. Participants can not only earn other rewards but also win CRNCH tokens through competitions, granting holders governance rights and other privileges within CrunchDAO.
Crunch Lab founder and CEO Jean Herelle stated that the company has entered the prototype development stage and is collaborating with two financial institutions to provide real-time data streams, which is expected to bring an additional $2 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) to Crunch Lab this year.
Binance Labs Announces Investment in MyShell
According to official news, Binance Labs announced an investment in MyShell through its sixth incubation program, with specific amounts not disclosed.
It is reported that MyShell is a decentralized artificial intelligence ecosystem that allows everyone to build, own, and share AI applications.
Additionally, MyShell's application scenarios in the crypto ecosystem include: AI-generated images, videos, games, personal assistants, and various other scenarios, with registered users exceeding three million.
IV. Gaming
Web3 Game Studio Autoverse Studios Completes $8 Million Financing, Led by White Star Capital
According to Venturebeat, Web3 game studio Autoverse Studios has completed $8 million in financing, with this round led by White Star Capital, and participation from Sfermion, RockawayX, Ocular, Sidedoor Ventures, MCE Group, Saison Capital, and LiquidX.
The funds will be used to develop its social linear racing Web3 game Auto Legends, aiming to be the first game to bring Web3 ownership and trading mechanisms to a large number of traditional free-to-play gamers worldwide.
Auto Legends will be a free game available on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android platforms. However, if players want to gain more depth, they can choose to utilize Web3 features. The game has already launched in a closed alpha testing environment on PC and Mac on the Epic Games Store.
Web3 Game Platform GAMEE Completes New Round of Financing, Participated by TON Ventures
Web3 game platform GAMEE, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, announced the completion of a new round of financing, with participation from TON Ventures. The new funds will support GAMEE's WATCoin ecosystem (including the WatBird Mini App project).
It is reported that GAMEE will further integrate TON-based digital assets (such as tokens and NFTs supported by TON) into GAMEE's Telegram Mini App to enhance user engagement.
V. Others
Holonym Foundation Completes $5.5 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Finality Capital
Centralized network digital identity security development organization Holonym Foundation announced the completion of $5.5 million in seed round financing. This round was led by Finality Capital and Paper Ventures, with participation from Draper Dragon, Arrington Capital, Lightshift, and others.
Holonym Foundation focuses on applying cryptographic innovations and has developed three core protocols: Mishti Network, Zeronym, and Silk.
Holonym co-founder Shady El Damaty stated that they are building human-centered technological principles with the goal of creating a global open-source layer that enhances every citizen's digital identity capabilities through cryptography.
Tether Makes $3 Million Strategic Investment in Remittance and Financial Management Platform Kem
Tether announced a $3 million strategic investment in the remittance and financial management platform Kem, which will enable the Kem App to launch USDT on its platform to promote its widespread adoption in the Middle East, primarily to improve the economic conditions in neighboring countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iraq.
Web3 Community ARC Community Completes Over $4.5 Million Community Round Financing
Web3 membership community ARC Community co-founder icunucmi announced that ARC Community has completed over $4.5 million in community round financing. ARC is connecting influential individuals among the global Asian diaspora to collaboratively contribute ideas, resources, and networks to its pioneering social entrepreneurship studio.
The long-term vision and common goal of ARC Community is to promote the development of Web3 in Asia through its social entrepreneurship studio, placing its community at the forefront through collective value creation.
