Last week, there were a total of 18 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with a cumulative financing of approximately 935 million USD | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
Decentralized AI startup Nous Research has completed a $50 million Series A funding round, led by Paradigm; re-staking protocol Symbiotic has completed a $29 million Series A funding round, led by Pantera Capital; DAO operating platform Tally has completed an $8 million Series A funding round, led by Appworks and Blockchain Capital.Organizer: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from April 21 to April 27, 2025, there were a total of 18 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing of approximately $935 million.
From the distribution of sectors, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure and DeFi sectors. Popular projects include the on-chain game engine MagicBlock, the full-chain liquidity infrastructure StakeStone, the fintech company WineFi, and the payment gateway Inflow.
In addition, "Solana version of MicroStrategy" SOL Strategies announced that it has reached a $500 million convertible note financing agreement with ATW Partners, intended for increasing its holdings of SOL.
*(List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: * Rootdata）
I. Infrastructure
Decentralized AI startup Nous Research completes $50 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm
According to Fortune, decentralized AI startup Nous Research has completed a $50 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm, which values Nous Research at $1 billion.
Nous Research plans to launch a decentralized training system on the Solana blockchain, using blockchain technology to achieve distributed AI model training. The company previously raised about $20 million in seed funding from institutions such as Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, and Delphi Digital.
Karan Malhotra, co-founder of Nous Research, stated that the company uses blockchain technology primarily for coordination and incentive mechanisms, allowing users to contribute idle computing power to participate in AI model training. The system will initially allow users with data center access to participate, and the company is currently considering whether to issue a native token as a reward.
On-chain game engine MagicBlock completes $7.5 million seed round financing, led by Faction
On-chain game engine MagicBlock announced the completion of a $7.5 million seed round financing, led by Faction under Lightspeed, with participation from Maven11, Mechanism Capital, Robot Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Equilibrium, Pivot Global, and angel investors including Solana co-founder Toly.
According to Fortune, decentralized trading platform Theo has completed a total of $20 million in financing. This round of financing consists of two parts: a $4.5 million seed round led by quantitative investment firm Manifold Trading completed in March 2024, and a recent $15.5 million financing led by cryptocurrency investment firms Hack VC and Anthos Capital.
Theo was founded by three former employees from high-frequency trading firms Optiver and IMC Trading. The platform allows ordinary investors to use trading strategies typically reserved for top high-frequency trading firms.
Web3 confidentiality protocol Inco completes $5 million strategic financing, led by a16z crypto CSX
Web3 confidentiality protocol Inco has completed $5 million in strategic financing, led by a16z crypto CSX, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, 1kx, Orange DAO, South Park Commons, and Script Capital.
It is reported that Inco provides a confidentiality layer that seamlessly integrates with existing blockchains, allowing developers to choose to use this encryption layer to build confidential dapps.
According to Chainwire, Web3 infrastructure startup Catalysis announced the completion of $1.25 million in Pre-Seed financing, led by Hashed Emergent, with participation from Presto Labs, Spaceship DAO, Funfair Ventures, Cosmostation, and Crypto Times.
It is reported that the funds will be used to develop the first "security abstraction layer" designed for re-staking protocols, to unify the economic security of multiple re-staking protocols and simplify the process for developers and node operators to deploy shared security services. The platform has integrated with re-staking protocols such as EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Kernel DAO, and plans to launch a public testnet in the second quarter of 2025.
Re-staking protocol Symbiotic completes $29 million Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital
According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency re-staking protocol Symbiotic has completed $29 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from over 100 institutions and angel investors including Coinbase Ventures, Aave, Polygon, and StarkWare.
The financing will be used to launch a blockchain security coordination layer called the "Universal Staking Framework." This framework allows any combination of cryptocurrencies (including L1/L2 chain assets) to participate in network validation, and has already been adopted by 14 networks including Hyperlane, with plans to connect to 20 more ecosystem projects.
Blockchain interoperability protocol Analog raises $15 million through token sale
According to CoinDesk, blockchain interoperability protocol Analog has raised $15 million through a token sale, with digital asset financing company Bolts Capital completing the token purchase, bringing Analog's total support to $36 million. Analog plans to use these funds to develop interoperability tools such as the Omnichain Token Standard (OATS) and the RWA market Firestarter.
According to Chainwire, Bitcoin infrastructure company Arch Labs has completed $13 million in Series A financing, with a valuation of $200 million. This round of financing was led by Pantera Capital.
The funds will be used to accelerate the development and launch of the ArchVM virtual machine, enabling smart contract functionality on Bitcoin. ArchVM will bring features such as programmable multi-signatures, cross-program calls, and inter-application composability to Bitcoin, allowing decentralized applications and protocols to run natively in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The project has processed over 50 million transactions on the testnet and plans to launch the mainnet this summer.
Arch Labs previously raised $7 million in financing led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from OKX Ventures, Portal Ventures, and others.
II. DeFi
Full-chain liquidity infrastructure StakeStone receives investment from Animoca Ventures
Full-chain liquidity infrastructure StakeStone announced that it has received investment from Animoca Ventures. This investment will accelerate StakeStone's three key areas: introducing RWA and IP-backed assets, improving the infrastructure for the Web3 consumption economy, and developing collaborative vaults and DeFi strategies.
III. CeFi
WineFi completes £1.5 million seed round financing, led by UK wine group Coterie Holdings
According to Crowdfund Insider, London-based fintech company WineFi announced the completion of £1.5 million (approximately $2 million) in seed round financing. This round was led by UK premium wine group Coterie Holdings, with participation from SFC Capital, Founders Capital, and angel investors.
Reports indicate that WineFi was founded by former Fidelity International and JPMorgan asset managers Oliver Thorpe and Callum Woodcock. The platform will collaborate with digital asset provider Lympid to achieve decentralized ownership of premium wine assets on the blockchain, with a minimum investment of £3,000. This financing will be used to enhance analytical tools and expand its wine investment portfolio services.
IV. Social
Mask Network receives $5 million investment from DWF Labs
DWF Labs officially announced that it has invested $5 million in Mask Network to accelerate the development of decentralized social infrastructure.
V. Others
"Solana version of MicroStrategy" SOL Strategies announced that it has reached a $500 million convertible note financing agreement with ATW Partners, intended for increasing its holdings of SOL.
It is reported that this is the largest financing of its kind in the Solana ecosystem to date, and SOL Strategies aims to promote the development of institutional staking platforms.
Payment gateway Inflow has completed $1.1 million in seed round financing, with participation from Rockstart, GnosisVC, Alliance, Plug And Play, and Stake Capital. Angel investors include Ledger co-founder Nicolas Bacca, Primonial REIM co-founder Stephanie Lacroix, and TEMPUS SHOP founder Tempus.
According to CoinDesk, DAO operation platform Tally has completed $8 million in Series A financing, led by Appworks and Blockchain Capital, with participation from companies like BitGo. The new funds will be used to expand its governance technology for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
The Tally protocol primarily supports infrastructure, helping protocols effectively govern their DAOs on-chain, including Arbitrum, Uniswap DAO, ZKsync, Wormhole, Eigenlayer, Obol, and Hyperlane.
Bitdeer has raised a total of $179 million through loans and stock issuance
Bitdeer is increasing its financial leverage to fully advance its Bitcoin ASIC mining machine manufacturing plan.
According to its latest annual report, the company has raised a total of $179 million through loans and stock issuance. The company has signed a loan agreement of up to $200 million with Matrixport and issued over 6 million Class A shares earlier this year, raising $118.8 million.
According to Blockworks, Web3 payment infrastructure company Kado Software has been acquired by Swapped.com. Although the team did not disclose the details of the transaction, it is reported that the acquisition aims to expand the Danish company's business in the United States.
According to Chainwire, cryptocurrency market maker GSR announced a $100 million private equity investment in Nasdaq-listed company Upexi, Inc.
Upexi is a brand owner focused on the development, manufacturing, and distribution of consumer goods. This investment was made after Upexi announced a strategic shift to a cryptocurrency-based financial strategy, aimed at creating long-term value and returns for shareholders. Upexi has committed to developing a Solana financial strategy, which includes increasing and staking Solana holdings.
