Financing Weekly | 21 public financing incidents; Bitwise completed a US$70 million financing, and Electric Capital and other investments
Reprinted from panewslab
03/03/2025·2MWhat's the highlight of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 21 investment and financing events in global blockchain last week (2.24-3.2), with a total funding scale of over US$202 million, which was an increase compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced four investment and financing events, among which RWA blockchain development company Mavryk Dynamics completed a US$5.2 million financing, and Ghaf Capital and others participated in the investment;
- Web3 Games Track announced a financing event, and social gaming company ACID Labs announced a $8 million financing led by a16z speedrun and NFX;
- One investment and financing event was announced in the NFT field. MeebCo, the company behind the NFT project Meebits, completed a US$3 million financing, and 1 confirmation participated in the investment;
- DePIN track announced one investment and financing event, GEODNET completed a US$8 million strategic financing, led by Multicoin Capital in this round;
- Five investment and financing events have been announced in the field of infrastructure and tools , among which crypto-tech startup Orochi Network completed a US$12 million financing, and Presto Labs and others participated in the investment;
- Other categories have announced five investment and financing events, among which crypto gift card platform Raise completed a $63 million financing, led by Haun Ventures;
- Centralized finance announced two investment and financing events, Bitwise completed US$70 million in financing, and Electric Capital and other investments
DeFi
RWA blockchain development company Mavryk Dynamics announced a $5.2 million financing round led by Ghaf Capital, Big Brain, MetaVest Capital, Cluster Capital, Collective Ventures and Atlas Fund. It is reported that Mavryk Dynamics aims to simplify RWA tokenization and DeFi integration, making ownership of digital assets easier to obtain.
Replenishment Agreement Byzantine Finance completed a $3 million Pre-Seed round led by Node Capital and Blockwall Ventures, with Lightshift, Masterkey and Kiln Ventures, as well as angel investors from EigenLayer, LayerZero and Ledger. The funding will be used to develop its Byzantine license-free "aggregation layer", a protocol designed to enable multiple blockchains to share liquidity, state, and users without sacrificing sovereignty.
Fixed interest rate lending agreement Tenor Labs completes $2.5 million seed round
Fixed interest rate lending agreement Tenor Labs announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round, led by cherry.xyz, and participated by Coinbase Ventures and Lattice. It is understood that Tenor is a non-custodial, self-executed fixed-rate lending agreement that allows the creation of a market without permission and efficiently matches borrowers and lenders.
Stablecoin issuer Aegis completes $2 million Pre-Seed financing
Aegis successfully completed a US$2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with investors including Dewhales DAO, Profluent Ventures and other well-known angel investors. The company is developing YUSD, the first Bitcoin-backed stablecoin that is completely independent of the fiat banking system, with real-time transparency and built-in income mechanisms, aiming to solve existing stablecoins such as low transparency, high risk exposure and lack of source of income. YUSD maintains stability by holding BTC and establishing a neutral Delta position, and automatically obtains profits without pledge. Users can view APY calculation methods, collateral asset reserve proof and market positions through the Aegis system to achieve complete transparency. Aegis plans to officially launch YUSD in Q1 2025 and integrate mainstream DeFi protocols, liquidity pools and lending platforms.
Web3 Games
Social gaming company ACID Labs completes $8 million financing, led by a16z speedrun and NFX
Social gaming company ACID Labs has received $8 million in funding led by a16z speedrun and NFX. The studio's popular game Boinkers.io has grown to over 11.5 million monthly active players on Telegram.
NFT
According to a statement issued by 1conformation on X platform, MeebCo, the company behind the NFT project Meebits, has completed a new round of financing of US$3 million. 1confirmation has participated in the investment, and the specific valuation information has not been disclosed yet. According to the information disclosed in the relevant announcement, Meebits has not issued tokens at this stage, but there will be potential coin issuance plans in the future. 1confirmation added that although the project does not have a clear product direction, it will support NFT return and build a long-term community.
DePIN
DePIN project Geodnet completed $8 million in financing, led by Multicoin Capital
Decentralized network hardware infrastructure company GEODNET announced that it has completed a US$8 million strategic financing. This round was led by Multicoin Capital and participated by ParaFi and DACM, making its cumulative total financing amount reach US$15 million. The financing will be used to expand its global real-time dynamic positioning (RTK) network and support the development of a new generation of robotics and physical AI (Physical AI).
Solana Eco-DePIN Project Shaga completes $4 million in financing, led by IOSG Ventures
Solana Eco-DePIN project Shaga announced the completion of a US$4 million seed round of financing, led by IOSG Ventures, and the participants include Everyrealm, Amber Group, MH Ventures and other institutions. Shaga is committed to breaking through hardware limitations and providing ultra-low latency, high-performance cloud gaming experience, allowing global users to enjoy high-quality gaming content more conveniently.
Infrastructure & Tools
Cryptotech startup Orochi Network completes $12 million funding
Cryptotech startup Orochi Network completed a $12 million financing. The funds include seed rounds and grants, with investments including Presto Labs, Smape Capital, Anti Capital, Maxx Capital, Bolts Capital, AZA Ventures and Connectico. In addition, grants were provided by the Ethereum Foundation, Mina Protocol, Web3 Foundation and BNB Chain.
Blockchain asset risk management platform Lockchain.ai completes US$5 million Series A financing
Blockchain asset risk management platform Lockchain.ai announced that it had completed a US$5 million Series A financing, led by White Star Capital, and Lerer Hippeau, Arrington Capital and Sonic Boom Ventures participated. Lockchain.ai plans to use new funds to enhance critical incident detection capabilities for more acute market intelligence, accelerate data discovery and simplify due diligence, build an automated compliance framework that meets regulatory requirements, and launch regulatory compliance automation for MiCA and others. According to reports, Lockchain.ai is a blockchain asset risk management platform that uses generative AI to conduct real-time portfolio risk analysis and monitoring.
Shared Security Network IMUA announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Draper Dragon, No Limit Holdings, Paramita Capital, and participated by Reforge Capital, Caladan Capital, Tané Labs, Syntax Capital, MH Ventures, 57 Blocks, Lecca Ventures, etc. The new funds will be used to develop new technologies to bundle the decentralized security and trust of blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Solana and expand it into a service to protect the secure transactions of off-chain networks such as AI agents. Currently, the IMUA public test network is online.
ZKP technology startup Ligero completes $4 million seed round, led by Galaxy Ventures and 1kx
ZKP technology startup Ligero completed a $4 million seed round, led by Galaxy Ventures and 1kx, and participated by Franklin Templeton, Nascent, Anagram, Robot Ventures, Digital Currency Group and ZKV. It is reported that the company began this round of financing in March 2024 and ended in July 2024 with a valuation cap of US$20 million. There is currently no plan to launch a token.
Finisterra Labs completes $3.75 million seed round, led by Haun Ventures
According to Finisterra Labs announcement, the company completed a seed round of $3.75 million, led by Haun Ventures and participated by Lightshift Capital to develop Baselight, a decentralized data market. Baselight is committed to solving data fragmentation, high access costs and unfair profit models, and provides financial analysts, DeFi developers, AI teams, etc. with a queryable, computable, and realizable data platform. The team plans to expand the data ecosystem, optimize the analysis engine, and deepen the integration of AI, finance and blockchain to promote data democratization.
Optimum announced the completion of an angel round of financing, with investors including Polychain CTO, founder of DeFiance Capital, CEO of Bitget, Wormhole Lianchuang, Polygon Lianchuang, Jump Crypto managing partner and other well-known Web3 people. Optimum was co-founded by Professor Muriel Médard, NEC, MIT Department of Computer Science, Dr. Kishori Konwar, and Kent Lin, President of the Harvard Blockchain Association. Based on the research results of MIT Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), Optimum has created the world's first full-chain expansion solution - high-performance memory of world computers.
Optimum provides high-performance memory infrastructure for L1/L2 blockchain and node operators, including P2P data communication layer and decentralized memory layer (deRAM), breaking through the bottleneck of blockchain scalability and achieving fast data transmission, efficient storage and real-time access. Financing will be used to accelerate product development and bring infrastructure upgrades to the Web3 ecosystem.
other
Consumption:
Crypto gift card platform Raise completes $63 million in financing, led by Haun Ventures
Raise, a crypto gift card platform, announced a $63 million financing round, led by Haun Ventures, and Raj Gokal, co-founder of Paper Ventures, Selini Capital, GSR and blockchain Solana, participated. The company declined to disclose the valuation of the financing.
Bybit invests $1 million in agricultural blockchain project EthicHub
According to MarketWatch, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced a $1 million investment in EthicHub. It is reported that the investment is facilitated by the Blockchain Goodwill Alliance (BGA), which mainly uses blockchain to promote financial inclusion and empower small farmers to transform agricultural finance by integrating productive loans, mixed financing and market access.
The AI-powered Web3 music production platform MelodAI selected U coins to complete a new round of financing, led by LF Labs, and Becker Ventures and Hong Kong investment company Web3link participated in the investment. The specific amount has not been disclosed yet. The new funds will support it in building Web3 AI-generated content (AIGC) and AI Agent services.
meme:
Memes Lab completes $2.3 million seed round, led by Lemniscap
Memes Lab announced the completion of a $2.3 million seed round, led by Lemniscap, and TVM Ventures, Animoca Brands, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Kucoin Ventures, GSR, Amber Group and others participated. The funds will be used to develop and launch the TON application platform for the creation, trading and distribution of Meme tokens.
MemeMarket completes angel round financing, and IBC Group and other investments
MemeMarket, a Meme currency prediction market based on the Solana ecosystem, announced the completion of an angel round of financing. IBC Group, CRYPTO TIMES, as well as angel investors from Presto Labs Ventures, Republic Crypto Ventures, MEXC Ventures, BitGet, and LFG participated in the investment. The specific amount has not been disclosed yet. The new funds are planned to be used to build a decentralized Meme currency prediction tool and "super applications".
Centralized Finance
Bitwise announced the completion of a $70 million financing, with Electric Capital, MassMutual, MIT Investment Management Company, Highland Capital, Haun Ventures, ParaFi Capital and others participating in the investment, and the funds will be used to continue to promote its becoming a leading crypto asset management company.
Currently, Bitwise manages $12 billion in customer assets, has over 100 employees and offers over 30 investment solutions. The company plans to continue to expand its team and launch new products.
Crypto lending platform Lantern Finance announced that it has completed a $1 million Pre-Seed financing, with Orange DAO, Supermoon Ventures, Andover Ventures and others participating in the investment. The new funds will support it in developing the next generation of cryptocurrency lending platform, allowing users to borrow with digital assets as collateral and deposit funds directly into bank accounts.
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