Financing Weekly | Public financing incidents from 20; OSHI based on blockchain -based animation platform OSHI completed $ 12.5 million in financing, Polychain Capital and other leaders
Reprinted from panewslab
01/27/2025·3MHighlights in this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 20 investment and financing events in global blockchain last week (1.20-1.26); the total scale of funds exceeded US$98 million, a significant decrease compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 6 investment and financing events, among which hybrid encryption exchange GRVT raised US$5 million in equity financing from Further Ventures;
- The DePIN circuit announced an investment and financing event, in which Wingbits completed US$5.6 million in financing, led by Borderless Capital and Bullish Capital;
- Three investment and financing events were announced in the AI+Web3 field, among which the decentralized autonomous AI agent network MinionLab completed a US$2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Jsquare and Capital6 Eagle;
- Seven investment and financing events were announced in the field of infrastructure & tools , among which the Ethereum Layer 2 project SOON raised US$22 million through NFT sales, with Hack VC leading the investment;
- One investment and financing event was announced in other categories, in which Oshi, a blockchain-based animation platform, completed US$12.5 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital and Superscrypt;
- Centralized finance announced two investment and financing events. SignalPlus completed US$11 million in Series B financing, led by AppWorks and OKX Ventures.
DeFi
Hybrid crypto exchange GRVT raises $5 million in equity funding from Further Ventures
Further Ventures, a venture capital firm backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, invested $5 million in ZKsync-based hybrid crypto exchange GRVT. GRVT recently launched the mainnet Alpha version, initially focusing on perpetual contract trading. It currently has an average daily trading volume of US$50 million, with 800 active traders and 55 institutional clients. This round of financing brings GRVT’s cumulative financing to $14.3 million. The funds will be used to expand spot and options trading, upgrade its Bermuda crypto business license, and seek additional regulatory approvals in the European Union, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. Additionally, GRVT plans to issue its tokens in the second half of 2025.
EVAA Protocol, the TON ecological DeFi lending platform, completed US$2.5 million in private financing, with participation from Polymorphic, TON Ventures, Animoca Ventures, CMT Digital, Mythos Ventures, Wagmi Ventures and multiple angel investors. According to reports, EVAA Protocol provides lending, borrowing, short selling, leveraged pledge and other DeFi services for the TON network. The platform aims to use the new financing to launch native token EVAA, with the overall goal of expanding TON’s DeFi landscape.
Cross-chain Meme currency Launchpad project Printr announced the completion of a $2.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Sfermion, Draper Dragon, Bitscale, Hermenutic, Sui Foundation, Axelar Foundation and Flow Foundation. According to reports, Printr is a chain abstract token market that allows Meme to be launched on multiple chains and traded on all chains with one click, such as Ethereum, Solana, Sui, BNB and Base, etc., and through the mutual Operational platform Axelar unifies liquidity.
Solana ecological crypto derivatives exchange Ranger Protocol completes US$1.9 million in financing
Solana ecological crypto derivatives exchange Ranger Protocol completed US$1.9 million in financing, led by RockawayX, with participation from Asymmetric, Big Brain Holdings, RISE Capital, Anagram and RockawayX. This round of financing was completed in December last year, with a valuation of US$30 million. Coby Lim, co-founder of Ranger Protocol, said that the protocol is currently planning to add new product lines to allow customers to use AI-assisted trading strategies, with AI expected to be launched in the "next few quarters."
RWA tokenization protocol Hamilton completes $1.7 million in Pre-Seed round of financing
RWA tokenization protocol Hamilton completed a $1.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing. The transaction was led by DisrupTech Ventures and included participants including CMS, DeSpread, Hyperithm, Core Ventures and other strategic investors. According to reports, Hamilton is a protocol that introduces tokenized assets into Bitcoin and is committed to combining traditional financial instruments with the security and transparency of Bitcoin. Hamilton will launch three flagship products: HUSD, a Bitcoin-native stablecoin backed by U.S. bonds; HUST, a tokenized U.S. Treasury bond; and Publius, a platform that empowers financial institutions to tokenize any asset.
SONEX completed seed round financing, led by Outliers Fund and others
SONEX, an AI-powered decentralized exchange based on the Soneium ecosystem, announced the completion of a million-dollar first round of financing. This seed round was jointly led by Outliers Fund and a technology and entertainment giant, with participation from Baboon VC, Taisu Ventures, Nonagon Capital, Flow Traders, Gate Ventures and Lootex. The funds will be used for technology upgrades, derivatives function development and global expansion, and are committed to promoting innovative development in the fields of DeFi and entertainment through blockchain and AI agents.
DePIN
DePIN startup Wingbits completes $5.6 million in funding
DePIN startup Wingbits completed US$5.6 million in financing. This round of investment was led by Borderless Capital and Bullish Capital, bringing Wingbits’ total financing to US$9.2 million. Wingbits is a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) startup focused on the aviation industry that aims to provide reward-based flight tracking services using cryptographically secured Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers.
AI
MinionLab, a decentralized autonomous AI agent network, completed a $2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Jsquare and Capital6 Eagle. Funds will be used to expand the Minion network. MinionLab will launch more Minions to a wider user base, ensuring wider coverage and more diverse data collection; the artificial intelligence module team will develop specialized modules to solve multi-step websites Tasks such as navigation, advanced data extraction, and other complex use cases; and growing the ecosystem by partnering with AI startups, research institutions, and established enterprises. It is reported that Minions are autonomous AI agents running on user devices. According to previous news, the decentralized autonomous AI agent network All Stream AI announced that it has officially changed its name to MinionLab.
Vivident completes US$1.5 million in seed round financing, with participation from crypto venture capital Hashed and others
Vivident, a start-up company in artificial intelligence IP technology, announced the completion of a US$1.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Hashed, Mashup Ventures, TheVentures, Modhaus (South Korea), Sfermion (USA), CVC Z Venture Capital, Decima Fund and Titan Fund of Hong Kong CMCC Global , a team with a strong track record in building consumer products across Web2 and blockchain technologies, the new funding will be used to support its use of generative AI technology to create anime-style character IP and community interaction platform, and plans to launch a beta service in the first half of 2025.
AI Agent platform Hybrid completed seed round financing, with participation from Outlier Ventures and others
AI Agent platform Hybrid announced the completion of a seed round of financing, with participation from Outlier Ventures, NxGen.xyz, Follow the Seed, Founderheads VC, CSP DAO, , to support the creation and monetization of Web3 ecological artificial intelligence agents.
Infrastructure & Tools
SOON raises $22 million through NFT sales, Hack VC leads investment
The Ethereum Layer 2 project SOON (Solana Optimistic Network) raised $22 million through an NFT sale called "COMMing SOON" before the launch of the mainnet. SOON uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) as the core execution layer, uses a parallel processing model to improve transaction settlement efficiency, and forms a differentiated competitive advantage with the traditional Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sequential processing model. The financing was led by Hack VC, with support from ABCDE, Hypersphere, SNZ Capital and other institutions, and was endorsed by well-known figures in the Solana ecosystem. SOON also plans to expand to other blockchains beyond Ethereum through its "decoupled SVM architecture" and allocate 51% of network tokens to the community to promote ecological development. As of now, its test bridge has over 11,000 ETH (approximately $36 million) locked.
Ethereum Layer 2 network Corn has raised $8.3 million in a community funding round. This round of financing was raised through a compliant token sales platform called Legion, involving 675 investors and venture capital companies such as Polychain, Amber, GSR, Presto, and Laser Digital. Corn noted that the terms of participation for venture capital firms and community investors are the same. Although not yet fully operational, Corn aims to deepen the integration of Bitcoin into the DeFi ecosystem by using Bitcoin as a Gas token through a new hybrid tokenized version called BTCN. BTCN will be Corn’s tokenized Bitcoin, backed by native Bitcoin at a 1:1 ratio and not tied to a single custodian or bridging solution. Corn will launch its own native token CORN to incentivize users and developers.
Shared sorter solution Radius completes US$7 million in seed round financing, led by Pantera Capital
Shared sorter solution Radius announced the completion of a US$7 million seed round of financing, led by Pantera Capital. According to reports, Radius is a trustless ordering layer that provides ordering-as-a-service and cross-rollup interoperability solutions for specialized blockchains called rollups. In 2025, Radius will launch Lighthouse to help Rollups gain MEV revenue, and by 2026, Radius plans to expand on Ethereum to increase revenue opportunities.
Bitcoin payment startup Breez completes $5 million in funding
Bitcoin payment startup Breez announced the completion of US$5 million in financing, with participation from Entrée Capital, ego death capital, Plan ₿ Fund and Timechain. According to reports, Breez aims to bring Bitcoin payment functionality to every application. In the 18 months since its launch, more than 40 applications have implemented the Breez SDK in production or testing stages. The company is also preparing to launch Misty Breez, a reference application that showcases user-friendly Lightning UX through its nodeless implementation and SDK.
Crypto wallet Keplr completes US$5 million in seed round financing, led by 1confirmation
Crypto wallet provider Keplr completed a US$5 million seed round of financing, led by 1confirmation, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, Chorus One Ventures, Skip Protocol, Binary Builders and others. Co-founder Josh Lee said the equity financing closed late last year, valuing Keplr at $50 million. With the new funding, Keplr plans to enhance its platform by hiring more people for its engineering and product development teams. The company plans to improve user experience and expand support for EVM and non-EVM blockchains. Keplr has no plans to issue tokens. “Before we start thinking about tokens, we need to develop a bigger picture in terms of connecting Keplr ownership, verifiability and usability,” Lee said.
Decentralized protocol Swarm Network completes US$3 million in seed round financing
Decentralized protocol Swarm Network announced the completion of a US$3 million seed round of financing, led by y2z Ventures and Zerostage. According to reports, Swarm Network is a decentralized protocol that converts raw off-chain data into verifiable on-chain information in real time. Reward integrity and promote transparency by integrating AI agents, human intelligence, and zero-knowledge proofs.
Simple Proof, a data integrity solution based on the Bitcoin blockchain, completes Pre-Seed round of financing
Simple Proof, a data integrity solution based on the Bitcoin blockchain, announced the completion of a Pre-Seed round of financing, led by ego death capital and Wolf. The specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. The company plans to use the new funds to build Immutable Proof services and based on Bitcoin Timechain and the OpenTimestamps protocol to create tamper-proof digital file records.
other
Consumption:
Blockchain-based animation platform Oshi announced the completion of US$12.5 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital and Superscrypt, with participation from Folius Ventures, Sfermion, The Spartan Group, Nomad Capital, CMT Digital, etc. According to reports, Oshi is an open animation platform based on blockchain. Through Oshi, fans can directly support their beloved animation projects and receive exclusive benefits. The platform’s IP licensing infrastructure enables IP owners to maintain control over their works. Take control while connecting with dedicated global partners.
Centralized Finance
SignalPlus, an Asia-based crypto derivatives trading software provider, completed an $11 million Series B round of financing led by AppWorks and OKX Ventures, with participation from Avenir Group and HashKey. Founded in 2021, SignalPlus provides crypto derivatives trading tools for institutions. Its products include QuantLab and Trading Terminal, which are widely used on platforms such as Binance, Bybit, Deribit, OKX and Paradigm. The company plans to use the new funds to expand quantitative trading and risk management products and further expand its global business footprint through recruitment.
African cross-border payment platform Accrue announced the completion of a US$1.58 million seed round of financing, led by Lattice Fund, with participation from Maven 11, Lava, Kraynos Capital, etc., and celebrated its third anniversary at the same time. Accrue was founded in 2021 by Zino, Clinton and Adesuwa, and initially focused on fixed investment applications for crypto and stocks. After experiencing the market trough in 2022, the company transformed and launched the cross-border payment tool Cashramp, which has now become the main source of revenue and will achieve profitability in mid-2023. Currently, Accrue has served more than 200,000 African users. This round of financing will be used to expand payment infrastructure, optimize product functions and expand team size to further promote innovation and growth.
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