A total of 23 public financing events occurred in the crypto market last week, with a total of approximately US$720 million raised | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
Reprinted from chaincatcher
01/20/2025·2days agoOrganized by: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, between January 13 and January 19, 2024, a total of 23 public investment and financing events occurred in the blockchain and encryption industry, with a cumulative financing of approximately US$720 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 open source economic infrastructure Merit Systems , the decentralized exchange GTE based on the MegaETH blockchain , the Berachain ecological farm simulation game project Beratone , and the AI-driven cryptocurrency analysis platform Mind AI .
In addition, Tapestry, a social graph protocol based on Solana, announced the completion of a $5.75 million Series A round of financing, co-led by Union Square Ventures and Fabric Ventures.
(List of projects that raised more than $5 million last week, data source: Rootdata )
1. Infrastructure
Open source economic infrastructure Merit Systems completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by a16z crypto and Blockchain Capital, with Solana co-founder Toly, Not Boring Capital founder Packy McCormick, Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero and Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer Waiting for participation. The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the open source economy.
Merit attempts to solve the "attribution problem" in software development. Merit is establishing a protocol that appropriately attributes and rewards contributors based on the value they create.
Web3 gaming company Hyve Labs completed a $2.75 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Volt Capital, Builder Capital, 32 Bit Ventures and numerous angel investors.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its team and develop its core infrastructure, such as launching its testnet chain, first game, and other on-chain assets.
Hyve Labs has developed a game rollup that uses technologies such as the decentralized data availability service EigenDA to act as a cross-chain game launcher.
Crypto wallet Phantom completed a $150 million Series C round of financing at a valuation of $3 billion. Sequoia Capital and Paradigm co-led the investment, with participation from a16z and Variant.
Since its launch in 2021, Phantom has reached 15 million monthly active users and manages $25 billion in self-custody assets.
According to RootData , Phantom is a friendly crypto wallet that allows users to safely and easily store, buy, send, receive, trade tokens and collect NFTs on the Solana blockchain.
According to Chainwire, Web 2.5 infrastructure company Torram announced the completion of a $710,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Draper Associates, Blockchain Founders Fund, Boost VC, Side Door Ventures, Deep Ventures, MH Ventures, Silvermine Capital and Trive Digital.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, [Torram](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Torram?k=MTM5ODM= "Decentralized oracle and indexer network") is a Bitcoin native meta-protocol that provides AI-enhanced indexing for Bitcoin dApps and developers, bringing encrypted native and real-world data to the chain.
CeDeFi infrastructure BounceBit receives investment from Laser Digital
CeDeFi infrastructure BounceBit received investment from Laser Digital, a subsidiary of Japan's Nomura Group.
Laser Digital is a digital asset company, backed by Nomura, Laser Digital offers scalable, robust opportunities in trading, asset management and venture capital.
Crypto wallet Dfns completes US$16 million in financing, led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ
According to Bloomberg, Dfns, a Paris-based crypto wallet technology company, has completed a $16 million financing led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ. Other investors include market makers Wintermute, Motive Partners, Bpifrance and the family office of the owner of Galeries Lafayette Group. Motier Ventures.
According to reports, Dfns was founded in 2020. The company develops technology that allows developers to more easily build and securely manage digital asset wallets. Its clients include Fidelity International, Zodia Custody and stablecoin company Bridge, which was acquired by Stripe last year. The startup, which raised $13 million in 2022, plans to expand its headcount to 35 employees from the current 25.
According to official news, Alpen Labs, the financial infrastructure on the Bitcoin chain, announced the completion of US$8.5 million in strategic financing. DBA and Cyber Fun co-led the investment. Ribbit Capital, Castle Island Ventures and Geometry were the largest investors in its seed round financing, and Alpen was supported again in this round of financing. This round of funding will help it accelerate the development of Bitcoin ZK Rollup “Strata” and release it to the mainnet in 2025.
According to reports, Strata will be launched as an open platform designed to expand and promote the use of Bitcoin, which will unlock many practical features for Bitcoin: simple self-custody, intuitive and privacy-preserving payments, interoperability, Bitcoin-based Supported lending and stablecoins, as well as many other on-chain applications. Strata will be available to the public starting next month with the upcoming testnet release.
Previously, it was reported that Bitcoin L2 developer Alpen Labs completed US$10.6 million in financing, led by Ribbit Capital.
2. Defi
CertiK Ventures announces investment in Solana ecological second-layer expansion project Mantis
CertiK Ventures, the investment arm of blockchain security company CertiK, announced its investment in Mantis in a post on social platforms.
This project is the first second-layer expansion solution built on Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), aiming to improve the interoperability and user experience of decentralized finance through artificial intelligence agents. Currently, Mantis's cross-chain transaction function is online, with a transaction volume of US$35 million, and is undergoing a security audit by OtterSec.
MegaETH ecological DEX GTE has raised US$10 million through three rounds of financing
GTE, a decentralized exchange based on the MegaETH blockchain, has raised US$10 million through three rounds of financing, including US$1.5 million in Pre-Seed financing, US$6.942 million in seed round financing, and Echo’s US$2.5 million in community financing.
GTE Ventures investors include Maven 11, Wintermute, Flow Traders, Robot Ventures, IMC Trading, Ethena's Guy Young, Anza's Max Resnick and undisclosed traders from Jump Trading.
3. Games
According to official news, Berachain's ecological farm simulation game project Beratone announced that it has received US$2 million in seed round financing, led by Animoca, with participation from SNZ, Citizen X, Avid3, Metazero Capital, Digits and other institutions and some individuals.
4. AI
Mind AI, an AI-driven cryptocurrency analysis platform, announced the completion of US$1.2 million in strategic financing from aixcb, Castrum Istanbul, Dewhales, SMO Capital, Metazero Capital, X21 Digital, Lunar Labs Capital, Zephyrus Capital, AlfaCatalyst, Decubate, Maven Capital, Unreal Capital, GAINS Associates, Coinvestor Ventures, Kef Ventures, Carbon Browser, Danxia Capital, Unicorn Ventures Participate in investment.
According to Web3 asset data platform RootData, Mind AI is an encrypted analysis platform that helps investors use data to make better decisions. Its goal is to help users cut through the noise and information overload of social media.
5. Others
According to The Block, Tapestry, a social graph protocol based on Solana, announced the completion of a $5.75 million Series A round of financing, co-led by Union Square Ventures and Fabric Ventures. This round of financing adopts an equity plus token warrant structure, with the equity valuation reaching US$35 million and the token network valuation reaching US$70 million.
Tapestry currently has 13 employees and has raised $12.5 million in total funding. This protocol uses Solana's state compression technology to build a social graph at the Layer 1 level, which is different from Farcaster and Lens based on Layer 2. The project adopts a freemium business model and plans to expand to ecosystems such as Aptos, Monad and Berachain in the future.
Digital advertising platform EarnOS announced the completion of a US$5 million seed round of financing, led by Escape Velocity (EV3), with participation from Animoca Brands, GD1, Laser Digital, XION, Mysten Labs, Opacity Network, etc.
The EarnOS platform beta was launched by XION, with brands like Uber, Baskin Robbins, Sunglass Hut and The North Face on board during the EarnOS beta launch.
According to RootData , EarnOS is a digital advertising platform where third-party brands can acquire customers and provide rewards. It leverages XION's chain abstraction to open up new ways for mainstream brands and enterprises to incentivize more than 5.5 billion active Internet users.
Komainu Holdings Ltd., a cryptocurrency custodian backed by Nomura Holdings Inc., has received $75 million in Bitcoin financing from Blockstream Capital Partners, Bloomberg reported.
The company plans to use the funds to support global expansion plans and integrate collateral management and tokenization technology developed by Blockstream Corp., subject to regulatory approval. Blockstream CEO Adam Back will join Komainu's board of directors.
According to Cointelegraph, Barcelona-based RWA tokenization platform Brickken announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round of financing, bringing its post-investment valuation to more than $22.5 million. Psalion, Ergodic Fund, SNZ Capital, Blue Bay Ventures, Mocha and Hodl Ventures Participate in investment.
According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, [Brickken](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Brickken?k=NzgwNg== "Asset Tokenization Solutions") is an asset tokenization solutions company that standardizes the asset tokenization process through decentralized applications (dApp), providing enterprises with the tools needed to easily create, sell and manage digital assets. .
Cryptocurrency bank Sygnum Bank completed $58 million in financing, led by Fulgur Ventures
Sygnum, a crypto bank headquartered in Switzerland and Singapore, completed US$58 million in financing, led by Fulgur Ventures, with a post-financing valuation of US$1 billion.
The new funds will be used to expand its product portfolio (with a focus on Bitcoin technology), expand its institutional infrastructure, strengthen its compliance team and explore strategic acquisition opportunities. Proceeds will also help Sygnum's EU expansion plans and establish a regulated business in Hong Kong.
According to RootData , Sygnum is a digital asset bank with a Swiss banking license and a Singapore asset management license. Sygnum empowers institutional and private accredited investors, businesses, banks and other financial institutions to invest in the emerging digital asset economy with complete trust. Customers can invest in leading digital assets using their deposits in Swiss francs, US dollars, euros and Singapore dollars.
Chainalysis acquires AI agent security startup Alterya for more than $100 million
According to Businessinsider, Chainalysis spent more than $100 million to acquire the AI agent security startup Alterya. The specific valuation information has not yet been disclosed.
Two sources with knowledge of the deal said the total acquisition value was about $150 million. Alterya is a graduate of Y Combinator, a renowned Silicon Valley incubator that develops artificial intelligence technology that uses agents to detect and prevent fraud targeting financial institutions, fintech and crypto service providers.
MoonPay acquires Helio for $175M to expand crypto payments infrastructure
MoonPay acquired Helio for $175 million to expand its crypto payment infrastructure. This acquisition of Helio will integrate its technology into MoonPay to enable crypto transactions on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Discord.
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