Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 14 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (April 14 - April 20), with a total funding scale exceeding $286 million. The inflow of funds saw a significant increase compared to the previous week, as summarized below:
- DeFi announced 6 financing events, including Resolv Labs, the team behind the DeFi protocol Resolv, which announced the completion of a $10 million seed round led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11.
- DePIN announced 1 financing event, with the DePIN project Solix DePIN securing $29.5 million in funding from the Eclip Foundation.
- Web3+AI announced 1 financing event, with the decentralized AI platform ORO AI completing a $6 million seed round led by a16z CSX and Delphi Ventures.
- Infrastructure & Tools announced 5 financing events, including a16z's announcement of a further $55 million investment in LayerZero.
- Other categories announced 1 financing event, with U.S. Bitcoin mining manufacturer Auradine completing a $153 million Series C funding round led by StepStone Group.
DeFi
Resolv Labs completes $10 million seed round financing, led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11
Resolv Labs, the team behind the DeFi protocol Resolv, announced the completion of a $10 million seed round financing, led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Susquehanna subsidiary SCB Limited, Arrington Capital, Gumi Cryptos, NoLimit Holdings, Robot Ventures, Animoca Ventures, and others. Resolv focuses on the yield-bearing stablecoin USR, employing a delta-neutral strategy layered structure, allowing token holders to earn stable returns. The current protocol TVL is $450 million, and the new funds will be used to expand BTC-related strategies and multi-chain deployment.
DeFi protocol Neutrl completes $5 million seed round financing, led by STIX and Accomplice
DeFi protocol Neutrl completed a $5 million seed round financing, led by STIX and Accomplice, with participation from Amber Group, SCB Limited, Figment Capital, and Nascent. Neutrl launched the stablecoin NUSD, which purchases locked-up altcoins at a discount through the OTC market and hedges with perpetual contracts to achieve hedged returns. This strategy aims to popularize hedge fund-level arbitrage methods among retail investors, targeting a market size of $10 billion.
Crypto investment startup Glider announced the completion of a $4 million financing led by a16z, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Pivot Global, Uniswap Ventures, and GSR. Glider aims to combine AI and DeFi to provide users with automated, non-custodial personalized crypto asset allocation solutions. The product is still in the testing phase and is expected to launch in the coming months. The company will also join a16z's crypto accelerator program in San Francisco.
Hyperion completes strategic round financing, with participation from OKX Ventures and Aptos Labs
Decentralized trading platform Hyperion announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with participation from OKX Ventures and Aptos Labs. This round of financing will accelerate the development of its core products, including optimizing CLMM concentrated liquidity market makers and the strategy management tool VAULT, aimed at enhancing trading efficiency and user experience. Hyperion focuses on the Aptos ecosystem and plans to innovate solutions for liquidity dispersion issues and optimize trading experiences while expanding its user base. Funds will be used for technology R&D, ecosystem building, and launching user incentive programs like DRIPs.
Treehouse Finance completes a new round of financing with a valuation of $400 million
Treehouse Finance, focused on DeFi fixed income, completed a strategic financing round with a fully diluted valuation of $400 million. This round adopted a SAFT structure, with investors including notable institutions such as suspected MassMutual Ventures and industry figures like Ethena and QCP. Treehouse aims to create a decentralized benchmark interest rate DOR and yield assets tAssets, targeting the traditional $60 trillion fixed income market. The platform has already attracted over 30,000 wallets and 120,000 ETH deposits. The mainnet is expected to launch in June.
Wintermute announces investment in lending protocol Euler Finance
Market maker Wintermute announced on platform X that its investment arm, Wintermute Ventures, has invested in the DeFi lending protocol Euler Finance, with the specific amount not disclosed.
DePIN
DePIN project Solix DePIN completes $29.5 million financing
The DePIN project Solix DePIN has secured $29.5 million in funding from the Eclip Foundation. This investment will accelerate the development of Solix's Model Context Protocol (MCP) technology, which enables intelligent bandwidth sharing without affecting users' internet experience. Solix DePIN is a decentralized physical infrastructure network that allows users to share and monetize their excess bandwidth. The core technology of Solix, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), connects AI models with real-time contextual data from internet usage, enabling dynamic and intelligent decisions on bandwidth allocation.
AI
Decentralized AI platform ORO AI announced the completion of a $6 million seed round financing, led by a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) and Delphi Ventures, with participation from Ocular VC, Orange DAO, NEAR Protocol, and 0G Labs. ORO is a decentralized AI platform aimed at unlocking high-quality, private data for advanced AI models. ORO utilizes blockchain technology to facilitate secure and permissioned data sharing, enabling AI developers to train models on quality datasets while protecting data privacy.
Infrastructure & Tools
a16z announces additional $55 million investment in LayerZero
a16z general partner Ali Yahya announced on platform X: "The company has made an additional investment of $55 million to purchase ZRO tokens of the cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero, with a 3-year lock-up period." a16z had previously invested in LayerZero, including an initial investment in March 2022 and a follow-up investment during LayerZero's Series B financing in April 2023. The two companies did not disclose the valuation of this round of financing.
Optimum completes $11 million seed round financing, led by 1kx
Infrastructure project Optimum announced the completion of an $11 million seed round financing, led by 1kx, with participation from Robot Ventures, Finality Capital, Spartan, CMT Digital, SNZ, Triton Capital, Big Brain, CMS, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge, and others. The financing will be used for product development and ecosystem integration. Optimum aims to create decentralized high-performance memory infrastructure for blockchain, launching high-performance node communication layer OptimumP2P and decentralized memory product DeRAM based on Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) technology, aiming to provide efficient data transmission and storage solutions for any blockchain network. OptimumP2P is set to launch its testnet and is inviting public chains and node operators to participate in testing.
"Hyper-Casual Finance" network Hana Network announces completion of a total of $6 million financing
Focusing on "Hyper-Casual Finance," Hana Network announced the completion of a total of $6 million in financing, with participation from core members of L1/L2 projects and some KOLs in the recent No More CEX funding round. Additionally, Hanafuda announced that the second and third phases of its mainnet are expected to launch in the coming months. According to reports, Hana Network is incubated by Yzi Labs and supported by Hyperliquid. Hana Network will launch Hana Gateway in January 2024, a trustless on-and-off ramp for crypto assets, currently focusing on developing "Hyper-Casual Finance" through user-led distribution on social platforms, such as attention incentives, social tipping, and P2P financing.
Blockchain-based data verification platform Rekord AG has completed a seed round financing of 4.5 million Swiss francs (approximately $5.51 million), with the investors not disclosed. Rekord AG is a data infrastructure company based in Switzerland, focusing on blockchain-supported data verification and integrity solutions.
Meme-centric application development team Embr Labs completes $1.8 million Pre-seed round financing
The meme-centric application development team Embr Labs, part of the Initia ecosystem, announced the completion of a $1.8 million Pre-seed round financing. This round was co-led by Robot Ventures and Lattice Fund, with participation from TempleDAO and individual investor Daryl Lau. Embr Labs developed Embr.fun, an application chain built on the Initia Interwoven Stack, integrating gamified experiences that allow users to publish, compete, and grow their Meme assets in a competitive environment.
Others
Crypto Mining Companies:
U.S. Bitcoin mining manufacturer Auradine has completed a $153 million Series C financing, of which $138 million is equity financing and $15 million is venture debt. This round was led by StepStone Group, with participation from Samsung, Qualcomm, Premji Invest, and others. Auradine plans to expand its core mining business and establish a new AI infrastructure division, AuraLinks AI, currently generating annual revenue of $150 million and serving over 40 data center clients.
Venture Capital Funds
Bloomberg: Galaxy Ventures Fund has exceeded its $150 million fundraising target
According to Bloomberg, insiders revealed that Michael Novogratz's Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP has exceeded its $150 million fundraising target and will build a portfolio of approximately 30 investments. This fund focuses on investing in early-stage startups, particularly in the payment and stablecoin sectors, and is expected to complete fundraising by the end of June, with the amount raised between $175 million and $180 million. The limited partners of this new fund are mainly family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Galaxy itself has also invested in this fund. Galaxy recently obtained permission for a direct listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, with trading expected to occur after a special shareholder meeting in May.
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