Funding Weekly: 34 deals raised $325 million, with Bitcoin ecosystem gaining increasing prominence
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Funding Weekly: 34 deals raised $325 million, with Bitcoin ecosystem gaining increasing prominence
Between December 11 and December 17, a total of five blockchain projects raised over $5 million each.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData data, between December 11 and December 17, 34 blockchain startups announced fundraising totaling approximately $325 million.
Projects that raised over $5 million include:
1. Web3 identity startup Dynamic raised $13.5 million;
2. Andalusia Labs announced a $48 million Series A round;
3. Bitcoin rewards platform Lolli completed an $8 million Series B round;
4. NFT startup Metagood announced a $5 million seed round;
5. UAE-based blockchain gaming studio Farcana secured $10 million in seed funding.
Featured Projects
Molecule
Overview: Molecule is a decentralized biotechnology protocol building a Web3 marketplace for research-related intellectual property. As a blockchain-based funding platform, Molecule connects patients, biotech firms, or investors with scientists to advance open research markets. It has funded studies on longevity, hair regeneration, autophagy, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Investors: The DeSci project Molecule has received a $1 million investment commitment from Sora Ventures.
Highlights:
1. Binance founder CZ and Coinbase CEO are actively exploring the DeSci space;
2. Molecule pioneered the IP-NFT concept—a hybrid legal-smart contract model that brings intellectual property and R&D data rights on-chain, unifying legal rights, data access, and economic incentives into cryptographic tokens on Ethereum;
3. Molecule enables patient collectives and drug development DAOs to manage and interact with real-world IP.
NodeKit
Overview: NodeKit is building SEQ, a shared sequencer Layer 1 network designed to enhance rollups' resilience, uptime, and interoperability. SEQ's testnet is scheduled for launch in 2024, followed by the mainnet.
Investors: Avalanche-based SEQ developer NodeKit raised $1.2 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Avalanche Blizzard Fund, Polygon Ventures, and Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund.
Highlights:
1. Its architecture supports multiple data availability layers, including Celestia.
2. The NodeKit team consists of three co-founders aged 21, 21, and 20, all of whom dropped out of universities in the U.S. Midwest to focus full-time on NodeKit and Web3.
3. As part of the Avalanche ecosystem, SEQ can operate as either an independent blockchain or a subnet.
Tap Protocol
Overview: Tap Protocol, driven by German startup Trac Systems, offers features such as inscription splitting and enabling DeFi applications on inscriptions. The protocol aims to discover and track ordinals, advancing OrdFi applications without relying on complex Layer 2 solutions.
Investors: Bitcoin ecosystem project Tap Protocol raised $4.2 million in a round led by Sora Ventures, with participation from LD Capital, Cypher Capital, Rw3, Oak Grove Capital, Perock Capital, Kosmos Ventures, New Tribe Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Compute Ventures, MSA Novo, and angel investors including executives from Animoca Brands and Quantstamp.
Highlights:
1. Developers can integrate based on Tap documentation, extending functionality around staking and trading.
2. TAP enables new ways to explore DeFi within Ordinals and allows third parties to issue custom tokens. Use cases include gaming, bridging, swaps, staking, bulk transfers, and airdrops.
3. TAP will offer governance, voting rights, grants, and incentives to creators working on PIPE. The governance model will evolve so that $TRAC token holders can vote on which innovations get integrated into the TAP Protocol.
Breakdown of funding by sector:
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Bitcoin Ordinals lending solution Liquidium raised $1.25 million in a Pre-Seed round backed by Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Side Door Ventures, Actai Ventures, Sora Ventures, Spicy Capital, and UTXO Management. Liquidium is a peer-to-peer lending protocol operating natively on the Bitcoin blockchain, allowing users to lend and borrow native Bitcoin using ordinal inscriptions as collateral.
BTC-native stablecoin protocol bitSmiley announced its first institutional funding round co-led by OKX Ventures and ABCDE. As the first BTC ecosystem stablecoin protocol to receive institutional backing, bitSmiley allows users to over-collateralize native BTC on the Bitcoin network to mint the stablecoin bitUSD. The protocol also includes lending and derivatives components, aiming to build a new financial ecosystem on Bitcoin. Additionally, bitSmiley was selected as a top project in the BTC hackathon hosted by ABCDE and OKX Ventures in November.
Bitcoin rewards platform Lolli raised $8 million in a Series B round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, Prisma Ventures (Ulta Beauty), Hypersphere Ventures, ZebPay CEO Rahul Pagidipati, 2 Punks Capital, MZ Web3 Fund, and Seven Seven Six. The funds will be used to launch Lolli’s rewards program with enterprise partners such as exchanges, banks, payment providers, and browsers.
Bitcoin ecosystem project Tap Protocol raised $4.2 million in a round led by Sora Ventures, with support from LD Capital, Cypher Capital, Rw3, Oak Grove Capital, Perock Capital, Kosmos Ventures, New Tribe Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Compute Ventures, MSA Novo, and angel investors including executives from Animoca Brands and Quantstamp. Tap Protocol enables inscription splitting and DeFi applications on inscriptions, facilitating OrdFi use cases without complex Layer 2 infrastructure.
DeFi
Decentralized derivatives infrastructure provider EthosX announced a $1.8 million funding round supported by Y Combinator, Franklin Templeton, Ascensive Assets, Emurgo Ventures, Stacker VC, and Sudo Research. Founded in 2022 by Deepanshu, former VP of Global Derivatives Clearing at JPMorgan Chase, EthosX is part of Binance Labs’ sixth MVB accelerator cohort and focuses on automated, non-custodial clearing and settlement for financial derivatives.
Polkadot-based decentralized governance infrastructure Dora Factory announced a strategic funding round led by Dao5, with participation from seven other investors including Singapore’s Huang Poa Digital. Dora Factory plans to enhance its public chain staking products and governance application chain “Dora Botta,” and will launch a funding round for contributors in the Cosmos ecosystem built on Dora Botta.
Japanese stablecoin technology provider GUGroup raised 420 million yen (approximately $2.9 million), led by Japanese venture firm B Dash Ventures. GUGroup also raised additional funds through token sales to overseas investors.
Layer2
Bitget announced a multi-million dollar investment in Morph, an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain. Morph uses innovative Roll-up technology combining Optimistic and ZK Rollups to deliver cost-effective, secure, and scalable transactions. Specific terms were not disclosed.
Ethereum-based Layer 2 solution Enphyr announced a $1 million seed round at a $10 million valuation, led by Waveslab Ventures. The funds will support team expansion, strategic partnerships, and engineering development to enhance protocol infrastructure and expand use cases.
DePin
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) Hivello announced a $1 million pre-seed round with participation from NGC, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, IDG, Bing Ventures, MEXC Exchange, XT.com Exchange, Genesis Block, and NxGen. Led by a co-founder of Banxa, Hivello aims to meet blockchain application demands through decentralized infrastructure and plans to integrate 100 DePINs within the next 12 months to broaden service availability.
DeSci
DeSci project Molecule announced a $1 million investment commitment from Sora Ventures, aimed at expanding DeSci adoption in Asia and fostering a culture of objective science and shared intellectual property across borders.
Gaming
Web3 entertainment platform MATR1X announced the completion of its A2+ funding round, with OKX Ventures as the sole investor.
Crypto startup Spielworks, focused on DeFi and gaming, completed a strategic funding round with participation from Swiss nonprofit The Hashgraph Association (THA). Terms were not disclosed. Funds will support the acquisition of NFT platform Atomic Hub and accelerate the expansion of Spielworks’ Web3 gaming ecosystem on Hedera’s high-performance public ledger while reducing transaction fees for players. THA will also provide support in game publishing, commercialization, and future fundraising.
UAE-based blockchain gaming studio Farcana raised $10 million in a seed round backed by Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Rarestone Capital, MMPro Trust, Unpopular Ventures, Kapo Capital, Emchain, Hasu Capital, and Dravus Investment. The funds will further develop its third-person multiplayer shooter game. Farcana’s advisory board includes Carlos "Ocelote" Rodriguez, founder and former CEO of G2 Esports. Based in the Middle East and North Africa, the team previously partnered with Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism to host a pre-alpha test at the Dubai Esports Festival in June 2023.
Applications
Web3 learning and earn platform Intract raised $3 million in a round co-led by Alpha Wave Global, BITKRAFT Ventures, and Gumi Cryptos, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Tokentus, MoonPay, and Web3 Studios. Intract plans to launch its Academy in 2024—a curated learning experience for Web2 users exploring Web3—as well as its internal economy, enabling users to interact within a future decentralized network.
Web3 social platform Seam Social raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by 1kx, with participation from Seed Club, Sfermion, f7 Ventures, and Social Graph Ventures. The funds will be used to build the marketplace, attract developers to create mini-apps, launch a mobile app, expand the team, and develop customizable, user-owned social media.
Web3 social platform /Reach announced a $1 million seed round backed by notable figures including Seedphrase, Zeneca, Pranksy, Gmoney, Dingaling, and Mooncat2878. Co-founders L'anamour and 8an aim to shift the status quo of Twitter as the central hub for crypto communities. /Reach intends to leverage social finance innovation to address key challenges in current social media platforms.
NFT Platforms
BitJungle announced a strategic investment in NFTScan, marking its official entry into blockchain infrastructure investments.
Line’s NFT subsidiary Line Next secured $140 million from private equity fund operator Crescendo Equity Partners and its consortium—the largest Web3 investment in Asia this year. Line Next will use the funds to promote Web3 adoption, expand its global platform, and develop new services, including the global NFT platform DOSI launching in January, AI-powered social apps, and Web3 games.
NFT perpetual futures exchange nftperp raised $3 million in a Series A round led by 1kx, with participation from Maven 11, Mechanism Capital, and angel investors including Spencer from Spencer Ventures, Gmoney, David Choi from MetaStreet, Nick Emmons from Upshot, and Jonathan Gabler from NFTfi. Additionally, nftperp announced that its v2 version will launch soon.
NFT startup Metagood raised $5 million in a seed round led by Sora Ventures, with participation from ACTAI Ventures, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Bitcoin Magazine Fund, London Real Ventures, and Peach.xyz. The funds will support Osura’s technology and product development, marketing efforts, and artist collaborations.
Music NFT platform Sound.xyz announced the acquisition of digital collector platform Soho. The entire Soho team will join Sound, with Omid Aziz becoming Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Infrastructure
AIT Protocol, the first AI data infrastructure project, announced a new funding round with participation from Morningstar Ventures, Maven Capital, Contango Digital Assets, Momentum 6, and Megala Ventures. The initiative aims to innovate Web3 by investing in data annotation and AI model training.
Web3 authentication startup Dynamic raised $13.5 million in a round led by a16z and Founders Fund. Most of the funds will go toward hiring engineers and marketing. Dynamic Labs serves clients including NFT company Doodles and blockchain analytics platform Flooz.
Andalusia Labs raised $48 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Mubadala Capital, Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Digital Currency Group. The funds will support product development and team growth. The company operates three product lines: Karak (an L2), Subsea (a crypto risk management market), and Watchtower (an institutional platform).
Avalanche-based SEQ developer NodeKit raised $1.2 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Avalanche Blizzard Fund, Polygon Ventures, and Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund. SEQ is a shared sequencer Layer 1 network designed to help rollup chains launch and decentralize transaction ordering. It will operate as an independent blockchain or subnet within the Avalanche ecosystem.
Data-driven Web3 influencer network Aki Network closed its Series A round at a $50 million valuation, co-led by South Korean Web3 gaming platform MARBLEX and a Japanese VC firm, with participation from Puzzle Ventures. Aki Protocol plans to conduct multiple rounds of AKI token airdrops.
Others
UK FCA-authorized digital asset exchange GFO-X announced a $30 million Series B round led by M&G Investments, which will join the board of Global Futures and Options Holdings. The strategic investment will fund GFO-X’s upcoming product launches and support innovation in compliant digital assets, enhancing market credibility.
Blockchain security solution Hackless raised $1.2 million in a private sale round backed by DAO Maker, Insignius Capital, Cosima Capital, DeltaHub Capital, Factial, and Halvings Capital. Hackless provides blockchain security services in digital assets and DeFi, with new funds allocated to accelerate development of its Wallet Rescue and Sentinel solutions.
Programmable money startup Pave Bank announced $5.2 million in funding and secured a digital commercial banking license in Georgia. Beyond multi-currency accounts and global payment connectivity, Pave Bank offers businesses a regulated platform to trade stablecoins, CBDCs, and tokenized real-world assets. The company was founded by seasoned banking and fintech executives Salim Dhanani (CEO), Simon Vans-Colina (CTO), and Dmitry Bocharov (COO).
Web3 tech company BLOCKSMITH completed its second angel funding round with participation from MZ Web3 Fund and SAKURA UNITED PLATFORM. The funds will support product development and R&D.
Web3 investment firm Cipholio Ventures announced a strategic investment in Hong Kong-based mainstream media outlet Meta Era, with both parties committed to promoting Web3 education online and offline. Meta Era, based in Hong Kong, has established partnerships with hundreds of investment firms, Web3 companies, media outlets, and communities.
Argentina-based bitcoin miner Unblock Global announced $15 million in funding to mine Bitcoin using natural gas from Vaca Muerta, the world’s second-largest shale gas reserve.
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