Funding Weekly: 42 deals raised approximately $160 million, with LSD projects drawing significant attention
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Funding Weekly: 42 deals raised approximately $160 million, with LSD projects drawing significant attention
Between February 26 and March 3, eight blockchain projects raised over $5 million each.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData data, between February 26 and March 3, 42 blockchain startups announced fundraising totaling $160.3 million. In February, the Web3 industry disclosed a total of 138 financing events amounting to over $700 million, representing an approximately 17% increase compared to 118 deals in January.
Projects raising more than $5 million include:
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Taiko, a zkRollup-based Ethereum Layer 2 network, announced completion of a $15 million Series A funding round;
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BounceBit, a Bitcoin staking chain launched by Bounce Brand, announced completion of a $6 million seed funding round;
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Backpack exchange and its ecosystem projects announced closing a $17 million Series A round at a $120 million valuation;
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Validation Cloud, a Web3 data streaming and infrastructure company, announced completion of $5.8 million in funding;
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Initia, a blockchain platform, announced completion of a $7.5 million seed funding round;
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ether.fi, a liquid restaking protocol, announced completion of $27 million in funding;
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MXC, Arbitrum’s DePIN-dedicated chain, announced receiving $10 million in strategic investment;
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Avail, a "data availability" blockchain project, announced completion of a $27 million seed funding round.
Featured Projects
Backpack
Overview: Backpack is a next-generation cryptocurrency exchange and multi-chain wallet. The exchange offers a self-custody solution integrated with multi-party computation technology for fund protection.
Investors: Backpack exchange and its ecosystem projects announced completion of a $17 million Series A round at a $120 million valuation, led by Placeholder VC, with participation from Wintermute, Robot Ventures, Selini Capital, Amber Group, and others.
Key Features:
1. BackPack currently has launched three products: Backpack Exchange, Backpack Wallet, and the MadLads NFT project;
2. Backpack Exchange was co-founded by Can Sun, former General Counsel of FTX, and Armani Ferrante, former software developer at Alameda Research;
3. On February 14, Backpack launched an account trading volume points system, which will serve as a key reference for future large-scale marketing campaigns (such as airdrop eligibility or Launchpool listings).
Taiko
Overview: Taiko is a decentralized Ethereum-equivalent ZK-EVM and general-purpose ZK-Rollup. Its goal is to enable developers and users of dApps built for Ethereum L1 to use them on Taiko without any modifications. As such, dApps can quickly deploy to L2 while maintaining Ethereum's security and achieving lower transaction fees than L1.
Investors: Based on zkRollup, the Ethereum Layer 2 network Taiko announced completion of a $15 million Series A round, led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, WW Ventures, among others.
Key Features:
1. Taiko has launched its final testnet Katla (tutorial), with mainnet expected to go live by the end of Q1 2024;
2. Founded by Dong Wang, former senior engineer at Google and former senior R&D director at JD.com, as well as founder of Loopring;
3. Taiko will develop Based Booster Rollup (BBR), allowing developers to deploy on Ethereum and natively scale across all L2s to solve liquidity fragmentation issues.
BounceBit
Overview: BounceBit is a native BTC staking chain secured through staking Bitcoin and the BounceBit token. Its PoS mechanism introduces a dual-token staking system that leverages native BTC security with full EVM compatibility.
Investors: The Bitcoin staking chain BounceBit, launched by Bounce Brand, announced completion of a $6 million seed round, led by Blockchain Capital and Breyer Capital, with participation from CMS Holdings, Bankless Ventures, NGC Ventures, Matrixport Ventures, DeFiance Capital, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, and others.
Key Features:
1. BounceBit is supported by Binance Custody (CEFFU), Breyer Capital, and Mainnet Digital;
2. BounceBit will launch its testnet on March 8 and its mainnet in April, coinciding with the Bitcoin halving;
3. It has already accumulated over $600 million in TVL, with 22,500 daily active users.
Detailed Funding Information by Sector:
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Saturn, a peer-to-peer order book built on the Bitcoin network, completed an $800,000 seed round, led by Sora Ventures, with participation from CMS Holdings, Cricket Futures, Silvermine Capital / Osprey Capital, and others.
Binance Labs announced an investment in the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon, with the amount undisclosed, to support the development of Bitcoin staking. Babylon Chain, built using Cosmos SDK, provides Bitcoin timestamping services for PoS chains and acts as a control plane synchronizing Bitcoin and PoS networks.
The Bitcoin staking chain BounceBit, launched by Bounce Brand, announced completion of a $6 million seed funding round, led by Blockchain Capital and Breyer Capital, with participation from CMS Holdings, Bankless Ventures, NGC Ventures, Matrixport Ventures, DeFiance Capital, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, and others.
AI
Talus Network, a blockchain platform focused on decentralized AI, announced completion of a $2 million first funding round, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from dao5, Hash3, TRGC, WAGMI Ventures, and Inception Capital. Additionally, angel investors from major tech and blockchain companies including Nvidia, IBM, Blue7, Symbolic Capital, and Render Network contributed to support the team’s mission of democratizing on-chain AI. Talus Network leverages MoveVM to enhance performance, emphasizing that the Move stack is best suited to seamlessly integrate AI with smart contract environments.
PredX, an AI-driven prediction market in the Sei ecosystem, announced a Preseed funding round in February, led by Penrose Tech with Mulana Ventures participating. PredX is currently conducting a seed round at a $20 million valuation. Funds will be used to train AI models for prediction markets and build a global community.
DeFi
Liquid restaking protocol ether.fi announced completion of $27 million in funding, led by Bullish and CoinFund, with support from over 95 investors.
Liquidity protocol Aerodrome announced receiving investment from the Base Ecosystem Fund led by Coinbase Ventures, with the amount undisclosed; the investment was made via purchase of Aerodrome’s native AERO tokens.
DeFi lending protocol Morpho Labs received investment from crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, with the amount undisclosed.
Multi-chain leverage protocol Arkis completed a $2.2 million pre-seed round, led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from G1 Ventures, Blocklabs, and Roosh Ventures, aiming to accelerate institutional adoption of DeFi.
Ring Protocol, a DeFi project in the Blast ecosystem, announced completion of a pre-seed funding round, with participation from Manifold Trading, Continue Capital, Synergiscap, m0x Capital, CL207, DefiSquared, and Bored Chili. Ring Protocol was the winning project in the BIG BANG competition for Blast ecosystem applications, and its Ring Swap allows liquidity providers to earn swap fees and yield by staking base assets and/or RWAs.
DEX and liquidity protocol Cetus, based on Sui and Aptos, announced receiving strategic investment from the Sui Foundation, with the amount undisclosed.
DeFi protocol Zest Protocol completed its first funding round and will launch on the Blast mainnet, led by Youbi Capital, with the amount undisclosed. Zest Protocol’s DeFi product on the Blast Layer2 platform aims to provide high-yield collateralized stablecoin solutions. It uniquely separates the yield and price volatility of Blast ETH, launching two innovative products: zUSD (a stablecoin capturing leveraged yield from Blast ETH) and mirrorETH (an on-chain leveraged Ethereum derivative with no funding fees).
Blast ecosystem lending platform Orbit Protocol announced receiving strategic investment from Manifold and establishing a partnership.
Sui ecosystem lending protocol Scallop completed a $3 million funding round, led by CMS Holdings and 6th Man Ventures, with participation from Kucoin Labs, Blockchain Founders Fund, Oak Grove Ventures, Side Door Ventures, UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital, Cypher Capital, Mysten Labs, Kyros Ventures, Criterion, 8186 Capital, 7UpDao, LBank Labs, ViaBTC, Cetus Protocol, AC Capital, and Zellic. Funds will be used to scale operations and integrate new features to enhance user experience.
DePIN
DePIN project Geodnet completed a $3.5 million funding round, led by North Island Ventures, with participation from Modular Capital, Road Capital, Tangent, Reverie, and existing investors Borderless and IoTeX. Geodnet is a community-based DePIN project where anyone can contribute by installing and operating a Satellite Miner.
L1
XPLA, a Web3 gaming-focused Layer 1 blockchain, completed a strategic funding round with TESS VENTURES participating, though the amount remains undisclosed.
Layer 1 blockchain 5ireChain completed a "multi-million dollar" funding round, with hedge fund Gotbit Hedge Fund participating, though the exact amount was not disclosed. This investment aims to attract developers and drive adoption of decentralized applications on 5ireChain, focusing on multichain projects, EVM compatibility, and RWA-related initiatives. 5ireChain plans to use the new funds to accelerate ecosystem innovation.
MXC, Arbitrum’s DePIN-dedicated chain, announced receiving $10 million in strategic investment, led by JDI Ventures, the DePIN-focused investment fund under blockchain hardware manufacturer JDI Global.
Anti-Sybil attack network Humanity Protocol announced completion of a strategic funding round, with over 20 institutions including Hashed, CMCC, Cypher Capital, Foresight Ventures, and Mechanism Capital participating, though the amount was not disclosed. The funds will be used to accelerate development and deployment of Humanity Protocol, improving scalability, efficiency, and accessibility in preparation for its upcoming testnet launch.
L2
zk-native blockchain protocol QED announced completion of a $3 million funding round, led by Arrington Capital, the hedge fund founded by TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, with participation from StarkWare and Draper Dragon. QED aims to combine the scalability of zero-knowledge proofs with Bitcoin’s liquidity and security. Its core innovation lies in integrating modular arithmetic within TapScript, enabling dApps to natively prove transactions. The roadmap indicates introducing a suite of zero-knowledge applications to the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2024.
Cycle Network, a fully trustless omnichain ledger protocol, completed a multi-million dollar first funding round, led by Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, and Summer Ventures, with participation from LTP, Super Chain Capital, and GSG Digital. Cycle Network addresses cross-domain fragmentation through its innovative Omnichain Distributed Ledger Technology (ODLT), enabling easy deployment of omnichain dApps across different ecosystems.
The zkRollup-based Ethereum Layer 2 network Taiko announced completion of a $15 million Series A round, led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, WW Ventures, and others.
GameFi
Web3 gaming user-generated platform PlayMakers announced completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed round, led by RockawayX, with angel investors Sébastien Borget, Vincent Hart de Keating, and Hugues Ouvard also participating.
Modular
Avail, a "data availability" blockchain project, announced completion of a $27 million funding round, co-led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly, with participation from SevenX Ventures, Figment, Nomad Capital, and several angel investors. Avail spun out from Polygon in March 2023 under the leadership of Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Polygon. The funds will be used to develop its three core products: "Avail DA", "Nexus", and "Fusion Security".
Blockchain platform Initia announced completion of a $7.5 million funding round, co-led by Delphi Ventures and Hack VC, with participation from Nascent, Figment Capital, Big Brain, A.Capital, and angel investors including anonymous crypto trader Cobie, DCF God, Split Capital co-founder Zaheer Ebtikar, Fiskantes, WSB Mod, and Nick White, COO of Celestia.
NFT & Metaverse
Animoca Brands announced an investment in Co-Museum. The platform actively promotes and practices a new community-driven model for art collecting, aiming to disrupt established norms and make art collecting more open and democratic. Animoca Brands’ investment will further advance Co-Museum’s decentralized transformation of the art market powered by blockchain technology.
Web3 entertainment company Imaginary Ones announced completing a new funding round, with participation from Cypher Capital, Animoca Brands, ED3N Ventures, and MH Ventures, though the amount remains undisclosed. Earlier reports indicated that Kuek Yu-Chuang, Vice President of iQIYI, has joined as a new investor and advisor. Imaginary Ones also partnered with international fashion brand HUGO BOSS in 2023 to create a virtual universe experience.
Infrastructure & Tools
Delphinus Lab, a provider of trustless computing platforms, announced on X that it has gained support from prominent investors including OKX Ventures, Generative Ventures, Seven X Ventures, HashKey Investment Fund, and Bas1s Ventures, to build trusted computing and application SDK solutions based on the ZKWasm virtual machine.
Web3 development tool BuildBear Labs announced completion of a $1.9 million funding round. Superscrypt, Tribe Capital, and 1kx led the round, with participation from Iterative, Plug-N-Play, and angel investors including Kris Kaczor and Ken Fromm, founders of Typechain and DethCrypto. BuildBear Labs plans to use the funds to accelerate development of its flagship platform, which provides testing and validation solutions for building secure decentralized applications.
Validation Cloud, a Web3 data streaming and infrastructure company, announced completion of $5.8 million in its first external funding round, led by Cadenza Ventures, with participation from Blockchain Founders Fund, Bloccelerate, Blockwall, Side Door Ventures, Metamatic, GS Futures, and AP Capital. Validation Cloud has built a proprietary system architecture incorporating multiple breakthroughs in Web3, resulting in a fast, scalable, and intelligent global platform providing staking, node APIs, and data to users.
Payment infrastructure provider Sphere completed a $2.8 million seed round, co-led by TCG Crypto and Jump Crypto, with participation from Hudson River Trading, Big Brain Holdings, Republic, Solana Ventures, Stakeholder, Cogitent Ventures, and Steel DAO. Sphere coordinates blockchains, custody infrastructure, and financial service providers to enable stablecoin payments.
Readygg, a blockchain gaming infrastructure startup, announced completion of a $4 million new funding round, with participation from Delphi Digital, NeoTokyo, Merit Circle, Momentum6, Purechain Capital, Alex Becker, and Token Metrics Ventures, though the valuation was not disclosed. Readygg helps developers implement NFTs, crypto wallets, and other Web3 tools in games, while advocating for community-centric gaming and empowering players.
Backpack exchange and its ecosystem projects announced closing a $17 million Series A round at a $120 million valuation, led by Placeholder VC, with participation from Wintermute, Robot Ventures, Selini Capital, Amber Group, and others. Backpack’s ecosystem includes Backpack Wallet, the exchange, and Mad Lads, the top-ranked NFT project on Solana.
CeFi and Others
Token asset fintech company Open Asset announced completion of approximately $1.7 million in seed funding, with participation from Hana Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and Mashup Ventures. Open Asset plans to use the funds to recruit talent in business development, sales, service planning, and front-end development. Additionally, Open Asset is advancing solutions to help financial institutions easily and effectively adopt blockchain and trade tokenized assets.
Fully homomorphic encryption privacy technology developer Fair Math announced completion of a $1.4 million Pre-Seed round, led by gumi Cryptos Capital, Inception Capital, and Polymorphic Capital.
Web3 traffic aggregation and marketing platform LinkTo announced completion of a seed round, with participation from Adaverse, Ruby Capital, Warrior Wealth Fund, BitValue Capital, and Block Infinity Limited.
Crypto security company Silence Laboratories announced completion of a $4.1 million funding round, co-led by Pi Ventures and Kira Studio. Silence Laboratories has now raised a total of $6 million, which will be used to expand its team and strengthen its R&D pipeline. The company uses multi-party computation (MPC) to build infrastructure that helps enterprises protect data privacy and security.
Tools for Humanity, the primary developer behind Worldcoin, has acquired Solana-based digital wallet startup Ottr Finance. Ottr Finance will shut down its Solana-based wallet and integrate into Tools for Humanity.
Karma3 Labs, the development team behind the decentralized reputation protocol OpenRank, announced completion of a $4.5 million funding round, led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures, with participation from Spartan, SevenX Ventures, HashKey, Flybridge, Delta Fund, Draper Dragon, and Compa Capital. OpenRank aims to enhance trust in Web3 through ratings and recommendations. The new funds will support product adoption and help launch the initial version of the protocol for developers.
Institutional-grade staking platform ContributionDAO announced completion of a $2.8 million seed round, led by KXVC, the venture arm of Thailand’s largest commercial bank Kasikornbank (KBank), with participation from Axelar, Monad, Connext, and other angel investors. The funds will be used to develop new institutional staking solutions and support expansion into Southeast Asia’s blockchain market. Additionally, ContributionDAO is building ProofSquare.xyz, a community infrastructure suite offering smart automation and virtual assistants to help manage global communities.
Blockchain analytics firm Octav announced completion of a $4 million strategic investment, led by a high-net-worth individual in the crypto space, though specific investor details were not disclosed. Octav currently focuses on leveraging machine learning to unlock the potential of on-chain data, improving accuracy in data labeling and classification.
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