Funding Weekly: 37 deals raised over $150 million, infrastructure and Bitcoin ecosystem remain favored
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Funding Weekly: 37 deals raised over $150 million, infrastructure and Bitcoin ecosystem remain favored
Between May 6 and May 12, 12 blockchain projects raised over $5 million each.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData data, between May 6 and May 12, 37 blockchain startups announced funding rounds, collectively raising $150 million.
Projects that raised over $5 million include:
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Hong Kong-based Web3 music startup Star Nest announced the completion of a $6 million Pre-A round;
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Arch Labs, developer of the Bitcoin-native application platform Arch, announced the completion of a $7 million seed round;
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Confidential computing network Arcium announced the completion of a $5.5 million strategic round;
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Solana-based tokenization platform AgriDex announced the completion of a $5 million pre-seed round;
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Multi-chain trading platform UXUY announced the completion of a $7 million Pre-A round;
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Seeds Labs, developer of Web3 game Bladerite, announced the completion of a $12 million seed round;
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Lagrange Lab, a ZK coprocessing protocol built on Ethereum's EigenLayer, completed a $13.2 million seed round;
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Intent-centric cross-chain interoperability protocol Owlto Finance announced the completion of an $8 million strategic round;
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Ethereum scaling solution ZKM completed a $5 million Pre-A round;
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Lava Foundation announced the completion of a $11 million funding round;
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Botanix Labs announced securing an $8.5 million seed round;
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No-code, out-of-the-box NFT toolkit Galaxis announced the completion of a $10 million funding round.
Featured Projects
Arch Network
Overview: Arch Network is a Bitcoin-native application platform that brings smart contract functionality directly to Bitcoin through a novel architecture. This architecture leverages the Rust-based zero-knowledge virtual machine (ArchVM), paired with a decentralized validator network, collectively known as the Arch Network. ArchVM is an SVM-inspired virtual machine designed for parallel execution, integrating zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) for transaction validation.
Investors: Arch Labs, the developer behind the Bitcoin-native application platform Arch, announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Portal Ventures, OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, CMS Holdings, and Tangent.
Key Features:
1. Arch claims to be the first native Bitcoin application platform, introducing "bridgeless transactions" directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain. Unlike other Layer 2 networks, Arch does not bridge assets to sidechains but enables programmable assets directly on Bitcoin, without requiring users to sacrifice asset custody or trust assumptions.
2. Users can easily interact with Arch-based applications using any Bitcoin wallet. Over 20 projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem—including stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, and lending markets—are building on Arch’s development network.
3. A public devnet is即将 launched, with mainnet launch expected in the second half of this year. An incentive points program will be introduced to boost ecosystem growth. The Arch Foundation also plans to support the Bitcoin ecosystem through hackathons and grant programs.
Blade of God X
Overview: Blade of God X is a dark Nordic-styled hardcore action RPG and the official sequel to the Blade of God series. In the game, players take on the role of mythical heroes burdened with suffering, sorrow, and ordinary identities. They embark on an adventure across vast and mysterious Nordic lands, battling "sacrifices" who have lost their "destiny," while seeking their own redemption.
Investors: Dark-themed cross-platform (Android, iOS, PC) AAA action game Blade of God X announced raising several million dollars in funding, with participation from OKX Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Yield Guild Games, LongHash Ventures, Newman Capital, KingRiver Capital/Inevitable Games Fund, BreederDAO, Eden Ventures, and 071 Labs.
Key Features:
1. Developed by Void Labs, Blade of God X introduces the innovative concept of "Play ARPG to train AI agents," combining AI agents with blockchain technology, allowing players to easily train their own AI agents through gameplay.
2. To date, $6 million has been invested in the development of Blade of God X.
3. Blade of God X will launch its AI agent testing phase on May 20 at 11 AM, followed by a new PFP NFT collection designed by Oscar-nominated creative director Erdi.
Botanix Labs
Overview: Botanix is a fully decentralized Layer 2 EVM on Bitcoin, combining Bitcoin’s security and decentralization with the ease of use and versatility of the EVM.
Investors: Botanix Labs announced securing an $8.5 million seed round led by Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and angel investors including Andrew Kang, Fiskantes, Dan Held, The Crypto Dog, and Domo (creator of BRC20). Previously, it raised $2 million in a pre-seed round on June 1, 2023, bringing total funding to $11.5 million. Funds will be used to build Spiderchain, a fully decentralized EVM-equivalent BTC L2 solution.
Key Features:
1. The Spiderchain network offers EVM-compatibility, combining EVM usability with Bitcoin security. Since its testnet launch in November 2023, it has attracted over 200,000 active addresses and distributed 10,000 experimental tokens.
2. Unlike many Bitcoin L2 solutions that run on Ethereum, Cosmos, or Polygon, Spiderchain runs entirely on Bitcoin.
3. Announced dApps include decentralized exchange Bitzy and Palladium, a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin. The Spiderchain mainnet is expected to launch in early summer this year.
Funding Details by Sector:
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Taproot Assets infrastructure project BitTap has completed its Pre-Seed round led by Waterdrip Capital. Funds will be used to develop a decentralized exchange and non-custodial wallet based on the Taproot Assets protocol. BitTap’s plugin wallet, the first decentralized wallet in the Taproot Assets space, is expected to begin Alpha testing in May. The team is dedicated to advancing the Taproot Assets ecosystem, ensuring compatibility with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network and main chain, with official support from Lightning Labs.
Botanix Labs announced securing an $8.5 million seed round led by Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and angel investors including Andrew Kang, Fiskantes, Dan Held, The Crypto Dog, and Domo (BRC20 creator). It previously raised $2 million in a pre-seed round on June 1, 2023, bringing total funding to $11.5 million. These funds will be used to build Spiderchain, a fully decentralized EVM-equivalent BTC L2 solution.
Native Bitcoin DeFi protocol DLC.Link completed its seed round with participation from CGV FoF; specific amounts and valuations were not disclosed. DLC.Link aims to bring DeFi to the Bitcoin ecosystem by minting centralized wrapped Bitcoin (dlcBTC), exploring decentralized finance on Bitcoin while allowing users to self-manage their Bitcoin.
Next-generation decentralized multi-chain trading platform UXUY, incubated by Binance Labs, announced the completion of a $7 million Pre-A round with participation from Binance Labs, UTXO Management (Bitcoin Magazine), JDI Ventures, Bixin Ventures, SWC Global, Matrix Partners, CMS Holdings, Dewhales Capital, Comma3 Ventures, Satoshi Labs, YBB Capital, GBV Capital, Web3Vision, Pentos Ventures, NGC Ventures, Alti5, Metalpha, and GSR. Total funding since inception exceeds $10 million. UXUY is a key builder in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with over 100,000 traders using Bitcoin Lightning Network services via UXUY.
Arch Labs, developer of the Bitcoin-native application platform Arch, announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Portal Ventures, OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, CMS Holdings, and Tangent.
DeFi
Cross-chain trading protocol Xswap recently announced a strategic round on X, with undisclosed amount. Participating investors include P2 Ventures, MH Ventures, Maven Capital, OIG Capital, Cogitent Ventures, WWVentures, ZBS Capital, Pragma Ventures, Zephyrus Capital, Ivan Liljeqvist, Ash Crypto, Gainzy, Satoshi Stacker, and Michael Gu. XSwap is a cross-chain DEX built on Chainlink CCIP.
Intent-centric cross-chain interoperability protocol Owlto Finance announced the completion of an $8 million strategic round co-led by Bixin Ventures and CE Innovation Capital, with participation from Presto, Hailstone Labs, Skyland Ventures, Blocore, SNZ Capital, BESTO, Kroma, Coinseeker.co, Stratified Capital, X21 Digital, Maxx Capital, Incubate Fund, GSR, and ChainCatcher. Funds will accelerate AI-powered intent-based cross-chain product upgrades, modular cross-chain protocol development, global operations and marketing, full-chain liquidity solution V2, and capital market activities. Initially launched as an ETH Layer 2 bridge, Owlto Finance captured over 75% of third-party cross-chain volume on certain ETH Layer 2 networks within six months and has recently expanded into the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Multi-chain staking platform StakedGain announced the completion of a $500,000 seed round; investor details were not disclosed. StakedGain currently supports over 10 blockchains, including EVM-compatible chains and Layer 2 solutions, helping users achieve cross-chain DeFi staking and improved liquidity efficiency.
AI-integrated DeFi platform 0xGen completed a strategic round with participation from Principle68, Bella Protocol, Phoenix Chain, Tensor Investment Corporation, and X Labs, which will provide strategic guidance and support.
DePIN
TON-based DePIN project MetaPhone announced a $1 million raise with participation from JDI. Both parties are committed to building the TON DePIN ecosystem, creating a broad decentralized marketing network, and promoting global Web3 adoption across industries. MetaPhone is collaborating with a leading 3C manufacturer to launch flagship devices.
Solana-based decentralized environmental data network Ambient announced a $2 million seed round led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Parami Investors, Sonic Boom Ventures, and Primal Capital. Founded in January this year, Ambient acquired Algorand-based PlanetWatch in March and decided to migrate to Solana.
Web3 infrastructure startup Hemera announced a $2.6 million seed round led by LIF Capital and Nomad Capital, with participation from SNZ, Chainlink, Sending Labs, ZetaChain founder, and Harry Shum, Microsoft Senior VP and AI expert.
Privacy protection protocol for decentralized applications NuLink announced a $1.6 million strategic round led by DWF Labs, Poolz, and ViaBTC, with participation from CheckPush, 0xwilds, Coinvestor, 0xbull, Alpha Capital, MNST Platform, and Aza Ventures. The company will use these funds to advance technology, expand capabilities, and conduct education and training. NuLink has now raised a total of $11.4 million, positioning it as a leader in secure Web3 application development.
GameFi
Dark-themed cross-platform (Android, iOS, PC) AAA action game Blade of God X announced raising several million dollars, with participation from OKX Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Yield Guild Games, LongHash Ventures, Newman Capital, KingRiver Capital/Inevitable Games Fund, BreederDAO, Eden Ventures, and 071 Labs.
Seeds Labs, developer of Web3 game Bladerite, announced a $12 million seed round with participation from Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, Solana Foundation, Krust, Hashkey Capital, UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, IVC, and Emoote. Seeds Labs, a Solana-based game infrastructure developer founded in 2021, plans to launch Bladerite this month.
Web3 gaming studio BAC Games announced a $1.5 million seed round. Institutional investors include Hash Global, Matr1x, Gate Labs, Stratified Capital, W Labs, and Nothing Research. Angel investors include Ash, BTCdayu, Joseph A.C. Lloyd (Head of Gaming Research at Delphi Digital), Laobai (ABCDE Investment & Research Partner), Piers Kicks (Founding Partner of Delphi Ventures), Saku (Co-founder & CEO of Matr1x), and Victor (Head of WEB3 at GGV). BAC Games is a collection of casual Web3 games; its first title, Blast Auto Clubs, pioneered the "group to earn" model and is a well-known Web3 game on Blast. BAC Games will also conduct an IDO at the end of May.
DAO
Web3 community-driven gaming ecosystem SlingShot DAO announced a $3 million raise with participation from Alphabit Fund. SlingShot DAO is a community-driven platform where members collaborate via the SlingShot app to turn ideas into gaming experiences, emphasizing a "community-first" value system and action-oriented approach.
RWA and Tickets
Solana-based tokenization platform AgriDex announced a $5 million pre-seed round with participation from Endeavor Ventures, Africa Crops (Sub-Saharan agricultural group), and Oldenburg Vineyards (South African vineyard group). Funds will be used to tokenize agricultural products, enabling users to purchase various crops on AgriDex’s marketplace.
Hong Kong-based Web3 music startup Star Nest announced completing a $6 million Pre-A round led by Chuangqi International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed GF Innovation Limited. Star Nest will collaborate with Armonia Meta Chain to develop Star Nest SpaceStar, a metaverse game featuring music, role-playing, and social functions. The project token NEST is scheduled to launch in Q3 2024. NEST will power a comprehensive music industry token economy, used for concert ticket purchases, play-to-earn collaborations, metaverse spending, and governance voting.
NFT
No-code, plug-and-play NFT toolkit Galaxis announced a $10 million raise with participation from Chainlink, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Rarestone Capital, Taisu Ventures, and ENS co-founder Nick Johnson. Incubated by CoinMarketCap, Galaxis allows individuals or brands with communities to create engagement and reward mechanisms via NFTs without relying on third-party tools with built-in economies.
Zora Network announced the acquisition of NFT minting aggregator mint.fun; terms were not disclosed. The integration will combine NFT creator and collector tools.
Infrastructure and Tools
Waterdrip Capital announced a strategic investment in decentralized AI cloud gaming protocol DeepLink Protocol. DeepLink Protocol leverages AI, blockchain, and streaming technologies to deliver ultra-low latency (1ms), 8K resolution, 240fps refresh rate, and 24/7 uninterrupted performance, offering a superior cloud gaming experience. It maintains technological leadership in AI upscaling, network optimization, video encoding, and network fluctuation mitigation.
Lava Foundation announced a $11 million raise with participation from Animoca Brands, Gate.io Ventures, CoinGecko Ventures, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ash Crypto, CryptoLark, and media outlets Crypto Times Japan, Le Journal Du Coin, and The Rollup. The Lava Foundation is the sole entity selling tokens and setting the roadmap until the DAO launches on mainnet. Lava’s mainnet and LAVA token are scheduled to launch in the first half of 2024, with part of the 1 billion total supply allocated for user airdrops. Lava currently focuses on RPC but plans to expand to other data infrastructure like indexing, subgraphs, and sequencing.
Ethereum scaling solution ZKM completed a $5 million Pre-A round, preparing to launch a Bitcoin-based Layer 2 network. The round was led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Amber, Metis Foundation, and Crypto.com. ZKM is a zero-knowledge proof network aiming to unify blockchains by creating a settlement layer on Ethereum. As part of this effort, ZKM is developing a special transaction processor network called “entangled rollups,” starting with an upcoming L2 built directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Ethereum universal zk aggregation layer Electron Labs completed a $1 million seed extension round to build a universal ZK proof aggregation layer for Ethereum. Investors include Polygon co-founder @sandeepnailwal, Gnosis co-founder @koeppelmann, former Polygon co-founder @jdkanani, and Avail founder @anuragarjun.
ZK coprocessing protocol Lagrange Lab, built on Ethereum’s EigenLayer, completed a $13.2 million seed round led by Founders Fund, with participation from Archetype Ventures, 1kx, Maven11, Fenbushi Capital, Volt Capital, CMT Digital, and Mantle Ecosystem. Lagrange specializes in zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs and plans to launch an off-chain network of specialized nodes—“coprovers”—later this month to perform intensive computations and generate ZK proofs. Lagrange builds its security on top of EigenLayer.
Decentralized blockchain ecosystem Telos announced a $1 million strategic investment from Asian VC and liquidity provider Presto Labs. This marks the beginning of a long-term partnership, with funds supporting Telos’ development of an Ethereum Layer 2 zkEVM network based on SNARKtor. The investment will also help grow SNARKtor Labs, Telos’ Hong Kong division focused on accelerating ZK proof technology infrastructure.
Ethereum sidechain Gnosis announced a collaboration with Zeal, creators of a full-featured digital wallet, to enhance everyday crypto usage. According to the team, the partnership explores simple self-custody crypto transaction solutions akin to using cash. Gnosis also committed a $2 million investment in Zeal, increasing its total funding to $9 million following a prior $7 million seed round.
Confidential computing network Arcium announced a $5.5 million strategic round led by Greenfield Capital, with participation from Coinbase, Heartcore Capital, Longhash VC, L2 Iterative Ventures, Stake Facilities, Smape Capital, Everstake, and notable angel investors including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Monad co-founder Keone Han. This network enables more secure data processing and storage, enhancing privacy for transactions and applications. Arcium previously developed Elusiv, a Solana-based zero-knowledge privacy protocol.
Cross-chain messaging protocol Glacis Labs announced a $2.1 million seed round on X, led by Arrington Capital and Paper Ventures, with participation from Bitscale Capital, Protagonist, Edessa Capital, and angel investors Collion Myers, LukeYoungblood.eth, and Steven Kokinos. Valuation details were not disclosed. Glacis is a versatile protocol enabling developers to define security requirements and routing logic for messages sent across different blockchains.
Cross-chain liquidity infrastructure firm Euclid completed a $600,000 Pre-seed round led by tech investment firm Kahuna Network and angel investor Tomoaki Sato, with participation from Lavender Five, Andromeda, and Nibiru-related angels. Funds will be used for architecture and project development, business development, audits, and marketing.
CeFi and Others
Web3 talent network Bondex announced a new strategic round with participation from DEXT Force Ventures, the investment arm of DEXTools.io. Specific funding amount was not disclosed. DEXT Force Ventures will provide marketing and business development guidance, along with access to the DEXTools platform. Bondex serves Web3 professionals, companies, and recruiters, enabling networking and collaboration, with rewards for profile updates, verifications, and recommendations.
Institutional-grade tokenization solution DwellFi announced a $3 million seed round with participation from E1 Ventures, Stanford Blockchain, Hustle Fund, Blockchain Coinvestors, and Fortified Ventures. DwellFi leverages AI, blockchain, and tokenization to assist clients in asset management, ensuring compliance with current regulations. Its clients primarily include PE/RE/VC funds, hedge funds, fund managers, and limited partners.
Payment solutions company CityPay completed a new funding round with participation from Tether Operations Limited. New funds will strengthen operations in Eastern Europe, focusing on Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Web3 incubation service provider BlockBooster announced a $1.5 million seed round led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Conflux Network, Neighbor Capital Series, IceRiver Venture, and Bitcoin Lab. BlockBooster focuses on incubating Web3 infrastructure, social, and gaming projects, offering comprehensive support to improve success rates and shorten development cycles.
Crypto trading platform Arbelos announced a $28 million raise led by Dragonfly, with participation from FalconX, Circle, Paxos, Polygon, and Deribit. Arbelos Markets will focus on derivatives and OTC trading for institutional participants, providing liquidity and acting as counterparty for popular products like options and futures for hedge funds and venture capital firms.
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