Financing Highlights | Paradigm leads investment in Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon; Musk’s AI company xAI completes $6 billion in financing

According to BlockBeats statistics, the total number of financings last week was 32, an increase from the previous number, with a total amount of approximately US$6.35611 billion and an average financing amount of US$198.6284 million. Among them, the Web3.0+AI field occupies the majority, the digital asset management/payment field and the DeFi field are relatively more, the infrastructure field and the metaverse/GameFi field have increased, the social/creator economy field and other fields have less financing, and the NFT/digital fashion field is not available. The following figure shows the proportion of financing in each sector last week:

Metaverse/GameFi

A total of 4 financings were raised in the Metaverse/GameFi field, with a total amount of US$17 million, accounting for 0.27% of the total financing last week.

TRALA

On May 31, according to Chainwire, Web3 gaming platform TRALA raised a total of US$5 million through multiple rounds of financing, with investors including Matter Labs, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs and 14 other global investment institutions.

TRALA has now set its sights on accelerating the development of its gaming ecosystem. TRALA said that in the coming months, gamers can expect to encounter many high-quality games, including the mobile version of Gunship Battle (currently with 150 million cumulative downloads), Freestyle (currently with 160 million cumulative downloads), and more games.

TRALA's core governance token $TTT can be used as the main currency for transactions within the platform, and allows token holders to participate in the key decision-making process of the platform. It can also be used as a reward for active participants to encourage community development.

Kuroro Beasts

On May 30, according to official news, Arbitrum Ecosystem Chain Game Kuroro Beasts completed a strategic round of financing of US$2.5 million, with Animoca Brands and Sanctor Capital participating in the investment. Axie co-founder Jihoz, Pixels founder Luke Barwikowski and other investors also participated in this round of investment.

Kuroro Beasts currently has 2 games in development: Kuroro Beast Brawl and Kuroro Wilds: Call of the Islands (mobile-first and monster collection MMO). The core NFT in Kuroro Beast Brawl is the Beasts NFT, and in the PvP mode, players can team up with their owned monsters to compete with each other. Players can also participate in battles and tournaments with other holder players.

The team aims to use PvP to turn Kuroro into a competitive e-sports game, broadcast battles through streaming, open to a large audience, host tournaments with millions of players, and so on. It is reported that the main purpose of this round of financing is to introduce partners and individuals who can bring huge added value and provide support when Kuroro Beasts launches the ecosystem.

Supervillain Labs

On May 29, according to official news, blockchain game developer Supervillain Labs announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed round of financing, led by Aptos Labs and Intella X, and participated by Spartan Group, KIP-CRIT Interactive Contents Fund, Presto Labs and Planetarium Labs.

Supervillain Labs will work with Aptos to launch new Web3 games, and Aptos will provide the basis for the creation of game studios through its high-performance blockchain network. It is reported that Supervillain's first game, "Supervillain: Idle RPG", will use Aptos native NFT projects (such as Aptos Monkeys, Aptomingos and Bruh Bears) as characters.

Players who complete relevant tests in the game will receive unique NFTs based on their personality type, and the game assets will be located on the Aptos blockchain to ensure compatibility with future versions of Supervillain.

Other financing in the Metaverse/GameFi field includes:

On May 29, MetaToken, an iGaming project based on Ethereum and TON, announced the completion of a $5 million private round of financing. The specific investor information has not yet been disclosed.

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DeFi

A total of 5 financings in the DeFi field, with a total amount of more than 104.51 million US dollars, accounting for 1.64% of the total financing last week.

Babylon

On May 30, Bitcoin pledge agreement Babylon completed US$70 million in financing. This round of financing was led by Paradigm, and Polychain Capital and the venture capital department of cryptocurrency trading platform Bullish participated in the investment.

As a leading project in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Babylon will expand an ecological world centered on Bitcoin, unlock the staking value of Bitcoin with a market value of $700 billion, turn Bitcoin into a more extensive interest-bearing asset, and provide income for Bitcoin holders.

At the same time, Babylon greatly enhances the ecological value of Bitcoin, vertically expands the second-layer and middle-layer applications of Bitcoin, horizontally expands the income value of Bitcoin in various POS chains, and cultivates a safer and larger POS economy.

Related reading: "ABCDE: Why do we invest in Babylon? 》

Fortunafi

On May 30, according to TheBlock, the RWA tokenization platform Fortunafi announced the completion of a strategic seed round of financing of US$9.51 million at a valuation of US$48 million, with participation from Shima Capital, Manifold, Jordan Fish (also known as Cobie), Ari Litan of LayerZero Labs, Austin Green of Llama, Evanss6 and Scott Lewis.

Fortunafi provides 4 types of services: (1) Access Capital, which provides financing parties with access to funds; (2) Earn Yield, which is already packaged assets that users can invest directly after completing KYC; (3) Protocol Services, which provides governance, treasury management and other services to other protocols; (4) whitelabeled products, which provides RWA full-process services on the chain.

Fortunafi's RWA service is not limited to government bonds, but can also provide chain packaging services for other assets. Fortunafi announced the launch of a new stablecoin protocol called Reservoir, which is expected to be launched next month, and will also work with Index Coop to launch real-world asset index tokens.

The rest of DeFi financing includes:

On May 29, Aperture Finance, an AI-driven DeFi platform, completed its Series A financing, with the total financing increased to US$12 million and the project valuation reached US$250 million. This round of financing was led by venture capital firms such as Skyland Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, and Krypital Group, with participation from well-known investors such as Alchemy, CatcherVC, and Double Peak. The new funds will be used to develop infrastructure, expand the network, and enhance user experience. The APTR token will be launched on Bybit on May 31, 2024.

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On May 29, UniTap, a decentralized financial platform for BRC20, Runes, and TAP tokens, announced the completion of a private round of financing, led by X Ventures, with participation from Unidentified, MeowCapital, Primony, and Altier Capital. The specific amount and valuation data have not been disclosed. Unitap provides a trustless on-chain token exchange tool that aims to become the central hub of TAP DeFi, providing efficient and decentralized token transfers and bridges, including token swaps, TAP-based token bridges, and integration of the TAP protocol.

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On May 30, Chainge Finance, a cross-chain liquidity aggregator, announced that it had completed a $13 million financing round, with participation from GEM Digital, Alpha Token Capital, and others. It said that AI smart transactions and perfect cross-chain transactions for any token on any chain are coming soon.

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Social/Creator Economy

A total of 1 financing was raised in the social/creator economy, with a total amount of over $3 million, accounting for 0.05% of the total financing last week.

Zizle

On June 1, according to business-standard, Solana Ecosystem SocialFi platform Zizle completed a $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, which was participated by Unity Ventures, Black Dragon, Node Kapital, Khaled Guerbouz and several angel investors.

Zizle plans to adopt a phased approach to transition from Web2 functions to a fully decentralized Web3 platform. The strategy aims to ensure a seamless user experience while gradually introducing blockchain elements and token economy. The ultimate goal is to achieve complete decentralization through community governance, putting control and rewards directly in the hands of users and creators.

This round of financing funds enabled Zizle to complete the development of its application, which is now ready to transition to a public beta. Zizle CEO Eriz Zarate said the funds have been used to enhance the platform's technical infrastructure, recruit top blockchain and artificial intelligence experts, and expand marketing and business development teams to promote user acquisition.

Infrastructure

A total of 14 financings in the infrastructure field, with a total amount of more than US$53.3 million, accounting for 0.84% of the total financing last week.

Neynar

On May 30, Neynar, which provides developers with tools to build decentralized social networks, announced the completion of a $11 million Series A financing round, led by Haun Ventures, with participation from a16z, CSX, Coinbase Ventures and Union Square Ventures.

Neynar is a Farcaster developer infrastructure that provides a code-free, multi-step framework builder. Currently, most developers using Neynar services are developing social applications on Farcaster, and both Neynar v1 and v2 APIs are online.

The platform plays a "quite critical" role in this journey because it minimizes the contact points between crypto-weary users and the underlying blockchain, creating an experience similar to Web2 applications such as Instagram or X.

Switchboard

On May 28, the oracle protocol Switchboard announced the completion of a $7.5 million Series A financing round, led by Tribe Capital and RockawayX, with participation from Solana Foundation, Aptos, StarkWare, Mysten Labs, InfStones Global, OtterSec, Bixin Ventures and various angel investors.

Switchboard is a permissionless, customizable, multi-chain oracle protocol for universal data feeds and verifiable randomness. By allowing anyone to push any form of data, regardless of the data type, it provides users with a one-stop service and helps drive the development of the next generation of decentralized applications.

As a decentralized Oracle network, it allows verifiable randomness, functionality, and price feedback. Switchboard's mission is to provide fast, permissionless and customizable oracle solutions. Its total value of collateral has risen to approximately $1.75 billion.

OpenSocial Protocol

On May 28, the social infrastructure layer OpenSocial Protocol announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Portal Ventures and SNZ Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Awesome People Ventures, Arche Fund, Decima Fund, Moonrock Capital, OKX Ventures, Orange DAO, Panony Group, Summer Ventures, etc.

OpenSocial Protocol is an open source social infrastructure layer founded by Everest Ventures Group (EVG), which has allocated a $15 million ecosystem fund for developers to develop on OpenSocial.

EVG has also deployed 30 internal developers to develop OpenSocial, and another 50 developers are building DApps on OpenSocial outside of EVG.

The rest of the infrastructure financing includes:

On May 28, the blockchain node management platform NodeOps completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by L1D, with participation from Blockchain Founders Fund and Finality Capital. It is reported that NodeOps has built a solution that simplifies the node deployment and management process, and integrates with multiple blockchain networks through innovative tools and support mechanisms.

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On May 28, Anzen Finance, the issuer of digital dollar USDz, has completed a $4 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was participated by Mechanism Capital, Circle Ventures, Kraynos Capital and others. USDz is supported by a "diversified portfolio of private credit assets." These cash flow RWAs provide collateral for USDz, and the token can be pledged in other DeFi protocols. Anzen has been launched on Ethereum Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.

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On May 28, Parasail Protocol, which focuses on improving the security of DePIN hardware services, announced the completion of a $4 million seed round of financing, with a valuation of $50 million. The seed round was led by Protocol Labs, with participation from D11 Labs, MH Ventures, BitRise Capital, DWF Ventures, Foresight Ventures, AGE Crypto, Waterdrip Capital and others. The new funds will be used to accelerate the implementation of various product features in the Parasail Master Plan. Parasail TVL has exceeded $50 million.

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On May 29, the stablecoin project defi.money completed strategic financing. This round of financing was participated by GBV Capital, LayerZero Labs, and a group of angel investors including Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov. defi.money is an EVM-agnostic CDP protocol, combined with Curve Finance's innovative liquidation mechanism LLAMMA, to build a capital-efficient, scalable and truly interoperable USD stablecoin for anyone, anywhere.

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On May 29, Colombian cryptocurrency wallet El Dorado completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital. El Dorado will use the funds to invest in expanding its user base and improving security features to meet regulatory requirements so that it can enter new markets.

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On May 29, Lumoz, a blockchain expansion infrastructure provider, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with participation from IDG Blockchain, Blockchain Coinvestors, Gate Ventures, Summer Capital, EVG, 7upDAO, Sweep Ventures, etc. The specific amount has not been disclosed. The new funds will continue to be used for Lumoz team expansion, modular computing power layer, and ZK-RaaS platform construction and technological innovation. It is reported that Lumoz's ZK-PoW algorithm effectively combines the computing resources of miners with each Rollup, thereby providing distributed computing power for various ZK-Rollups and generating ZKP.

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On May 29, the oracle solution API3 announced the completion of a strategic round of financing, led by DWF Labs. The specific amount has not been disclosed. It is reported that this round is a strategic fund diversification financing.

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On May 30, Marketnode, a digital market infrastructure operator founded by SGX and Temasek, completed its Series A financing, led by HSBC, and investors included existing shareholder Temasek. The specific amount was not disclosed. The funds raised in this round will be used to expand the Marketnode platform in key asset classes such as digital fixed income and structured products, participate in the upcoming launch of Fundnode, and launch other tokenized asset products. In addition, John O'Neill, global head of digital asset strategy at HSBC, will join the Marketnode board of directors.

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On May 30, Smart Transaction (STXN), a decentralized transaction execution protocol, announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from HackVC, Backed, Shima Capital, Tane, etc. The specific valuation information has not been disclosed. Smart Transaction is a decentralized transaction creation and execution framework run by a solver, allowing users to set specific conditions for transaction time and execution, and can process transactions based on precise conditions and time.

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On May 31, Mint Blockchain, an Ethereum NFT second-layer network under NFTScan, announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Jsquare, Whitelist Ventures, PANONY Group, and individual investors Smart Token Labs founder Victor and GoPlus founder Mike. This round of financing will be used for Mint Blockchain's global market brand building and NFT infrastructure development. The Mint mainnet was launched in May 2024.

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On June 1, the modular RWA network E Money Network completed US$3.3 million in financing. This round of financing was led by Kelsier Ventures and Animoca Brands, and GBV Capital, Momentum 6, Blockchain Founders Fund, Morningstar Ventures, Kucoin, Black Edge Capital and Banter Capital participated in the investment.

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Digital Asset Management/Payment

A total of 3 financings in the field of digital asset management/payment, with a total amount of over US$157.25 million, accounting for 2.47% of the total financing last week.

Bitdeer Technologies Group

On May 31, according to an official announcement, Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR), a technology company in the field of blockchain and high-performance computing, announced today that it has signed a subscription agreement with Tether International Limited for a private placement involving 18,587,360 Class A common shares and warrants to purchase up to 5,000,000 additional shares at US$10.00 per share. The private placement was completed on May 30, 2024.

The transaction generated $100 million in gross proceeds from the stock offering, with an additional $50 million available if the warrants are fully exercised.

Bitdeer plans to use the net proceeds from the private placement to fund the expansion of its data centers, the development of ASIC-based mining machines, and as working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Coinflow Labs

On May 28, instant settlement payment provider Coinflow Labs completed a $2.25 million financing round led by CMT Digital, with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Jump Crypto, Draper Dragon, Digital Currency Group and several angel investors.

Coinflow Labs' innovative payment infrastructure solutions are designed to shorten the time it takes for merchants to receive payments. Typically, merchants who accept credit cards experience multiple business day delays before settlement, which can put a strain on their business. Coinflow enables merchants to receive payments instantly. Coinflow offers a comprehensive payment stack, including chargeback-free payment acceptance and instant settlement in stablecoins.

This round follows Coinflow’s previous pre-seed round in early 2023, when most of its investors doubled down on the team. In addition, Coinflow offers an Instant Funds product, allowing businesses to instantly pay stablecoin funds into users’ bank accounts using real-time payment rails such as Visa Direct, RTP through clearing houses, and Instant SEPA.

Digital Asset Management/Payment The rest of the financing includes:

On May 29, SCRYPT, a crypto asset financial services provider, announced the completion of a $5 million strategic financing round led by Braza Bank, with participation from venture capital firms such as Funfair Ventures, Cabrit Capital and Atlantic Labs. SCRYPT also recently received approval from Swiss regulators to launch asset management solutions, and SCRYPT Digital Investments AG will receive a portfolio manager license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in July 2023.

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Web3+AI

A total of 4 financings in the Web3+AI field, with a total amount of more than US$6.0203 billion, accounting for 94.72% of the total financing last week. Including:

On May 27, Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI completed a US$6 billion Series B financing, with Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding participating in the investment. The proceeds from this financing will be used to bring xAI's first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies. xAI's main goal is to develop advanced AI systems that are real, capable, and maximally beneficial to all of humanity. The company's mission is to understand the true nature of the universe.

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On May 28, the artificial intelligence infrastructure project GaiaNet completed a $10 million seed round of financing for a decentralized network for generating artificial intelligence tools. The newly raised funds will fund GaiaNet's development of educational tools for STEM students and support its work on seed rounds of AI networks using distributed ledger technology. GaiaNet's testnet and software development kit (SDK) are scheduled to be launched in early Q3 2024, and product alpha testing has begun in Q2 2024.

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On May 29, Web3 artificial intelligence game company PlayAI announced the completion of a $4.3 million seed round of financing, with a total valuation of $70 million. This round of financing was participated by P2 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Alphawave, Zentry, MH Ventures, Tykhe Block Ventures and angel investors. The company intends to use the new financing to grow its team and work on launching the platform's incentive testnet.

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On May 30, the decentralized secure computing network ARPA Network announced the completion of a $6 million strategic investment. This round of financing was led by Laser Digital and DeFiance Capital, the encryption division of Nomura Securities, and Animoca Ventures, Metrics Ventures, ArkStream Capital and Trinito also participated in the investment. It is reported that this round of financing will be used to support the expansion of on-chain games, Autonomous Worlds (AW) and encrypted AI products.

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Other financing

There was 1 other financing, with a total amount of US$750,000, accounting for 0.01% of the total financing last week. Including:

On May 30, the "Blockchain Business Stack" protocol Pakt announced that it had completed a seed round of financing, with US$750,000 in this round. Investors include Avalanche Foundation, Chorus One Ventures, 4Ward, and two co-founders of Benqi, Brian Johnson of Republic Crypto, and Anthony Scaramucci of Skybridge Capital.

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