Financing highlights | Galaxy leads investment in re-staking protocol Renzo; OKX participates in social collaboration network Zeek

According to BlockBeats statistics, the total number of financings last week was 18, which is less than before, with a total amount of about 128.31 million US dollars and an average financing amount of 7.1283 million US dollars. Among them, the infrastructure field occupies the main body, the DeFi field and other fields have relatively more financing, the Metaverse/GameFi field and Web3.0+AI field have increased, the social/creator economy field and the digital asset management/payment field are relatively small, 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 3 financings were raised in the Metaverse/GameFi field, with a total amount of 6.75 million US dollars, accounting for 5.26% of the total financing last week.

Gudchain

On June 21, blockchain gaming platform Gudchain announced that it had raised $5 million from cryptocurrency investment institutions. Led by Mechanism Capital, Morningstar Ventures, Manifold, SkyVision Capital and others participated. It is reported that the team aims to bring GameFi to the mainstream through parallel game chains.

Today, most crypto wallets are built as browser extensions, making it difficult to get a frictionless online gaming experience outside of Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Gudchain is a pioneering platform designed to promote the use of blockchain in games. Unlike its predecessor, Gudchain is an application chain focused on removing barriers to entry for players. Gudchain was originally commissioned by the team at Highstreet World to circumvent Meta’s Walled Garden operating system and is now a one-stop shop for any game developer to bring frictionless web3 games to the masses.

Other funding in the Metaverse/GameFi space includes:

On June 20, Farworld Labs completed a $1.75 million funding round led by Lemniscap and Variant, with participation from Base Ecosystem Fund and Coinbase Ventures. This round of funding will be used to release products in the third quarter and launch its decentralized Farcade platform for developers to build Web3 games.

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On June 21, UK-based Web3 and XR game company Saltwater Games announced the completion of a new round of financing, with Animoca Brands participating in the investment, and the specific amount has not been disclosed. The financing was carried out through a seed SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens). Animoca Brands' support is intended to promote the integration of Saltwater Games' Arbitrum Orbit L3 blockchain XR One with Animoca's membership network Mocaverse.

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DeFi

There were a total of 5 financings in the DeFi field, with a total amount of more than US$29.6 million, accounting for 23.07% of the total financing last week.

Renzo

On June 18, Renzo, a liquidity re-pledge protocol, announced the completion of $17 million in financing. The financing was divided into two rounds, the first round was led by Galaxy Ventures, and the second round was led by Abu Dhabi-based Nova Fund – BH Digital. Previously, Renzo also received $3.2 million in investment from Maven11, Figment Capital and Binance Labs.

Renzo describes itself as a "liquid derivatives platform based on EigenLayer" and acts as an interface to the EigenLayer ecosystem by protecting AVS and providing higher returns than ETH. Users can now also stake their ERC-20 tokens, which are tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain. EigenLayer has also previously stated that they will begin accepting EIGEN tokens (ERC-20) to protect their internal AVS EigenDA.

Wasabi

On June 18, according to The Block, Wasabi, a memecoin and NFT leveraged trading protocol, completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Electric Capital, Alliance, Memeland, Spencer Ventures, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz, Magic Eden co-founder Zhouxun Yin, angel investor Santiago Santos, and crypto Twitter celebrities Cygaar, Zagabond, DCF God and Bob Loukas participated in the investment.

It is reported that Wasabi is a DeFi protocol that allows users to use leverage to trade "long-tail assets" such as memecoins and NFTs. Through Wasabi, users can go long, short, and pledge memecoin and NFTs. More exotic, less liquid assets have leverage ranging from 2-3x, while flagship assets such as ETH and USDB have leverage up to 10x. This is very different from traditional Perp decentralized exchanges such as Aevo and Hyperliquid, which rely on market makers to peg their synthetic prices to the actual prices of on-chain assets.

The rest of DeFi financing includes:

On June 20, ZKX, a derivatives DEX based on Starknet and Ethereum, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing of US$7.6 million. This round of financing was participated by Flowdesk, GCR, DeWhales and previous investors Hashkey, Amber Group, Crypto.com, and StarkWare. The new financing will be used to accelerate the expansion of the ZKX protocol and introduce new features such as social copy trade pools and expand to cross-chain interoperability.

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On June 21, Bitcoin DeFi protocol Ordinox completed a $1 million pre-seed round of financing, which was participated by UTXO Management, Digital Asset Capital Management, CMS Holdings, Sats Ventures, Hidden Street and STS Digital. Angel investors such as BRC20 founder Domo also participated in this round of financing. It is reported that Ordinox provides DeFi services on Bitcoin based on the native liquidity pool supported by Cosmos SDK.

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On June 23, Dubai-based blockchain real estate trading platform Directly completed a $1 million financing, with Singapore venture capital firm V3V Ventures participating. Directly is currently exploring the integration of blockchain technology in Dubai's real estate industry. In addition to cryptocurrency transactions, Directly is also committed to improving the efficiency and transparency of the real estate market through blockchain technology, providing pricing and rewarding investment opportunities.

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Social/Creator Economy

There was a total of 1 financing in the social/creator economy field, with a total amount of more than US$3 million, accounting for 2.34% of the total financing last week.

Zeek

On June 20, the decentralized social collaboration network Zeek completed a $3 million seed round of financing, with investors including OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands and Mask Network.

Zeek is a SocialFi platform that unlocks social net assets by building reputation on the chain, earning "Rizz" points, and getting rewards by completing social bounties called "wishes". Zeek is an incentivized P2P market that creates a new way of trust in web3 by putting credibility on the chain.

It is reported that Zeek will change the way social collaboration is done in SocialFi by establishing a reputation mechanism. Zeek is expected to be launched in July, and its private beta version will start running now. A limited edition of 250 Tier-0 Genesis NFT series will be available later this month.

Infrastructure

A total of 5 financings in the infrastructure field, with a total amount of more than US$72 million, accounting for 56.11% of the total financing last week.

PQShield

On June 23, security startup PQShield announced the completion of a $37 million Series B financing round, led by Addition, with participation from Braavos Capital, Legal & General and Chevron Technology Ventures. The funds raised will be used to hire more employees and promote closer partnerships with partners and customers.

PQShield is a leading company focused on post-quantum cryptography, focusing on developing quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions for software and hardware. The company recently received a huge investment of $37 million, led by Addition in the United States, with participation from Chevron Technology Ventures and Legal & General. This funding will undoubtedly further consolidate PQShield's key position in the field of quantum-safe cryptography.

The PQShield team is comprised of world-class post-quantum cryptographers, engineers, and operators who adhere to the ethos "Think open, build securely". As malicious hacker attacks become more sophisticated, the need for quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions is increasing. And PQShield is at the forefront of meeting this need.

Particle Network

On June 20, TheBlock reported that the modular blockchain Particle Network announced the completion of a $15 million Series A financing round, with Spartan Group and Gumi Cryptos Capital co-leading the round, and SevenX Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Flow Traders, HashKey Capital and others participating. This round of financing brings Particle's total financing amount to $25 million.

Particle Network is a modular layer 1 blockchain that provides support for chain abstraction through universal accounts, enabling users to access dApps across multiple chains with a single account and balance.

Sonic

On June 18, Solana Ecosystem's gaming-focused Layer 2 network Sonic completed a $12 million Series A financing round, led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from Galaxy Interactive, Big Brain Holdings and other companies. The Series A financing brings Sonic's total financing to $16 million, after the company raised $4 million in a seed round in 2022.

Sonic is a gaming-focused Solana Layer 2 network developed by Sonic's legal entity Mirror World Labs. MWL has built a proprietary technology called HyperGrid Framework that enables horizontal scalability through rollups on Solana, and Sonic is using the technology to build.

This round of financing adopts an equity structure and comes with token warrants, bringing Sonic's fully diluted valuation to $100 million. As part of the transaction, Bitkraft joined the Sonic board of directors. The Sonic mainnet and tokens are expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year.

The rest of the infrastructure financing includes:

On June 22, DePIN network developer Verida completed a $5 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was participated by O-DE Capital Partners, ChaiTech Ventures, Amesten Capital and Mysten Labs' Evan Cheng, etc., with a post-investment valuation of $50 million. The funds from this round of financing will be used to develop Verida's personal data storage infrastructure to provide decentralized storage and encryption services for users' personal information.

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On June 23, Decent Land Labs, a sovereign Layer 1 blockchain development company focused on solving EVM storage problems, announced the completion of a $3 million financing round, with participation from Foresight Ventures, LD Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Longhash Ventures, and Web3.com Ventures. Decent Land Labs aims to combine EVM compatibility with Arweave's scalable storage to provide EVM and Arweave blockchain developers with permanent data storage and full interoperability. It is reported that the company has launched the EVM data indexer on AO in May this year and is currently developing the first EVM to AO bridge function.

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Digital Asset Management/Payment

In the field of digital asset management/payment, a total of 1 financing was raised, with a total amount of more than US$1.1 million, accounting for 0.86% of the total financing last week.

Bring

On June 20, according to chainwire, white label cryptocurrency cashback provider Bring announced the completion of a $1.1 million SAFE round of financing, with Starkware participating.

It is reported that Bring currently supports cash back when purchasing fashion, electronics, health and beauty, travel services and other goods at 450 retailers. Web3 wallets and trading platforms have integrated Bring's white label solution to provide users with cash back services.

Web3+AI

A total of 2 financings in the Web3+AI field, with a total amount of more than 5.86 million US dollars, accounting for 4.57% of the total financing last week. Including:

On June 19, the Dutch blockchain ticketing platform EventCHI completed a seed round of financing of more than 1.6 million euros, and the specific investors were not disclosed.

The new funds will drive the expansion of its AI and blockchain platforms and enhance the global event experience. By seamlessly integrating artificial intelligence and blockchain, EventCHI provides a unified platform for cashless payments, NFT ticketing and intelligence.

The company’s key products include the CHI App for visitors and employees, the CHI POS App for event payments, on-site ticketing and token recharge to maximize ticket sales, and the CHI Backstage App for event management.

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On June 23, Singapore's crypto financial research startup SoSoValue announced the completion of a $4.15 million seed round of financing, led by HongShan, with participation from GSR Markets, Alumni Ventures, CoinSummer Labs and One Piece Labs. Gitcoin co-founders, early Ethereum investors, and founders of top Web3 and AI technology companies also participated in this round of financing.

The new funds will be used to support its development of AI-driven data services and drive the expansion of its global community of researchers.

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Other financing

There was 1 other financing with a total amount of US$10 million, accounting for 7.79% of the total financing last week. Including:

On June 19, Web3 talent recruitment platform Bondex completed US$10 million in financing. Bondex said the $10 million was made up of "a round of over $4 million led by Animoca Brands, Morningstar, Dext Force Ventures, iAngels, and others," and over $6.5 million raised in a "community sale on CoinList in March 2024."

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