Financing Weekly Report | 41 public financing events; Cryptography startup Lagrange completes $13 million seed round financing, led by Founders Fund.

Highlights of this issue

According to PANews incomplete statistics, there were 41 blockchain investment and financing events globally last week (5.6-5.12), with a total funding scale exceeding $170 million, a significant increase compared to the previous week. An overview is as follows:

• DeFi announced 11 investment and financing events, among which the cryptocurrency trading platform Arbelos Markets completed a $28 million financing led by Dragonfly Capital;
• Web3 gaming track announced 5 investment and financing events, including Web3 game developer Seeds Labs completing a $12 million seed round financing, with Blizzard Fund among the investors;
• NFT-related field announced 1 investment and financing event, with Singapore Web3 platform Galaxis completing a $10 million financing;
• DePIN track announced 2 investment and financing events, including Solana ecosystem DePIN project Ambient completing a $2 million seed round financing, led by Borderless Capital;
• Infrastructure and tools track announced 16 financings, including cryptography startup Lagrange completing a $13 million seed round financing, led by Founders Fund;
• Other blockchain/crypto applications announced 6 financings, including Farcaster-based Web3 social app Kiosk completing a $10 million financing, led by Electric Capital;

DeFi

Cryptocurrency trading platform Arbelos completes $28 million financing, led by Dragonfly

The cryptocurrency trading platform Arbelos Markets announced the completion of a $28 million financing led by Dragonfly Capital. This round of financing also saw participation from FalcolnX, Circle, Paxos, Polygon, and Deribit. Arbelos Markets will use this funding to enhance its trading capabilities in derivatives and over-the-counter markets, focusing on serving institutional clients such as hedge funds and venture capital firms. Arbelos' business focus is to provide necessary trading liquidity for these institutional participants and act as a counterparty for products such as options and futures. The company's co-founders Joshua Lim and Shiliang Tang both have backgrounds in traditional finance and cryptocurrency trading, and they plan to use this financing to further drive the company's development and innovation while enhancing the transparency and risk management capabilities of the trading platform.

Multi-chain trading platform UXUY completes $7 million Pre-A round financing, with participation from Binance Labs

Decentralized multi-chain trading platform UXUY, incubated by Binance Labs, announced the completion of a $7 million Pre-A round financing, bringing its total financing since inception to over $10 million. UXUY is a significant participant in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with over 100,000 traders using Bitcoin Lightning Network services through the platform. This round of financing attracted participation from several well-known investment institutions in Asia, North America, and Europe, including 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. The funds raised will be used to further build the Bitcoin ecosystem infrastructure, driving efficient and low-cost transactions of Lightning Network assets such as Taproot Assets, Ordinals BRC-20, and Runes runes.

Tokenization platform AgriDex based on Solana completes $5 million pre-seed round financing and plans token airdrop

Tokenization platform AgriDex based on Solana successfully raised $5 million in the pre-seed round. This round of financing was led by technology-focused venture capital firm Endeavor Ventures, with participation from African Crops Limited, Oldenburg Vineyards, and former Goldman Sachs and Citadel executives Hank Oberoi. Following this financing, AgriDex is valued at approximately $18 million. Bill Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of Endeavor Ventures, will also join AgriDex's board of directors. AgriDex plans to launch its platform and token AGRI in the third quarter of this year and conduct a token airdrop to the community in the coming months, with the airdrop totaling 5% of the total token supply (i.e., 50 million out of 1 billion). In addition, AgriDex also plans to publicly sell its tokens at a price of $0.10 per token and use 50% of the profits for token buyback and burning to increase token scarcity and enhance its value.

Institutional tokenization solution DwellFi completes $3 million seed round financing, with participation from E1 Ventures

Institutional tokenization solution DwellFi announced the completion of a $3 million seed round financing, with participation from E1 Ventures, Stanford Blockchain, Hustle Fund, Blockchain Coinvestors, and Fortified Ventures. DwellFi primarily utilizes artificial intelligence, blockchain, and tokenization technology to assist its clients in asset management, ensuring that its cutting-edge solutions not only meet current regulatory standards. Its clients mainly include PE/RE/VC funds, hedge funds, fund managers, and limited partners.

Multi-chain staking platform StakedGain completes $500,000 seed round financing

Multi-chain staking platform StakedGain announced the completion of a $500,000 seed round financing, with investor information not yet disclosed. StakedGain currently supports over 10 blockchains, including EVM-compatible chains and Layer 2 solutions, to help users achieve cross-chain DeFi staking and enhance liquidity efficiency.

LBank Labs announces investment in stablecoin developer Usual Labs

LBank Labs recently announced an investment in stablecoin developer Usual Labs. This round of financing was led by IOSG Ventures and Kraken Ventures, with participation from GSR, Mantle, Starkware, Flowdesk, and many other well-known venture capital companies. Usual Labs is dedicated to driving innovation in the stablecoin ecosystem through its innovative USD0 stablecoin. This strategic investment will propel Usual Labs to launch USD0 on the Ethereum mainnet, significantly advancing the integration of traditional financial assets with decentralized finance (DeFi) efficiency. The USD0 stablecoin aims to provide returns derived from real-world asset appreciation, bringing new profits to investors.

Native Bitcoin DeFi protocol DLC.Link completes seed round financing, with CGV FoF participating

Native Bitcoin DeFi protocol DLC.Link has completed seed round financing with participation from CGV FoF, with specific amounts and valuation information not yet disclosed. DLC.Link aims to bring DeFi into the Bitcoin ecosystem by exploring decentralized finance on the Bitcoin chain through the issuance of centralized wrapped Bitcoin dlcBTC and allowing users to manage Bitcoin on their own. The project reportedly received investment from OKX Ventures in March this year.

AI-driven DeFi platform 0xGen completes strategic financing

AI-driven DeFi platform 0xGen has completed strategic financing, with participation from Principle68, Bella Protocol, Phoenix Chain, Tensor Investment Corporation, and X Labs among other investment institutions. These investors will provide crucial advice and support for its development.

Decentralized settlement protocol Kima Network announces completion of new round of financing, with HVS Ventures participating

Decentralized settlement protocol Kima Network announced the completion of a new round of financing, with participation from HVS Ventures, with specific amounts not yet disclosed. HVS Ventures will not only provide financial support but also participate in its operations and strategic development. Kima's settlement layer supports multi-ecosystem payments, peer-to-peer commerce, CeFi/DeFi services, cross-chain DEX exchanges, and all-channel wallets, providing a seamless way to connect fiat and cryptocurrencies while emphasizing security and accessibility.

Cross-chain DEX Xswap completes strategic round financing, with participation from P2 Ventures

Xswap recently announced the completion of strategic round financing on the X platform, with specific financing amounts not yet disclosed. Participating institutions and 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 Mich

ael Gu. XSwap is a cross-chain DEX based on Chainlink CCIP.

Bond tokenization platform BlockInvest completes a new round of financing, with Open Venture participating

Bond tokenization platform BlockInvest, supported by Crédit Agricole, announced strategic investment from Open Venture to expand tokenization solutions. One of BlockInvest's existing supporters is Crédit Agricole Italia, a partner in multiple tokenization projects.

Web3 Games

Web3 game developer Seeds Labs completes a $12 million seed round

Web3 game developer Seeds Labs announced the completion of 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, founded in 2021, is set to release its flagship product, the global cross-platform Web3 game Bladerite, this month.

Game ecosystem platform SlingShot DAO secures $3 million in funding, with Alphabit Fund participating

Community-driven game ecosystem platform SlingShot DAO announced the completion of a $3 million new funding round, with Alphabit Fund participating. SlingShot DAO aims to promote community-centered values and action-oriented approaches to establish a new competitive environment in the gaming industry. Members of SlingShot DAO can collaborate through the SlingShot application to transform creative ideas into tangible gaming experiences. The platform's goal is to redefine game innovation in the Web3 gaming field and promote a "community-first" culture.

Web3 game BAC Games completes a $1.5 million seed round

Web3 game BAC Games recently announced the completion of a $1.5 million seed round. Investment institutions in this round include Hash Global, Matr1x, GateLabs, Stratified Capital, W Labs, and Nothing Research. Individual investors participating in this round include Ash (crypto investor), BTCdayu (crypto investor), Joseph A.C. Lloyd (Head of Game Research at Delphi Digital), Laobai (Partner at ABCDE Investment Research), Piers Kicks (Founding Partner of Delphi Ventures), Saku (Co-CEO of Matr1x), and Victor (Head of WEB3 at GGV). BAC Games is a collection of casual WEB3 games, with its first game Blast Auto Clubs implementing a "group to earn" model, based on the Blast Layer 2 public chain, and is set to launch its IDO at the end of May.

Blade of God X secures multi-million dollar funding, with participation from OKX Ventures

OKX Ventures announced its investment in the dark-style cross-platform (Android, iOS, and PC) 3A action game Blade of God X. In addition to OKX Ventures, other participants include Delphi Ventures, Yield Guild Games, LongHash Ventures, Newman Capital, KingRiver Capital/Inevitable Games Fund, BreederDAO, Eden Ventures, and 071 Labs. The funding amount is in the multi-million dollar range. Blade of God X, developed by Void Labs, is seen as the best medium for human interaction with the virtual world, introducing the innovative concept of Play ARPG to train AI Agent. This concept not only integrates innovative AI Agent and blockchain technology but also allows players to easily train their AI Agent through the game. Blade of God is a popular IP series with over 6 million global downloads. Currently, $6 million has been invested in Blade of God X for game development. It is reported that in mid-May, Blade of God X will launch the next round of testing, allowing players to experience the high completeness of AI Agent features in the game.

Decentralized AI cloud gaming protocol DeepLink Protocol receives strategic investment from Waterdrip Capital

Waterdrip Capital announced its strategic investment in the decentralized AI cloud gaming protocol DeepLink Protocol. DeepLink Protocol is a decentralized AI cloud gaming protocol that supports 1ms ultra-low latency and 8K high-resolution gaming experience through AI, blockchain, and streaming technology. The team has developed the DeepLink software based on DeepLink Protocol, which currently covers more than 100 countries globally and has over 500,000 users.

NFT

Singapore Web3 platform Galaxis secures $10 million in funding

Singapore Web3 platform Galaxis has raised $10 million from Chainlink, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Rarestone Capital, Taisu Ventures, ENS co-founder Nick Johnson, and other funders before launching its token. Galaxis aims to help creators and brands launch collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and has sold over 225,000 NFTs in the past few years, generating over 32,000 ETH (approximately $100 million) in secondary market sales revenue. The platform has previously released NFT series for celebrities like DJ Steve Aoki and actor Val Kilmer.

DePIN

Solana ecosystem DePIN project Ambient completes a $2 million seed round

Solana ecosystem DePIN project Ambient announced the completion of a $2 million seed round, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Parami Investors, Sonic Boom Ventures, Primal Capital, and others. Ambient, established in January this year, acquired the environmental data project PlanetWatch based on Algorand in March and decided to migrate to Solana. PlanetWatch's network currently has its own token PLANETS on the Algorand blockchain, but Ambient will launch its new token on Solana. Ambient plans to launch on the Solana testnet this summer before releasing its token. Before the Solana migration, Ambient will integrate PlanetWatch's air quality sensors and community network into its network. Ambient claims that its users have deployed over 25,000 environmental sensors in more than 20 countries, capturing data every 5 minutes and generating over 10.7 billion data streams.

DePIN project MetaPhone secures $1 million in funding, with JDI participating

The DePIN project MetaPhone announced the completion of a $1 million funding round, with participation from JDI, both committed to building the TON DePIN ecosystem, creating a broad decentralized marketing network, and promoting global adoption of Web3 in various fields. MetaPhone is collaborating with an advanced and leading 3C manufacturer to launch flagship devices.

Infrastructure & Tools

Cryptocurrency startup Lagrange completes a $13 million seed round, led by Founders Fund

Cryptocurrency startup Lagrange has successfully raised $13 million. The company focuses on developing advanced encryption solutions to enhance data security and privacy protection. In addition to Founders Fund, Lagrange's seed round funding includes participation from Archetype Ventures, 1kx, Maven11, Fenbushi Capital, Volt Capital, CMT Digital, Mantle, and Ecosystem. Lagrange Labs is a crypto startup based on the Ethereum EigenLayer re-collateralization platform. Leveraging its proprietary technology, Lagrange offers a new encryption method that provides a higher level of data protection for both enterprises and individual users without sacrificing performance. This funding will be used to further develop its encryption technology and expand its market influence.

Botanix Labs announces $11.5 million in funding, with participation from Polychain Capital and others

Botanix Labs has raised $11.5 million in funding, with participation from Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, ABCDE, and others. Additional investors include Andrew Kang, Fiskantes, Dan Held, The Crypto Dog, Charlie Spears, Altcoin Sherpa, Dovey Wan, Jebus, Icebergy, Crypto ISO, Davis (aka "KarbonBased"), Walt Smith, and the creator of the BRC-20 token standard, Domo. Since 2022, Botanix Labs has been focused on building Spiderchain technology to protect decentralized, Bitcoin-based financial systems. Botanix Labs launched an early testnet version of the EVM Layer 2 protocol in November 2023. So far, the testnet has attracted over 20 million active addresses, over 10,000 experimental token issuances, and dozens of dApps set to launch on the first mainnet version of Spiderchain.

The Lava Foundation raised $11 million in token funding before the mainnet launch and airdrop.

According to The Block, the Lava Foundation successfully raised $11 million before the mainnet launch and token airdrop. This funding was achieved through Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), with investors including Animoca Brands, Gate.io Ventures, CoinGecko Ventures, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, among others. The Lava Foundation is a newly established non-profit organization dedicated to developing the modular blockchain network Lava. The Lava network focuses on providing data access services through Remote Procedure Call (RPC), currently in the testnet phase, and plans to officially launch the mainnet and LAVA token in the first half of 2024. The total supply of LAVA tokens is set at 1 billion, with some distributed to users through airdrops. Additionally, Lava plans to support more data infrastructure services in the future, such as indexing, subgraphs, sorting, and more.

Cross-chain interoperability protocol Owlto Finance completes $8 million strategic round of financing, led by Bixin Ventures

The intent-focused cross-chain interoperability protocol Owlto Finance announced the completion of an $8 million strategic round of financing, 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, ChainCatcher, among others. This round of financing will primarily be used to accelerate AI intent cross-chain product upgrades, modular cross-chain interoperability protocol development, global operations and marketing, Liquidity Solution V2, and capital market operations.

Bitcoin-native application platform Arch completes $7 million seed round of financing, led by Multicoin Capital

The Bitcoin-based application platform Arch has completed a funding round led by Multicoin Capital. Other investors in this round include Portal Ventures, OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, CMS Holdings, and Tangent. This financing aims to drive further development of the Arch platform, which brings "bridgeless" transactions directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain. It aims to expand Bitcoin's functionality to support various applications as underlying technology, not just a digital currency.

On-chain privacy computing project Arcium completes $5.5 million financing, led by Greenfield Capital

Arcium has completed a $5.5 million strategic financing round led by Greenfield Capital to develop a secure computing network. Other participants in this round of financing include Coinbase, Heartcore Capital, Longhash VC, L2 Iterative Ventures, Stake Facilities, Smape Capital, Everstake, as well as Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Monad co-founder Keone Han, among other notable angel investors. This network will allow for more secure data processing and storage, enhancing transaction and application privacy protection. This financing will help Arcium expand its technical development and accelerate innovation in the field of secure computing. Arcium previously developed Elusiv, a Solana-based zero-knowledge privacy protocol.

ZKM, a blockchain privacy technology company, recently completed a $5 million Pre-A round of financing. Led by OKX Ventures, participants included Amber, Metis Foundation, Crypto.com, DFG, JSquare, and other companies. This funding will be used to further develop its zero-knowledge proof-based privacy protection technology, aiming to enhance data security and user privacy protection for blockchain applications. ZKM's technology allows for verifying information authenticity without exposing any actual data, crucial for enhancing platform security and attracting more enterprise users.

Web3 infrastructure startup Hemera completes $2.6 million seed round of financing

Web3 infrastructure startup Hemera announced the completion of a $2.6 million seed round of financing, led by LIF Capital and Nomad Capital, with participation from SNZ, Chainlink, Sending Labs, as well as Microsoft's Senior Vice President and AI expert Harry Shum, founder of ZetaChain. The company recently released a public test version of the Hemera protocol, a large language model (LLM) operating system designed for developers in Web3.0, and SocialScan, a community-owned AI based on the Hemera protocol that reimagines user experience through customizable Hemera AI agents.

Cross-chain messaging protocol Glacis Labs completes $2.1 million seed round of financing

Cross-chain messaging protocol company Glacis Labs announced the completion of a $2.1 million seed round of financing, with joint leading investments from Arrington Capital and Paper Ventures, and participation from Bitscale Capital and Protagonist. Glacis Labs aims to help developers manage cross-chain risks and define routing and security logic for cross-chain applications through its cross-chain general message delivery protocol (GMP).

Ethereum sidechain Gnosis invests $2 million in digital wallet developer Zeal

Ethereum sidechain Gnosis announced a strategic partnership with digital wallet developer Zeal to simplify daily self-custody cryptocurrency transactions, similar to the convenience of using cash. Gnosis also invested $2 million in Zeal, bringing Zeal's total funding to $9 million, with a previous $7 million in seed round financing.

NuLink completes a new $1.6 million strategic financing round

Data privacy solution NuLink officially announced the completion of a new $1.6 million strategic financing round on the X platform, led by DWF Labs, Poolz, and Via BTC, with participation from CheckPush, 0xwilds, Coinvestor, 0xbull, AlphaCapital, MNSTPlatform, and AzaVentures, among others. Previously, NuLink raised approximately $5.3 million through Fjord's Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP), bringing the total funding amount to $11.4 million.

Electron Labs completes $1 million seed round extension financing

Electron Labs completed a $1 million seed round extension financing to build an Ethereum-compatible ZK proof aggregation layer. Investors include Polygon founder @sandeepnailwal, Gnosis co-founder @koeppelmann, former Polygon founder @jdkanani, Avail founder @anuragarjun.

Cross-chain liquidity infrastructure company Euclid completes $600,000 Pre-seed round of financing, led by Kahuna Network

Cross-chain liquidity infrastructure company Euclid completed a $600,000 Pre-seed round of financing, led by technology investment firm Kahuna Network and angel investor Tomoaki Sato, with participation from angel investors related to Lavender Five, Andromeda, and Nibiru. The funds will be used for architecture and project development, business development, auditing, marketing; in terms of company business, liquidity unification is achieved by creating a single real source ledger through a virtual network for all Euclid integrated blockchains to seamlessly connect to the settlement layer (Nibiru), providing the lowest slippage and fairest prices throughout the ecosystem. This framework is based on Euclid's proprietary LiquiSync model, enabling easy access for any chain or protocol.

Payment solution company CityPay.io completes new round of financing, with participation from Tether Operations Limited

Payment solution company CityPay.io has completed a new round of financing with participation from Tether Operations Limited. The new funds will be used to strengthen its business in Eastern Europe, focusing on countries such as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. CityPay.io aims to provide customers and businesses with a seamless payment experience, allowing them to use cryptocurrencies for payments at places like Wendy's and Radisson Hotels. Over the next two years, CityPay.io plans to launch innovative e-wallet and bank card solutions, expecting to attract over 400,000 users.

BitTap completes Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Waterdrip Capital

Taproot Assets infrastructure project BitTap has completed a Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Waterdrip Capital. The funding will be used to develop a decentralized trading platform and non-custodial wallet based on the Taproot Assets protocol. The BitTap plugin wallet, as the first decentralized wallet in the Taproot Assets protocol field, is expected to launch its Alpha version testing in May. The team is working on building a decentralized trading platform and non-custodial wallet based on the Taproot Assets protocol. The Alpha version of the BitTap plugin wallet is expected to launch in May.

The team is dedicated to building the Taproot Assets ecosystem, promoting compatibility with the Lightning Network and the Bitcoin main network, and has received official support from the Lightning Labs. BitTap has currently initiated a seed round of financing, aiming to achieve one-click issuance and management of Bitcoin native assets based on the Taproot Assets protocol. **Others** **Social Media:** Farcaster-based Web3 social app Kiosk completes a $10 million financing round, led by Electric Capital. Web3 social network Bondex completes a new round of strategic financing, with DEXT Force Ventures participating. **Cryptocurrency Applications:** Web3 music ecosystem project Star Nest completes a $6 million Pre-A round of financing and plans to launch the NEST token in Q3. Scroll ecosystem project PenPad completes a new round of financing with Presto Labs participating. **Cryptocurrency Mining:** Bitcoin mining service provider GoMining secures a $3 million investment from Bitscale Capital. **Consulting and Incubation:** Web3 incubation service provider BlockBooster completes a $1.5 million seed round of financing, led by OKX Ventures. **Centralized Finance:** UK digital bank Monzo raises $190 million, reaching a valuation of $5.2 billion. (Note: This project is not included in last week's total financing amount.) 　　Disclaimer: Includes third-party opinions. No financial advice. See Risk Warning.