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Financing highlights | Paradigm leads investment in Ethereum historical data protocol Axiom; Animoca leads investment in mobile game studio AOFverse
Summarized by AI
According to BlockBeats statistics, there were a total of 33 financing deals last week, which is an increase compared to previous weeks. The total amount raised was approximately 260.20 million US dollars, with an average financing amount of 7.88 million US dollars. The majority of the financing deals were in the digital asset management/payment sector, while there were relatively more deals in the infrastructure and other sectors. There was an increase in financing deals in the Web3.0+AI and Metaverse/GameFi sectors, while there were fewer deals in the NFT/digital fashion, DeFi, and social/creator economy sectors. The following chart shows the financing distribution across different sectors last week:
Metaverse/GameFi
There were a total of 4 financings in the Metaverse/GameFi field, with a total amount of 10.65 million US dollars, accounting for 4.09% of the total financing amount last week.
Army of Fortune Metaverse（AOFverse）
On January 22nd, according to official sources, mobile game studio Army of Fortune Metaverse (AOFverse) announced the completion of a $3 million private placement round of financing. The round was led by Animoca Ventures, with participation from Liquid X Ventures, Chainridge VC, Ticker Capital, Flying Falcon, and BSCN Gaming Ventures.
AOFverse is a mobile game studio headquartered in London, focusing on Web3 integration and globally beloved IP. The studio is known for popular games such as "Army Tactics", which has received over 1 million downloads since its trial release in October 2023. The AOFverse ecosystem relies on its player base, forming a tightly-knit community and rewarding players who bring others into the ecosystem through token-based incentives. The unique digital symbol of the earliest AOFverse community members, the Fortune Founders Key, serves as a collectible that unlocks exclusive secrets within the ecosystem, allowing holders to forge and explore the treasures it reveals.
AOFverse announced on January 11th that it has received funding from the Arbitrum Foundation, although the specific amount of funding has not been disclosed. In addition, the studio hopes to launch a PvP game called "Army Of Fortune" this year, which is a real-time card-building game that defines its genre.
Arcade2Earn
On January 24th, according to The Block, P2E gaming platform Arcade2Earn completed a $4.8 million financing round, led by Crypto.com Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, KuCoin Labs, and GSR. Arcade2Earn co-founder and CEO Josh Poole stated that this financing was achieved through a simple protocol for future tokens.
Arcade2Earn will provide game access through a system called the "Task Pool". In this system, players do not need to own NFTs to play games and earn money. The system involves the Task Pool Operator (MPO) and Task Pool Contributors (MPC). MPO includes game guilds and individual game players, and users use NFTs in the Arcade library or borrow NFTs from the platform to play web3 games. MPC (essentially Arcade token holders) support specific MPOs and in-game activities by depositing $xARC tokens into the Task Pool, and rewards are allocated based on the success of the tasks.
Arcade2Earn recently moved from Solana to Ethereum and Avalanche. The main liquidity token is on Ethereum (ARC), while the synthetic platform token is on Avalanche ($xARC). Previously, Arcade2Earn built its gaming platform on Solana and completed "most" of the application, but a year later realized that some of the technical requirements of the application were better suited for Ethereum. Arcade2Earn will also conduct a public token sale, with the token being sold being the ARC token on Ethereum. The sale will begin on February 27th and last for 72 hours.
Other financing in the Metaverse/GameFi field includes:
On January 26th, Mon Studios, the development team behind the Web3 MMORPG game Spellborne, announced the completion of a $1.35 million financing round. Momentum 6, 32-Bit Ventures, Yunt Capital, D64 Ventures, County Capital, as well as founders and executives from companies such as Animoca Brands, YGG, Faze Clan, Immutable, and Tatsumeeko participated in the investment. The funds will be used to continue the development of Spellborne.
原文链接 translates to "Original Link" in English.
On January 26th, gamified Bitcoin accelerator 10n8 Little Dragon announced the completion of a $1.5 million financing round, with participation from Centauri Digital Asset Group, Mirai DAO, Spicy Capital, Satoshi Stacker, and other investors and venture capital firms. It is reported that 10n8 Little Dragon's goal is to accelerate projects in the Asia-Pacific region, promote more users to stake and play games in different mining pools, and earn profits. In the future, they will also develop a Unity-based metaverse game.
NFT/Digital Fashion
In the NFT/digital fashion field, a total of 2 financing deals were completed with a total amount exceeding 5.4 million US dollars, accounting for 2.08% of the total financing amount last week.
Singular
On January 23rd, NFT lending protocol Singular announced the completion of a $3 million seed round of financing. The round was led by IOBC Capital, with participation from Bitcoin Cash Foundation, Bing Ventures, DG Capital, Divide Labs, and others.
SingularLabs offers its product Singular, real-time lending, repayment, and automatic matching at the most favorable rates. Singular Protocol adopts a risk-based dynamic interest rate matching model and collateral-based liquidity provision method, allowing users to define returns based on risk preferences and earn collateral rewards without locking tokens or maintaining collateral infrastructure. Through Singular Protocol, users can pledge their own NFTs to participate in NFT liquidity provision. This not only allows users to receive collateral rewards, but also benefits from the appreciation of NFTs in the market, providing additional investment opportunities and profit potential.
Currently, Singular's cross-chain collateralized NFT function has officially launched. The implementation of this function is to support cross-chain lending of NFT assets in the Ethereum ecosystem of Layer2. According to test data, this function can save up to 90% of gas. In the future, Singular will focus on optimizing the product to improve user experience. In addition, various types of NFT assets are planned to be introduced to provide better liquidity support. At the same time, Singular's first full-chain PFP project with token attributes, Golden Chipmunk, is about to be launched. It will realize real-time cross-chain conversion on BTC, ETH, and Layer2. Holding Golden Chipmunk will also receive additional airdrop incentives from Singular in the future.
BitsCrunch
On January 25th, multi-chain NFT data platform BitsCrunch completed a $2.4 million financing round. The round was led by Cypher Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Chainlink, Crypto.com Capital, Morningstar Ventures, Shima Capital, and others.
BitsCrunch is an AI-based decentralized NFT data platform that enables developers to build reliable NFT applications (dApps) and provides data analysis services for NFTs and multi-chain digital assets. The company is actively developing its cryptocurrency forensics business to help retail, institutional, and venture investors make better decisions about cryptocurrency asset investments. This funding will strengthen BitsCrunch's development in the NFT and cryptocurrency data fields.
BitsCrunch recently set a record on CoinList, achieving the fastest sale in history by raising an additional $3.85 million in just 24 minutes (equivalent to $160,000 per minute). This community-driven event attracted participants from 163 countries, marking the most diverse sales event in CoinList's history. The 5x oversubscribed funds highlight the widespread interest and confidence in BitsCrunch's vision.
Related reading: "Detailed explanation of CoinList's new project BitsCrunch: about to start token sales, aiming to be the police of the NFT world".
DeFi
There were a total of 3 financings in the DeFi field, with a total amount of over 2.8 million US dollars, accounting for 1.08% of the total financing amount last week.
Bitflow Labs
On January 25th, Bitcoin DeFi protocol Bitflow Labs announced the completion of a $1.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing. The round was led by Portal Ventures, with participation from Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Bitcoin Startup Lab, Big Brain Holdings, Newman Capital, Genblock Capital, Tykhe Block Ventures, and others.
BitFlow is a decentralized exchange that solves the liquidity fragmentation problem in the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. It is the first decentralized exchange to provide a user-friendly platform for trading BTC, stablecoins, Stacks tokens, BRC20, and other tokens. BitFlow leverages the security, capital, and network of the first layer of Bitcoin to make BTC liquidity easy to flow, so that users can trade any token defined in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Synonym
Stan
Scene Infrastructure Company
Axiom
BSquared Network
Polymer Labs
It is reported that Zorp is building Nockchain as a high-throughput chain, providing proofs for computation, storage, and new namespace. Zorp has built the first combinator-based virtual machine with Nock, which can efficiently work with zero-knowledge proofs. Nockchain is a blockchain based on useful work proof, located on top of its ZKVM.
On January 25th, Web3 investment application developer Web3Intelligence completed a $4.5 million private placement round of financing, with participation from DAO MAKER, Shima Capital, and Gate, among others. It is reported that Web3Intelligence will issue the DOPE token as a utility token for accessing Dopamine. Web3Intelligence aims to provide anti-money laundering information to institutions in order to provide its clients with the same compliance standards as traditional finance.
On January 25th, CryptoSafe, a blockchain project focused on improving capital efficiency in the cryptocurrency market, completed its latest round of funding, raising $20 million and reaching a valuation of $95 million. The specific investors have not been disclosed yet. The funding round was completed on January 1st, 2024, and is an important milestone for the company. The new funds will be allocated to various areas of CryptoSafe's growth and innovation plan, including research and development, market expansion, talent recruitment, enhanced customer experience, and compliance and security measures.
On January 24th, Web3 game infrastructure service provider 3thix completed an $8.5 million financing round, with participation from Hand of Midas, the family office of Xsolla founder Shurick Agapitov, and Sonic Boom Ventures. The raised funds will be used for Web3 game monetization. In addition, Xsolla plans to integrate 3thix as its Web3 infrastructure for operating and partnering companies.
On January 27th, Web3 data service infrastructure Hyperline completed a $5.2 million seed round of financing. The round was led by Slow Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons, Script Capital, and Maelstrom. Currently, Hyperline supports multiple mainstream blockchain networks, and this financing round will help the team accelerate development processes, allowing developers to more quickly understand, explore, and utilize blockchain data to build new products through the first end-to-end Web3 data platform.
原文链接 Translation:
Digital Asset Management/Payment
In the field of digital asset management/payment, a total of 6 financings were completed with a total amount exceeding 102.85 million US dollars, accounting for 39.53% of the total financing amount last week.
EDX Markets
On January 23rd, EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency trading platform supported by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab, completed its Series B financing round. The specific amount was not disclosed. New investor Pantera Capital and existing investor Sequoia Capital jointly led the round.
EDX CEO Jamil Nazarali said that the funds will be used to develop new technologies and expand EDX's influence in new foreign markets, but declined to disclose the specific size of the B-round financing.
Sygnum
On January 25th, according to The Block, cryptocurrency bank Sygnum announced today that it has raised over $40 million in a strategic financing round led by Milan-based asset management company Azimut Holding, with a valuation of $900 million. A statement shared by the company stated that the amount raised exceeded the target of $35 million.
This financing will enable it to further build a fully regulated solution to support investors in increasing their investments in this asset class. Sygnum plans to use the newly raised funds to drive the bank's expansion into new markets and further develop its regulated products, such as interbank digital asset services. Gerald Goh, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum's Singapore branch, said that Sygnum plans to enter one market in Europe and another market in the Asia-Pacific region, but due to regulatory obligations, the company cannot disclose more details.
According to the statement, Sygnum Bank, headquartered in Switzerland and Singapore, has also obtained operating licenses from Abu Dhabi and Luxembourg. It currently manages assets worth over $4 billion from more than 1,700 clients in 60 countries.
Digital asset management/payment and other financing packages:
On January 24th, Dinari, a blockchain-based securities investment platform, announced that it had completed a $10 million seed round of financing in Q4 2023, with participation from Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, 500 Global, Alchemy, Version One Ventures, Sancue Ventures, and others.
Dinari was founded in 2021 and provides blockchain-supported access to corporate equity through its dShare platform. According to Jake Timothy, co-founder and CTO of Dinari, the dShare platform offers access to securities such as Apple or Tesla stocks for users outside the United States based on the Arbitrum network due to regulatory reasons.
On January 23rd, VETA Finance, a blockchain-based financial platform, announced the completion of a $2.85 million strategic financing round. The round was led by Matrixport Ventures, the venture capital arm of Matrixport, with participation from imToken Ventures and 280 Capital. VETA Finance focuses on structured products for digital assets, including a full-service chain for decentralized financial platforms, structured product pricing, and exchange operations. The funding will be used to optimize the supply of structured products on the platform and strengthen IT system construction.
On January 23rd, Figure Markets, the digital asset division of blockchain financial company Figure, plans to complete a $50 million financing with a valuation of $250 million (excluding the financing amount). Jump Crypto may be the lead investor. The funds will be used to support the operation of Figure Markets.
On January 24th, South Korean digital asset custody firm BDACS completed its seed round of financing, with participation from Blizzard Fund. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. In addition, BDACS will provide AVAX and BTC.b as institutional custody assets for Avalanche, and provide staking support for Avalanche P-Chain. In addition to expanding products and access on Avalanche, BDACS also plans to open up access to digital assets more broadly in South Korea.
Web3+AI
In the Web3+AI field, a total of 5 financing deals were completed with a total amount exceeding 18.7 million US dollars, accounting for 7.19% of the total financing amount last week. These deals include:
On January 24th, Doppel, an AI-driven brand protection platform, announced the completion of a $14 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Strategic Cyber Ventures, Frederic Kerrest, Vice Chairman and Co-founder of Okta, Emilio Escobar, Chief Information Security Officer of Datadog, Andy Ozment, Chief Technology Risk Officer and Executive Vice President of Capital One, Ryan Carlson, President of Chainguard, Ryan Noon, Co-founder and Chairman of Material Security, Ramsey Homsany, Co-founder of Octant, Prafulla Dhariwal, Research Scientist at OpenAI, and other new investors, as well as existing investors such as South Park Commons, SVAngel, Gokul Rajaram, and Sabrina Hahn. Zane Lackey, former Co-founder of Signal Sciences and Chief Information Security Officer of Etsy, will soon join its board of directors.
Doppel is an AI-driven brand protection platform that provides a set of solutions to address large-scale digital risks: 1. Local integration with as many platforms as possible, whether social media platforms or domain registrars, which enables end-to-end automation of data sources and alert remediation; 2. Strategic relationships with as many platforms as possible, which enables proactive management of threats and surface upgrades; 3. Leveraging the latest AI technology. This enables the company to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in detection, automate internal operational workflows, and summarize intelligence on external threats at internet scale. Doppel currently serves businesses across industries, including Coinbase, ARK Invest, and VSCO.
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