Blockchain
Blockchain startups raise $258 million in one week
During the week of May 19-25, blockchain startups collectively raised over $258 million, led by decentralized social protocol Farcaster’s $150 million Series A round.
According to Crypto Fundraising, four startups raised $179.2 million in Series A rounds in the past seven days, while 12 startups raised $24.1 million via unknown rounds.
Fundraising for cryptocurrencies from May 19th to 25th | Source: Crypto Fundraising
Five startups earned $21.3 million from seed rounds; two locked in $20 million combined from strategic rounds.
Two other startups raised $9 million from private rounds, while the latest raised $5 million from a public sale round.
Below is a summary of the week’s VC crypto stocks.
Farcaster achieves unicorn status with $150 million Series A
Decentralized social media protocol based on Ethereum Farcaster has secured $150 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Paradigm. The round also saw significant contributions from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Standard Crypto, among others. It raised Farcaster’s valuation to a staggering $1 billion, marking its entry into unicorn territory.
Co-founder Dan Romero shared that the protocol will use the new capital in two main areas: increasing daily active users and improving development tools such as channels and direct messaging. Additionally, Farcaster plans to hire more engineers to support these initiatives.
Plume Network Raises $10 Million for L2 Blockchain
Plume Network, a modular Layer 2 (L2) network designed to facilitate on-chain integration of real-world assets (RWA), announced a $10 million seed funding round led by Haun Ventures.
The California-based venture capital firm was joined by Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel and Portal Ventures. Several angel investors also participated, such as Anthony Ramirez of Wormhole Labs and Andrew Kang of Mechanism.
Plume CEO Chris Yin said the funds will advance the company’s mission to simplify the process of transferring assets such as real estate and art onto blockchain platforms.
Blockless Secures $8 Million for Decentralized Infrastructure Expansion
Blockless, a network of decentralized physical infrastructures (DePIN), raised $8 million in two initial funding rounds.
The initial $3 million pre-seed round was led by NGC Ventures, followed by a $5 million seed round co-led by M31 Capital and Frachtis. Other investors included No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures and Plassa Capital.
The project’s co-founder, Butian Li, revealed that the funds will support the launch of a test network in the coming weeks. A mainnet and native BLESS token will be released in Q3 2024.
Pencils Protocol, IVX secures initial funding
Pencils Protocol, an auction platform and yield aggregator on the Scroll network, has raised $2.1 million in a seed round led by OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands and Galxe.
Meanwhile, another project, IVX, raised $1.2 million in a seed round backed by Animoca Ventures and other investors.
IVX is building a native options protocol on Berachain Polaris EVM, providing zero-day to expiration (0DTE) options for crypto assets, allowing users high leverage exposure without liquidation risk.
Cysic and RunesFi announce new funding rounds
Cysic, a zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware acceleration company, has raised $12 million in a pre-A funding round led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures.
According to the team behind the project, the funding will accelerate the generation of ZK proofs, making them faster and more cost-efficient.
Finally, RunesFi, a Bitcoin infrastructure hub, raised $400,000 in a funding round led by Cogitent Ventures.
Using the Runes Protocol, RunesFi aims to enhance Bitcoin’s decentralized finance (defi) capabilities with features such as a decentralized exchange (DEX) and infrastructure products to support efficient transactions and lower costs.
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