VC roundup: Blockchain startups raise $258m in a week, Farcaster leads with $150m series A

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As an experienced analyst in the blockchain industry, I’m thrilled to see such significant investment activity during the past week. With over $258 million raised collectively by startups, it’s evident that there is a growing interest and confidence in the potential of these innovative projects.

As a crypto investor, I’m excited to share that during the week of May 19th to May 25th, blockchain startups managed to raise an impressive total of over $258 million. This significant amount was largely driven by Farcaster, a decentralized social protocol, which secured a massive series A round of $150 million alone.

As a researcher studying crypto fundraising trends, I’ve discovered that over the past week, four startups successfully secured a total of $179.2 million during their Series A funding rounds. Additionally, twelve other startups managed to raise approximately $24.1 million through funding rounds that have yet to be identified.

As an analyst, I’d rephrase that as follows: Five startups raised a total of $21.3 million during their seed funding rounds. Meanwhile, two of these startups secured an additional $20 million collectively through strategic financing rounds.

Two startups managed to secure $9 million each through private funding rounds, whereas the third startup brought in $5 million via a public offering.

Below is a roundup of the week’s crypto VC action.

Farcaster hits unicorn status with $150m series A

As an analyst, I’m excited to share that Farcaster, the Ethereum-based decentralized social media protocol, has successfully raised $150 million in its Series A funding round. This round was spearheaded by the esteemed venture firm Paradigm. Notable investors like a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Standard Crypto also contributed significantly to this round. With these investments, Farcaster’s valuation has soared to an impressive $1 billion, placing it in the coveted unicorn category.

Dan Romaco-founder announced that our team will allocate the newly raised funds in two major domains: expanding our daily active user base and improving developer tools such as channels and direct messaging. Moreover, we intend to recruit additional engineers to facilitate these projects.

Plume Network raises $10m for L2 blockchain

Plume Network, a versatile Layer 2 (L2) system engineered for seamless on-chain adoption of real-world assets (RWAs), reportedly raised $10 million in their seed financing, with Haun Ventures spearheading the investment.

In the investment round led by the California venture capital firm, Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, and Portal Ventures joined as partners. Additionally, several angel investors including Anthony Ramirez from Wormhole Labs and Andrew Kang from Mechanism took part in the funding.

Chris Yin, the CEO of Plume, announced that the newly acquired funds will aid in accomplishing our goal of streamlining the transfer of assets such as real estate and artwork onto blockchain technology.

Blockless secures $8m for decentralized infrastructure expansion

As a researcher examining the Blockless DePIN project, I’ve discovered that they successfully secured $8 million in investments throughout two initial funding rounds.

NGC Ventures spearheaded the first pre-seed investment of $3 million. Subsequently, a seed round of $5 million was jointly headed by M31 Capital and Frachtis. Moreover, investments were made by No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures, and Plassa Capital in this round.

Butian Li, one of the Project’s co-founders, disclosed that the funds will be utilized to initiate the testing phase of the network within the next few weeks. The primary network along with the native BLESS token are scheduled for introduction in Q3 2024.

Pencils Protocol, IVX secure seed funding

In a recent funding round headed by OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Galxe, Pencils Protocol, which is an auction platform and yield aggregator based on the Scroll network, successfully secured $2.1 million in investments.

At the same time, IVX managed to raise $1.2 million during its seed funding round with the support of Animoca Ventures and additional investors.

Delighted to share that we’ve successfully secured a $1.2 million seed investment for developing the next generation of 0dte option markets on Binance, spearheaded by Animoca Ventures and Avid.xyz.

— IVX (@ivx_fi) May 22, 2024

IVX is developing a native options platform on Binance Smart Chain’s EVM, Polyorus, enabling users to trade zero-delay to expiration (0DTE) options for cryptocurrencies. This feature offers increased exposure to crypto assets with the benefit of eliminating liquidation risk and quick leverage.

Cysic, RunesFi announce new funding rounds

As a researcher studying the latest developments in the technology sector, I’ve come across an intriguing announcement. Cysic, a pioneering firm specializing in zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware acceleration, recently secured $12 million in their pre-A funding round. This investment was spearheaded by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures.

The team leading the project believes that securing this funding will significantly speed up the process of creating Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs, resulting in a more efficient and affordable method.

As a researcher studying the latest developments in the Bitcoin ecosystem, I’ve come across an intriguing announcement. RunesFi, a significant player in the Bitcoin infrastructure sector, successfully secured $400,000 in their funding round, with Cogitent Ventures taking the lead.

As a researcher studying the innovative approaches in the cryptocurrency realm, I’d describe RunesFi’s mission using the Runes Protocol as follows: I aim to amplify Bitcoin’s decentralized finance features by introducing a decentralized exchange (DEX) and essential infrastructure for seamless transactions, ultimately resulting in reduced costs.

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2024-05-25 23:12