After a period of silence, the market has recently started to rebound. BAYC has sparked a new round of market enthusiasm, and tracks such as NFT have also begun to recover. Judging from the statistics of this week (a total of 22 projects), investment institutions still mainly invest in web3 infrastructure (8 projects) and GameFi (8 projects), and DeFi investments based on Solana have also increased. CGV and Cointelegraph Chinese have summarized the investment and financing information worth noting in the global encryption market for a week. The following is the investment and financing information of the global encryption market from March 14 to March 20, 2022:
【infrastructure】
1. ConsenSys | D round of financing $ 450 million | ParaFi Capital lead investment
On March 15, ConsenSys, an Ethereum infrastructure development company, completed a US$450 million D round of financing at a valuation of US$7 billion. This round of financing was led by ParaFi Capital, Temasek, Softbank Vision Fund Phase II, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures , C Ventures, Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management and UTA VC participated in the investment.
ConsenSys is a pioneer in creating foundational software for Web3, with a mission to unleash the collaborative power of the community by making DAOs, NFTs, and DeFi universally easy to use, access, and build on.
2. finblox | $3.9 million in seed round financing | Three Arrows Capital and others participated in the investment
On March 15, finblox, an encrypted savings startup, completed a $3.9 million seed round of financing. This round of financing was participated by Three Arrows Capital, Sequoia India, MSA Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CoinFund, OrangeDAO, and Kyros Ventures.
finblox allows users to passively earn income using Bitcoin, ETH, USDC, SOL, and AVAX without lock-up and deposit restrictions.
3. Float Capital | $5 million in seed round financing | Alameda Research and others participated in the investment
On March 16, Float Capital, a synthetic asset protocol, completed a $5 million seed round of financing. Alameda Research, Maven 11, IDEO CoLab Ventures, MetaCartel Ventures, Encode Club, 6th Man Ventures, Ascensive Assets, etc. participated in this round of financing, and angel investors People include Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, and Sinan Koc, co-founder of BiLira, among others.
Float Capital has established a peer-to-peer on-chain asset market that allows users to mint assets without overcollateralization or exposure to liquidation risks. The protocol was launched in alpha last September and has been deployed on Avalanche and Polygon.
4. Itheum | $4 million in financing | Elrond Foundation and others participated in the investment
On March 17, Itheum, a decentralized multi-chain data brokerage platform, announced the addition of investors. The financing amount increased from the initial US$1.5 million to US$4 million. The new investors include Elrond Foundation, Mechanism Capital, Woodstock, Ascensive Assets, Skynet EGLD Capital, MHC Digital Finance, ZBS Capital and Spark Digital Finance etc.
5. Kyash | D round of financing 41 million US dollars | Block and others participated in the investment
On March 17, the Japanese encryption bank Kyash announced the completion of a $41 million (4.9 billion yen) D round of financing. Japan Post Investment Corporation, Block, Greyhound Capital, SMBC Nikko Securities, Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, StepStone Group, JAFCO Group, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital and others participated in the investment.
Kyash CEO Shinichi Takatori said that this round of financing will be used to expand the team and promote product growth. It is reported that this transaction is Block's first investment in the Asia-Pacific region.
6. Optimism | B round of financing 150 million US dollars | a16z and Paradigm lead the investment
On March 18, Optimism, the second-tier scaling solution of Ethereum, announced that it completed a US$150 million Series B financing at a valuation of US$1.65 billion. This round of financing was led by a16z and Paradigm.
Jinglan Wang, CEO of Optimism, said, “Optimism does not profit from operating the centralized part of the system, so we want to remove the economic incentive to keep ourselves centralized, and while we earn income, we use all of this income to for funding public goods on Ethereum.”
7. InvestaX | A round of financing | Coinbase Ventures and others participated in the investment
On March 18, InvestaX, a digital securities platform, announced the completion of its A-round financing. The specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. Coinbase Ventures, Gate Ventures, Token Bay Capital, Sustainability Exchange Group (SEG), Global Blockchain Ventures, Startup-O, JST Capital, Baksh Capital, Thakral Corporation Ltd, Woodside Holdings Investment Management, and Balaji Srinivasan participated in this round of financing.
InvestaX is a MAS licensed digital securities platform providing end-to-end solutions for digital securities issuance, trading and custody of private market assets.
8.Mina | Strategic and private equity round financing $92 million |FTX Ventures lead the investment
On March 18, Mina, a lightweight blockchain protocol, announced the completion of a US$92 million strategic and private equity round of financing. This round of financing was led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital. Alan Howard, Amber Group, Blockchain.com, Brevan Howard, Circle Ventures, Finality Capital Partners, Pantera and others participated in the investment.
【DeFi】
9.Treehouse | $18 million in seed round financing | Jump Capital and others participated in the investment
On March 16, Treehouse, a DeFi investment analysis platform, completed a $18 million seed round of financing, led by an undisclosed large financial technology investor, Mirana Ventures, Jump Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MassMutual Ventures, Binance, Global Founders Capital, Moonvault Capital, Wintermute, GSR, K3 Ventures, LeadBlock Partners, Coinhako, Bitpanda, Pintu, The Brooker Group, AlphaLab Capital, Portofino, Pulsar Trading, Fundamental Labs, CRC Capital, Berioza Associates, Venturra, DoKwon, founder of Terra, and SoftBank Vision Fund Executives and others participated in the vote.
Treehouse aims to build a DeFi tool to change the way retail and institutional investors invest in the field, and has launched its flagship product Harvest.
10. Sturdy | $3.9 million in seed round financing | Pantera Capital led the investment
On March 16, Sturdy, an interest-free DeFi lending agreement, completed a $3.9 million seed round and strategic round of financing, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Softbank Opportunity Fund, KuCoin Ventures, mgnr, One Block, Dialetic, and Orange DAO. The funds raised in this round will be used for multi-chain expansion, increasing mortgage assets and the development of pledge functions.
11. Lunar Labs | $10 million in financing | Hypersphere Ventures led the round
On March 18, Lunar Labs, a mortgage lending protocol development team, completed a $10 million financing round led by Hypersphere Ventures and Arrington Capital, with participation from Lemniscap, Robot Ventures, and Signum Capital. The financing will be used to advance the development of Moonwell Artemis.
Lunar Labs is the mortgage lending protocol development team on the Polkadot smart contract platform Moonbeam.
12.Prime Protocol | $2.75 million in seed round financing | Leading investment by Jump Capital and others
On March 18, the cross-chain DeFi protocol Prime Protocol announced the completion of a $2.75 million seed round of financing, led by Jump Capital, Arrington Capital and Framework Ventures.
Prime Protocol mints Stablecoin PUSD through collateral, and generates a total credit line for the mortgage assets on different chains of the same user, and realizes cross-chain asset lending at the same time.
【NFT】
13.Double Protocol | $1.5 million in seed round financing | Shima Capital and others participated in the investment
On March 17, Double Protocol, an NFT rental market, completed a $1.5 million seed round of financing led by Matrixport, Shima Capital, Youbi Capital, LucidBlue Ventures, Red Building Capital, Capital 6 Eagle, Plancker DAO, Loopring CTO Steve Guo, NGC Founding partner Tony Gu and others participated in the investment.
Double Protocol is an NFT rental market mainly for GameFi and Metaverse assets. It uses an original dual-role scheme to realize the separation of ownership and use rights of NFT assets. It currently supports virtual land leases in Decentraland.
14. FanCraze | A round of financing of 100 million US dollars | Ronaldo participated in the investment
On March 19, the cricket NFT platform FanCraze (formerly Faze Technologies) completed its A round of financing, with an estimated financing amount of US$100 million. This round of financing was co-led by B capital Group and Insight Partners, and Cristiano Ronaldo (C Ronaldo) also participated With this funding round, a formal announcement will be made within a few weeks.
【GameFi】
15. Eizper Chain | $2 million in seed round financing | Alameda Research leads the investment
On March 15, Eizper Chain, a Solana-based chain game, completed a $2 million financing through seed round financing and NFT issuance. The seed round was led by Alameda Research, Huobi Ventures, Cryptocom Capital, Solar Eco Fund, Petrock Capital, Nyan Heroes, ROK Capital and others participated in the investment, and angel investors included Jack Teoh, Ivan lam, and Arnold Poernomo.
Eizper Chain is a multiplayer action role-playing game that combines adventure and arena combat. The game is currently undergoing public testing, and the mainnet version is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2022.
16.Crypto Unicorns | $26 million financing | TCG, Backed VC lead the investment
On March 15, the chain game Crypto Unicorns completed a $26 million financing by selling Tokens. This round of financing was led by TCG and Backed VC, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Infinity Venture Crypto, Polygon Studios, CoinFund, BreederDAO, Emfarsis and ACME Capital Wait to vote. Funds raised will be deposited in the Crypto Unicorns DAO treasury.
17. Rebel Bots | private equity round of financing 2 million US dollars | Animoca Brands and others participated in the investment
On March 16, Rebel Bots, a P2E NFT chain game based on the Polygon network, completed a $2 million private placement round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Ubisoft and Overwolf.
18.Third Time | $3.5 million in seed round financing | Coinbase Ventures and others participated in the investment
On March 17, chain game studio Third Time announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round of financing, led by LVP, with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Folius Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, and Maven Capital. This round of financing will be used for the development of video games under the team and the establishment of P2E mechanisms.
19.Lava Labs | $10 million in Series A financing | Dialectic leads the investment
On March 17, chain game startup Lava Labs announced the completion of a $10 million Series A round of financing led by Dialectic, Merit Circle, Dragonfly, DeFiance Capital, Animoca, Razer Computer, Weak Simp Cap, Dapper Labs and Maven11, And angel investors Santiago R Santos, Gabbi Dizon and Nick Chong participated in the investment.
Lava Labs is a blockchain gaming startup founded in 2019, and Lava is preparing to conduct a virtual land sale in the form of NFT, which will sell 10,000 plots to its community.
20.C2X | 25 million US dollars in financing | FTX and other leading investors
On March 18, Terra-based blockchain gaming platform C2X completed a $25 million financing led by FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto and Animoca Brands, Hashed, Terra, Transcend Fund, Galaxy Interactive, Skybound, Blockchain Coinvestors, DeFiance Capital, Play Ventures, Cryptocom, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Unanimous Capital, Bowei, Xsolla, Huobi Ventures, Goal Ventures, Concept Art House and Agnitio Capital participated in the investment. This round of investment is in the form of private placement Token sales, with a valuation of US$500 million.
21. Ultiverse | $4.5 million in seed round financing | Binance Labs and other leading investors
On March 18, Ultiverse, a Web3 MMORPG game, completed a $4.5 million seed round of financing with a post-money valuation of $50 million. This round of financing was co-led by Binance Labs and Defiance Capital, with participation from Three Arrows Capital and SkyVision Capital.
Ultiverse is an MMORPG game on BNB Chain, aiming to become the first AAA game in the Web3 field, and its P2E system encourages players to benefit from community building.
22.Joyride | $14 million in financing | Coinbase Ventures and others participated in the investment
On March 18, Joyride, a Web3 game development platform, announced the completion of $14 million in financing, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Solana Ventures, Dapper Labs, BITKRAFT Ventures, SuperLayer, Modern Times Group, and Mirana Ventures.
This round of funding will be used to support more blockchains for the wallet, add new NFT functionality, market integration, and boost the first batch of games on the Joyride platform.
About CGV FOF: CGV FOF is a fund of funds from Asia, focusing on investing in Crypto Fund and Crypto Studio. CGV FOF is composed of family funds from Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, headquartered in Japan, and also has branches in Singapore and Canada.