Cointelegraph Chinese & CGV ResearchVane | Weekly Report on Global Encryption Market Investment and Financing Trends (2022.3.7-3.13)

As the popularity of the encryption market declines, ordinary investors are leaving the market one after another, but we have found that first-tier investment institutions are investing in the market in large numbers, especially in the infrastructure field. The popularity of the GameFi and Metaverse fields has declined, and investment in the DeFi field is gradually increasing. reduce. 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 7 to March 13, 2022:

【infrastructure】

1. Espresso Systems | $32 million in financing ｜ Greylock Partners led the round

On March 7, Espresso Systems, a Web 3 application extension and privacy system, completed $32 million in financing, led by Greylock Partners and Electric Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Blockchain Capital and Slow Ventures.

Espresso Systems is developing a layer 1 blockchain infrastructure to provide fast, low-fee transactions by integrating a proof-of-stake consensus protocol with a zk rollup mechanism.

2. WalletConnect | $11 million in Series A financing ｜ USV and 1kx lead the round

On March 9, WalletConnect, an encrypted wallet application, completed its Series A financing of US$11 million. This round of financing was co-led by Union Square Ventures (USV) and 1kx, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Semantic Ventures, and Zerion.

WalletConnect is currently integrated with more than 100 wallets and more than 200 applications. The project will use the funding from this round to further develop its messaging protocol and push notification protocol.

3. Swim Protocol | $4 million in seed round financing｜Pantera Capital led the investment

On March 9, Swim Protocol, a multi-chain liquidity protocol, completed a $4 million seed round of financing led by Pantera Capital, FTX, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures, Jump Capital, Social Capital, IOSG Ventures, Rok Capital, GBV Capital, Mantis VC, Panony, Bonfida participated in the investment.

4. Upstream | $12.5 million in Series A financing｜Boldstart Ventures led the round

On March 10, Upstream, a DAO management tool, completed a $12.5 million Series A round led by Boldstart Ventures, with Tiger Global, Ibex Investors, Vayner Fund, Panoramic Ventures, Alpaca VC, Human Ventures, and Blumberg Capital participating.

The new funds will be used to expand the no-code DAO platform for development projects. By simplifying the startup and management of DAOs, Upstream will lower the barriers to entry for users and help make Web3 more accessible.

5. Zecrey | $4 million in angel round financing ｜Spartan Group and Shima Capital jointly lead the investment

On March 11, Zecrey, a Layer 2 privacy protocol based on zk-Rollup, completed a $4 million angel round of financing, co-led by Spartan Group and Shima Capital, Fundamental Labs, Fenbushi Capital, Amber Group, Avalanche Asia Star Fund (Avatar), CMT Digital Group, Youbi Capital, SevenX, D1 Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, Pluto, Avstar, Mulana, MapleBlock, and Nagi HAMIYEH (CIO) from Temasek participated in the investment.

Zecrey is a general-purpose privacy protocol that can bring high-performance, low-cost privacy solutions to digital assets on public chain ecosystems such as Ethereum, NEAR, Solana, and BSC.

【DeFi】

6. Katana | $5 million in seed round financing | Framework led the investment

On March 11, Katana, the Solana ecological DeFi protocol, announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Electric capital, Founders fund, Protofund, Amber, Alameda research, Solana Ventures, Reverie, CMS, and QCP capital.

The financing was raised after winning the grand prize at the Solana Ignition Hackathon in November last year, which will help Katana quickly expand into a de facto DeFi income layer.

【Metaverse】

7. Altered State Machine | Seed round financing ｜ Coinbase Ventures and others participated in the investment

On March 10, Altered State Machine, an AI Metaverse platform, completed its seed round of financing. The financing amount was undisclosed. The participating investors included 17 institutions including TCG, Warner Music Group, and Coinbase Ventures.

Altered State Machine (ASM) aims to create a platform that applies artificial intelligence (AI) to the Metaverse.

【GameFi】

8. Hydraverse | $1.7 million in seed round financing | x21 Capital and others participated in the investment

On March 7th, Hydraverse, a Metaverse blockchain game, completed a US$1.7 million seed round and private placement round of financing. AshWSB, EverseCapital, Exnetwork Capital, x21 Capital, Roseon Finance, BrotherHoodVentures, BinStarter, AnPhatCapital, SGN Capital, Kiwi Group, Avalon Wealth Club, Alpha Crypto Capital and others participated in the investment.

Hydraverse is a metaverse GameFi project based on dragon and racing games and fairy tales. It focuses on the combination of 3D NFT and metaverse to provide players with a high-quality blockchain gaming experience.

9.Mirror World | $4 million in seed round financing | Alameda Research and others led the investment

On March 11, the chain game project Mirror World announced that it has completed a seed round of financing exceeding US$4 million, led by Galaxy Interactive, Republic and Alameda Research, YGG SEA, Avocado Guild, Mirana Ventures, Inifinity Ventures Crypto, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Sky9 Capital, etc. Participate in voting.

Mirror World is a virtual world composed of a variety of game matrices, including the ARPG game "Mirrama" combined with Roguelike gameplay, the casual PVP-based arena duel game "Brawl of Mirrors", and an SLG-based Main types of games.

10. Undead Blocks | $1.7 million in seed round financing ｜ Leading investment by Genblock Capital and others

On March 12, Undead Blocks, a zombie P2E chain game, announced the completion of a $1.7 million private placement and seed round of financing. Among them, Animoca Brands led the private equity round and achieved US$600,000 in financing. Genblock Capital and Double Peak Group co-led the seed round, bringing in $1.1 million in funding.

Undead Blocks is a AAA first-person shooter (FPS) zombie survival game that allows players to purchase weapons as NFTs and earn in-game rewards for killing zombies and completing in-game achievements.

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.