Funding Weekly Report | 18 publicly disclosed funding events; Canton Network developer completes $50 million funding round with participation from BNY Mellon and Nasdaq.
Highlights of this episode According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 18 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (December 1-7), with a total funding scale exceeding US$344 million. An overview is as follows: In the DeFi sector, seven investment and financing events were announced, including decentralized exchange Ostium completing a $20 million Series A funding round led by Jump Trading and others. Two investment and financing events were announced in the Web3+AI sector, with the decentralized AI network DeepNode raising a total of $5 million in two rounds of financing. The infrastructure & tools sector announced three investment and financing events, including Antithesis, a testing tool used on the Ethereum network, which completed a $105 million Series A funding round led by Jane Street. Three investment and financing events were announced in the centralized finance sector, including stablecoin application Fin completing a $17 million financing round led by Pantera Capital; In the area of other Web3 applications, three investment and financing events were announced, including prediction market Opinion, which revealed that it has completed a new round of financing of tens of millions of US dollars. In addition, two publicly traded companies have completed financing rounds for their crypto treasury strategies: Lion Group signed a $10 million private placement agreement, allocating $8 million to purchase BTC. DeFi Decentralized exchange Ostium completes $20 million Series A funding round, led by Jump Trading and others. Ostium, a decentralized exchange founded by Harvard graduates, has raised $20 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at approximately $250 million post-money. The round was led by General Catalyst and Jump Trading, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, and GSR. Ostium had previously raised approximately $8 million in total. The platform focuses on perpetual contract trading for real-world assets such as commodities and stocks, aiming to provide overseas investors outside the US with transparent and efficient exposure to the US market. The co-founder and CEO stated that their goal is not to directly compete with crypto-native perpetual contract protocols like Hyperliquid, but rather to challenge traditional online brokers like Robinhood and eToro. The Ostium team currently has 15 employees, and this funding will be used to expand into the non-crypto user market. Their product logic targets the pain points of system opacity and technological lag faced by overseas investors accessing the US market through traditional brokers. DeFi protocol Zoo Finance has completed an $8 million strategic funding round, aiming to unlock liquidity from locked tokens. Zoo Finance, a DeFi protocol focused on unlocking liquidity from locked tokens, announced the completion of an $8 million strategic funding round. Zoo Finance's core product is its pioneering LVT (Liquidity Locked Token) & LNT (Liquidity Node Token) protocol. This protocol transforms locked vested tokens into tradable digital assets by splitting them into VT (Valuable Valuable Token) and YT (Yield Token). This innovation enables on-chain over-the-counter trading of SAFT tokens and node holders, creating new opportunities for future yield trading of tokens. This strategic funding round was led by Bitrise Capital, with participation from Signum Capital, Certik Ventures, TOP, CGV Funds, and Cryptomeria. This brings Zoo Finance's total funding to $10 million. Previous investors include CMS Holdings, Big Brain Holdings, DefinitionX, Pragma Ventures, HG Ventures, YBB Capital, 0xVentures, and Aquarius Financials. On-chain revenue protocol Axis raises $5 million, led by Galaxy Ventures. On-chain revenue protocol Axis has completed a $5 million private funding round, led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, FalconX, GSR, Maven 11, CMS Holdings, and Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative. The round was oversubscribed four times. The project aims to bring market-neutral strategies on-chain, and its closed beta phase has already deployed $100 million in capital, achieving a strategy Sharpe ratio of 4.9. Axis offers uncorrelated returns across different assets such as the US dollar, Bitcoin, and gold through a multi-asset yield hub. Its first US dollar-pegged asset, USDx, generates returns using an arbitrage engine, with plans to expand to Bitcoin and gold assets later. The protocol will be deployed on Plasma, a dedicated stablecoin chain supported by Bitfinex, to reduce operating costs and will integrate infrastructure such as Chainlink proof-of-reserve and Veda custody. The team stated that it plans to launch its first Origin Vault this year, aiming to raise up to $1 billion in deposits before a public token sale and full protocol launch in early 2026. On-chain yield platform Altura completes $4 million funding round On-chain yield platform Altura has raised $4 million in funding, led by Ascension, with participation from European private equity firms Moonfare and InnoFinCon. The platform aims to provide transparent, risk-controlled, and stable on-chain returns for both individual users and institutions through professional quantitative strategies. Altura employs a single-chain vault structure and generates returns through market-neutral strategies such as capturing cross-exchange price spreads, obtaining funding rates for hedging positions, and allocating interest-bearing assets, targeting an annualized return of 20%-30% in normal market conditions. LayerBank, an on-chain money market platform, has completed a $2.3 million Pre-Seed funding round. LayerBank has announced the completion of a $2.3 million Pre-Seed funding round. Investors in this round include Torab Torabi, CEO of Move Industries, Coin Bureau Chinese, DVchain, Taiko, Rootstock, and several angel investors and ecosystem contributors. The new funds will be used to advance the development and launch of its native token, ULAB, which is designed to form the basis of the platform's long-term value capture and incentive model. LayerBank plans to hold its Token Generation Event (TGE) on the Movement Network. LayerBank is a universal liquidity and on-chain money market, currently supporting over 150 markets across more than 17 chains, aiming to provide lending and yield strategies through a unified chain abstraction experience. Haiku raises $1 million in pre-seed funding to simplify DeFi execution processes. Decentralized trading infrastructure project Haiku has completed a $1 million Pre-Seed funding round led by Big Brain Holdings, with participation from Auros, Frostlight, Daedalus Syndicate, and Biconomy CEO Ahmed Al-Balaghi. Haiku proposes a "declarative trading" model that allows users to define target states and have the system automatically execute complex strategies. It supports 20 chains and 45+ protocols, aiming to drive DeFi from cumbersome operations to one-click execution. RWA platform OpenEden completes strategic financing round, with Ripple, FalconX, and others participating in the investment. OpenEden, a tokenization platform for RWA (Real-World Assets), announced the completion of a strategic financing round, with investors including Ripple, Lightspeed Faction, and Gate Ventures. This round of funding will be used to expand its RWA tokenization service platform and to advance the scaling of its regulated yield-generating stablecoin USDO and its tokenized US Treasury bond fund TBILL. OpenEden founder and CEO Jeremy Ng stated that this financing will help them provide compliant products that meet both traditional and decentralized finance standards. The RWA tokenization market is projected to double in size by 2025, and OpenEden's TBILL fund has become a top choice for institutional investors, with its assets under management growing more than tenfold in two years. This round of funding will also support US... AI DeepNode, a decentralized AI network, has raised a total of $5 million in two funding rounds. Decentralized AI network DeepNode has raised a total of $5 million in two funding rounds: a $2 million seed round valuing the company at $25 million, followed by a $3 million strategic round valuing it at $75 million. DeepNode's seed round saw participation from community members and support from key network validators, including WildSageLabs from RoundTable21, Rizzo from DNA, and infrastructure partner Gateway.FM. The strategic round was led by a consortium of Web3 and AI infrastructure investors, including Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, TBV, IOBC Capital, Fomo Ventures, and Nestoris. TrueNorth, a dedicated AI platform for the financial sector, has raised $3 million in Pre-Seed funding, led by CyberFund. TrueNorth, an AI platform focused on the financial sector, has raised $3 million in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by CyberFund, with participation from Delphi Labs, SNZ, GSR, and Ocular. The funds will be used to develop a "financial intelligent inference layer," a type of artificial intelligence specifically designed for the financial sector that does not produce illusions when money is involved. TrueNorth is dedicated to building AI infrastructure specifically for the financial sector, aiming to address the illusions and delays encountered by general-purpose models in financial decision-making through domain-specific AI. Currently, the platform has over 40,000 users on its waiting list. Leveraging structured manuals, real-time data fusion, and proprietary models trained specifically for market logic, the platform transforms the expertise of elite traders into AI agents. Infrastructure & Tools Antithesis, a testing tool used on the Ethereum network, has raised $105 million in Series A funding, led by Jane Street. Antithesis, a startup focused on distributed system stress testing, has raised $105 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Jane Street, with participation from Amplify Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Tamarak Global, First In Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, and Hyperion Capital, as well as individual investors including Patrick Collison, Dwarkesh Patel, and Sholto Douglas. The new funds will be used to expand the engineering team, increase automation, and develop global market channels. According to reports, the company employs deterministic simulation testing technology to provide production-level fault simulation services for blockchain and financial systems. The Antithesis platform can simulate real-world network environments on a large scale, accurately reproducing edge case failures and helping engineers locate system vulnerabilities that are difficult to reproduce through traditional debugging methods. The company revealed that the Ethereum network used its services to simulate extreme scenarios before its "merge" upgrade, and its clients currently cover the financial, AI, and blockchain sectors, with revenue growing more than 12 times in the past two years. Digital Asset Holdings has raised $50 million in funding, with participation from BNY Mellon and Nasdaq. Digital Asset Holdings LLC, a financial blockchain company, has completed a new $50 million funding round, with investors including BNY Mellon, Nasdaq Inc., S&P Global, and iCapital. Earlier this year, the company completed a $135 million funding round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from Citadel Securities, IMC, Optiver, and others. Digital Asset Holdings is known for developing the public blockchain Canton Network, which supports asset tokenization and processes financial transactions, allowing users to determine the scope of information confidentiality. Several institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Tradeweb Markets, have used or participated in managing the Canton Network. Portal to Bitcoin, a native Bitcoin interoperability protocol, has raised $25 million in funding, led by JTSA Global. Portal to Bitcoin, a native Bitcoin interoperability protocol, announced the completion of a $25 million funding round led by JTSA Global, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital, and others. Alongside the new funding, the company launched an atomic over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform, promising "instant, trustless cross-chain settlement for large transactions." The protocol focuses on providing institutions and large investors with a Bitcoin-pegged cross-chain OTC market. It utilizes Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLCs) across multiple chains and Bitcoin Taproot contracts to enable the exchange of native Bitcoin with native assets on integrated blockchains in a non-custodial manner, emphasizing the reduction of trust assumptions in transactions. DAT (These types of transactions are not included in this week's financing report statistics) Lion Group has signed a $10 million private placement agreement, allocating $8 million to purchase BTC. Lion Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: LGHL), a U.S.-listed company, announced the signing of an amendment to its securities purchase agreement to raise $9.984 million through convertible bond financing. The company plans to use $8 million of the net proceeds to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) as corporate reserves. UK-listed company Hamak Strategy has raised £2.5 million to support Bitcoin purchases and gold exploration. UK-listed Hamak Strategy has completed a £2.5 million funding round, with the funds to support its Bitcoin Treasury strategy and gold exploration in Africa. This follows news on July 30th that UK-listed Hamak Gold purchased its first batch of 20 Bitcoins. On October 15th, it was announced that Hamak Strategy had secured £35 million in funding to support its investments in gold and Bitcoin. Centralized Finance N3XT, founded by the former founder of Signature Bank, raised a total of $72 million in three rounds of funding. N3XT, a blockchain-based bank founded by a former Signature Bank executive, has completed three rounds of funding, raising a total of $72 million, with the most recent round completed in October. The company has received backing from several venture capital firms, including Paradigm, HACK VC, and Winklevoss Capital. N3XT was founded by Scott Shay, founder and former chairman of Signature Bank. Jeffrey Wallis, formerly head of digital asset and Web3 strategy at Signature Bank, serves as N3XT's CEO. Stablecoin app Fin raises $17 million, led by Pantera Capital. Fin, a stablecoin app founded by former Citadel employees, announced the completion of a $17 million funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Samsung Next. The app aims to provide cross-border and large-value payment services using stablecoin technology, enabling fast global transfers without complex operations. Its design allows users to transfer funds to other Fin users, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency wallets, and claims that transaction fees will be significantly lower than traditional banking channels. Fin primarily targets large-value cross-border or domestic transfers, such as addressing payment efficiency issues in import and export trade. The app is not yet officially launched but plans to begin a pilot program between import and export companies next month. The company's profits will come from transaction fees and stablecoin reserve interest. French crypto savings platform Bitstack raises $15 million in Series A funding, led by 13books Capital. French crypto savings platform Bitstack announced the completion of a $15 million Series A funding round, led by 13books Capital, with participation from AG2R LA MONDIALE, Plug and Play Ventures, Serena, Stillmark, and Y Combinator. The company claims to have over 300,000 active users in France, with accumulated savings exceeding €300 million in Bitcoin, and revenue growing tenfold in two years. It has obtained a MiCA license from the French AMF and operates in multiple European countries. The company will accelerate the launch of its VISA debit card "Stackback" rewards and Euro accounts (including French IBANs), with card testing scheduled to begin on January 13, 2026, for 5,000 eligible users. other Predicting the market: Opinion revealed at the BBW event that it has completed a new round of financing worth tens of millions of US dollars. At an event co-hosted by Opinion, Aster, and WLFI at BBW, the Opinion team announced that it has recently secured tens of millions of dollars in funding. This funding will be used to advance the development of its prediction market ecosystem based on the BNB Chain, its user growth plans, and its infrastructure. Gondor, a prediction market DeFi layer, has raised $2.5 million in funding and will launch its beta version next week. Gondor, a prediction market DeFi layer, announced the completion of a $2.5 million funding round. It will launch a beta version next week, which will support lending using Polymarket holdings as collateral and trading with 2x leverage. Later, it will expand the leverage to 4-5x through cross-margining. DePIN: Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA has completed a new round of funding, led by Borderless. Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA announced the completion of its latest funding round, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Waterdrip Capital, vVv, and Clairvoyant Labs, as well as strategic angel investors from Arkstream Capital, LD Capital, and KuCoin Ventures. All investors participated in the third wave of the Genesis Auction on the same terms as the general public. Other notable participants in previous auctions include Moonrock Capital, MH Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Generative Ventures, and Mulana Capital.
2025/12/08