During the week of May 19 to May 25, blockchain startups collectively raised more than $258 million, led by decentralized social protocol Farcaster's $150 million Series A round.
According to Crypto Fundreach, 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.
Five startups raised $21.3 million in seed rounds; Two raised a combined $20 million from strategic rounds.
Two other startups raised $9 million from private rounds, while the last company raised $5 million from a public sale round.
Here is a summary of this week's crypto VC movement.
Farcaster reaches unicorn status with $150 million Series A
Ethereum-based decentralized social media protocol Farcaster has secured $150 million in a Series A funding round led by venture firm Paradigm. The round also included significant contributions from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Standard Crypto, and others. It raised Farcaster's valuation to a staggering $1 billion, marking its entry into unicorn territory.
Co-founder Dan Romero subscriber The protocol will use the new capital in two main areas: increasing daily active users and enhancing developer tools such as channels and direct messaging. Additionally, Farcaster plans to hire more engineers to support these initiatives.
Plume Network raises $10 million for the L2 blockchain
Plume Network, a modular Layer 2 (L2) network designed to facilitate on-chain integration of real-world assets (RWAs), also… Announce Successful $10M seed funding round led by Haun Ventures.
The California-based venture capital firm was joined in the round by Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, and Portal Ventures. Several angel investors, such as Anthony Ramirez of Wormhole Labs and Andrew Kang of Mechanism, also participated.
Plume CEO Chris Yin said the funds will advance the company's mission of simplifying the process of bringing assets such as real estate and art to blockchain platforms.
Blockless gets $8 million to expand decentralized infrastructure
Blockless, a Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) project, has raised $8 million across two early funding rounds.
A $3 million pre-seed funding round was led by NGC Ventures, followed by a $5 million seed funding round co-led by M31 Capital and Fractis. Additional investors include No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures and Plassa Capital.
Putian Li, co-founder of the project, revealed that the funds will support the launch of a test network in the coming weeks. The mainnet and native BLESS token are scheduled to launch in Q3 2024.
Pencil Protocol, IVX Secures Seed Funding
Pencils Protocol, an auction and revenue aggregation platform on the Scroll Network, has raised $2.1 million in a seed round led by OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Galxe.
Meanwhile, another venture, IVX, secured $1.2 million in a seed round backed by Animoca Ventures and other investors.
IVX is building a native options protocol on the Berachain Polaris EVM, offering zero day to expiration (0DTE) options on cryptocurrency assets, allowing users to gain exposure to high leverage without the risk of liquidation.
Cysic and RunesFi announce new funding rounds
Cysic, a zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware accelerator, 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 speed up the production process of ZK guides, making it faster and more cost-effective.
Finally, RunesFi, a Bitcoin infrastructure hub, has 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 through features such as decentralized exchange (DEX) and infrastructure products to support efficient transactions and reduce costs.
Browse the previous “VC Report” below: