Blockchain, Web3 & AI Projects Attract Massive Investment Rounds

Over the past week, the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem witnessed a significant influx of capital, with numerous projects securing substantial investments. A total of 20 ventures collectively raised over $437 million between May 17 and May 24, indicating robust investor confidence across various innovative sectors. Blockchain services and decentralized finance (DeFi) emerged as particularly strong focal points for this capital infusion, reflecting ongoing development and maturation within these areas. While most projects disclosed their funding amounts, five chose to keep the figures confidential.

Leading Investment Rounds

Two companies stood out in terms of the capital attracted, demonstrating a strong appetite for transformative blockchain and technology solutions:

• World (formerly Worldcoin): This digital identity project, focused on privacy-preserving proof of personhood and inclusive financial networks, successfully secured $135 million through a private token sale. Notable participants in this round included Andreessen Horowitz, Mirana Ventures, Selini Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, and Arctic Digital.
• Meey Group: A technology firm specializing in real estate solutions, Meey Group raised $80 million in an undisclosed funding round, with GEM Investments as a key investor. The company provides a suite of real estate platforms like Meey Map, Meey CRM, and Meey Atlas, alongside applications for visualizing property using 3D, AR, and VR technologies.

Key Funding Highlights Across Sectors

Beyond the top two, several other projects received considerable backing, showcasing the diverse applications attracting investor interest:

• BTCS: This blockchain technology company raised $57.8 million in a post-IPO round. Funds, sourced from ATW Partners and Charles Allen, are earmarked for acquiring Ethereum (ETH) tokens as part of its digital asset operations and validator node strategy.
• Slash: A financial technology platform offering banking services, including deposit accounts, corporate cards, and payment processing for businesses, closed a Series B funding round with $41 million from Goodwater Capital.
• Hedra: An AI-powered video generation startup, Hedra secured $32 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from a16z speedrun, Index Ventures, and Abstract Ventures.
• Catena Labs: Focused on Web3 projects encompassing identity, communications, commerce, and AI, Catena Labs attracted $18 million in a seed round. Investors included Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Circle Ventures, Breyer Capital, and Tom Brady.
• Roxom: An exchange facilitating the trading of stocks, commodities, and futures denominated in Bitcoin, Roxom received $17.9 million in an undisclosed funding round. Draper Associates, Borderless Capital, Kingsway Capital, and Ego Death Capital participated. The platform aims to establish public markets for Bitcoin, reinforcing its role as a global currency.
• True Markets: This cryptocurrency exchange platform raised $11 million in a Series A funding round. Accomplice and RRE Ventures co-led the round, with support from Variant, Reciprocal Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Paxos, and the Solana Foundation.
• The Blockchain Group: A publicly traded company listed on Euronext Growth Paris, secured $9.7 million in a post-IPO round, with investments from Quadrille Capital and angel investor Yves Scheuaffati.
• XP: A blockchain-based ticketing service operating on the Solana network, XP garnered $6.2 million in seed funding from Blockchange Ventures, L1 Digital, and Reflexive Capital. The service streamlines the resale of tickets for live events.
• TrendX: An AI-driven marketplace providing market insights and trend identification, TrendX closed a strategic funding round with $5.2 million from Animoca Brands and CREAM.
• VOYA Games: The developer behind the Web3 online game “Craft World,” a dinosaur-themed civilization-building game, announced undisclosed funding with investments from 1kx, Sebastian Borget, RockawayX, Jeffrey (Jiho) Zirlin, and Makers Fund.
• Rover: A DeFi platform for liquid Bitcoin staking on Botanix, Rover attracted $4.1 million in an undisclosed funding round. Participating investors included Animoca Brands, CMS Holdings, MH Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Cogitent Ventures, and 21 other entities.
• ARAI: Offering AI-powered tools that integrate with decentralized platforms for real-time assistance and strategic advice, ARAI secured $4 million in a seed round. Investors included HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Animoca Brands, Folius Ventures, Skyland Ventures, Gate Ventures, and Redpoint China Ventures.
• Tradoor: A decentralized trading platform providing up to 400x leverage for Bitcoin and Ethereum futures, Tradoor reported a private token sale and an undisclosed funding round. Key investors included Kenetic Capital, TON Ventures, Protagonist, Re7 Capital, VentureSouq, and four others.
• Veda: A DeFi infrastructure enabling users to deposit assets into Veda contracts and allocate capital across various DeFi protocols for yield generation, Veda received $3.2 million in an undisclosed round from Draper Dragon, BitGo, and Marana Ventures.
• Coinsilium Group: A venture capital firm, investor, and advisor supporting early-stage blockchain startups and the digital token economy, Coinsilium Group recorded $1.66 million in a post-IPO debt round.
• DigiShares: This platform for tokenizing real-world assets, such as real estate, secured $1.35 million in a strategic funding round with investment from Valereum PLC.
• Puffverse: A blockchain-based virtual world platform combining gaming and social interaction, Puffverse received $700,000 in a public token sale. The project encompasses PuffGo, a competitive game, and the social hub PuffTown.
• Tao Strategies Singapore: Operators of validator and mining nodes on the Bittensor network, providing critical infrastructure for network security and AI model exchange, received $330,000 from Tiger Royalties and Investments in a strategic funding round.

Additional Significant Capital Inflows

Beyond the directly reported project investments, other notable capital movements occurred:

• Kraken: The cryptocurrency exchange platform, serving clients in over 190 countries, raised $400 million in an undisclosed funding round. Kraken filed a Form D notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning an offering of securities subject to registration exemptions.
• Theta Capital: This firm secured $175 million for its blockchain-focused fund of funds, which will primarily invest in specialized venture capital firms such as Polychain and Coinfund.
• Secured Finance: A company offering DeFi products and services for institutional clients, Secured Finance filed a Form D with the SEC, indicating it raised $4.08 million in an undisclosed funding round. Its offerings include P2P lending, P2P derivatives like foreign exchange forwards and interest rate swaps, and smart contract-based collateral management and clearing services.

Projects with Undisclosed Funding Amounts

Several projects also secured investments during this period but chose not to reveal the financial specifics:

• Taker Protocol: A blockchain network utilizing Nominated Proof-of-Liquidity (NPOL) consensus, allowing users to stake Bitcoin-based liquidity tokens for yield and network validation, received strategic funding from 071labs.
• Astar (formerly Plasm): A decentralized Web3 blockchain platform supporting both EVM and WebAssembly environments for interoperability, Astar also attracted strategic funding from Animoca Brands.
• Impossible Cloud: A decentralized data storage solution provider, valued at $470 million, secured investments in an undisclosed funding round from NGP Capital.
• Bitlayer: A Bitcoin L2 solution offering compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and its tools, leveraging Bitcoin as a native token, received strategic funding from MN Capital.
• SuperSol: An L2 infrastructure solution built on the Solana blockchain, designed to enhance scalability, reliability, and programmability for decentralized applications (dApps), attracted investment from Ajna Capital in an undisclosed funding round.

These significant investments underscore a sustained and growing interest in blockchain, DeFi, AI, and Web3 technologies, pointing to a dynamic landscape of innovation and expansion within the digital economy.