Last week, there were a total of 26 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, between March 15 and March 21, there were a total of 26 public financing events in the blockchain industry, mainly focused on the DeFi sector. Among them, investment institutions such as LD Capital, NGC Ventures, AU21, and Coinbase Ventures were the most active, with LD Capital participating 7 times.

1. DeFi:

1. Multi-chain token locking and custody platform Polkalokr raises $950,000, with participation from AU21 Capital, LD Capital, and others

On March 15, multi-chain token locking and custody platform Polkalokr announced the completion of a $950,000 private placement round, with investors including AU21 Capital, LD Capital, Moonrock Capital, NGC Capital, GBIC, Morningstar Ventures, Pluto Digital Assets, SL2 Capital, and Moving Forward.

Polkalokr is an integrated multi-chain token locking and custody platform with built-in privacy features. Polkalokr will launch its first product, Lokr, in the second quarter. Polkalokr is about to conduct a public token sale and will soon release related announcements and documentation regarding the tokenomics of its native token LKR.

2. Fixed-rate protocol Anchor completes $20 million financing, token ANC listed on Terraswap

On March 16, the fixed-rate savings protocol Anchor Protocol completed $20 million in financing, with investors including Alameda Research, Dragonfly, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Hashed, Accomplices, Arrington XRP, and DeFi Alliance.

Anchor Protocol, created based on the stablecoin project Terra Money, is a new type of DeFi fixed-rate savings protocol aimed at balancing interest rates by coordinating block rewards from multiple different PoS consensus blockchains, ultimately achieving stable storage rates. Anchor Protocol plans to officially launch on March 17, with its token ANC going live on Terraswap at 5 PM EST that day, where investors can only trade using UST.

3. Decentralized investment protocol Syndicate completes $1 million seed round financing, led by IDEO CoLab Ventures

On March 17, decentralized investment protocol Syndicate completed a $1 million seed round financing, led by IDEO CoLab Ventures, with participation from Electric Capital, Delphi Ventures, CoinFund, Robot Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, DeFi Alliance, Nascent, and 18 individual investors. The Syndicate team will use the funds to hire more engineers and launch the protocol in the coming weeks.

Syndicate is still in its beta phase, and co-founders Will Papper and Ian Lee describe it as a rapidly decentralized investment economic social graph. Will Papper and Ian Lee were previously employed by IDEO. "We have a strong hypothesis that the next frontier for DeFi and crypto is social networks," Lee said in an interview. "The only thing that can't be forked is community, and we will elevate that to a new level, where the only thing that can't be forked is social networks." Papper revealed that Syndicate has been in contact with interested founders and investors for NFT projects. According to him, the protocol not only allows founders to raise funds but also enables on-chain governance, such as airdropping tokens.

4. DeFi lending protocol Alchemix Finance raises another $3.1 million

On March 18, DeFi lending protocol Alchemix Finance raised another $3.1 million in strategic financing. This round was led by the investment division of crypto consulting firm Spartan Group, with participation from Delphi Ventures, Nascent, CMS Holdings, Maven 11, and Genesis Block Ventures. Previously, Alchemix raised $4.9 million, with investors including CMS Holdings and Alameda Research.

Alchemix is a DeFi synthetic asset that allows the creation of synthetic asset tokens representing future yield, enabling users to retrieve near-instant tokenized value against temporary deposits of stablecoins. It offers users countless applications and provides developers with exciting new tools.

5. Ethereum volatility index trading platform volmex.finance completes new round of financing, with participation from Three Arrows and Alameda

On March 18, the development team of the Ethereum-based volatility index and non-custodial trading platform volmex.finance, Volmex Labs, announced the completion of a financing round, with participants including Three Arrows Capital, Alameda Research, Robot Ventures, CMS Holdings, Orthogonal Trading, IOSG Ventures, D64 Ventures, DeFi Technologies (NEO: DEFI), Fourth Revolution Capital, and Coral DeFi, as well as angel investors Jiho Zirlin, Tyler Scott Ward, Christian Kaczmarczyk, Shiliang Tang, Suji Yan, and Avi Felman. The amount of financing has not been disclosed.

volmex.finance is an Ethereum-based volatility index and non-custodial trading platform that has integrated the Optimism Layer 2 scaling solution, aiming to achieve cheaper and faster index queries and futures trading. It can bring volatility hedging to Ethereum and unlock new DeFi applications and foundational modules.

6. Innovative liquidity dark pool BlackOcean completes $4.3 million institutional round financing, with participation from SuperChainCapital and others

On March 18, the innovative liquidity dark pool BlackOcean completed $4.3 million in institutional round financing, with participation from SuperChainCapital, Jackdaw Capital, NGC, FBG, LD Capital, and over 25 other investment institutions. SuperChainCapital stated that it will empower BlackOcean in resource matching and strategic development, as well as liquidity business direction.

BlackOcean is an innovative liquidity dark pool project incubated by the quantitative team VRM, which is a digital currency trading institution based in Europe focusing on quantitative high-frequency strategies.

7. DeFi data stream trading market Overlay Protocol completes $2.215 million seed round financing, with participation from Polychain

On March 18, the DeFi data stream trading market Overlay Protocol completed $2.215 million in seed round financing, with participation from Polychain Capital, 1kx, ParaFi Capital, The LAO, MetaCartel Ventures, and Ben Middleton.

The liquidity mining and testing mainnet version 1 of Overlay will be released on May 12. At the same time, Overlay also announced its token distribution plan, with 23.07% of tokens allocated to investors; 20% allocated to the team; 5% for the team development fund; and 51.93% allocated to liquidity mining and community incentives.

8. Synthetic asset protocol Ramifi Protocol completes $740,000 private placement round financing

On March 18, synthetic asset protocol Ramifi Protocol completed $740,000 in private placement round financing, with investors including GenBlock Capital, Pluto Digital Assets, Morningstar Ventures, Magnus Capital, Moonrock Capital, DuckDAO, Momentum 6, Lotus Capital, BlackMambaVentures, and ChronosVC. The token RAM of Ramifi Protocol will be listed on Uniswap after the IDO on March 30.

9. Prediction market platform TotemFi raises $255,000, with participation from LD Capital and others

On March 18, TotemFi recently announced the completion of $255,000 in strategic financing, which will be used to launch a staking-based prediction market platform. Investors include LD Capital, DuckDAO, Nabais Capital, Alphabit Fund, Altvest, Moonwhale Ventures, and Bluenode Capital.

The DApp of the prediction market platform TotemFi was launched in early 2021.

10. Decentralized lending platform Maple Finance completes $1.4 million financing

On March 18, DeFi startup Maple Finance completed $1.4 million in financing led by Framework Ventures and Polychain Capital to help further develop and launch its funding pool.

Maple Finance is a decentralized lending platform that will launch its first under-collateralized lending market in April this year.

11. Decentralized derivatives protocol Vega Protocol raises $5 million

On March 18, decentralized derivatives protocol Vega Protocol raised $5 million in a new round of financing. This round was led by Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, CMS Holdings, and many other companies. Vega aims to use the funds to continue developing the protocol and hopes to launch its mainnet this summer.

It focuses on optimizing systems for DeFi and trading, locking user assets in multi-signature addresses, and then generating corresponding assets on the Vega network, solving cross-chain asset issues while ensuring the security of user assets.

12. DeFi on-chain governance dashboard Tally completes $1.5 million financing, with participation from Castle Island Ventures and 1kx

On March 19, DeFi on-chain governance dashboard Tally completed $1.5 million in financing, with investors including Notation Capital, Castle Island Ventures, 1kx, and Lemniscap. The company aims to improve the imperfect aspects of the $44 billion DeFi industry by building an easy-to-use governance dashboard.

The DeFi on-chain governance dashboard Tally will initially focus on providing on-chain governance services for the Compound platform and will later expand to other platforms.

13. Decentralized auction tool Bounce announces completion of new round of financing, led by Coinbase

On March 19, Bounce Finance announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Coinbase, with participation from Pantera, Hashed, Fundamental Labs, DHVC, Blockchain Capital, and SNZ Capital. The funds raised will be used to establish an NFT marketplace and e-commerce platform, and will also help Bounce become an auction protocol.

Bounce is a batch auction tool based on Ethereum, which differs from the Uniswap protocol in that it requires setting a cap and duration for each auction, with funds exceeding the cap being bounced back to users. Its governance token BOT may include features such as joining auction pools and increasing buyback and burn models.

14. Synthetic asset issuance protocol PERI Finance completes seed round financing, led by LD Capital

On March 20, decentralized cross-chain synthetic asset issuance and derivatives trading protocol PERI Finance announced the completion of seed round financing, led by LD Capital. Based on Polkadot, PERI Finance plans to explore the global DeFi market while improving speed and costs, establishing a synthetic asset DEX.

PERI Finance is a decentralized synthetic asset issuance protocol that leverages the Ethereum network to provide unlimited liquidity, achieving cross-over between synthetic asset positions and actual financial market positions, providing users with convenient and fast traditional financial tools.

15. Decentralized lending protocol Lemond completes first round of $700,000 financing

On March 20, the decentralized lending protocol Lemond on OKExChain completed $700,000 in financing, led by Origin Capital, Panda Capital, Lishan Capital, 91Coin Capital, MNS Capital, and others.

Lemond is a decentralized, open-source, autonomous non-custodial liquidity market protocol, allowing users to participate as depositors or borrowers. Depositors provide liquidity to the market to earn passive income, while borrowers can borrow with over-collateralization (permanent) or low collateral (one-time liquidity).

16. Multi-chain DeFi data network Unmarshal completes $2.6 million financing, with participation from NGC Ventures and others

On March 20, multi-chain DeFi data network Unmarshal announced the completion of $2.6 million in seed and private placement financing, with investors including Woodstock, Blackedge, GBV, NGC Ventures, SPARK Digital, Particle XYZ, AU21, Amesten, X21, Zokyo, Altonomy, Brilliance Ventures, ExNetwork, and AscendEx (formerly BitMax.io).

Unmarshal helps decentralized applications easily access on-chain data. It has now added support for Ethereum, BSC, Elrond, Polkadot, and Substrate-based projects (such as StaFi) and is entering Layer 2 networks through Polygon.

2. Others:

1. Crypto retail broker Bitpanda completes $170 million Series B financing

On March 16, Austrian crypto retail broker Bitpanda announced the completion of $170 million in Series B financing at a valuation of $1.2 billion, led by Valar Ventures and DST Global. Bitpanda was founded in 2015 by Eric Demuth (CEO), Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer.

The company operates in markets such as Austria, France, Spain, Turkey, Italy, and Poland, with approximately 2 million users. Prior to this round of financing, Bitpanda completed $52 million in Series A financing in September 2020, led by Valar Ventures.

2. Fiat aggregator Transak completes ₹480 million financing, with participation from Consensys and others

On March 16, fiat aggregator Transak completed seed round financing, raising ₹480 million, with participation from Consensys, The Lao, IOSG, Lunex, Koji Capital, and other angel investors. Transak simplifies the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies, allowing mainstream users and businesses to access crypto and blockchain.

Transak is seeking to expand its business, partnerships, and workforce in India and will use the raised funds to hire more engineers and grow its team in India.

3. IPFS tech company Western World completes angel round financing at a valuation of 200 million

On March 16, IPFS tech company Shenzhen Western World Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of angel round financing at a valuation of 200 million, invested by Qifuguo Long Fund. This round of financing will mainly be used to expand scale and enhance brand influence.

Western World focuses on hardware development in the IPFS field, sales of cluster cloud storage devices, IDC hosting, and one-stop software and hardware services for cloud storage operations.

4. Blockchain network developer WAVE BL completes approximately $8 million Series B financing

On March 16, blockchain network developer WAVE BL completed approximately $8 million in Series B financing, jointly invested by ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE: ZIM) and Israeli investor Marius Nacht. This round of financing will support WAVE BL's business development and further implement its technology to support paperless trade in the shipping industry and other sectors.

WAVE connects all members of the supply chain to the blockchain and allows them to exchange documents directly; it manages the ownership of documents on the blockchain, eliminating disputes, forgery, and unnecessary risks.

5. Trading platform CCFOX completes $10 million Series A financing, with participation from LD Capital and others

On March 17, trading platform CCFOX announced the completion of $10 million in Series A financing, led by Jinsha River Digital Fund, SuperChain, and top traditional institutions in Singapore, with follow-on investments from LD Capital, Consensus Lab, Quest, and others.

The CCFOX trading platform actively embraces the DeFi track, accelerating the research and development of DEX and providing investors with more advantageous investment channels, creating a new ecosystem for integrated development of CeFi and DeFi. CCFOX was founded by core personnel from several financial and technology companies, including Citadel, Adobe, S&P, and China Securities, and has previously received investments from FBG, SevenX, Red Chain, and several traditional institutions.

6. Sustainable crypto mining company MintGreen completes seed round financing, led by CoinShares

On March 17, sustainable crypto mining company MintGreen completed seed round financing, led by digital asset management firm CoinShares. Part of the funds raised will support two pilot projects aimed at improving the energy efficiency of Bitcoin mining using MintGreen's proprietary technology.

The two pilot projects will start in the next quarter, including selling the heat waste generated from Bitcoin mining to a sea salt facility company on Vancouver Island for boiling water and refining salt flakes. Additionally, Canadian whiskey company Shelter Point Distillery will also reuse the residual heat produced by MintGreen in its production process.

7. Polkadot's first NFT trading platform NFTMart secures seed round investment from multiple institutions

On March 17, the first NFT trading platform in the Polkadot ecosystem, NFTMart.io, announced that it has secured seed round financing from multiple institutions, including PAKA, LD CAPITAL, CMS, AU21 CAPITAL, DFG, and Crasolum. This round of financing will mainly be used for platform construction and system development.

NFTMart aims to create the world's most professional decentralized trading platform for NFTs. Unlike other Ethereum-based NFT trading platforms such as SuperRare, OpenSea, and Rarible, NFTMart is the first trading platform dedicated to building its own vertical public chain. The platform consists of two parts: the first part is nftmart.network, an open decentralized NFT public chain mainly used for publishing NFT assets and processing on-chain transaction data; the second part is the nftmart.io website, which provides users with convenient trading scenarios for uploading or trading NFT products.

8. Crowdfunding platform Republic completes $36 million Series A financing, led by Galaxy Digital subsidiary

On March 18, Republic announced the completion of $36 million in Series A financing, led by Galaxy Interactive (a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital), with participation from Tribe Capital, Motley Fool Ventures, and Broadhaven Ventures. Additionally, Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) made a strategic investment in Republic by purchasing Republic Notes.

Republic is an investment platform that provides retail investors with opportunities to participate in early crowdfunding in areas such as real estate, cryptocurrency, gaming, and small businesses. The project was incubated by AngelList, and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant is one of Republic's supporters and board members. To date, Republic has raised over $70 million in funding.

9. Fireblocks secures $133 million in Series C financing, led by Stripes, with participation from BNY Mellon

On March 18, crypto security startup Fireblocks announced the completion of $133 million in Series C financing, led by Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes, with strategic investments from BNY Mellon and Silicon Valley Bank. Previous investors Paradigm, Galaxy Digital, and Swisscom Ventures also participated.

Fireblocks simplifies related operations by integrating trading platforms, OTC, counterparties, hot wallets, and custody into one platform. They are applying for a patent for chip isolation technology to securely transfer digital assets in seconds instead of hours.

10. NFT platform OpenSea completes $23 million Series A financing, led by a16z

On March 19, NFT trading platform OpenSea announced the completion of $23 million in Series A financing, led by a16z, with other investors including Mark Cuban, Linda Xie, 3LAU, 1Confirmation, and other well-known individuals and investment institutions.

OpenSea is currently the largest market for crypto digital collectibles globally, founded in January 2018, covering the widest range of categories, the most transferable digital collectibles, and the best prices. OpenSea achieves this through a passionate community of users and developers. They collaborate with game developers to create customizable online stores for users to automatically buy and sell their crypto collectibles.