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 Chain Catcher, from April 12 to April 16, there were a total of 26 public financing events in the blockchain industry, mainly focused on sectors such as DeFi, NFT, and Web 3.0. Among them, investment institutions like Block Dream Fund, NGC, AU21, and LD Capital were the most active.

1. DeFi

1. Nerve Finance completes $2 million strategic round financing, led by Three Arrows Capital, Alameda Research, etc.

On April 12, the stablecoin trading platform Nerve Finance, based on the Binance Smart Chain, announced the completion of a $2 million strategic round financing, led by Three Arrows Capital, CMS Holdings, and Alameda Research, with participation from Immutable Capital and Primitive Ventures. Nerve Finance sold a total of $2 million worth of tokens, all of which have a 3-month lock-up period for investors. Nerve Finance's future focus is on strengthening community governance. Nerve Finance will allow key community members to multi-sign the community treasury fund and contracts. Nerve Finance is a trustless stablecoin trading platform on the Binance Smart Chain, and in the past week, the total locked amount in all liquidity pools on Nerve Finance grew from $200 million to over $600 million.

2. Cross-chain DeFi perpetual contract platform YFX.COM completes strategic financing with participation from NGC, SNZ, etc.

On April 12, the cross-chain decentralized perpetual contract trading platform YFX.COM announced the completion of strategic financing with participation from NGC Ventures, SNZ Capital, DFG Group, Bixin Capital, Youbi Capital, Spark Digital Capital, and Winkrypto. YFX.COM has not disclosed the financing amount.

Since January 2021, YFX.COM has launched on Ethereum (Layer 2), Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Huobi Eco Chain (Heco), Polkadot mainnet, and OKExChain testnet, providing perpetual contract trading services and has passed Certik smart contract security audits.

3. PancakeBunny development team MOUND announces $1.6 million financing, led by Binance Labs

On April 13, the BSC ecosystem yield farming aggregator PancakeBunny's development team MOUND announced the completion of $1.6 million strategic financing, led by Binance Labs, with follow-up investments from IDEO CoLab, SparkLabs, and Andrew Lee from Handshake.

It is reported that Pancake Bunny currently has a total locked value of over $2.4 billion, with its token BUNNY having a total market capitalization of approximately $330 million.

4. OKExChain decentralized lending protocol Lemond secures another $800,000 financing

On April 13, the OKExChain decentralized lending protocol Lemond, after completing two rounds of $1.2 million financing, secured additional investments from Gate Labs, Zillion Biz (ZB), PrivCode Capital (MXC), Hoo Capital, Crypto Venture Capital, Angelone, Spring Fund, and others. Currently, Lemond's institutional round financing has closed, with a total financing scale of $2 million.

Lemond is a decentralized, open-source, self-custodial liquidity market protocol where users can 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).

5. DeFi mining aggregation platform UniFarm completes $2 million financing, will conduct IDO on three platforms

On April 13, the DeFi mining aggregation platform UniFarm completed $2 million in financing, with investors including AU21 Capital, LiaoDe Capital, NGC Capital, Lotus Capital, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, MXC Capital, x21 Digital, and Genblock. Additionally, UniFarm announced that it will conduct IDOs on DuckStarter, Poolz, and LaunchPool.

UniFarm is a DeFi mining aggregation platform that allows users to earn multiple token rewards using a single token. UniFarm was founded by the Open Finance (OpFi) team, which is a financial technology protocol developed by the precious metals investment platform OroPocket based on the Ethereum sidechain scaling solution Matic Network.

6. Social trading protocol Enso Finance completes $5 million financing, with participation from Polychain and Dfinity

On April 13, the social trading protocol Enso Finance announced the completion of $5 million in financing, with investors including Polychain Capital, Dfinity beacon fund, Multicoin Capital, P2P Capital, Spartan Group, Zola Global, and The LAO.

Enso Finance will focus on creating a DeFi social trading platform that enables composable trading strategies, allowing for the creation of an unlimited number of strategies, including all available ERC-20 tokens in the DeFi ecosystem and the integration of liquidity mining.

7. On-chain structured product Ribbon Finance completes seed round financing, Theta Vault product has launched on the mainnet

On April 13, on-chain structured product Ribbon Finance announced the completion of seed round financing, with its first asset management vault product, Theta Vault, already launched on the mainnet. The lead investor in this round is Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Nascent, Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, etc., though the financing amount has not been disclosed.

Ribbon Finance had previously announced its first options-based asset management vault product, Theta Vault, which has passed audits by Peckshield, but is still undergoing two additional audits, so the current deposit limit is 1,000 ETH, which will gradually increase.

8. Vietnam's Coin98's DeFi division Coin98 Labs completes $1.25 million financing to build a cross-chain DeFi ecosystem in Southeast Asia

On April 14, Coin98 Labs, the DeFi development division of Vietnam's Coin98, completed $1.25 million in seed round financing, led by Hashed, ParaFi Capital, Multicoin Capital, and Spartan Group.

Coin98 Labs is building a cross-chain DeFi ecosystem in Southeast Asia, allowing users to interact with multiple blockchain networks.

9. Volatility index protocol dVIX completes $1.5 million seed round financing

On April 14, the volatility index protocol dVIX completed $1.5 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from OKEx and Moonwhale Ventures.

dVIX offers a range of decentralized volatility indices and is currently in private testing, with various volatility models and tools about to be released, allowing anyone to build real-time indices for any utility token.

10. DeFi long-tail lending market factory Moma Protocol completes multi-million dollar financing

On April 14, the innovative solution for the DeFi lending market, Moma Protocol, completed multi-million dollar financing, led by Fundamental Labs and SevenX Ventures, with follow-up investments from AU21 Capital, Spark Digital Capital, X21 Digital, and Zee Prime Capital.

Moma Protocol accelerates and aggregates the lending market through its unique smart contract factory, forming an ecosystem that can infinitely expand lending liquidity and market diversity.

11. Avalanche ecosystem BENQI completes $6 million financing, led by Ascensive Assets

On April 14, the Avalanche liquidity market protocol BENQI announced the completion of $6 million in strategic financing, led by Ascensive Assets, with follow-up investments from Arrington XRP Capital, Dragonfly Capital, GBV Capital, Moon Inc, Genblock Capital, etc. BENQI will subsequently conduct a token public sale on Tokensoft on April 28, with plans to launch on the mainnet in May.

BENQI is built on the Avalanche network, allowing Avalanche users to earn asset interest or borrow with over-collateralization.

12. Huobi Eco Chain project MakiSwap completes $1.4 million financing to build AMM and liquidity mining platform

On April 15, the AMM and liquidity mining project MakiSwap on the Huobi Eco Chain announced the completion of $1.4 million in seed and private round financing, led by Inclusion Capital, with participation from LD Capital, NGC Ventures, Polygon Network, DAO Maker, and AU21 Capital.

MakiSwap stated that it will use the funds to establish an AMM and liquidity mining platform on the Huobi Eco Chain.

13. Cross-chain exchange platform WeStarter completes million-dollar financing, with participation from Continue Capital, SevenX Ventures, and others

On April 15, the cross-chain token distribution platform WeStarter announced the completion of million-dollar financing, with participating institutions including Continue Capital, NGC Ventures, AU21 Capital, LD Capital, and other domestic and foreign investment institutions. WeStarter stated that it will soon conduct the WeStarter token WAR IDO simultaneously on multiple public chains.

WeStarter is a cross-chain token initial exchange platform that started on the HECO network, providing initial exchanges for project assets across multiple networks such as ETH, HECO, and BSC through asset cross-chain bridges and multi-chain deployments.

14. Cross-chain aggregation protocol O3 Swap completes $2 million financing, with participation from NGC Ventures, OKEx Blockdream Fund, and others

On April 15, the cross-chain aggregation protocol O3 Swap completed $2 million in financing, with participating institutions including NGC Ventures, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, SevenX Ventures, FBG Ventures, Neo Eco Fund, Benmo Fund, AC Capital, and others.

O3 Swap is a cross-chain aggregation trading protocol incubated by the O3 Labs team, which aggregates liquidity for multi-chain DEXs through interactions with mainstream public chains and Layer 2 solutions such as Ethereum, BSC, Heco, and Neo, enabling free exchange of mainstream assets across different chains.

15. DeFi yield market Pendle completes $3.5 million financing, led by Mechanism Capital

On April 16, the DeFi yield market Pendle announced the completion of $3.5 million in financing, led by Mechanism Capital, with follow-up investments from HashKey Capital, CMS, imToken, Crypto.com Capital, and others, and received consulting assistance from several industry experts, including Loi Luu from Kyber and Amber Group.

Pendle aims to create a yield market on DeFi platforms by allowing users to separate future yields from underlying assets and trade future yields through AMM (automated market makers). The team stated that their newly designed AMM supports not only future yield tokens but also any tokens with time decay mechanisms through a dynamic curve mechanism.

2. NFT & Blockchain Games

1. NFT platform Art Blocks completes financing led by The LAO and others

On April 14, the NFT platform Art Blocks announced the completion of a financing round led by Collab Currency, Libertus Capital, and The LAO, with participation from some angel investors, though the specific amount has not been disclosed.

Art Blocks was launched in November 2020 by Snowfro and is a platform for on-demand programming and storage of works on Ethereum, which can include various types of content such as static images, 3D models, and interactive experiences.

2. NFT domain market Polka.Domain completes $400,000 private round financing and will airdrop 200,000 NAME tokens

On April 12, the Polkadot-based DNS NFT domain market Polka.Domain announced the completion of $400,000 in private round financing, with participation from NGC Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, LinkPAD, and MetaConstant. At the same time, Polka.Domain announced that it will issue its native token NAME in April and airdrop 200,000 tokens.

Polka.Domain is a decentralized domain service and NFT decentralized trading platform built on Polkadot, aimed at providing users with ownership of their digital identity and assets.

3. NFT collectibles data statistics website CryptoSlam receives investment from Mark Cuban's Radical Investments

On April 16, the NFT collectibles data statistics website CryptoSlam announced that it received investment from billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's venture capital firm Radical Investments. Additionally, CryptoSlam announced that it received further investments from strategic partners Aloomii, Troon Technologies, and GeoAds. CryptoSlam has not disclosed the specific financing amount.

Founded in 2018, CryptoSlam currently tracks over 50 NFT projects from Ethereum, WAX, and Flow blockchain networks, including NBA Top Shot.

4. Blockchain game Ethermon completes strategic round financing, with participation from Au21, Block Dream Fund, etc.

On April 16, the blockchain game Ethermon announced the completion of strategic round financing, with specific amounts not disclosed. Participating institutions include Au21, Block Dream Fund, BlockSync Ventures, GBV, LD Capital, NGC Ventures, etc. Additionally, individual investors participating in this round include Ivalio Joranov, Rob Hanneman, and Bitcoin.com CEO Danish Chaudhry.

Ethermon is a blockchain game based on Ethereum that officially launched in 2017 and is one of the earliest NFT projects.

3. Others

1. Decentralized media platform The Defiant completes $1.4 million seed round financing to build a Web 3 financial information platform

On April 13, The Defiant, a DeFi news media platform backed by Defiant Media, announced the completion of $1.4 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with investors including IDEO CoLab Ventures, ParaFi Capital, GBV Capital, IOSG Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, and investors including Morgan Creek founder Anthony Pompliano and former MakerDAO smart contract lead Mariano Cont. The Defiant will use the funds to build a Web 3 financial information platform.

The Defiant is a DeFi media platform operated by Camira Russo. Currently, Camira Russo is a freelance financial journalist who has written a book about Ethereum. Previously, she extensively covered crypto and blockchain during her time at Bloomberg and is now delving into the integration of crypto and finance.

2. Web 3.0 advertising service provider Parami Protocol completes multi-million dollar seed round financing

On April 13, Parami Protocol announced the completion of multi-million dollar seed round financing, with investors including NGC Ventures, CMS Holdings, Genesis Block Ventures Digital Renaissance Foundation, and AU21 Capital.

Parami is built on the web 3.0 value concept and aims to construct a user-centered next-generation universal advertising model. Previously, Parami received a Web 3 Foundation Grant and was also selected for the Substrate Builders Program.

3. ConsenSys completes $65 million financing, with participation from Mastercard, JPMorgan, UBS, and others

On April 13, ConsenSys announced the completion of $65 million in financing, with investors including JPMorgan, Mastercard, UBS Group, Protocol Labs, Maker Foundation, Distributed Capital, The LAO, Alameda Research, NGC Ventures, CMT Digital, and the Greater Bay Area Community Development Fund. In this investment, in addition to fiat currency, several investment funds also considered using Ethereum-based stablecoins as an investment method, such as DAI and USDC.

ConsenSys is a world-class blockchain technology research and development company that helps promote Ethereum globally, especially in its commercialization.

4. Gitcoin completes $11.3 million financing, led by Paradigm

On April 15, the open-source software funding platform Gitcoin announced the completion of $11.3 million in financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from IDEO, 1kx, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, The LAO, MetaCartel Ventures, and others. Gitcoin stated that it will continue to focus on supporting open-source and digital public goods.

Gitcoin aims to support various open-source projects through blockchain technology and promote the development of the open-source movement.

5. Blockchain accelerator Tribe Accelerator, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board, completes $70 million financing

On April 15, the blockchain accelerator Tribe Accelerator, launched by Singapore venture capital fund TRIVE Ventures in collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board, PwC, and ICON, completed $70 million in financing, with investors including Korea Investment Partners, Mandiri Investment Management Singapore (a subsidiary of Mandiri Bank in Indonesia), Twitter's first-round investor Greg Kidd, and Stellar Partners.

Tribe Accelerator stated that the new funds will be used to expand Tribe's business and support more blockchain startups, as well as increase educational opportunities for underprivileged students through support for Tribe Academy and attract new talent to the blockchain field.

6. Mining machine manufacturer ePIC Blockchain completes $7.5 million Series A financing

On April 15, Toronto-based mining machine manufacturer ePIC Blockchain completed $7.5 million in Series A financing. ePIC Blockchain stated that it will use the funds to produce ASIC crypto mining machines for North America.

7. Layer 0 privacy network protocol Evanesco completes new round of financing, with participation from AU21, FBG, and others

On April 16, the Layer 0 privacy financial protocol Evanesco in the Polkadot ecosystem announced the completion of financing, with many domestic and foreign institutions participating in the new round of financing plan. Current participants include AU21, BlockArk, Blocksync, FBG Capital, Gate.io Labs, LD Capital, MXC Labs, NGC Ventures, and OKEx Blockdream Ventures. Evanesco will officially launch its IDO after completing this round of financing.

Evanesco (abbreviated as EVA) is a Layer 0 privacy network protocol in the Polkadot ecosystem, aiming to create a unique financial privacy platform for Web 3. EVA will integrate the issuance, management, transfer, and cross-chain interoperability of privacy assets, while providing privacy liquidity to wallets, exchanges, and aggregation trading services, and sharing external chain and privacy ecosystem liquidity through cross-chain gateways, empowering multi-ecosystem DeFi.