Last week, there were a total of 21 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with a cumulative financing of approximately $2.295 billion | Investment and Financing Weekly Report
AI training data platform PublicAI raised $2 million through a public offering on CoinList, bringing its total funding to $12 million; blockchain payment company Riva completed a $3 million seed round led by Project A; Offchain Labs acquired the smart account development team ZeroDev.Organizer: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from August 11 to August 17, 2025, there were a total of 21 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately $2.295 billion.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly concentrated in the infrastructure and CeFi tracks. Popular projects include the crypto payment infrastructure company Mesh, Seattle game studio Neon Machine, GPU collateralized stablecoin protocol USD.AI, and Kenya's Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin.
In addition, the Web3 payment infrastructure company Transak announced the completion of a new round of financing of $16 million, co-led by IDG Capital and Tether, with participation from Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures.
(List of projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, data source: Rootdata)
1. Infrastructure
DeFi smart agent platform Almanak has completed $8.45 million in financing, with participation from Delphi Labs, HashKey Capital, BanklessVC, NEAR Foundation, RockawayX, Matrix Partners, AppWorks, Sparkle VC, Shima Capital, and others.
Almanak aims to create and deploy automated financial strategies through financial agents. Unlike traditional DeFi automation that follows static rules, Almanak is building a framework that analyzes market patterns and manages risks through AI-assisted decision-making.
Decentralized AI development protocol RICE AI completes Series A financing, led by FLOKI
Decentralized AI development protocol RICE AI has completed Series A financing, led by FLOKI, with participation from DWF Labs, TokenFi (community presale), Vibe Labs, and others.
RICE AI focuses on the development of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) robots, powered by the RICE token. It aims to address the bottleneck of scarce AI data for robots by massively collecting and training robot foundational models (RFM) through a crowdsourcing mechanism.
DeAgentAI secures strategic financing from Momentum
Decentralized AI infrastructure project DeAgentAI announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, invested by Momentum, a leading DEX in the Sui ecosystem.
The two parties will engage in deep cooperation around AI Infra construction, ecological synergy, and scenario implementation, continuously promoting the large-scale application of AI Agents in the Sui ecosystem.
It is reported that DeAgentAI is the largest AI Infra project on Sui, dedicated to building a smarter and more trustworthy on-chain AI network.
According to The Block, crypto payment infrastructure company Mesh has completed a new round of financing, the scale of which has not been disclosed, with participation from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, ByBit, SBI Japan, Overlook Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Moderne Ventures, and CE-Ventures, bringing its total financing amount to over $130 million.
Five months ago, Mesh raised $82 million in a Series B financing led by Paradigm.
Offchain Labs acquires smart account development team ZeroDev
According to Offchain Labs, the company has acquired the smart account development team ZeroDev. ZeroDev currently supports over 5 million smart accounts across more than 30 chains, providing tools for multiple crypto projects including ApeCoin, Conduit, and Crossmint. This acquisition aims to meet the growing demand for on-chain infrastructure, promote the on-chain application of large institutions and consumer applications, and collaborate with the previously launched universal intent engine to achieve fast cross-chain transactions and a seamless user experience.
It is reported that AI training data platform Public AI has completed a public offering through CoinList, raising $2 million, exceeding the expected target.
Previously, the company had secured $10 million in institutional financing supported by the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, Solana Foundation, and NEAR Foundation, bringing the total financing amount to $12 million. This public offering adopted a "bottom-filling" model, prioritizing allocation to small participants, with refunds for those who did not win the lottery. PublicAI's token generation event (TGE) will launch on August 15 on the Binance Alpha platform, with plans to subsequently list on major exchanges.
2. Gaming
Crypto shooting game Shrapnel developer completes $19.5 million financing, led by Gala Games
Seattle game studio Neon Machine announced the completion of $19.5 million in financing, with the latest round led by Gala Games, and participation from Griffin Gaming Partners and Polychain Capital. The funds will be used to support the global launch of its award-winning FPS game Shrapnel and plans for the Chinese market, which will begin closed testing in 2025 and open testing in early 2026.
3. DeFi
According to CoinDesk, Hyperliquid's ecosystem native yield layer Hyperbeat has completed an oversubscribed seed round financing of $5.2 million, co-led by ether.fi Ventures and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Chapter One, Selini, Maelstrom, Anchorage Digital, and HyperCollective community supporters.
Hyperbeat aims to build permissionless financial infrastructure that allows anyone to earn yields, stake, and spend directly from their on-chain portfolio.
Stablecoin protocol USD.AI completes $13 million Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures
According to CoinDesk, GPU collateralized stablecoin protocol USD.AI, developed by Permian Labs, has completed $13 million in Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Bullish, Dragonfly, Arbitrum, and others.
The protocol provides loans to emerging AI companies by using GPU hardware as collateral, reducing approval times by over 90% compared to traditional lending institutions. The system includes a stablecoin USDai pegged to the US dollar and a yield-bearing token sUSDai supported by computational asset returns.
4. CeFi
Data: Bullish raises $1.1 billion in IPO
According to Bloomberg, digital asset trading platform Bullish raised $1.1 billion through its initial public offering, with an issue price of $37 per share, higher than the previous range of $32 to $33. The IPO was oversubscribed more than 20 times, with a market capitalization of $5.4 billion.
BlackRock and ARK Investment Management intend to collectively subscribe for $200 million in shares. Bullish is led by former NYSE president Tom Farley as CEO, primarily serving institutional clients, with the largest shareholder being Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer (holding 30.1%). The company will be listed on the NYSE under the ticker BLSH.
Swedish listed company H100 Group has completed a directed share issue, raising approximately 65.3 million Swedish Krona ($6.84 million). The issue price was 7.94 Swedish Krona per share. Since launching its Bitcoin treasury strategy, the company has raised a total of approximately 1.181 billion Swedish Krona ($124 million).
Kenya's Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin completes $4.9 million financing, led by Flourish Ventures
According to BitKE, Kenya's Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin announced the completion of $4.9 million in financing, led by Flourish Ventures. The funds will be used to expand operations, enrich the product line, and recruit executives. HoneyCoin founder David Nandwa started the company at the age of 19 in 2020, and the platform's monthly transaction volume has exceeded $150 million, serving 350 business clients and hundreds of thousands of users.
HoneyCoin achieves instant or same-day settlement through a stablecoin-compatible platform, supporting businesses in 45 countries, and has established partnerships with institutions such as MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe. This financing will help further expand its team and compliance layout.
According to CoinDesk, Web3 payment infrastructure company Transak announced the completion of a new round of financing of $16 million, co-led by IDG Capital and Tether, with participation from Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures.
Transak plans to use this funding to expand its stablecoin payment stack and enter new markets.
Peter Thiel's investment group acquires 7.5% stake in Ethereum treasury company ETHZilla
According to Cryptobriefing, billionaire investor and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Peter Thiel, disclosed a 7.5% stake in biotech company ETHZilla (formerly 180 Life Sciences), which recently completed a $425 million private placement and a $156 million convertible bond issuance, with funds intended for increasing its Ethereum holdings.
This is Thiel's second investment in an Ethereum treasury company following his acquisition of a 9.1% stake in BitMine in July. Following the news, ATNF's stock price surged over 11% in a single day, soaring 57% in after-hours trading.
5. Others
According to PR Newswire, Thumzup Media Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed company with cryptocurrency reserves owned by Donald Trump Jr., announced a public offering at $10 per share to issue pre-funded warrants to certain investors in lieu of common stock, with an expected total raise of $46.5 million. The transaction is expected to be completed around August 12, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.
The company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to purchase cryptocurrencies and mining equipment, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Blockchain payment company Riva completes $3 million seed round financing, led by Project A
Global payment company Riva Money announced the completion of $3 million in seed round financing, led by Project A, with participation from individual investors from Revolut, Monzo, and J.P. Morgan.
Riva optimizes cross-border payment processes through blockchain technology and stablecoins, aiming to reduce costs, accelerate settlements, and provide better exchange rates. The company was co-founded by former executives from Revolut and Wise, Niklas Hoejman and Mahendra Katoch, and is applying for payment institution licenses in the UK and EU, as well as MICA and VASP licenses, to advance its global compliance layout.
According to Businesswire, Nasdaq-listed company Heritage Distilling announced that it has completed $220 million in financing, with participation from a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital, dao 5, Hashed, Mirana Ventures, Neoclassic Capital, Open World, Polychain Capital, Selini Capital, Stix, Syncracy Capital, and others.
The company will allocate $82 million to purchase IP tokens to establish IP token reserves.
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