Blockchain startups raise $258m in a week

During the week between May 19 and May 25, blockchain startups collectively raised over $258 million, led by decentralized social protocol Farcaster’s $150 million Series A round.

According to Crypto Fundraising, four startups raised $179.2 million in Series A rounds in the last seven days, while 12 startups raised $24.1 million in unknown rounds.

Cryptocurrency collection 19 – 25 May | Source: Crypto Fundraiser

Five startups raised $21.3 million in seed rounds; the two locked in a total of $20 million from strategic rounds.

Two other startups raised $9 million from private rounds, while the last one raised $5 million from a public sales round.

Below is a recap of the week’s crypto VC action.

Farcaster reaches unicorn status with $150 million Series A

Ethereum-based decentralized social media protocol Farcaster has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by startup Paradigm. The round also included significant contributions from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Standard Crypto. This boosted Farcaster’s valuation to a staggering $1 billion, marking its entry into unicorn territory.

Co-founder Dan Romero shared that the protocol will use the new capital in two main areas: increasing daily active users and improving 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 L2 blockchain

Plume Network, a modular Layer 2 (L2) network designed to facilitate on-chain integration of real-world assets (RWAs), also announced a successful $10 million seed funding round led by Haun Ventures.

Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel and Portal Ventures joined the California-based venture capital firm in this round. Many angel investors also participated, including Wormhole Labs’ Anthony Ramirez and Mechanism’s Andrew Kang.

Plume CEO Chris Yin stated that the funds will advance the company’s mission to simplify the process of bringing assets such as real estate and art to blockchain platforms.

Blockless secures $8M for decentralized infrastructure expansion

Blockless, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project, has raised $8 million in two early funding rounds.

The first $3 million pre-seed round was led by NGC Ventures, followed by a $5 million seed round co-led by M31 Capital and Frachtis. Additional investors included No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures and Plassa Capital.

Butian Li, co-founder of the project, announced that the funds will support the launch of a testnet in the coming weeks. A mainnet and native BLESS token is set to launch in Q3 2024.

Pencils Protocol, IVX secure seed funding

Pencils Protocol, an auction platform and yield aggregator on the Scroll network, raised $2.1 million in a seed round led by OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Galxe.

Meanwhile, another project, IVX, raised $1.2 million in a seed round backed by Animoca Ventures and other investors.

IVX builds a native options protocol on Berachain Polaris EVM and offers zero day to maturity (0DTE) options on crypto assets, providing users with high leverage exposure without liquidation risk.

Cysic and RunesFi announce new funding rounds

Zero-knowledge (ZK) hardware acceleration company Cysic 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 accelerate the creation of ToM proofs, making them faster and more cost-effective.

Finally, RunesFi, an infrastructure hub for Bitcoin, raised $400,000 in a funding round led by Cogitent Ventures.

Using the Runes Protocol, RunesFi aims to leverage Bitcoin’s decentralized finance (defi) capabilities with features such as a decentralized exchange (DEX) and infrastructure products to support efficient transactions and lower costs.

Check out the ‘VC Briefs’ below: