Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 10 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (September 29-October 5), with a total funding amount exceeding US$305 million. In addition, the total amount of financing for listed companies' crypto asset reserves exceeded US$453 million. The following is an overview:
- DeFi announced two investment and financing events. Among them, Lava, a platform focusing on Bitcoin mortgage lending, announced that it has completed a $17.5 million Series A extension financing;
- The Web3+AI track announced one investment and financing event: Talus Network, a decentralized AI proxy infrastructure layer, raised over US$10 million in funding.
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced one investment and financing event: the stablecoin payment network Mesta announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed round of financing, led by Village Global;
- One investment and financing event was announced in the centralized finance sector: xMoney announced it had secured $21.5 million in strategic funding, led by Sui Foundation.
- Other Web3 applications announced five investment and financing events, including X.me, the Web3 version of TikTok, which announced the completion of a $30 million strategic financing round led by Tido Capital.
- In addition, three listed companies have completed financing to establish encrypted treasuries. Among them, POAI plans to launch a digital asset library with ATH as the core, and has obtained two PIPE financings of approximately US$344 million.
DeFi
Flying Tulip, a new crypto project founded by DeFi veteran Andre Cronje, has secured $200 million in private seed funding. The project aims to build an on-chain exchange spanning the "full spectrum of DeFi"—a system that will encompass spot trading, derivatives, lending, stablecoins, and insurance. The $200 million round, raised in the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), values Flying Tulip's tokens at a fully diluted value (FDV) of $1 billion. The funding round, which launched on August 14th and closed within a month, did not include a single lead investor. Participants included Brevan Howard Digital, CoinFund, DWF Labs, FalconX, Hypersphere, Lemniscap, Nascent, Republic Digital, Selini, Sigil Fund, Susquehanna Crypto, Tioga Capital, and Virtuals Protocol.
Flying Tulip now plans to raise up to an additional $800 million through a public sale of its FT tokens at the same $1 billion valuation. Cronje stated that this sale will be conducted on Flying Tulip's own platform, rather than leveraging an existing ICO. The fundraising will feature an "on-chain redemption right," allowing investors to burn FT tokens at any time to redeem a portion of their initial investment in assets. Redemptions will be managed by an audited smart contract, with safeguards such as queues and rate limits in place to ensure solvency. In the event of a temporary shortage of reserves, requests will be placed in a transparent queue and processed once funds are replenished. FT tokens are non-transferable until the public sale is complete. Team members will have no initial allocations, and their compensation will be based on planned open market buybacks funded by protocol proceeds, directly tying their upside to performance.
Lava, a platform specializing in Bitcoin-collateralized lending, announced the completion of a $17.5 million Series A extension funding round and the simultaneous launch of a new USD yield product. This round was backed by several angel investors, including Peter Jurdjevic of the Qatar Investment Authority and former executives from Visa and Block (formerly Square). The new USD yield product allows users to provide USD funds to provide liquidity for Bitcoin-collateralized loans on the platform and earn an annualized yield (APY) of up to 7.5%. Lava stated that all loans are collateralized solely by Bitcoin, with a collateralization ratio exceeding 200%. Lava's previous Series A funding round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.
AI
Talus Network has raised over $10 million in funding and received a new round of strategic support from the Sui Foundation and Walrus, with participation from investors such as Polychain Capital. Talus Network, the infrastructure layer for decentralized AI agents, officially launched its flagship application, idol.fun, on the public testnet this month. Talus also released its white paper, which outlines the token economics of the Talus Network token, US. The full Idol.fun platform is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026. The Talus team has also developed Nexus, an innovative framework for decentralized AI agents, allowing agent workflows to be hosted and defined entirely on-chain.
Infrastructure & Tools
Stablecoin payment network Mesta completes $5.5 million seed round, led by Village Global
Stablecoin payment network Mesta announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed funding round led by Village Global, with participation from Circle Ventures, Paxos, WTI - Western Technology Investment, Garuda Ventures, Canonical Crypto, Everywhere Ventures, and Inventum Ventures. The new funds will reportedly be used to expand Mesta's global payment capabilities, strengthen its international team, and accelerate global growth, further integrating the reliability of fiat payments with the efficiency of stablecoins.
other
Social Media:
Web3 social media platform X.me secures $30 million in funding led by Tido Capital
X.me, the Web3 version of TikTok's social media platform, announced the completion of a $30 million strategic financing round, led by Tido Capital, with participation from Genesis Capital, Alpha Capital, Rollman Management, Parallel Ventures, WAGMi ventures and Web 3 Vision. The financing funds will be mainly used for the platform currency issued by the X.me Foundation.
Consumer entertainment:
KGeN Completes $13.5 Million in New Round of Financing, Led by Jump Crypto and Others
KGeN announced the completion of a new round of funding, totaling $13.5 million, led by Jump Crypto, Accel, and Prosus Ventures, bringing the company's total raised to $43.5 million. KGeN stated that the funds will be used to advance its real user growth and verification product, VeriFi. Its previous round was a $10 million ecosystem fund in November 2024, led by Aptos , with participation from G7 DAO and Polygon.
K Wave Media secures approximately $1 million in equity investment from Galaxy Digital
According to GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq-listed K Wave Media announced that it has received approximately US$1 million in equity investment from Galaxy Digital to support its launch of an entertainment tokenization platform, including the development of revenue-sharing tokens and automatic royalty distribution based on smart contracts.
Crypto Mining:
Bitcoin mining company MiningStore announced the completion of a $3.4 million strategic loan financing round, with participation from infrastructure-focused fund company Millennium Infrastructure Fund. The new funds are reportedly intended to be used to expand the company's Bitcoin mining facilities.
DogeHash Technologies receives $2.5 million investment from Thumzup Media Corporation
Thumzup Media Corporation, a social media company invested in by Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of Trump, which holds cryptocurrency reserves, announced that it has invested $2.5 million in DogeHash Technologies. The funds are expected to be used to expand DogeHash's Dogecoin mining capacity and accelerate the deployment of its next-generation ASIC mining machines, which may support the addition of 500 ASIC mining machines.
Centralized Finance
xMoney announced it has secured $21.5 million in strategic funding, led by Sui Foundation and with participation from MultiversX. xMoney claims to have achieved MiCA compliance, a Licensed EMI, and a PCI DSS Level 1 certification. It is also a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, serving over 5,000 merchants (including those in Liechtenstein). The company plans to launch its XMN token in early October and will develop buyback, liquidity, and value-sharing mechanisms. Officially, xMoney stated that its stablecoin payment infrastructure covers debit cards, subscriptions, and cross-border settlements.
DAT
Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ: POAI) announced two private placements (PIPEs): a cash PIPE to issue approximately 66.67 million shares at a price of $0.7751 per share, raising approximately $51.7 million; and a crypto PIPE to issue prepaid warrants using locked and unlocked Aethir (ATH) tokens, with a notional value of approximately $292.7 million. Both transactions are expected to close simultaneously on October 2nd. The company will use ATHs to build a digital asset library and continue to purchase ATHs in the secondary market. For each ATH purchased, the DCI Foundation will grant an additional 20% of tokens. Shareholders have approved a 1:15 reverse stock split, effective September 30th (this information is pre-split).
Ethereum Treasury Firm Bit Digital Plans to Raise $100 Million Through Convertible Bond Offering
Bit Digital, an Ethereum treasury company, announced on Monday that it has proposed issuing $100 million in convertible bonds to purchase additional Ethereum. Net proceeds from the bond offering will be used primarily to purchase Ethereum, but the company may also use them for general corporate purposes, including potential investments, acquisitions, and other business opportunities related to digital assets. Bit Digital has filed a preliminary prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Barclays, Cantor, and B. Riley Securities are the lead underwriters for the bond offering. Bit Digital has not purchased a significant amount of Ethereum since July. The company has been accumulating and staking ETH since 2022.
XRP Treasury Company VivoPower Completes $19 Million in Equity Funding
VivoPower, a Nasdaq-listed XRP treasury company, announced that it has completed $19 million in equity financing through the issuance of additional common stock at a price of $6.05 per share. The new funds are intended to support the company's digital asset treasury strategic transformation, including the acquisition, management and long-term holding of XRP.
venture capital funds
Foresight Ventures launches $50 million stablecoin infrastructure fund
Crypto venture capital firm Foresight Ventures has officially launched a $50 million stablecoin infrastructure fund. This is the industry's first dedicated fund focused on the entire stablecoin value chain. The fund's investment scope will encompass the entire stablecoin ecosystem, including stablecoin issuance, trading, compliant deposit and withdrawal channels, public payment chains, and innovative applications across the intersection of stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs), artificial intelligence (AI), and on-chain foreign exchange.
CMCC Global to launch $25 million Sonic Ecosystem Fund, Resonance Fund
Sonic Labs announced in its official blog that blockchain venture capital firm CMCC Global plans to launch the $25 million Sonic Ecosystem Fund, Resonance Fund. The fund is dedicated to investing in breakthrough protocols and founders shaping the Sonic ecosystem. The fund focuses primarily on high-growth opportunities in DeFi and consumer-facing applications. Its core mission is to promote fee monetization as a sustainable revenue model for smart contract developers and accelerate its adoption. In addition, the fund hopes to expand the liquidity of the Sonic ecosystem through strategic capital allocation. Its investment strategy aims to capture value throughout the entire asset life cycle, making both early investments in emerging DeFi leading projects and strategic investments in highly liquid assets in the Sonic ecosystem.
Aqua Labs Launches $20 Million Global Growth Startup Support Program Focusing on AI+Web3 and RWA
Aqua Labs has announced the launch of the $20 million "Aqua Labs Startup Support Program," targeting growth-stage projects that have been established for at least one year and have established a product prototype and initial users. Selected teams will receive initial funding of $500,000 to $1 million, as well as global market expansion, investment and financing matching, and brand support. Key areas of focus include the deep integration of AI and Web3, RWA and related infrastructure, and new financial paradigms. Outstanding projects may receive follow-on investment and introductions to sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and other institutions.
Lisk Launches $15 Million Venture Capital Fund, Lisk EMpower Fund
Ethereum Layer 2 network Lisk announced the launch of a $15 million venture capital fund, Lisk EMpower Fund, which will focus on investing in Web3 startups, with a focus on infrastructure and applications that solve real-world problems in payments, remittances, identity, and supply chains in emerging markets.
