Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 22 blockchain investment and financing events worldwide last week (August 25-31), with a total funding exceeding US$268.3 million. An overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced seven investment and financing events, including aPriori's $20 million new round of financing, with participation from Pantera Capital and others;
- The Web3+AI track announced two investment and financing events. Among them, the decentralized protocol Swarm Network announced the completion of US$13 million in financing, with Sui and others participating in the investment.
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced eight investment and financing events, including a $50 million round of new funding for Bitcoin-first protocol Portal to Bitcoin, led by Paloma Investments.
- The centralized finance sector announced three investment and financing events, including the stablecoin Visa card platform Rain, which completed a $58 million Series B financing round led by Sapphire Ventures;
- In other news , two investment and financing events were announced. Among them, The Clearing Company, a new project launched by former Polymarket team members, completed a $15 million seed round of financing led by USV;
- In terms of DAT , five listed companies have completed financing to establish crypto treasuries, among which DeFi Development Corp. announced a $125 million financing to accelerate the growth of Solana’s treasury.
DeFi
Stablecoin startup M0 announced the completion of a $40 million Series B funding round led by Polychain and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst Fund and existing investors including Pantera and Bain Capital Crypto. M0 co-founder and CEO Luca Prosperi declined to disclose his startup's valuation. The funding round involves equity and locks up the startup's cryptocurrency reserves—tokens that can only be sold after a specified period of time. To date, M0 has raised nearly $100 million.
M0 is building a network where stablecoin issuers can deploy their tokens without having to worry about moving assets between blockchains like Ethereum or Solana, or making cumbersome software decisions like changing Circle's token to PayPal's. M0 aims to bring as many stablecoin issuers as possible onto its network. This includes the crypto wallet MetaMask, which recently announced a partnership with M0 to launch its stablecoin.
Crypto trading infrastructure startup aPriori has raised $20 million in a new funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $30 million. Participants in the round include HashKey Capital, Pantera Capital, Primitive Ventures, IMC Trading, GEM, Gate Labs, Ambush Capital, and Big Brain Collective.
Founded by a group of former Jump Trading, Coinbase, and Citadel Securities engineers, APriori is applying high-frequency trading methods to DeFi to address issues such as excessive spreads and MEV leakage while redistributing MEV to stakers. The company has launched a liquidity staking platform and AI-powered DEX aggregator Swapr, and plans to use the new capital to expand its products and recruit more.
Metafyed Secures $5.5 Million in Funding to Expand into the Asian RWA Tokenization Market
Metafyed announced it has secured $5.5 million in funding to expand its tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market. Investors include blockchain investors and venture DAOs such as Block Tides and Positive Venture DAO, with additional support from Cyberport Hong Kong, Draper, and the Stellar Development Foundation.
Multipli, a real-time yield protocol, announced $5 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $21.5 million. This funding includes a strategic reallocation of $16.5 million from the team's previous investment in Brine Fi. This capital will accelerate the expansion of Multipli's institutional-grade yield products for native crypto assets like Bitcoin and tokenized gold. Multipli is a real-time yield protocol that unlocks superior risk-adjusted returns on assets that typically don't generate yield, including Bitcoin, tokenized gold, XRP, and stablecoins. Backed by Pantera, Sequoia Capital, and Elevation Capital, the platform has raised $21.5 million in the weeks since its mainnet launch, bringing its total value locked (TVL) to $95 million.
Blockchain credit agreement Credit Coop announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed round of financing, led by Maven 11 and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Signature Ventures, Veris Ventures, TRGC and dlab. The new funds will be used to support its construction of a credit agreement based on Spigot smart contracts that converts commercial cash flows into programmable collateral to provide real-time settlement, automated loan services and transparent credit monitoring.
YZi Labs announces investment in yield-generating synthetic dollar protocol USD.AI
YZi Labs announced its investment in USD.AI, a protocol that provides hardware-backed financing for AI infrastructure. USD.AI aims to scale AI infrastructure through a new yield-generating stablecoin. USD.AI has $62 million in locked value. USD.AI is a yield-generating synthetic dollar protocol that brings infrastructure financing (InfraFi) to the blockchain. It is backed by overcollateralized compute loans. USD.AI enables infrastructure and AI operators to access non-dilutive credit while providing depositors with sustainable, asset-backed returns. Developed by Permian Labs, USD.AI is backed by investors including Framework, Dragonfly, DCG, Delphi, and Fintech Collective.
Gondor has completed an angel round of funding from investors including Maven11 Capital, aiming to build a DeFi layer for prediction markets. Its first product, a lending protocol for Polymarket positions, will launch soon.
AI
Decentralized protocol Swarm Network completes $13 million in financing
Decentralized protocol Swarm Network announced the completion of a $13 million funding round to accelerate the development of its decentralized AI verification protocol. This round of funding was funded in part by a $10 million public sale of agent licenses on the Sui network, with an additional $3 million in strategic capital from investors including Sui, Ghaf Capital, Brinc, Y2Z, and Zerostage. Swarm Network is a decentralized protocol that converts raw off-chain data into verifiable on-chain information in real time. By integrating AI agents, human intelligence, and zero-knowledge proofs, it rewards integrity and promotes transparency.
DeAgentAI, an on-chain AI agent infrastructure project, announced a strategic investment from Valkyrie Fund, a renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm, bringing its total funding to over US$10 million. Valkyrie Fund focuses on AI infrastructure, energy, and cryptography, and has previously invested in renowned projects such as Chemix, Ferveret, and exaBITS. This investment will help DeAgentAI optimize computing costs and efficiency, accelerating the implementation of AI agent infrastructure.
Infrastructure & Tools
Bitcoin-first protocol Portal to Bitcoin secures $50 million in new funding
Bitcoin-first protocol Portal to Bitcoin has secured $50 million in new funding led by Paloma Investments, bringing the project's total raised to $92 million. The funds will support the expansion of the company's adapter, BitScaler, which scales native Bitcoin without the need for wrapped tokens, custodial bridges, or "messaging or other insecure alternatives." Portal plans to use the new capital to expand its grant program and onboard institutional and community liquidity providers. The company is also currently piloting integrations with wallets and custodial platforms to demonstrate non-custodial token swaps.
Hemi, the Bitcoin programmable layer project, has secured $15 million in a new funding round led by YZi Labs, Republic Digital, and HyperChain Capital, with participation from Breyer Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Crypto.com, DNA Fund, Selini Capital, Protein Capital, Quantstamp, and Web3.com Ventures. This brings the project's total funding to $30 million, which will be used to advance the development of a network that combines Bitcoin's security with Ethereum's smart contract capabilities. This round of funding will support ecosystem expansion and subsequent token generation activities.
The core of the Hemi stack is the Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM), designed to embed a full Bitcoin node within the EVM. Through cross-chain "tunneling" and a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, it enables operations such as lending and asset portfolios on the Bitcoin network. Co-founder Jeff Garzik (an early Bitcoin core developer) stated that Bitcoin doesn't need a refactor, but rather supporting tools to unlock its potential. The project claims to have over 100,000 verified users and 400,000 community members, and has integrated or collaborated with over 70 projects, including Sushi, LayerZero, and MetaMask.
Web3 smart hardware project MAGNE.AI completes $10 million in strategic financing
MAGNE.AI, a Web3 smart hardware project, announced the completion of a $10 million strategic funding round, with participation from Castrum Capital, DuckDAO, TB Ventures, and Becker Ventures. The funding will accelerate the development of its L1+L2 dual-chain mobile-native Web3 infrastructure, as well as the mass production and optimization of its AI+blockchain security chip. MAGNE.AI is a leading US-based technology company dedicated to building AI-native Web3 smartphones and next-generation mobile infrastructure for the decentralized internet.
Blockchain payment infrastructure Kira completes $6.7 million seed round
Kira, a blockchain-based payment infrastructure platform, has secured $6.7 million in seed funding from Blockchange Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Stellar Blockchain, Grit Ventures, Credibly Neutral Ventures, Michael Seibel, and Oso Trava. Kira leverages the Stellar blockchain to deliver fast, low-cost payment services. Currently focused on the Latin American market, Kira supports both large enterprises and startups in launching embedded financial products. Kira enables large enterprises and small startups to provide blockchain-based financial services to their customers through an integrated API. Kira offers a variety of financial products, including payments, remittances, and savings.
Cryptocurrency anti-fraud company Vaas completes approximately $370 million in seed round financing
Brazilian cryptocurrency fraud prevention company Vaas has completed a R$20 million (approximately US$370 billion) seed round of funding, led by Headline Asia and participated by ABSeed Ventures and Honey Island Capital. The funds will be used to expand its sales department and accelerate the development of artificial intelligence solutions focused on fraud prevention. Vaas is a Brazilian startup focused on developing technology to combat financial fraud, primarily focusing on cryptocurrency transactions and expanding its services to combat Pix-related scams. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze the complete transaction history of cryptocurrency wallets to detect suspicious or unusual activity. Previously, in October 2023, Vaas had completed approximately US$2 million in a pre-seed round of funding, led by ABSeed .
Suzaku Closes $1.5 Million in Funding to Expand Avalanche Layer 1 Decentralization
According to the official Avalanche blog, Suzaku, a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain hub, has announced the completion of $1.5 million in funding, raised through a seed round, public sales, and grants. Avalanche describes Suzaku as a (re)staking protocol dedicated to helping Avalanche's Layer 1 nodes securely scale and decentralize their validator set. The protocol fills a critical infrastructure gap in the Avalanche ecosystem by providing a structured path for Layer 1 nodes from centralized validation to fully permissionless decentralization.
FinChain, a Web3 brand incubated by Fosun Wealth Holdings, officially launched in Hong Kong on August 27th and announced the completion of its first round of external financing, totaling millions of US dollars. Strategic investors include the Solana Foundation, Animoca Brands, and other well-known institutions. On the same day, FinChain entered into strategic partnerships with seven leading institutions, including Feixiaohao, Matrixport, and Vaulta, to jointly advance the development of the crypto-financial ecosystem.
Aptos Ecosystem Super App and Executive Platform Panora Completes New Round of Financing
Panora, the super app and execution layer for the Aptos ecosystem, recently completed a new round of funding. Frictionless Capital led the round, with participation from Avery Ching, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, and Greg Nazario, head of developer relations and early engineer. Panora is committed to providing efficient and reliable trading infrastructure for the Aptos ecosystem, including DEX aggregation, cross-chain bridging, limit orders, DCA strategies, and developer tools. Aptos will support Panora's technological development and jointly drive further improvements in the performance and scale of the Aptos ecosystem.
other
Prediction Platform:
The former prediction market platform Polymarket team has launched a new project, The Clearing Company, and has completed a $15 million seed round led by Union Square Ventures (USV). Other investors include Haun Ventures, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, and Compound. Co-founder Toni Gemayel stated that prediction markets, leveraging the collective wisdom of the internet age, can overcome the slowness and bias of traditional polls. The project aims to build an on-chain, permissionless, and regulatory-compliant prediction market while providing convenient participation for retail users.
Prediction platform Trepa completes $420,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Colosseum
Trepa, a prediction platform based on the Solana ecosystem, announced the completion of a $420,000 Pre-Seed round of financing. Colosseum, a growth organization launched by the former growth director of the Solana Foundation, led the investment, with participation from angel investors such as Ignight Capital and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. The new funds will support the construction of an accurate prediction platform with economic returns, currently focusing on areas such as macroeconomic signals.
Crypto asset reserves: ( not included in this issue's financing weekly report statistics )
DeFi Development Corp. Announces $125 Million in Funding to Accelerate Growth of Solana Treasury
DeFi Development Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV), a publicly traded US company, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to issue $125 million of its shares at $12.50 per share. The transaction is expected to close on Thursday, August 28, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. The net proceeds will be used to purchase spot SOL and discounted SOL lock-ups, enabling the company to expand its treasury stock holdings. This transaction represents an early financing round for DFDV in 2025, comprising convertible notes, PIPE equity, and an ELOC loan, bringing DFDV's total financing to over $370 million so far this year.
Canadian firm Luxxfolio plans to raise $73 million to increase its Litecoin (LTC) holdings
Canadian crypto infrastructure company Luxxfolio filed a prospectus on Thursday, seeking to raise up to CAD$100 million (USD$73 million) to expand its Litecoin (LTC) treasury strategy. If approved, Luxxfolio's prospectus will allow it to raise capital through the issuance of equity, debt, or other securities within 25 months. The company aims to purchase one million Litecoins by 2026. This comes months after the company became the first publicly traded company to use Litecoin as its funding anchor after completely abandoning Bitcoin mining.
According to its latest quarterly financial report, key signs of stress at the company include no revenue, a net loss of approximately $197,000 in the second quarter (compared to a net loss of $8,000 in the same period last year), and nine-month losses that more than doubled year-over-year. The company ended the second quarter with just $112,000 in cash and relied on $844,000 in private equity funding to sustain operations, bringing its total losses since its founding in 2017 to nearly $19 million.
Safety Shot receives $30 million in strategic investment from BONK core team and FalconX
Safety Shot, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOT) today announced that it has successfully priced a $30 million financing led by a syndicate of strategic investors, including FalconX. The transaction consisted of approximately $5 million in cash in a registered direct offering and a concurrent $25 million private placement paid in BONK tokens from BONK founding members. All shares were priced at $0.46 per share. The registered direct offering and concurrent private placement are expected to close on or about August 27, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.
AMBTS, the Bitcoin treasury arm of Amdax, has completed a $23.4 million Series A funding round. The funds will be used to launch a Bitcoin accumulation strategy.
Falconedge Completes Funding and Plans to Use IPO Proceeds for Bitcoin Reserves
Falconedge, a newly established UK hedge fund advisory firm, has completed pre-IPO funding and plans to allocate nearly all of its September IPO proceeds to its Bitcoin reserves. The firm employs a dual-pillar strategy, offering Bitcoin reserve management and hedge fund advisory services to attract investors from both traditional finance and crypto assets. Falconedge builds on the legacy of Falcon Investment Management, which previously managed over $850 million in crypto assets and launched the UK's first regulated crypto fund.
Centralized Finance
Rain, a stablecoin Visa card platform, has completed a $58 million Series B funding round, led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, and Lightspeed. Following this funding round, Rain's valuation of $24.5 million has increased nearly sixfold. People familiar with the matter revealed that the annualized spending on Rain-supported bank cards has exceeded $1 billion. Founded in 2021 by CEO Farooq Malik and CTO Charles Yoo-Naut, Rain launched Visa-enabled bank cards, enabling stablecoins to be spent in all Visa-accepting locations. Rain allows new banks and fintech companies to offer stablecoin payment services. Earlier in March, news broke that Rain had completed a $24.5 million funding round, led by Norwest Venture Partners.
Crypto exchange OrangeX completes $20 million Series B funding round
OrangeX, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round led by Kryptos, with participation from SCI Ventures and other major investors. This follows a $10 million Series A round in September 2023, also led by Kryptos and joined by NGC Capital, Phase Capital, and SCI Ventures. The new funds will be used to strengthen core infrastructure and accelerate global market expansion. The OrangeX platform offers services such as derivatives trading, spot trading, one-click copy trading, and fiat on-ramps for purchasing cryptocurrencies.
Cross-border payments platform Tazapay has completed its Series B funding round, with investors including Peak XV Partners, Ripple (US), Circle Ventures, Norinchukin Capital (Japan), and GMO Venture Partners (Japan). Existing investor Peak XV Partners led the round, with participation from January Capital and ARC180. Tazapay offers seamless local payment and collection capabilities in over 70 markets, has achieved operational breakeven, and is experiencing 300% annual growth. The company, which already holds licenses in Singapore, Canada, and the EU, will use the new funding to accelerate its licensing efforts in major global markets. It is currently applying for licenses in the UAE, US, Hong Kong, and Australia, as well as a Digital Payment Token (DPT) license in Singapore.
