Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 17 blockchain investment and financing events worldwide last week (August 18-24), with a total funding exceeding US$240.3 million. An overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced three investment and financing events, among which DigiFT, an on-chain RWA exchange, completed a new round of strategic financing, led by SBI Holdings, Japan's largest financial group;
- The Web3 gaming track announced one investment and financing event: OVERTAKE, a gaming asset trading platform, completed a $7 million strategic financing round, with Sui and others participating.
- The Web3+AI track announced five investment and financing events, among which IVIX, an AI compliance platform for combating crypto financial crimes, completed a $60 million Series B financing round, led by OGVP;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced four investment and financing events, including the programmable data chain Irys, which completed a US$10 million Series A financing round led by CoinFund;
- The centralized finance sector announced three investment and financing events, including Midas, the Turkish version of "Robinhood," which completed $80 million in financing at a valuation of nearly $1 billion.
- Elsewhere , one investment and financing event was announced: blockchain startup Legion completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by VanEck and Brevan Howard Digital;
- In addition, two listed companies completed financing to establish crypto treasury, among which Nasdaq-listed LM Funding America (NASDAQ: LMFA) raised $23 million
DeFi
DigiFT, an on-chain RWA exchange, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing in August 2025, led by SBI Holdings, Japan's largest financial group, with participation from Mirana Ventures, Offchain Labs (Arbitrum), Yunqi Capital, and global fintech executives. This round brings DigiFT's total funding to $25 million. The funds will be used to expand tokenized products, enhance secondary market liquidity for RWA, expand on-chain application scenarios, and build a compliant smart contract infrastructure.
o1.exchange announced the completion of a $4.2 million funding round led by Coinbase Ventures and AllianceDAO. The platform is building the first comprehensive trading terminal on the Base Chain and launching a new cashback program, offering users a 45% cashback rate and a 41% share of referral revenue. The trading terminal features include transactions as fast as one block, multi-wallet management and self-custody wallets, cross-chain support and bridging, TradingView enterprise charting, Base Chain launchpad integration, and Uniswap V4 integration. It also offers advanced order functionality such as limit orders, grab orders, and TWAP.
StableStock, the TraDeFi platform, has officially announced the completion of its seed funding round with participation from YZi Labs, MPCi (formerly Matrix Partners), and Vertex Ventures. The platform also successfully completed the YZi Labs Easy Residency program. StableStock is reportedly focused on the on-chain stock ecosystem, aiming to bring trillions of dollars of equity liquidity to DeFi. The platform has now officially entered public beta and is open to all users.
Web3 Games
OVERTAKE, a peer-to-peer gaming asset trading platform built on the Sui network and utilizing smart contract escrow to secure transactions, has announced the completion of a $7 million strategic funding round. The funding round, backed by Sui, ItemMania, ItemBay, JB Investment, Green Whale Ventures, and Immutable, aims to advance the future of digital asset ownership and trading.
AI
IVIX, an AI-powered compliance platform, announced the completion of a $60 million Series B funding round, led by OG Venture Partners (OGVP), with participation from Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, Team8, Disruptive AI, Cardumen Capital, and Cerca. The new funds will be used to accelerate its R&D capabilities to combat financial crime in areas such as complex cryptocurrency networks, anonymous blockchain transactions, and high-frequency trading. Its AI-powered graph analysis can reveal the hidden connections behind financial crimes.
Decentralized AI project DecentralGPT completes $7 million in strategic investment
According to the official news of the decentralized AI project DecentralGPT, DecentralGPT ($DGC) received a strategic investment of US$7 million led by AGICrypto, and all investor tokens will be locked for one year.
Vigil Labs AI has secured $5.7 million in funding to develop AI systems specifically designed to augment human traders. Nova led the seed round, with participation from Lux Capital, Pantera Capital, SV Angel, Soma Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Jack Altman, Kevin Hartz, Cyan Banister, Micky Malka, and several prominent AI researchers.
Kole Lee, founder of Vigil Labs AI, reportedly began building wealth through stock trading in high school before transitioning to cryptocurrency. He interned at Pantera Capital and led Stanford University's blockchain club. He also successfully transformed his personal crypto investments into a fortune, pushing Stanford's student fund, the Blyth Fund, to allocate 7% of its portfolio to Bitcoin in 2024.
YOMIRGO Completes $5 Million Pre-A Round of Financing, Led by Gobi Partners
YOMIRGO, an AI agent and Web3 platform, announced the completion of a $5 million Pre-A Series C funding round led by Gobi Partners, with participation from Boman Group, the Nordic Economic and Trade Promotion Association (NCIPA), FINWEX, Quest Enternal Group, Infinite Labs, and ZC Capital.
This round of financing will not only fuel the company's continued technological and product innovation, but also create a more open and sustainable value proposition for ecosystem partners and users. Going forward, YOMIRGO will further accelerate product development and global expansion, continuously promoting the deep integration of AI agents and Web3 technologies to create a next-generation AI intelligent application ecosystem.
LYS Labs, a machine intelligence platform focused on Solana, has secured $4 million in funding.
LYS Labs, a machine intelligence platform focused on the Solana blockchain, announced the completion of $4 million in funding, including $2 million in angel and $2 million in seed rounds, to build the machine intelligence layer for the Solana blockchain. The company is dedicated to transforming unstructured blockchain data into actionable insights, providing native on-chain capabilities for AI-driven agents. LYS Labs has already launched a low-latency developer portal and is providing structured data services to users in its testnet.
Artificial intelligence startup EliseAI completes $250 million in Series E funding, led by A16z
Artificial intelligence startup EliseAI has completed a $250 million Series E funding round led by A16z, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, and Navitas Capital. The round doubled the company's valuation to over $2.2 billion. Founded in 2017 by Minna Song (CEO) and Tony Stoyanov (CTO), EliseAI is dedicated to building specialized AI systems for vertical applications such as operating call centers and managing patient appointments.
( Not included in this issue's weekly financing statistics)
Infrastructure & Tools
Programmable data chain Irys completes $10 million Series A financing, led by CoinFund
Irys, a programmable data chain, has completed a $10 million Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from Hypersphere, Tykhe Ventures, Varrock Ventures, Breed VC, Echo Group, Amber Group, and WAGMI Ventures. This round brings Irys' total funding to $20 million.
Cointel Completes $7.4 Million in Strategic Financing, Led by Avalanche and Sugafam
Cointel, an AI-native crypto intelligence platform, announced the completion of a $7.4 million strategic funding round led by Avalanche and Sugafam Inc. Cointel will launch both beginner and professional tiers, including gamified learning, AI briefings, predictive analytics, whale wallet alerts, and a scam radar. The platform will also list the $COLS token on Avalanche, supporting staking, governance, and buyback/burn. Focusing on education, security, and real-time intelligence, the platform plans to expand globally, including into North America.
Stablecoin payment processor Loop Crypto has completed a strategic funding round co-led by VanEck and Fabric Ventures, bringing its total raised to $6 million. The exact amount of funding was not disclosed. Loop Crypto specializes in stablecoin payment solutions, supports subscription payment models, and serves a number of merchants, including Helius, OpenPay, Kaito, and Privy. Its transaction volume in the second quarter of 2025 increased by 344% year-over-year.
On-chain privacy solution Vanish completes $1 million seed round led by Colosseum
Vanish, a Solana-based privacy transaction solution, has completed a $1 million seed round of financing, led by Colosseum, with participation from Solana Ventures, Pivot Global, and Solana co-founder Toly.
other
Financing Platform:
Blockchain startup Legion completes $5 million seed round led by VanEck and Brevan Howard Digital
Blockchain startup Legion announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round led by VanEck and Brevan Howard Digital, with participation from Kraken, Coinbase, and Crypto.com. Legion aims to create a compliant ICO platform that offers companies rigorous IPO-like standards while leveraging crypto technology to facilitate token sales. The founders stated that the platform will adhere to the latest EU regulations, requiring projects to publish detailed white papers and regularly update them to avoid scams common in the ICO era. This funding round includes equity and token subscription rights, and the specific valuation was not disclosed.
Crypto asset reserves: ( not included in this issue's financing weekly report statistics )
LM Funding America raises $23 million to expand its BTC reserves, currently holding 150 BTC
Nasdaq-listed LM Funding America (NASDAQ: LMFA) raised $23 million through a $12.6 million registered direct offering and a $10.4 million private placement. The funds will be primarily used to expand its Bitcoin reserves. Currently, the company holds 150 Bitcoins and has 26 megawatts of its own mining capacity. LMFA recently announced the acquisition of an 11-megawatt mining facility in Columbus, Mississippi. The mining operation has achieved operating profitability, continues to contribute to its Bitcoin reserves, and offsets the company's operating costs.
Capital B completes €2.2 million private placement, fully subscribed by Adam Back
French listed company Capital B issued 1 million shares in a private placement at approximately €2.24 per share, raising approximately €2.2 million. Adam Back subscribed entirely to the placement. The company expects to acquire approximately 17 new Bitcoins, bringing its total potential holdings to 2,218. Concurrently, Fulgur Ventures converted 4,760,000 OCA B-01 convertible bonds into 8,750,000 ordinary shares.
Centralized Finance
Midas, Turkey's "Robinhood," completes $80 million funding round at nearly $1 billion valuation
Midas, the zero-commission trading platform owned by Istanbul-based brokerage Midas Menkul Degerler AS, has been valued at nearly $1 billion following its latest funding round. Midas, considered Turkey's answer to Robinhood, announced this week that it has secured $80 million in funding led by QED Investors, with participation from new investors including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and existing backers such as Spark Capital. This brings Midas' total funding to $140 million, making it a landmark project in Turkey's fintech sector.
Block Earner secures $8 million in funding to boost Bitcoin-backed mortgage products
Australian fintech company Block Earner announced it has secured $8 million in funding to develop a Bitcoin-backed mortgage product. This product allows users to use Bitcoin as collateral to finance a home purchase or renovation, with a 9.5% interest rate and repayments in Australian dollars, additional Bitcoin, or a combination of the two. Users can borrow up to 60% of the property's value as a down payment, with the final mortgage provided by a third-party lender. Block Earner stated that cryptocurrency market volatility is gradually stabilizing, and a pilot program has been launched, with users expected to successfully purchase homes this year.
LO:TECH, a London-based digital asset trading firm, announced the completion of a $5 million seed round led by 13books Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Veris Ventures, CRIT Ventures USA, and angel investors Mark Ransford and Rodney Ngone. The funds will be used to expand its high-frequency trading technology, adding agency execution and OTC services to support the future development of on-chain capital markets. LO:TECH's "2025 Crypto Market Making Report" also revealed that over half of respondents expressed distrust in market makers, and the company is optimizing its product roadmap through real-time transparency.
