Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 13 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (September 1-7), with a total funding amount exceeding US$148 million. In addition, the total amount of financing for listed companies' crypto asset reserves exceeded US$1.606 billion. The following is an overview:
- DeFi announced two investment and financing events. Among them, the DeFi lending protocol Wildcat Labs completed a $3.5 million seed extension round of financing led by Robot Ventures;
- The Web3 gaming track announced one investment and financing event: crypto-native gaming studio GLHF announced the completion of a $2.3 million financing round, led by 1confirmation.
- The Web3+AI track announced three investment and financing events, among which AI blockchain startup Kite announced the completion of an $18 million Series A financing round, led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced six investment and financing events, including Etherealize, which announced the completion of a $40 million financing round led by Electric Capital and Paradigm.
- One investment and financing event was announced in the centralized finance sector: German digital asset custody company Tangany completed a €10 million Series A financing round.
- In addition, five listed companies completed financing to build crypto treasuries, including Ether Machine, which received $654 million in private Ethereum financing from Jeffrey Berns.
DeFi
Stablecoin project Reflect Money announced that it has completed a $3.75 million seed round of financing led by CSX Accelerator under a16z crypto, with participation from institutions such as Solana Ventures, Equilibrium, BigBrain Holdings and Colosseum. The new funds will be used to build a "software as stablecoin" infrastructure, allowing any application to issue interest-bearing US dollars without locking up funds or complex operations. According to reports, the Reflect protocol tokenizes on-chain DeFi strategies and then converts deposited USDC balances into interest-bearing "USDC+" while maintaining sufficient liquidity. The stablecoin will adopt a non-custodial model and can be minted and redeemed on demand at any time. Reflect plans to launch on the mainnet in early September, initially supporting USDC on Solana.
Wildcat Labs closes $3.5 million in funding, bringing its valuation to $35 million
Wildcat Labs, a DeFi lending protocol, announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed extension funding round led by Robot Ventures, bringing its valuation to $35 million. Triton Capital, Polygon Ventures, and several angel investors participated in the round. The new funds will be used to expand the team, advance the protocol's integration into the Ethereum ecosystem, and develop new markets and mechanisms. Wildcat Labs has raised a total of $5.3 million in funding and currently manages $150 million in outstanding credit, bringing its total credit line to $368 million since its launch.
Web3 Games
Crypto gaming studio GLHF completes $2.3 million in funding, led by 1confirmation
Crypto-native game studio GLHF announced the completion of a $2.3 million funding round led by 1confirmation, with participation from several angel investors from the crypto space. The new funds will be used to expand its flagship crypto game, Gigaverse, and develop new game features. Gigaverse, a cryptocurrency role-playing game (RPG), boasts over 75,000 paying users, has generated $4.5 million in revenue, and has facilitated over $9 million in peer-to-peer transactions through its custom in-game marketplace.
AI
Kite, an AI blockchain startup, announced the completion of an $18 million Series A funding round led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from 8VC and Samsung Next. Kite aims to build blockchain infrastructure to support communication between AI applications, bringing its total funding to $33 million. Kite plans to use blockchain to provide identity authentication and trust mechanisms for AI agents, promoting their application in scenarios such as automated online shopping.
Web3 video AI model Everlyn reveals it has raised $15 million in funding to date
Everlyn, a Web3 video AI model, has raised $15 million in funding to date, according to X Platform, "to build the future of cinematic-quality, on-chain video." Furthermore, the company announced that Mysten Labs has joined Everlyn as an investor, participating in a funding round that values the company at $250 million.
AI agent platform MAIGA completes US$2 million in strategic financing
MAIGA, an AI agent platform on BNB Chain, has secured $2 million in strategic funding from investors including Amber Group, Red Beard Ventures, IBC Group, TBV Ventures, and Chainlink. MAIGA is an AI agent platform focused on DeFAI (AI-driven decentralized finance), leveraging Web3 AI agent technology, MCP with a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), and multimodal.
Infrastructure & Tools
Etherealize Completes $40 Million Funding Round Led by Electric Capital and Paradigm
Etherealize, a startup building products and infrastructure on Ethereum for financial institutions, announced the completion of a $40 million funding round led by Electric Capital and Paradigm, with initial funding from Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation. Co-founded by Vivek Raman, Danny Ryan, and others, Etherealize is dedicated to developing Ethereum-based asset tokenization and infrastructure for financial institutions. The team plans to digitize traditional financial products such as mortgages and credit through blockchain, driving adoption of Ethereum technology among Wall Street institutions.
Utila, a stablecoin infrastructure company, has secured $22 million in funding led by Red Dot Capital Partners, with participation from Nyca, Wing VC, DCG, and Cerca Partners. Utila provides a digital asset platform for businesses, including payment providers and neobanks. The company processes over $15 billion in monthly transactions, and its customer base has doubled since March. Utila plans to accelerate its expansion into emerging markets in Latin America, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Obita, an enterprise-level cross-border payment and digital finance network, announced the completion of an angel round of funding exceeding US$10 million, co-led by Yuanjing Capital and Mirana Ventures, with participation from renowned institutions and individuals such as Legend Capital, HashKey Capital, and Web3.com Ventures. This round of funding will be primarily used for core system development, compliance development, and market expansion, accelerating the development of a global stablecoin cross-border payment network. Focused on compliant stablecoins, Obita is building a blockchain-native payment network within the Obita Mesh framework, enabling global businesses to enjoy low-cost, real-time, and regulated settlement. Addressing industry pain points such as high exchange rates, slow settlement times, and lack of transparency in fund flows, Obita is deeply integrating its enterprise-level compliance system, cross-border clearing network, and integrated fund management tools to reshape the flow of funds for cross-border trade, e-commerce, and supply chain platforms. Obita is also spearheading a strategic expansion into high-growth markets such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Aria, a Story-based intellectual property (IP) asset chain, has completed $15 million in seed and strategic funding rounds, co-led by Polychain Capital and Neoclassic Capital, at a $50 million valuation. Aria specializes in tokenizing music IP, and its first APL token has launched, allowing holders to earn music copyright income through staking. The new funds will be used to expand into more IP categories, including art, film, and television. The platform's revenue comes from IP issuance, trading, and management fees. Currently prioritizing ecosystem expansion, some issuance fees have been temporarily waived.
Tokenized asset management platform Plural completes $7.13 million seed round, led by Paradigm
Plural, a tokenized asset management platform, announced the completion of a $7.13 million seed round led by Paradigm, with participation from Maven11, Volt Capital, and Neoclassic Capital, bringing its total funding to nearly $10 million. Plural is building financial infrastructure for the digital economy. Through tokenization and smart contract automation, Plural transforms real-world energy assets like solar, batteries, and data centers into scalable, programmable investment products.
Digital asset infrastructure company Pointsville completes Series A funding round, with Tether participating
Pointsville, a digital asset infrastructure company, has completed its Series A financing round, led by Valor Capital Group, with participation from Tether, Temasek-backed Superscrypt, SNZ, Credit Saison, K2 Integrity, Citrino, and Dynamo. The specific amount of financing has not yet been disclosed. The new funds are intended to be used for the company's asset digitization and RWA transformation.
other
Crypto asset reserves: ( not included in this issue's financing weekly report statistics )
Ether Machine secures $654 million in private Ethereum funding, led by Jeffrey Berns
Ether Machine announced that it has secured 150,000 ETH (approximately $654 million) in a private placement, with investment from longtime supporter Jeffrey Berns. The funds will be transferred to the company's wallet this week. Berns will join the board of directors. The company, formed through the merger of Ether Reserve and Dynamix Corporation, plans to list on the Nasdaq. The company currently holds over 495,362 ETH (approximately $2.16 billion) and $367 million in funding. Citibank continues to lead a new $500 million funding round.
Following the announcement of a $360 million funding round to launch its ENA treasury strategy in July, stablecoin issuer StablecoinX Assets announced a definitive business combination agreement with special purpose acquisition company TLGY Acquisition Corp. and secured an additional $530 million in PIPE financing to support its newly established ENA reserve. Investors in the latest round include YZi Labs, Brevan Howard, Susquehanna Crypto, and IMC Trading, as well as Dragonfly, ParaFi Capital, Maven11, Kingsway, Mirana, and Haun Ventures. Following the completion of this $890 million funding round, StablecoinX will continue to acquire ENA tokens, with an expected total holding exceeding 3 billion.
CleanCore Solutions, a NYSE American-listed company, announced that it has completed a $175 million private investment in equity (PIPE) financing round, with participation from MOZAYYX, Pantera, GSR, FalconX, Borderless, and Mythos. Following the transaction, the Dogecoin Foundation and House of Doge officially established the official DOGE treasury (supported by 21Shares). House of Doge CEO Marco Margiotta joined CleanCore Solutions as Chief Investment Officer. The funds raised will be used to purchase DOGE tokens.
Treasury BV, a Dutch company, announced the completion of a $147 million funding round led by Winklevoss Capital and Nakamoto Holdings to acquire over 1,000 bitcoins and the European Bitcoin Conference, Bitcoin Amsterdam. The company has also reached an agreement with MKB Nedsense to list on Euronext Amsterdam through a reverse merger. Upon completion of the transaction, the company is expected to trade under the ticker symbol TRSR. MKBN's stock price surged over 30% after opening.
Pineapple Financial Completes $100 Million Private Placement and Launches INJ Vault
Pineapple Financial announced the completion of a $100 million private placement. The company will establish a dedicated Injective (INJ) treasury and acquire INJ, becoming the first publicly listed company to hold INJ. This strategy is expected to generate approximately 12% annualized returns. Investors include FalconX, Kraken, and Blockchain.com. INJ, the native asset of the Injective public blockchain, has recently seen over 1,000% year-over-year network usage growth.
Centralized Finance
Lead Bank, a 97-year-old Missouri lender that has been restructured to focus on serving fintech and cryptocurrency companies, has raised $70 million in funding at a $1.47 billion valuation, nearly double its valuation from last year, as it expands its balance sheet and client base. The bank said the round was led by renowned Silicon Valley investment firms Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Khosla Ventures, with participation from existing investors Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and Zeev Ventures, as well as new investors Iconiq Capital and Greycroft.
The funds will be used to strengthen its balance sheet and expand its business in the fintech sector. Lead Bank’s clients include buy now, pay later company Affirm Holdings Inc., enterprise spend management platform Ramp Business Corporation, and Bridge, the stablecoin business recently acquired by Stripe Inc.
(This round of financing is not included in the statistics of this issue's financing weekly report)
German digital asset custody company Tangany has completed €10 million in Series A funding
Tangany, a German digital asset custody company, has completed a €10 million Series A funding round led by Baader Bank, Elevator Ventures/Raiffeisen Bank International, and Heliad Crypto Partners, with continued support from HTGF and Nauta Capital. Tangany, regulated by Germany's securities regulator, Bafin, stated that it is preparing for European expansion in accordance with the EU's MiCA regulations. Tangany reports that it has over €3 billion in assets under custody and serves over 700,000 accounts across more than 60 institutional clients. Tangany previously raised a €7 million seed round in 2020.
