Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 20 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (October 13-19), with a total funding amount exceeding US$786 million. In addition, the total amount of financing for listed companies' crypto asset reserves exceeded US$258 million. The following is an overview:
- DeFi announced three investment and financing events, including Ferra's $2 million pre-seed round of financing, led by Comma3 Ventures;
- The Web3+AI track announced three investment and financing events, among which the open source AI provider Inference completed a $11.8 million seed round of financing, led by Multicoin Capital and a16z CSX;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced six investment and financing events, including Tempo, which raised $500 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $5 billion.
- The centralized finance sector announced two investment and financing events, among which the self-custodial digital bank Tria completed a $12 million pre-seed and strategic round of financing;
- Five investment and financing events were announced for other Web3 applications, including Astra Nova, an AI-focused Web3 entertainment and infrastructure company, which has completed US$48.3 million in financing;
- In addition, four listed companies completed financing to build crypto treasuries, including Zeta Network Group, which received $230.8 million in SolvBTC/BTC private placement financing;
- The DePIN track announced one investment and financing event, with decentralized energy network Daylight securing $75 million in funding.
DeFi
Ferra has completed a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by Comma3 Ventures, with participation from Sui, Arche Fund, Antora Technology, and several angel investors from the Sui ecosystem. Ferra has launched the first DLMM DEX on Sui, integrating CLMM and DAMM, and is now publicly live on its mainnet.
Decentralized exchange ANT.FUN announced the completion of a multi-million-dollar Series B1 funding round led by mimStream Investment. mimStream Investment is a US dollar-based venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3. Its portfolio includes Ximalaya, Fanshu Media (formerly Fan Deng Reading), livestreaming platforms Li Jiaqi and MeiOne, among others. Following the investment, mimStream Investment will help ANT gain broader social media traffic and establish an effective system from traffic to conversion. ANT's short video and livestreaming features will also be launched soon. The Series B1 round also attracted investment from several leading domestic brokerage funds and the personal overseas investment platforms of senior executives from top international investment banks.
YZi Labs Announces Investment in Temple Digital Group
YZi Labs announced an investment in Temple Digital Group, which launched the first native trading platform on the Canton Network. Temple is positioned as a unified trading technology stack for privacy and compliance, integrating tokenized assets, liquidity, and compliance, and providing a central limit order book, automated routing, and non-custodial settlement. Temple Digital Group reportedly completed a $5 million seed round of funding led by Paper Ventures, with participation from YZi, CMT Digital, Sfermion, Halo Capital, Protagonist, 5N Canton, Eterna Capital, AMA, GSR, Selini, Presto, and G20.
AI
Open-source AI provider Inference has completed a $11.8 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital and a16z CSX, with participation from Topology Ventures, Founders, Inc., and angel investors. The funds will be used to expand model and infrastructure performance research and development, and enhance its ability to provide customized AI model training and deployment services to enterprises. Inference.net currently provides customized language model training and deployment support for several AI-native companies.
Decentralized AI marketplace 4AI completes $6 million in strategic funding, led by 0xLabs
4AI, a decentralized AI marketplace, announced it has raised $6 million in a strategic funding round led by 0xLabs. 4AI is a decentralized AI marketplace based on BSC that aims to connect users, developers, and AI agents in a shared ecosystem. It allows users to request, deploy, and monetize AI services through smart contracts, fostering an open, permissionless environment for AI innovation.
AI infrastructure project Voyage announced the completion of a $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing. Investors include a16z Speedrun, Alliance DAO, Solana Ventures, LECCA Ventures, IOSG VC, Big Brain VC, MH Ventures, GAM3GIRL VC, Y2Z Ventures, as well as Faracaster co-founder Varun Srin and former Uniswap executive Kuan Huang.
Voyage aims to build the first "GEOFi (Generative Engine Optimization Finance)" network, establishing a fair distribution layer for the citation system of AI-generated content and rewarding authentic knowledge contributors. Through AI-guided conversations, the project structures human knowledge and makes it AI-citable, fostering a cycle of "more citations—more contributions—more trust." Voyage claims its goal is to become "an AI-citable human knowledge platform," ensuring that creators receive the value they deserve.
Infrastructure & Tools
Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain project developed by fintech giant Stripe and blockchain venture capital firm Paradigm, has raised $500 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital giants Greenoaks and Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital. This round values Tempo at $5 billion, one of the highest valuations in blockchain venture capital funding in recent years. Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Ron Conway's SV Angel also participated in the round, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Paradigm and Stripe did not participate.
YZi Labs announces $50 million funding lead for stablecoin project Better Payment Network
YZi Labs announced it has led a $50 million funding round in Better Payment Network (BPN) to accelerate the development of a multi-stablecoin payment infrastructure, furthering its commitment to supporting scalable, real-world blockchain applications that connect traditional finance with on-chain systems. The newly raised funds will primarily be used to establish initial on-chain liquidity pools for stablecoin-to-stablecoin corridors and develop an early market-making ecosystem.
According to reports, BPN provides a unified layer for the minting, exchange and settlement of stablecoins backed by fiat currencies on the BNB chain, building a bridge between CeFi and DeFi, and helping the global market achieve faster, lower-cost and regulatory-compliant cross-border payments.
Blockchain-based financial services company Telcoin completes $25 million in Pre-Series A funding
Telcoin, a blockchain-based financial services company, announced the completion of a $25 million Pre-Series A funding round to fund the Telcoin Digital Asset Bank, scheduled to open later this year. This funding will enable Telcoin to meet the capital requirements for its conditionally approved digital asset depository charter in Nebraska, USA, and will help the company bridge the blockchain economy with traditional banking. The funding will also support Telcoin's creation of eUSD, the first bank-issued stablecoin.
Telcoin is a multinational fintech company serving 171 countries. By integrating blockchain technology, telecommunications, and banking, Telcoin provides secure, self-hosted blockchain payment and banking services globally, powered by its own decentralized financial infrastructure.
South Korean blockchain infrastructure provider DSRV completes $21.12 million in Series B funding
South Korean blockchain infrastructure provider DSRV has completed a Series B funding round totaling 30 billion won (approximately $21.12 million). This round was divided into two tranches: the first tranche included participation from Intervest, SK Securities, and Nice Investment Partners; the second tranche attracted new investors including NXVP, Han River Partners, IBK Capital, and S2L Partners.
DSRV provides infrastructure for over 70 blockchain networks worldwide and manages over 4 trillion won in digital assets. Last year, DSRV achieved approximately 10.7 billion won in annual sales. Leveraging this round of funding, DSRV plans to accelerate its global expansion. Specific initiatives include recruiting key talent; developing advanced stablecoin and payment infrastructure technologies; expanding its staking business; and entering the US, Japan, and African markets.
According to the official Orochi Network blog, the project has secured an additional $8 million in funding, bringing its total raised to $20 million. This round included participation from MEXC Ventures, Plutus VC, Bolts Capital, Ant Labs, and other investors, with funding from the Ethereum Foundation. The funds will be used to build a verifiable data infrastructure for tokenizing RWAs (real-world assets) to meet regulatory requirements such as the EU's Digital Operations Resilience Directive (DORA).
Meanwhile, Orochi officially launched its zkDatabase mainnet, processing over 700 million zero-knowledge proof requests and forming a zkDatabase Alliance with over 120 companies and projects, including Plume, Lumia, and Nexus. This infrastructure provides institutions with audit-level data verification capabilities, facilitating the integration of RWA, AI, and Web3. Founder Chiro Hiro stated that Orochi is becoming a core pillar of Southeast Asia's compliant and verifiable data system.
Crypto wallet Ryder secures $3.2 million in seed funding and launches TapSafe to replace mnemonics
Hardware crypto wallet company Ryder announced the completion of a $3.2 million seed round led by Tim Draper's Draper Associates, with participation from Borderless, Semantic, Smape, VeryEarly, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Asymmetric founder Joe McCann. The funds will be used to increase Ryder One hardware wallet production capacity, expand its marketing and engineering teams, and advance its "TapSafe" recovery solution: distributed backups via mobile phones and NFC recovery tags, requiring physical access for retrieval, replacing mnemonics with single-point-of-failure recovery phrases. Ryder claims wallet creation and backups can be completed in under 60 seconds.
other
Astra Nova, an AI-focused Web3 entertainment and infrastructure company, has raised $48.3 million to expand its suite of tokenized content tools and creator platform. The funding includes $41.6 million in a recent strategic funding round and builds on earlier investments led by Outlier Ventures, as well as family offices and institutional investors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.
The company develops tools that enable creators to launch blockchain-based entertainment experiences without any technical skills. Its flagship product, TokenPlay AI, serves as a code-free launch platform for mini-programs. Powered by Alibaba Cloud, the product enables token-based communities to launch interactive utilities in minutes, according to the company. Other products launched include NovaToon, a Web3 webtoon platform that allows fans to co-create stories using NFTs, and Deviants: Fight Club, a Telegram-based PvP game that integrates Astra Nova's RVV token for in-game rewards.
Decentralized talent network TradeTalent completes $8 million in financing
TradeTalent, a decentralized talent network based on AI verification, has completed an $8 million financing round, led by Nasdaq-listed company Allied Gaming & Entertainment and technology engineering company Hicop Engineering Pte. Ltd. The funds will be used to strengthen AI skill verification capabilities, expand the global enterprise and talent network, and further integrate and optimize the platform's trustless infrastructure.
Dare Market Completes $2 Million in Funding, Led by Karatage and Paper Ventures
Web3 traffic monetization platform Dare Market has completed a US$2 million financing round, led by Karatage and Paper Ventures, with participation from AXIA8 Ventures and GSR Markets LTD.
Crypto trading company legend.trade completes $1.5 million in Pre-Seed round of financing
Legend.trade, a crypto trading company incubated by decentralized exchange GTE, announced the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing. Investors include Big Brain Holdings, Bodhi Ventures, Figment Capital, GTE, Kosmos Ventures, MitonC and other institutions as well as several angel investors.
Mythical Gaming, a blockchain gaming company, announced that it has secured a strategic investment from Eightco Holdings, a US-listed company backed by BitMine, World Foundation, Kraken, and others, in its latest funding round. This partnership will accelerate Mythical Gaming's efforts to build a world-class entertainment ecosystem and introduce a verified human identity verification system to the gaming industry in the post-AIG era.
DAT
(Such transactions are not included in this issue’s weekly financing statistics)
Zeta Network Group Secures $230.8 Million in SolvBTC/BTC Private Funding
Zeta Network Group (NASDAQ: ZNB) has signed a private placement securities purchase agreement, raising a total of $230,837,060.20 through the issuance of Class A common stock and corresponding warrants (with an exercise price of $2.55, for a combined offering price of $1.70 per share + warrants). The purchase price will be paid in BTC or SolvBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin asset issued by the Solv Protocol, held in custodial custody, and verified by on-chain reserves. The transaction is expected to close on October 16.
Digital asset finance company Propanc Biopharma secures up to $100 million in strategic financing
Propanc Biopharma, a digital asset finance company, announced a strategic financing agreement with family office Hexstone Capital for up to $100 million. This financing will accelerate the biopharmaceutical company's clinical pipeline development and aims to grow its digital asset portfolio to $100 million or more within the next 12 months. Hexstone Capital has previously invested in several companies with digital asset portfolios, including BTC, ETH, SOL, and DOGE.
Hamak Strategy (LSE: HAMA) announced on Wednesday that it has secured a financing package consisting of a £5 million convertible loan note with YA II PN, Ltd and a £30 million ATM financing facility with its corporate broker, AlbR Capital. Both facilities are subject to shareholder approval at the general meeting to be held on November 3, 2025, at which time a resolution to waive pre-emptive rights will be proposed. Hamak Strategy, whose businesses include gold exploration in Africa and digital asset fund management, is traded on the London Stock Exchange and the OTCQB market. The company stated that the financing will support its efforts to "enhance shareholder value through its gold/Bitcoin strategy."
TAO Finance, a US-listed company, secured $11 million in private placement financing.
TAO Synergies Inc. (Nasdaq: TAOX), the TAO Treasury, announced that it has signed a securities subscription agreement with existing investor James Altucher and new investor DCG, securing $11 million in financing. The financing, completed through a private placement at a premium to the company's five-day moving average, involved the sale of 11,000 shares of the company's newly issued Series E Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $1,000 per share, convertible into common stock, along with five-year warrants to purchase shares of the company's common stock. The conversion price of the Series E Preferred Stock is $8.00 per share, and the warrants have an exercise price of $8.00 per share of common stock. The transaction is expected to close on or about October 15, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.
Centralized Finance
Tria, a self-custodial digital bank, has raised $12 million in pre-seed and strategic funding rounds. This round attracted participation from P2 Ventures, Aptos, the Tria community, and executives from Polygon, the Ethereum Foundation, Wintermute, Sentient, 0G, Concrete, and Eigen. Polychain and Polygon served as advisors for the pre-seed round.
Tria is a self-custodial new bank that consolidates spending, transactions, and returns across multiple blockchains without the need for bridges, gas, or custodians. Built for both humans and AI, Tria makes currency programmable, enabling traders or AI agents to conduct native transactions on-chain. Powered by its interoperability layer, BestPath AVS, Tria simplifies the complexity of cryptocurrency to deliver instant, global, and autonomous finance.
Crown, a Brazilian stablecoin fintech company, announced the completion of an $8.1 million seed round of financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Valor Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, Norte Ventures, Paxos, and Nubank co-founder Ed Wible. The new funds will be used to support the company's launch of the stablecoin BRLV, which is pegged to the Brazilian real (BRL) and fully backed by Brazilian government bonds. It is reported that BRLV is different from dollar-denominated stablecoins such as USDC. It will provide native revenue sharing to institutional partners and distribute a portion of the income from government bonds held to institutions.
DePIN
Decentralized energy network Daylight secures $75 million in funding
Daylight Energy announced the completion of a $75 million funding round, with $15 million in equity led by Framework Ventures, with participation from a16z Crypto, Lerer Hippeau, and M13, and an additional $60 million in project financing led by Turtle Hill Capital. Daylight incentivizes households to install distributed solar and energy storage through a crypto network, with revenue coming from user subscriptions and market compensation for returning power to the grid during peak periods. The company launched the DayFi Yield Protocol, which on-chains electricity revenue as an asset. Subscriptions are currently available in Illinois and Massachusetts, with plans to expand into DeFi financing in Q4.
