Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 15 blockchain investment and financing events worldwide last week (August 11-17), with a total funding exceeding US$156 million. Furthermore, the total amount of crypto asset reserve financing raised by listed companies exceeded US$1.055 billion. An overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced four investment and financing events, including the stablecoin protocol USD.AI, which announced the completion of a $13 million Series A financing round led by Framework Ventures;
- The Web3 Games & NFT track announced one investment and financing event: Shrapnel developer completed $19.5 million in financing, led by Gala Games;
- The Web3+AI track announced three investment and financing events, among which AI Agent service platform HolmesAI completed its "seed+ round" financing, with participation from Waterdrop Capital and others;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced three investment and financing events, including the blockchain-based identity verification platform 1 Kosmos, which completed a $57 million Series B financing round led by Forgepoint Capital and others;
- The centralized finance sector announced three investment and financing events, including a $16 million strategic financing round for Transak, a Web3 payment infrastructure company, led by IDG Capital and Tether.
- Elsewhere , four listed companies completed financing to establish crypto treasuries, including 180 Life Sciences, which completed $425 million in private financing to implement its Ethereum treasury strategy.
DeFi
Stablecoin protocol USD.AI completes $13 million Series A funding round, led by Framework Ventures
USD.AI, a stablecoin protocol, announced the completion of a $13 million Series A funding round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Bullish, Dragonfly, and Arbitrum. Developed by Permian Labs, USD.AI specifically provides GPU-backed loans to AI companies, increasing approval efficiency by over 90%. The project has secured $50 million in deposits and plans a public ICO using a gamified distribution model.
DeFi smart agent platform Almanak completed US$8.45 million in financing, with participation from Delphi Labs, HashKey Capital, BanklessVC, NEAR Foundation, RockawayX, Matrix Partners, AppWorks, Sparkle VC, Shima Capital and others.
Hyperbeat secures $5.2 million in funding from ether.Fi and Electric Capital
Hyperbeat announced that it has secured $5.2 million in funding from ether.Fi and Electric Capital. The funds will be used to build yield infrastructure for the Hyperliquid ecosystem, serving traders, protocols, and institutional users.
Main Street Completes $400,000 in Funding, with Sonic as Investor
DeFi project Main Street closed an undisclosed $400,000 funding round on August 15th, with Sonic as its investor. The specific funding round and further investment details have not yet been released.
Web3 Games
Shrapnel developer secures $19.5 million in funding, led by Gala Games
Seattle-based game studio Neon Machine has announced the completion of a $19.5 million funding round, led by Gala Games with participation from Griffin Gaming Partners and Polychain Capital. The funds will support the global launch of its award-winning FPS game, Shrapnel, and its plans for the Chinese market, where closed beta testing will begin in 2025 and open beta testing will begin in early 2026.
Earlier news reported that Neon Machine, the developer of the encrypted shooting game "Shrapnel", was exposed to be in financial crisis .
AI
AI Agent Service Platform HolmesAI Completes Seed+ Round Financing
HolmesAI announced the completion of its Seed+ funding round, with investors including Bitrise Capital, Waterdrop Capital, and CGV Fund. To date, HolmesAI has raised a total of $3 million in funding, with HashKey Group and leading cloud computing companies participating in its early incubation. HolmesAI is an AI agent service platform based on Persona, a personalized knowledge base that enables highly humanized agents across various industries, fully unleashing human creativity.
DeAgentAI receives strategic funding from Momentum
DeAgentAI, a decentralized AI infrastructure project, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing led by Momentum, a leading DEX in the Sui ecosystem. The two parties will collaborate on AI infrastructure development, ecosystem collaboration, and application implementation, continuously promoting the large-scale application of AI agents within the Sui ecosystem. DeAgentAI is the largest AI infrastructure project on Sui, dedicated to building a smarter and more trusted on-chain AI network.
Decentralized AI development protocol RICE AI completes Series A funding round, led by FLOKI
RICE AI, a decentralized AI development protocol, has completed its Series A funding round, led by FLOKI, with participation from DWF Labs, TokenFi (in a community presale), and Vibe Labs. RICE AI focuses on the development of AGI (artificial general intelligence) robots and is powered by the RICE token. It aims to address the bottleneck of data scarcity in robotic AI by crowdsourcing the large-scale collection and training of Robot Foundation Models (RFMs).
Galaxy Announces $1.4 Billion in Project Financing to Accelerate Expansion of Helios AI Data Center
Galaxy Digital announced it has secured $1.4 billion in project financing to support the expansion of its Helios data center campus in Texas. This financing will be used for the initial phase of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure renovation and expansion. Galaxy has provided $350 million of its own capital, with the remainder covered by debt financing. CoreWeave has signed a second-phase lease agreement, committing to the full 800MW of approved power capacity at Helios, with projected average annual revenue exceeding $1 billion over the next 15 years. Galaxy plans to build Helios into one of the world's largest AI data centers.
( Not included in this issue's weekly financing statistics)
Infrastructure & Tools
1Kosmos Completes $57 Million Series B Funding to Advance Biometric Identity Security
1 Kosmos, a blockchain-based identity verification platform, announced the completion of a $57 million Series B funding round led by Forgepoint Capital and Origami's Oquirrh Ventures, with participation from Carahsoft founder and president Craig Abod, NextEra Energy Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures, and the 1 Kosmos management team. 1 Kosmos uses a private, permissioned blockchain to encrypt and store personally identifiable information (PII), helping enterprises transform identity into a business driver and advancing the future of identity verification and passwordless authentication.
Zoth Receives $15 Million in Strategic Investment from Bolts Capital to Promote RWA on-chain
Blockchain protocol Zoth announced it has received a $15 million strategic funding commitment from Bolts Capital to accelerate the development of its real-world asset (RWA) on-chain ecosystem through token purchases. With compliance and innovation at its core, Zoth will focus on developing the RWAFi protocol, initially focusing on tokenizing government bond products, with plans to expand into emerging markets and alternative assets. Following a previous security incident involving its ZeUSD token, Zoth officials stated they are prioritizing strengthening security and trust. Zoth is currently preparing for its Token Generative Advancement (TGE) and will subsequently announce details on its token economics, ecosystem incentives, and project roadmap.
Mesh announced a new round of investment from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, ByBit, and SBI Japan, bringing its total funding to over $130 million. The new funds will be partially settled in the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin, with Mesh technology enabling instant transfers. Mesh provides businesses with crypto payment infrastructure, supporting users paying with over 100 cryptocurrencies and merchants with instant settlement in stablecoins or fiat. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its product and API offerings to more payment platforms. According to Cryptorank , the total funding raised in this round is $9.5 million.
other
educate:
HackQuest announces $4.1 million in Pre-A funding, led by Animoca Brands and Open Campus
Web3 developer education platform HackQuest announced the completion of a $4.1 million Pre-A round of financing, co-led by Animoca Brands and Open Campus, with participation from Gate Ventures, Hash Global, HashKey Capital, Bytetrade Labs, StepN, Outlier Ventures, and several angel investors including Public Works founder Scott Moore, Signum Capital partner YY, Outlier Ventures ecosystem head Riccardo, Jambo co-founder James, etc.
HackQuest stated that this round of funding will be used to accelerate the development of its developer platform and further expand its influence in the global developer community by acquiring high-quality platforms in the same space. Currently, HackQuest has established official developer ecosystem partnerships with 30 public chains, including Solana, Mantle, Xion, Arbitrum, Consensys, Injective, Soniclabs, 0G, Flow, and Moca Network. It has also reached official Web3 education partnerships with universities such as Nanyang Technological University, Universiti Teknologi Malaya, University of Malaya, and the University of the Philippines.
Crypto asset reserves: ( not included in this issue's financing weekly report statistics )
180 Life Sciences Completes $425 Million Private Funding to Launch ETH Treasury Strategy
According to StockTitan, 180 Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATNF) has successfully closed $425 million in private financing to implement its Ethereum treasury strategy. The PIPE (Private Investment in Private Equity) transaction was priced at $2.65 per share. The round was led by Electric Capital and Harbour Island, with participation from prominent cryptocurrency investors such as Borderless Capital and Polychain Capital.
The company plans to use the proceeds primarily to purchase Ethereum (ETH) and launch a yield-generating program managed by Electric Capital. This program will utilize a combination of staking, lending, and liquidity provision strategies to achieve returns exceeding those of traditional ETH staking. Additionally, the company announced significant governance changes, including the appointment of McAndrew Rudisill as Chairman of the Board and the addition of several independent directors. Following the completion of this PIPE financing, the company may raise up to $150 million through the issuance of fixed-income securities.
SharpLink announces $400 million in new financing to continue increasing its ETH holdings
SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET) announced that it has signed a securities purchase agreement with five top global institutional investors, successfully raising $400 million through a registered direct offering. As of August 10, 2025, the company holds approximately 598,800 Ethereum (ETH). Combined with approximately $200 million in unallocated ATM financing, the company's total ETH holdings are expected to exceed $3 billion.
Heritage Distilling, a US-listed company, has raised $220 million in private equity funding to launch its IP treasury strategy.
According to BusinessWire, Heritage Distilling Holding Company (NASDAQ: CASK) announced the completion of a $220 million private financing round ($100 million in cash and $120 million in IP tokens). This round of financing was participated in by Story Foundation, a16z Crypto, Amber Group and other institutions, and will be used to launch the world's first IP token digital asset financial strategy.
The transaction utilizes a hybrid "equity + token" PIPE structure. Heritage will raise $100 million in cash through the issuance of common stock and warrants. In addition, Heritage will receive IP tokens from institutions including the Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 per share. Upon completion of the transaction, Heritage's reserve will hold approximately 52.5 million IP tokens (valued at $361 million based on the closing price of $6.8785 on August 10, 2025).
Nasdaq-listed Top Win International announced that it has completed a US$10 million financing round, led by Taiwanese listed company WISELINK CO., LTD. (TW: 8932), becoming the first Taiwanese listed company to invest in a Bitcoin treasury company.
WiseLink completed the investment through a three-year convertible bond and established a strategic partnership with Top Win to promote the "Bitcoin + Cross-Border Finance" framework. Top Win plans to use the proceeds primarily to purchase Bitcoin, potentially investing in publicly listed companies adopting Bitcoin treasury strategies, and for working capital. The financing also attracted participation from other private investors, including Chad Koehn, founder of United Capital Management, and four other investors.
Earlier on May 16, Top Win changed its name to AsiaStrategy and cooperated with Sora Ventures to advance the Asian Bitcoin Vault Strategy .
Centralized Finance
Transak Completes $16 Million in Strategic Financing, Led by IDG Capital and Tether
Transak, a Web3 payments infrastructure company, announced the completion of a $16 million strategic funding round led by IDG Capital and Tether, with participation from Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures. Transak plans to use the funds to expand its stablecoin payment network and enter new markets. The company claims that approximately 30% of its $2 billion in trading volume comes from stablecoin flows, and has obtained regulatory licenses in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and India. Tether currently holds over 60% of the stablecoin market share.
Kenyan Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin secures $4.9 million in funding led by Flourish Ventures
HoneyCoin, a Kenyan Web3 payments platform, announced the completion of a $4.9 million funding round led by Flourish Ventures. The funds will be used to expand operations, diversify its product offerings, and hire senior management. HoneyCoin founder David Nandwa founded the company in 2020 at the age of 19. The platform currently boasts over $150 million in monthly transaction volume, serving 350 corporate clients and hundreds of thousands of users. HoneyCoin offers instant or same-day settlement through a stablecoin-compatible platform, supports operations in 45 countries, and has partnered with institutions such as MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe. This funding will support further team expansion and regulatory compliance efforts.
Riva Money, a global payments company, announced the completion of a $3 million seed round led by Project A, with participation from individual investors from Revolut, Monzo, and JP Morgan. Riva leverages blockchain technology and stablecoins to optimize cross-border payments, addressing the high costs and slow settlement times of existing systems while offering more favorable exchange rates. Co-founded by former Revolut and Wise executives Niklas Hoejman and Mahendra Katoch, the company is applying for UK and EU Payment Institution Authorizations, as well as MICA and VASP licenses, to further its global regulatory expansion.
