Less Mining, More NFTs
This week, twenty-six crypto companies raised money through venture capital firms, totaling $622 million. NFT projects received over half of the pool at $319 million. In a relatively slow week for Infrastructure startups, they raised $125 million, followed by DeFi ($113 million), CeFi ($34 million), and lastly, Web3 ($33 million).
Additionally, three new funds launched this week with a combined $1.375 billion, with Dragonfly Capital’s third crypto fund raising $650 million to bring the company’s total AUM to over $3 billion. Mining was still active, though not nearly as much as last week. CleanSpark and Blockmetrix raised $55 million in debt financing to acquire more mining rigs in the renewed mining arms race that has done nothing but pick up speed since the start of the year.
Deal of The Week
0x Labs(ZRX) is the development team for the 0x protocol, a decentralized exchange (DEX) infrastructure tool that enables exchanging digital assets across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, among others. The team raised $70 million in a Series B led by Greylock Partners with other participants, including OpenSea, Pantera Capital, and Jump Crypto, among many others.
Why Is This a Big Deal?
0x Labs has been actively building products to smooth out the user experience in DeFi while making strategies faster and cheaper. These products often meet rapid adoption on launch, chief among them is the 0x protocol, their liquidity router protocol that handles an average of $1.5 billion weekly. Another popular product has been Matcha, the second-largest DEX aggregator by trade volume. It screens multiple DEXs to find the best order books for investors to save money on their token swaps.
However, 0x has branched out from DeFi into the NFT marketplace. The company recently launched an NFT swapping tool for users to exchange NFTs across blockchains, allowing investors to save on fees by moving NFTs to cheaper chains before sending. Coinbase picked up this technology and integrated it into their own NFT marketplace. The funding will be used to double down on 0x’s existing products to integrate more blockchains into them, with Solana as the current focus. (DEX Protocol 0x Labs Raises $70M From Greylock, OpenSea and Jared Leto)
Deals & Fundraising
- OneFootball, a German soccer media aggregator, raised $300 million in a Series D led by Liberty City Ventures with participation from Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, and Quiet Capital, among many others. The deal comes with a partnership with Animoca Brands to develop an NFT product for clubs, players, and federations to create fan-centric experiences and to enter the world of Web3.
- CertiK, a blockchain and Web3 security provider, extended its Series B to add a $60 million investment from SoftBank, raising the total to $148 million. Following a quarter that saw $1.3 billion in cryptoassets lost to hacks, there is heightened concern over the safety of investors’ holdings in DeFi and Web3 applications, on which CertiK hopes to capitalize.
- Argent, a non-custodial crypto wallet provider, raised $40 million in a Series B led by Fabric Ventures and Metaplanet, with further participation coming from Paradigm, Jump Crypto, and Animoca Brands. The company uses dual authentication measures for users to access their wallets in place of having to memorize or store a seed phrase that could either get lost or stolen.
- Doubleme, the creator of the Twin World metaverse platform, raised a $25 million Series A led by Coentry Investment and NH Investment, with Samsung participating as well. Twin World allows users to generate an augmented reality based on the physical world around them.
- Afriex, an Africa-based multicurrency payments app, closed a $10 million Series A that valued the company at $60 million. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Goldentree, Stellar Foundation, and Exceptional Capital, among others. Afriex converts users’ funds into stablecoins to cheaply and efficiently transfer money globally, and then swaps out those stablecoins for any desired fiat currency for the off-ramp.
- Cogni, a US neobank that focuses on creating financial services products based around Millenial and GenZ lifestyles, raised a $23 million Series A led by Hanwha Asset Management and CaplinFO with participation from Solana Ventures, FTX Ventures, and Ship Capital.
Please see below for the complete list of deals.
Crypto Deals & Fundraising
| Company/Project | Date | Amount Raised | Category | Stage/Round | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OneFootball | 4/28/2022 | $300,000,000 | NFTs | Series D | |
| Argent | 4/28/2022 | $40,000,000 | Infrastructure | Series B | |
| Venly | 4/28/2022 | $23,000,000 | Infrastructure | Series A | |
| OurSong | 4/28/2022 | $7,500,000 | NFTs | Seed | |
| Ondo Finance | 4/27/2022 | $20,000,000 | DeFi | Series A | |
| Rain | 4/27/2022 | $6,000,000 | Web3 | Seed | |
| Amulet | 4/27/2022 | $6,000,000 | Web3 | Seed | |
| 0x Labs (ZRX) | 4/26/2022 | $70,000,000 | DeFi | Series B | |
| Cogni | 4/26/2022 | $23,000,000 | CeFi | Series A | |
| YGG SEA | 4/26/2022 | $15,000,000 | Gaming | ||
| Vertex Protocol | 4/26/2022 | $8,500,000 | DeFi | Seed | |
| Ola Guild Games | 4/26/2022 | $8,000,000 | Gaming | Seed | |
| CXIP Labs | 4/26/2022 | $6,500,000 | NFTs | Seed | |
| Tonic | 4/26/2022 | $5,000,000 | DeFi | Seed | |
| Metakey | 4/26/2022 | $3,500,000 | Web3 | Seed | $50,000,000 |
| Doubleme | 4/25/2022 | $25,000,000 | Metaverse | Series A | |
| Apeiron | 4/25/2022 | $10,000,000 | Gaming | Seed | |
| PROOF | 4/25/2022 | $10,000,000 | Web3 | ||
| Afriex | 4/25/2022 | $10,000,000 | CeFi | Series A | $60,000,000 |
| Mad Realities | 4/25/2022 | $6,000,000 | Web3 | Seed | |
| Stablecorp | 4/25/2022 | $1,500,000 | Infrastructure | Pre-Series A | |
| ForthBox | 4/25/2022 | $1,000,000 | Web3 | Seed | |
| Kryptview | 4/25/2022 | $650,000 | CeFi | Pre-Seed | |
| Measure Protocol | 4/25/2022 | Infrastructure | |||
| CertiK | 4/22/2022 | $60,000,000 | Infrastructure | Series B Extension | |
| Bastion (BSTN) | 4/22/2022 | $9,000,000 | DeFi | Series A | |
| Flowty | 4/22/2022 | $4,500,000 | NFTs | Seed | |
| Goons of Balatroon | 4/22/2022 | $2,460,000 | Gaming | Seed |
**Undisclosed data appears blank
Crypto Funds and Ecosystem Raises
| Firm | Date | Amount | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framework Ventures | 4/28/2022 | $400,000,000 | Gaming |
| Dragonfly Capital | 4/27/2022 | $650,000,000 | All Late-Stage |
| Slow Ventures | 4/27/2022 | $325,000,000 | Early-Stage Web3 |
Crypto Capital Markets
| Firm | Date | Amount Raised | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blockmetrix | 4/27/2022 | $20,000,000 | Mining |
| CleanSpark (CLSK -1.65% ) | 4/26/2022 | $35,000,000 | Mining |
