Sustainable Bitcoin Mining
Total funding doubled week over week, rising to $373m compared to $180m raised last week. Most of the funds raised came from one Mining deal, Volcano Energy. The El Salvador-based sustainable Bitcoin mining company secured $1B in commitments and has received its first $250M in funding, with participation from USDT issuer Tether. The government of El Salvador will have a significant role in planning and execution of the project and will receive 23% of the revenues. The deal was the first mining deal announced in three weeks, and the 2nd largest mining deal this year after Core Scientific’s $500m debt financing in January. Infrastructure had the most deals this week, with nearly half of the total deals announced being infrastructure related deals.
Funding by Category
Funding by Deal Stage
Deal of the Week
Meanwhile, a Bermuda-based digital asset-denominated life insurance provider has announced $19 million in fundraising across two seed-stage rounds. The first round was led by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and founder of Worldcoin, and Lachy Groom, the former head of Stripe Issuing. The second round was led by Gradient Ventures, one of Google’s venture arms. With the funding, Meanwhile is poised to obtain licensing and regulatory approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, a leading global insurance regulator. They also plan to use the funding to ramp up hiring efforts as they prepare to launch their main product: whole life insurance denominated in Bitcoin.
Why is this the Deal of the Week?
Meanwhile claims to be the first and only life insurer that offers life insurance products entirely denominated in Bitcoin, highlighting the emergence of innovative use cases for digital assets, specifically in the financial services realm. Meanwhile’s policies offer several key benefits, including a strategic tax-oriented approach to generational wealth transfer, a policy with guaranteed value and growth, and access to the policy’s liquidity through tax-free loans and partial withdrawals. Additionally, Meanwhile sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assets, utilizing AI to power underwriting, policy claims, and streamline operations.
After launching its Bitcoin-denominated whole life insurance product, Meanwhile plans to expand its offerings to include a comprehensive suite of crypto financial products, such as a BTC-denominated private credit fund and BTC-denominated term life insurance. Overall, the funding and support from notable investors showcases the continued maturation of the crypto industry as it moves beyond speculative trading and expands into real-world use cases, paving the way for further integration of digital assets into traditional financial systems.
Selected Deals
Taiko Labs is an infrastructure-based platform aiming to develop a scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. The company has secured $10M in funding through its seed round from Sequoia China and $12M in a pre-Series A round led by Generative Ventures. The funding rounds also included investor participation from Kucoin Ventures, Token Bay Capital, GGV Capital, IOSG Ventures, and others. Taiko Labs intends to use the capital raised to ensure a successful mainnet launch. In addition, the platform plans to raise more funding to establish an ecosystem investment fund that it will use to attract developers.
Volcano Energy is an El Salvador-based mining company focused on sustainable Bitcoin mining. The company has secured $1B in commitments and has received its first $250M in funding. A notable investor in the funding round includes Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT. Volcano Energy intends to use the capital raised towards building a new mining site in the country’s Metapán region. The planned mining site plans to generate power from wind and solar energy.
Unigrid is an infrastructure-based platform that provides an alternative to traditional data centers and cloud providers. The platform plans to accomplish this by offering its users an anonymous and decentralized cloud service. The company has secured $25M in funding through a strategic round with investor participation from GEM Digital Limited. In addition, the firm has also announced a partnership with WeSendit, a company specializing in decentralized storage and data transfer services.
HyperPlay is a metaverse & gaming-based platform aiming to provide interoperability for all Web3 games. The platform plans to accomplish this through a wallet overlay built for games. Ultimately, this will allow the platform’s users to access their MetaMask wallet while playing games. The company has secured $12M in funding through its Series A round, co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Monoceros Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, ConsenSys, and others.
Lens Protocol is a Web3 & NFT-based platform built by Aave. The platform aims to create a social media network that allows users to have increased control over their data. The company has secured $15M in funding through an undisclosed round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Blockchain Capital, Kraken Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, General Catalyst, and others. Lens Protocol intends to use the capital raised to develop the protocol further and expand its ecosystem.
