Key Takeaways

• Solana-based projects have received over $10 million, leading Layer 1 capital raises this week
• Our Deal of the Week is Eden Network’s $17.4 million seed round – which will fund the platform protecting traders from order frontrunning
• Most featured investors this week include Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, Jump Capital and NGC Ventures

Venture Capital Deals

Pollen DAO is a fully decentralized portfolio management protocol, enabling the creation and distribution of DeFi portfolio and index tokens whilst generating yield for token holders.

Pollen has successfully raised $5 million as it aims to reinvent asset management for the on-chain economy. Just like Uniswap revamped liquidity for the on-chain environment by introducing market maker fees to contributing users, Pollen will do the same for portfolio management. Strategic backers include The Graph, AlphaBit and several other well-known investors. (Pollen DAO Raises $5 million to Build the Uniswap of Asset Management).

Parcel currently offers a tool for DAOs that helps them run payrolls, disburse grants, and facilitate airdrops, but only with mass payouts. Its clients include SynthetixDAO, Compound, and Aave, among others. Parcel has raised $2.5 million. Dragonfly Capital led the round, with Scalar Capital, A Capital, Compound, Consensys, and 6th Man Ventures also participated. Earlier this year, the startup raised $500,000 in a pre-seed round from TheLAO, Consensys, Volt Capital, LongHash, and others. (Parcel Raises $2.5 million in a Seed Funding).

Cyclos is the first concentrated liquidity market maker on Solana. It allows liquidity providers to maximize the yield-earning potential of their assets by placing individualized price curves directly on Serum’s order books. The V1 of the product is due to launch in Q3, 2021. Cyclos has raised $2.1 million combined from a private and public round. The private funding round included notable investors such as CMS Holdings, Hashkey, Solana Capital, Huobi Ventures, Coin98 Ventures, MXC, Gate.io, Skyvision Capital, Petrock Capital, Illusionist Group, Cryptomeria Capital, DigiStrats, and Youbi Capital.(Cyclos Raises $2.1 million to Build Concentrated Liquidity AMM on Solana).

SubQuery Network, a data indexing protocol for the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems, has raised $9 million in a new funding round. This was a Series A round and was secured via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale. Digital Currency Group, Arrington Capital, and Stratos Technologies co-led the round, with Hypersphere Ventures, NGC Ventures, Wintermute, and Skynet Trading also participating. The Series A round brings SubQuery’s total funding to date to $10.8 million. Earlier this year, the project raised $1.8 million in a seed funding round backed by DeFi Alliance, D1 Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Digital Finance Group,  and The Lao. SubQuery also intends to support more Layer 1 blockchains, including Solana and Terra. (SubQuery Announces $9 million Funding Round For Decentralized Data Protocol for the Polkadot Ecosystem).

SolRazr the first decentralized developer ecosystem for the Solana blockchain, comprising Launchpad, Accelerator, and Developer Tools. SolRazr aims to support the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) on the high-performance network. SolRazr recently closed a $1.5 million funding round from Moonrock Capital, Ascensive Assets, and Morningstar Ventures. Several notable funds including Genesis Block Ventures, Divergence, Genblock Capital, CMS Holdings, PANONY, and Skynet Trading participated in the round. (SolRazr Raises $1.5 Million to Build First Decentralized Developer Ecosystem for Solana Blockchain).

Soldex is a state-of-the-art hybrid crypto exchange protocol built on the Solana blockchain. Soldex is a third-generation exchange created to solve the issues caused by order-matching centralized exchanges and trustless custody within current decentralized exchanges.

The soldex.ai protocol was created to power the new wave of flexible financial markets. The protocol serves as a foundational layer for settlement, custody, market making, and liquidity.  Soldex is in the process of negotiation with various funds a new capital raise valued at a few million dollars. Some of the funds involved in this project are Alphabit Fund, Peech Capital, Maven 11, Sinoglobal Capital, and Moon Whale. (Soldex AI Continues to Attract Strategic Funding from Venture Capital).

UXD Protocol offers an algorithmic stablecoin that maintains its peg by holding and balancing different cryptocurrencies as collateral, unlike traditional stablecoins, which are backed 1:1 with cash or cash equivalents. UXD Protocol is built on Solana, a blockchain network optimized for high throughput. UXD has raised $3 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital. The round also included Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, Defiance Capital, and others. (Solana Stablecoin UXD Raises $3 Million, Aims to Expand DeFi Outside Ethereum).

DeFi Land is a multi-chain agriculture simulation web game created to gamify decentralized finance, has raised  $4.1 million in a Series A funding round. The investment round had participation from over 40 investors, including some of the biggest names in blockchain venture capital. Animoca Brands, Alameda Research, Jump Capital, NGC Ventures, Solana Foundation and Gate.io were among the major investors involved. (DeFi Land Raises $4.1 Million To Launch Decentralized Finance Game on Solana).

ZEBEDEE enables programmable payments and small transactions to power economies for virtual worlds with near-zero fees. That is, it takes the big transactions fees out of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and enables much smaller transaction sizes.(Zebedee Raises $11.5 Million for Bitcoin Payment Systems for Games).

M&A Deals

SolRazr the first decentralized developer ecosystem for the Solana blockchain, comprising Launchpad, AMastercard acquires CipherTrace, a company that delivers the world’s most comprehensive cryptocurrency intelligence. It includes the capability to trace more than 800 virtual assets, including BTC, BCH, ETH, ERC-20, Tether, and LTC tokens (Mastercard Acquires CipherTrace to Enhance Crypto Capabilities).

Token Sales

Bit2Me is a Spanish FinTech startup helps individuals, exchanges, mining pools, token issuers, investment funds, governments and institutions access, trade, and manage cryptocurrencies and digital assets efficiently. The Spanish cryptocurrencies platform had already raised 2.5 million in a private round in early August. In total, it has raised an investment of 7.5 million euros through its B2M token, which can be reserved from the official website. (Bit2Me Raises 5 Million Euros Under a Minute).

Deal of the Week

Eden Network, a priority transaction network for Ethereum that provides protection against miner extractable value (MEV) and arbitrary transaction reordering, has raised $17.4 million in a seed funding round. Multicoin Capital led the round, with Jump Capital, Alameda Research, Wintermute, GSR, and DeFiance Capital also participating.

Why is this a Big Deal?

DeFi users are recognized as a critical component in the Ethereum ecosystem, yet their best interests have historically been neglected. Over the past 20 months, they have been operating in a highly unfavorable transaction ordering environment, where their trades have been left completely open to malicious arbitrage from bots.

Previously, transaction ordering protocols favored searchers and bots over traders, by allowing them to freely exploit trader transactions in the form of frontrunning and sandwich attacks. Since January 2020, over $700 million has been extracted from everyday traders.

To address this critical problem, Eden Network has created an alternative transaction ordering protocol that takes a trader-first approach to transaction reordering. By prioritizing user protection for those who opt in to the network, Eden Network delivers a better user experience, which is important when considering how to scale adoption of Ethereum over time. What’s more, Eden Network achieves this while also offering institutions open access to priority blockspace and block producers a supplemental source of recurring income  (Eden Network Raises $17.4 Million to Tackle Frontrunning, MEV on Ethereum).