Infrastructure, DEXes and NFTs Lure in Capital

Key Takeaways

• Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes) raised $83.3 million this week; infrastructure deals had another great week with cumulative investments of $330 million and NFT projects raised $21.2 million this week
  
• Deal of the Week: Alchemy raises $250 million in Series C, valuing the Company at $3.5 billion
  
• Active investors this week include Multicoin, Alameda Research, and Jump Capital

Venture Capital Deals

Label Foundation is a blockchain-based global education content incubation platform that provides a platform to support investments, distribution and promotion of creators’ intellectual property rights. The project has raised $1 million from HG Ventures, GBIC, Mindfulness Capital, IOST, M6, Adaptive, Alphabit, among other investors. The project has established a partnership with OPENTRACK, a music education platform operated by Clesson (Label Foundation Raises $1 Million to Build Blockchain-Based Platform for the MOOC Industry).

MetaWars is an NFT-based game that is set to launch on the Binance Smart Chain. The game is a sci-fi strategy game set in the future with a multi-layered, key tactical battlefield that allows players to profit from the game’s war economy. MetaWars raised $2.3 million from investors like ABV, Raptor Capital, CinchBlock, x21, CoinUnited.io, Double Peak, Magnus Capital, Everse Capital, Infinity Gainz, IceTeaLabs along with others. Play-to-earn (P2E) projects have become some of the most sought out sectors to invest in within the crypto and blockchain space (MetaWars Concludes Raise With Reputable Supporters and Partners).

Sipher is a play to earn (P2E) PC-based blockchain game that brings blockchain technology, artwork, storytelling, multiplayer gaming and decentralized finance technologies to one platform. The project has raised $6.8 million from investors to build the virtual blockchain world of Sipheria. The investment round was led by Arrington Capital, Hashed andKonvoy Ventures, other investors include Defiance Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Delphi Digital, BitKraft, Alameda Research, YGG, Coin98 Ventures, Kyber Network, among others. Player-owned virtual economies with real-world value has taken P2E venture funding to new levels as investors bet heavy in this sector (Sipher raises $6.8M for PC-based blockchain game World of Sipheria).

Minima is a scalable and decentralized blockchain network where users can run complete constructing and validating nodes. Minima has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding round to accelerate the Mainnet launch. Investors include GSR, DEX Ventures, AGE Crypto, SMO Capital, among others. Minima’s system is designed to seamlessly fit on any mobile or IoT device to allow any user to run a full node. The project has managed to onboard more than 5,000 nodes across 94 countries in the last few months and plans to launch in 2022 (Minima Secures $6.5 Million in Series A to Build Mobile-First Blockchain Network).

KYVE is data archiving protocol that aims to store any data stream, with built-in validation. The project’s usage of Arweave blockchain looks to leverage the infrastructure to provide a vast number of Web 3.0 uses cases, including cross-chain interoperability via bridges, data storages and oracles. The project has raised $2.875 million from investors like Permanent Ventures, Hypersphere, Avalanche Foundation, Solana Foundation, NEAR Foundation, among others. Creating partnerships in the space will open the possibility of greater scalability measures and high liquidity capacity via Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) contracts (‘Data Pipeline’ Protocol KYVE Raises $2.8M From Industry Insiders).

Drift Protocol is a Solana-based on-chain, cross-margined perpetual futures decentralized exchange (DEX) platform. Drift focuses on perpetual swaps, or future contracts without an expiry. The protocol has raised $3.8 million form Multicoin Capital, Jump Capital, QCP Capital and Alameda Research. Centralized exchanges (CEX) offer crypto-based perpetual swaps and decentralized finance (DeFi) competitors aim to take trading volumes away from CEX (Solana-based Perpetual Swap DEX Drift Protocol Raises $3.8M).

Immunefi is bug bounty and security services platform for decentralized finance (DeFi). The platform enables security researchers to review code, disclose vulnerabilities, and get paid for their expertise. Companies can benefit from the services as it allows them to secure their projects with top security talent. Immunefi has raised $5.5 million in funding from investors such as Blueprint Forest, Electric Capital, Framework Capital, P2P Capital, The LAO and others. Security for the DeFi space has been a major issue with major hacks occurring in 2021 and Immunefi offers a solution for the industry (Immunefi to bolster DeFi security with new funds).

QuickNode is a blockchain development platform that allows app developers to rent access to nodes that let them operate on the blockchain network of their choice. The platform makes it simple to power blockchain applications and scale up product solutions through a simple control panel. The Company has raised $35 million from Tiger Global, Arrington Capital, Crossbeam and other notable investors. The crypto and blockchain infrastructure sector has seen some of the most capital inflows from venture firms this year, creating record funding rounds and producing many new crypto unicorns. (Leading Blockchain Infra Provider, Quicknode Raises $35M Series A Led by Tiger Global).

ClubNFT is a non-fungible token (NFT) infrastructure platform that offers collectors the tools to discover, protect and share their NFTs. The tools will be integrated with and complementary to existing NFT marketplaces. ClubNFT has raised $3 million seed round from Galaxy Interactive, Red Swan Ventures, CMT Digital, Sfermion, Draper Dragon and other investors. NFT’s have seen a trading volumes surge. During 3Q 2021, trading volumes hit a record $10.7 billion, an increase of more than 700% from the previous quarter. Everyday more companies become interested in NFTs, this year we’ve seen Coinbase announce the creation of its own NFT marketplace, Visa and Mastercard creating partnerships and platforms like OpenSea reaching a $1.5 billion valuation in July 2021. Specialty brands continue to explore the NFT space and more well-known artists continue to migrate their art to the exciting new space (NFT Pioneer Jason Bailey Launches ClubNFT, Raises $3 Million, Creates Backup Solution to Protect Collectors and Billions of Dollars in NFTs).

CoinList, the Canada-based digital assets platform has raised $100 million in a Series A funding round, boosting its valuation to $1.5 billion. The round was led by Accomplice and Agman with additional investors like HashKey Capital, Access Ventures, Alphemy Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, Continue Capital, with several more participating. The company’s KYC-approved user base grew 42 times globally and now has users across 170+ countries. (CoinList Raises $100M Series A to Fuel Global Expansion).

Moralis is a software company that provides tooling and API interface services solely for front-end development. Additionally, the software can provide node management, authentication and transaction indexing. The Company has raised $13.4 million in seed funding, led by EQT Ventures. The middleware platform hopes to become the ideal gateway from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, empowering the next generation of developers to build highly scalable and secure dApp (Decentralized design platform Moralis raises $13.4M in seed funding from EQT Ventures).

Nameless is a non-fungible token (NFT) platform that helps brands launch and manage NFTs. The Company develops application programming interface (API) software for the creation, testing and sale of NFTs as brands seek to securely integrate them into their business platforms. Nameless has raise $15 million in a seed round led by Mechanism Capital at a $75 million valuation. Other investors participating in the round include Velvet Sea Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Delphi Digital, among others (NFTs: Nameless Secures $15M Seed Investment to Support Brands with Creating Non-Fungible Tokens).

Umbrel is an operating system (OS) purposefully built for running a Bitcoin node, Lighting Network node, and other self-hosted applications on a Raspberry Pi. The Company has recently announced a partnership with BTC node hardware maket The Bitcoin Machines to offer plug-and-play Umbrel server solution. Umbrel has raised $3 million in a seed round from investors. In the last year, the Company has grown and over 13,000 personal servers run on Umbrel’s software. (Bitcoin Personal Server Developer Umbrel Raises $3 million in Seed Round). 

Squads is a Solana-based platform that allows users to create decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The project has raised $1.5 million from investors such as Collab+Currency, Reciprocal Ventures, Volt Capital, Chaotic Capital, 6thman Ventures, Republic Capital, Solana Capital and others. The platform combines the essential components of a DAO such as deployment, treasury, and vault management, on-chain voting and chat all in one integrated interface. DAOs have established themselves as a core part of Web 3.0 and venture capital firms are betting big on them (Squads Raises $1.5 Million in its Seed Round).

Anchorage is a cryptocurrency company that offers institutional clients access to crypto custody, trading, financing and staking solutions. Currently, the Company is raising a new capital round at a $2 to $3 billion valuation. Early in 1Q2021, Anchorage raised $80 million in a Series C round led by GIC with participation from a16z, Lux, Blockchain Capital and other investors. Custody firms have been raising a lot of capital this year. One of Anchorage’s competitors, Copper, was reported to be raising capital at a $2.5 billion valuation (Crypto Bank Anchorage to Command $2B+ Valuation in New Funding Round).

Elementus is a universal blockchain search engine and institutional-grade forensic solutions platform. The Company has raised $12 million in a Series A round. The round was led by Velvet Sea Ventures with participation from Alameda Research, BlockFi, Pomp Investments, Lightspeed, Gemini Frontier Fund, Blockchain.com and Avon Ventures. Palantir, the software technology company that specializes in big data analytics added Elementus to its Foundry for Builders Program. The program provides startups access to Foundry’s data intelligence software (Palantir-Linked Elementus Raises $12M for Crypto Intelligence Platform).

Token Sales

Transient Network is a smart contract global marketplace for decentralized applications (dApps) designed to help non-coders create smart contracts for any use case and industry. The project has raised $1.2 million via a DEX offering (IDO) via two different channels. The first, Genesis Pool raised $1 million in an oversubscribed public sale. The second, was via Lemonade which raised $200,000. Smart contracts are one of the most important components of blockchain technology and now anyone will be able to produce and utilize them across any business. (Transient Raises $1.2 Million in IDO Public Sale).

XDEFI is a cross-chain wallet that enables users to store, send and receive digital assets all in one place. The project is looking to raise $12 million by selling a new utility token $XDEFI. The initial decentralized exchange offering (IDO) will happen early November on MISO. The project raised $6 million in September from investors like Mechanism Capital, Alameda Research and CoinGecko. XDEFI has reported over 35,000 users to its Chrome extension. The project has announced that it plans to create a liquidity program on Terra (LUNA) in partnership with Polygon (MATIC). The wallet will support eight chains and plans to add additional chains in the future (XDEFI Wallet Unveils Integrations with Terra and Announces Liquidity Program on Polygon Protocol To Support the Terra Ecosystem).

Tulip is a yield aggregator decentralized application (dApp) built on the Solana network with auto-compounding vault strategies. The application is designed to take advantage of Solana’s low cost, high efficiency blockchain to allow vault strategies to compound frequently, benefiting stakers from higher APYs without the need to actively manage their positions. The dApp raised $5 million from investors such as Jump Capital, Alameda Research, Amber Group, Cadenza Ventures, CMS Holdings and others. The funding was secured via a private token sale round. Projects building on Solana have seen significant support from venture capital funds (Solana-based yield aggregator Tulip protocol raises $5 million in token sale).

Osmosis is a Cosmos-based decentralized exchange (DEX) that allows developers to build customized automated market makers (AMMs) with sovereign liquidity pools. The DEX will use the native token called COSMO for governance and staking. Osmosis has raised $21 million in a token sale from investors like Paradigm, Robot Ventures, Nascent, Ethereal and Figment. DEXEs have seen an increase in trading volumes this year as major centralized exchanges (CEXs) in Asia Pacific have seen some regulatory pressures and have been forced to change their business operating models (Osmosis Closes $21M Token Sale to Make Interchain DeFi Go Superfluid).

New Venture Funds

Near Protocol (“NEAR”) is a decentralized application (dApp) platform that focuses on developer and user-friendly scaling solutions. NEAR uses a technology technique called “sharding” that splits the network into multiple pieces so that computational operations can run in parallel and allow the network to improve scalability. NEAR has launched an $800 million fund with the purpose of developing the ecosystem’s growth as it targets to bring in new developers and give out startup grants to projects to build on the ecosystem. The new fund will focus on decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT’s, DAOs and gaming projects. The protocol has backing from major investors such as Pantera Capital, a16z, Coinbase Ventures, amongst others (NEAR Hits All-Time High Following Launch of $800M Ecosystem Growth Fund).

Sino Global Capital is a crypto venture capital firm that aims to accelerate the development and adoption of blockchain technologies. The firm has launched a $200 million fund with support from Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. The new fund will seek to invest across sectors in the crypto space with a focus on DeFi, infrastructure, and NFTs. The fund’s key focus market is the Asia Pacific region. This is the first time Sino Global Capital has accepted outside capital. 2021 has shaped out to be a year with a lot of new crypto funds being launched to take advantage of the growing demand for crypto and blockchain companies who need to raise funds to expand operations (Crypto VC Sino Global Capital launches $200 million fund with backing from FTX).

Ankr is a Web 3.0 blockchain platform that combines node infrastructure, staking and decentralized finance (DeFi) with the mission to increase efficiency across blockchain ecosystems. The project has created a $10 million fund for grants to grow the network. Currently, ANKR serves more than 50 blockchains, incorporates  L2 solutions and supports leading blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Binance Smart Chain and others. This month, other protocols have launched their own growth funds as the race to build and attract projects intensifies (Ankr launches $10M fund to support DeFi and Web3 growth).

CMCC Global is one of Asia’s first venture capital funds focused solely on blockchain technologies. MCC is targeting a new $300M fund that will be backed by the Winklevoss twins. The fund plans to deploy capital into decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). CMCC’s fourth crypto fund has raised almost $90 million in assets under management (AUMs) and aiming the $300 million hard cap by next year. (Winklevoss-Backed Crypto Fund Targets $300M Investment).

Crypto Capital Markets

BlockFi has partnered with investment management firm Neuberger Berman to develop and distribute crypto products including exchange traded funds (ETFs). This announcement comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved ProShares and Valkyrie’s futures-based Bitcoin ETFs. As institutional demand for digital assets continues to grow, institutions look to offer crypto products and lure institutional capital. The partnership will give Neuberger Berman access to the digital assets space and allow BlockFi to offer additional products in a time where regulatory pressures continue to mount for the crypto financial services company (BlockFi and Neuberger Berman Partner to Expand Range of Crypto Asset Management Solutions). 

Iris Energy is an Australian-headquartered energy company that has shifted focus and has become a  Bitcoin-mining firm. The company has filled an F-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as it seeks to list in the United States via an initial public offering (IPO). Iris plans to raise $100 million and plans to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker (IREN). More and more Bitcoin mining companies look to go public, earlier this month, Stronghold Digital went public via an IPO and raised $127 million with the final pricing exceeding the initial IPO target price range (Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy Files for $100M IPO).

Deal of the Week                          

Alchemy is a developer platform that aids companies in building scalable and reliable decentralized applications (dApps) in an easy and manageable manner without the need to have in-house blockchain infrastructure experts.  The company has raised $250 million in a Series C funding round from well-know investors such as a16z, Lightspeed, Redpoint and other investors. The latest round values the Company at $3.5 billion. Existing investors that participated in the Series C round include Coatue, Addition Capital, Panter and DFJ.

Why is this a Big Deal?

The Company has a several renowned non-fungible tokens (NFT) clients such as OpenSea, Dapper Labs and Axie Infinity. Trading volumes growth and new NFT activities in the space give Alchemy an advantage in the space as well-know institutions continue to build new NFT platforms. Some of the new players in the space include Coinbase, Nifty, and exchanges like Kraken and Voyager exploring NFT opportunities. Earlier this year, Alchemy had raised $80 million at a $505 million valuation. The Company has experienced an explosive growth since April. Alchemy powers over $45 billion in transaction volume for companies around the world. Infrastructure will continue to grow as the crypto industry continues to develop.  (Blockchain infrastructure provider Alchemy clinches unicorn status in $250 million fundraise led by a16z).