Overview of Global Blockchain Investment and Financing Last Week

According to statistics, there were a total of 19 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week, with a total scale exceeding 287 million USD, an increase compared to the previous week. The main investment directions include:

• There are 6 incidents in the DeFi sector, among which the decentralized stablecoin fund market Hyperdrive completed a $6 million Series A financing.
• In the Web3+AI field, the Web3 project ARAI has completed a $4 million seed round financing.
• In the field of infrastructure and tools, there are 2 occurrences, among which Japan's multi-chain Web3 infrastructure Astar Network received strategic investment.
• 6 incidents in the centralized finance sector, including Circle co-founder's new project Catena Labs completing $18 million in seed funding.
• Other application areas include 2 cases, such as Indian tech company Data Sutram completing $9 million in Series A financing.

DeFi Field

A cross-border payment infrastructure company has completed a $23 million financing round, led by a well-known venture capital firm. The company is dedicated to solving the "last mile" problem of cross-border payments through stablecoins, aiming to replace traditional payment networks. Its technology can significantly reduce foreign exchange trading spreads, with most transactions being settled within an hour. The company's founder previously founded a cryptocurrency brokerage valued at $8 billion. The new company will serve remittance companies, digital banks, and other clients, currently supporting 7 major currencies and planning to expand into the Southeast Asian market within the year.

The decentralized stablecoin funding market Hyperdrive has completed a $6 million Series A financing. The project aims to create a stablecoin money market and yield hub on a certain Blockchain, providing functions such as stablecoin lending and borrowing, liquid staking, and one-click yield strategies.

The Bitcoin liquidity staking protocol Rover has completed a $4.1 million seed round financing. The project was founded by former banking executives and aims to develop a liquidity staking solution for Bitcoin's first fully decentralized sidechain. Rover is about to launch its mainnet, allowing users to stake Bitcoin to earn liquidity staking tokens, thereby earning Bitcoin rewards while maintaining liquidity. The tokens can also be used for trading, lending, and other DeFi operations within the ecosystem. The project has partnered with multiple institutions and has been audited by three security firms.

The decentralized trading platform Tradoor has announced that it has completed a $3.2 million financing round, aiming to bring centralized exchange-level trading experiences to a certain communication platform. Tradoor integrates multiple trading features, launching a fast trading mode that supports one-click deposits and withdrawals across multiple chains and zero slippage trading. The platform will introduce a trading reward mechanism and launch AI-driven text trading and copy trading features.

Canadian stablecoin issuer Stablecorp has completed a $1.8 million financing round. The funds will be used to expand the infrastructure for the Canadian dollar stablecoin QCAD, including establishing on-chain foreign exchange liquidity and payment channel integration. The company is simultaneously undertaking structural reforms for QCAD, including setting up an independent trust to manage reserve assets, implementing regular market value reports, reserve proofs, and audits.

Plasma announced that it has obtained strategic investment from a well-known venture capital institution.

Web3 Games

Web3 game developer Voya Games has completed a $5 million financing round. The funds will be used to support the development of the casual Web3 game Craft World. This game is a casual resource management game where players will work with friendly dinosaurs to rebuild civilization after a meteorite destroys humanity. The game is currently in the testnet phase.

AI Field

The Web3 project ARAI has completed a $4 million seed round financing. ARAI is building a new interactive ecosystem driven by AI agents, reshaping the way gameplay and participation in on-chain finance occur. Its core product offers modular Co-Pilot Agents, equipped with real-time perception, strategic decision-making, and cross-scenario adaptability. The first strategy game validation agent has been launched, and cross-chain settlement infrastructure has been deployed to provide native support for the multi-chain ecosystem. In the future, ARAI will leverage a global traffic network to promote the large-scale application of AI agents in Web3 scenarios.

Infrastructure and Tools

Japan's multi-chain Web3 infrastructure Astar Network has received strategic investment from a well-known institution. Both parties will focus on promoting Japanese and Asian entertainment IPs on-chain and collaborate to develop a scalable blockchain entertainment ecosystem aimed at consumers. The first project to be launched is an identity system based on a certain network, which will enable seamless migration of Web2 users to Web3. Another key project will expand the coverage of on-chain entertainment IPs. The Astar native token will serve as a unified circulation and incentive tool within the ecosystem. Both parties are discussing the establishment of a special fund focused on IP and entertainment.

NERO Chain has received investments from several leading institutions in Japan and global capital, with specific financing amounts undisclosed. Recently, a subsidiary of Japan's largest telecommunications company and a publicly listed exchange officially became an operator of NERO nodes, while also establishing strategic partnerships with multiple institutions. NERO is in talks with several traditional industry giants and well-known automotive companies in Japan to accelerate the implementation of RWA in Japanese scenarios. NERO Chain is preparing for the release of NFTs and the mainnet, with NFTs expected to go live next week.

Centralized Finance

The vertical banking startup Slash has completed a $41 million Series B financing round, reaching a post-investment valuation of $370 million. The new funding will be used to expand into new areas such as e-commerce, online travel, and property management. The company initially focused on providing banking services for sneaker resellers, but later transformed to offer customized financial services across multiple verticals, with a monthly transaction volume now reaching $300 million. Slash provides unique services for crypto enterprises, including fiat and cryptocurrency exchange, through partnerships with licensed banks.

A co-founder of a well-known stablecoin company has established Catena Labs, which has completed a $18 million seed round funding aimed at building an "AI-native bank." Catena Labs has developed an open-source protocol to standardize AI payments and digital identity verification processes. The company has made it clear that it will not issue cryptocurrencies or stablecoins for the time being, but investors will receive equity with attached token warrants. Its technology will integrate but not rely on stablecoin solutions.

The Bitcoin project Roxom Global has completed a financing of $17.9 million to build a Bitcoin-priced securities trading platform and a 24/7 media network, RoxomTV. The project currently holds a large amount of Bitcoin and plans to increase its holdings in the near future. Its Bitcoin-priced exchange will offer futures, spot, and synthetic financial products, primarily targeting the Latin American, European, and certain Asian markets.

The cryptocurrency trading platform True Markets has completed a $11 million Series A financing. The company will launch an on-chain trading application aimed at retail investors, supporting multiple cryptocurrency trades. The platform adopts a non-custodial model, with assets held by third-party custodians. True Markets aims to attract new and existing users by optimizing trading speed, fees, and interface design, planning to achieve a competitive advantage by the end of summer.

The African digital lending platform Carrot has completed a $4.2 million seed round of financing. The platform allows users to obtain credit by using digital financial assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies as collateral. So far, it has issued over $2 million in loans and served more than 10,000 users. Carrot addresses the issue of insufficient traditional credit infrastructure in Africa through a non-liquidation collateral model.

The Europe-based crypto asset management company Blockrise has completed a €2 million seed funding round. The new funds are intended to prepare for the implementation of regulatory regulations for the European crypto asset market and to seek regulatory licenses. The company expects to launch its Series A funding round by the end of the year and expand its Bitcoin custody and asset management platform.

Other Fields

Indian tech startup Data Sutram has completed a $9 million Series A funding round. The new funds will help the company expand into areas beyond banking, venturing into cryptocurrency, gaming, e-commerce, fast business, and insurance, while also accelerating its artificial intelligence product development and international expansion plans. Data Sutram's platform leverages artificial intelligence and a wealth of external data sources to assist financial service providers in detecting synthetic identities, mapping collusion networks, and preventing the creation of "mule accounts."

Swedish health technology company H100 Group AB has completed a financing of $2.2 million, which will be used to purchase Bitcoin. The funds will be injected in the form of zero-interest convertible bonds to execute its Bitcoin reserve strategy. Based on current market prices, H100 can increase its holdings by approximately 20 Bitcoins, and combined with previous purchases, the total holdings are expected to reach about 24 BTC.

Other Dynamics

A subsidiary of a certain foundation raised $135 million by selling tokens at market price to early supporters to support the growth of network expansion and identity verification needs. This non-discount direct purchase has increased the token circulation. As of now, the network has over 26 million users, with 12.5 million having completed identity verification.

A quantitative venture capital firm founded by the founder of a financial technology company has completed the fundraising of $250 million for its first fund. This fund uses AI-driven investment decisions and focuses on high-growth areas such as AI, Web3, and financial technology, having already invested in several startups.

A certain asset management company announced that its crypto fund has completed a $175 million financing round, focusing on investments in early-stage crypto venture capital firms. The company has been focusing on digital assets since 2018 and currently manages approximately $1.2 billion in assets.