Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 14 financing events in the global blockchain last week (April 21-27); the total amount of funds exceeded $220 million, with inflow funds decreasing compared to the previous week, as follows:
In the DeFi sector, one financing event was announced, with the cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic completing $29 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures.
In the Web3 gaming sector, one financing event was announced, with MagicBlock completing $7.5 million in seed round financing, led by Lightspeed Faction.
In the Web3+AI sector, one financing event was announced, with the decentralized AI startup Nous Research completing $50 million in Series A financing, led by Paradigm.
In the Infrastructure & Tools sector, six financing events were announced, with the interoperability project Analog completing $15 million in a new round of financing.
In other applications, two financing events were announced, with London fintech company WineFi completing approximately $2 million in seed round financing, led by Coterie Holdings.
In the centralized finance sector, three financing events were announced, including the API platform Alpaca focused on stock and cryptocurrency trading, which completed $52 million in Series C financing.
DeFi
Symbiotic completed $29 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures.
The cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic completed $29 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, with participation from over 100 institutions and angel investors including Aave, Polygon, and StarkWare. The funding will be used to launch a blockchain security coordination layer called the 'Universal Staking Framework'. This framework allows any combination of cryptocurrencies (including L1/L2 chain assets) to participate in network validation and is currently adopted by 14 networks including Hyperlane, with plans to onboard 20 more ecosystem projects.
Web3 Gaming
MagicBlock completed $7.5 million in seed round financing, led by Lightspeed Faction.
The Solana-based gaming company MagicBlock announced it completed $7.5 million in seed round financing, aiming to build real-time, non-fragmented infrastructure for decentralized games and applications through Solana-native Ephemeral Rollups technology. This round of financing was led by Lightspeed Faction, with participants including Maven11, Delphi Digital, Robot Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Equilibrium, and Pivot Global. Angel investors include Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mert Mumtaz, and Tristan Yver. a16z participated in early investments, bringing total financing to $10.5 million. MagicBlock plans to expand its engineering team, promote the development of the Solana application ecosystem, and optimize its real-time execution architecture.
AI
The decentralized AI startup Nous Research completed a $50 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm.
The decentralized AI startup Nous Research completed a $50 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm (this funding was almost entirely provided by Paradigm), valuing Nous's token at $1 billion. The funding will primarily be used to enhance computing power reserves and expand the research team. Previously, the company raised about $20 million through seed round financing, with investors including Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, Delphi Digital, and others. Notably, this is Paradigm's largest investment in the AI field since the FTX collapse in 2022, indicating that crypto capital is accelerating its investment in the frontier technology crossover field.
Nous was founded in 2022 by a group of AI researchers and focuses on developing open-source large language models. Its innovation lies in utilizing the Solana blockchain to coordinate globally distributed computing resources, incentivizing users to contribute idle GPU computing power for model training. The Hermes series of open-source models developed by the team has gained recognition in the community and has published multiple research papers in collaboration with OpenAI founding member Diederik P. Kingma.
Infrastructure & Tools
The interoperability project Analog completed $15 million in a new round of financing.
The blockchain project Analog, which unifies liquidity across multiple networks, announced that it has raised $15 million through a token sale, with digital asset financing company Bolts Capital completing a token purchase, bringing Analog's total support to $36 million. Analog plans to use this funding to develop interoperability tools, such as the Omnichain Analog Token Standard (OATS), which supports the cross-blockchain transfer of fungible and non-fungible assets. Also in preparation is Firestarter, a market for real-world assets (RWA) aimed at tokenizing real estate, collectibles, and revenue-generating items.
Arch Labs completed $13 million in Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital.
Bitcoin infrastructure company Arch Labs completed $13 million in Series A financing, with a valuation of $200 million. This round of financing was led by Pantera Capital, with other strategic investors also participating. The funds will accelerate the development and release of ArchVM, which enables fast, secure, and fully verifiable smart contract features on Bitcoin.
According to reports, Arch Labs is a software development company and a core contributor to Arch Network. Arch Network is a bridge-less execution platform that enables smart contract-like functionality on Bitcoin. Previously, Arch Labs raised $7 million, led by Multicoin Capital.
DAO infrastructure provider Tally completed $8 million in Series A financing, led by AppWorks.
DAO infrastructure provider Tally completed $8 million in Series A financing, aiming to extend its governance technology to more crypto-native decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). This round of financing was led by AppWorks and Blockchain Capital, with participation from companies like BitGo. According to reports, Tally's most famous product is the Tally protocol, which provides infrastructure support to help leading protocols effectively govern their DAOs on-chain, including Arbitrum, Uniswap DAO, ZKsync, Wormhole, Eigenlayer, Obol, and Hyperlane. The platform initially started as a DAO governance tool and has now evolved to become the most widely adopted software stack for on-chain organizations on Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Tally previously raised $7.5 million through two rounds of financing in 2021.
Inco completed $5 million in strategic round financing, focused on on-chain privacy technology.
Inco announced it completed $5 million in strategic round financing led by a16z crypto CSX, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, bringing total financing to $10 million. Inco focuses on solving blockchain privacy issues, aiming to allow users to make salary payments and play poker on-chain without disclosing sensitive information. Its first product, 'Inco Lightning', is now live on the Base Sepolia testnet.
The Web3 infrastructure startup Catalysis completed $1.25 million in Pre-Seed financing.
The decentralized service infrastructure startup Catalysis completed $1.25 million in Pre-Seed financing, led by Hashed Emergent, which focuses on the Indian Web3 ecosystem, with participation from Presto Labs, Spaceship DAO, Funfair Ventures, Cosmostation, and Crypto Times. The funds will be used to develop a 'security abstraction layer' aimed at simplifying the process for developers and node operators to obtain economic security from the restaking ecosystem like Eigenlayer.
Co-founder Abhishek stated that the current integration of shared security protocols faces significant fragmentation issues, and Catalysis's core product will reduce the development threshold for AVS (Active Verification Service) applications through standardized interfaces. The company has partnered with mainstream restaking platforms such as Eigenlayer and Symbiotic and plans to launch a public testnet in the second quarter of 2025, with application scenarios covering cross-chain bridges, oracles, zero-knowledge proofs, and medical data systems in the Web2 service field.
The payment gateway Inflow completed $1.1 million in seed round financing, with participation from Rockstart and others.
The payment gateway Inflow completed $1.1 million in seed round financing, with participation from Rockstart, GnosisVC, Alliance, Plug And Play, and Stake Capital. Angel investors include Ledger co-founder Nicolas Bacca, Primonial REIM co-founder Stephanie Lacroix, and TEMPUS SHOP founder Tempus.
Others
The blockchain-backed wine platform WineFi completed £1.5 million in seed round financing.
London fintech company WineFi announced it completed £1.5 million (approximately $2 million) in seed round financing, led by the UK boutique wine group Coterie Holdings, with participation from SFC Capital, Founders Capital, and an angel investment consortium. The new capital will accelerate product development, including enhancing valuation models and real-time market data feeds. According to reports, the company was co-founded by former Fidelity International and JPMorgan asset managers Oliver Thorpe and Callum Woodcock, dedicated to providing high-net-worth clients with structured access to premium wine investments. To improve liquidity and transparency, WineFi has taken a strategic initiative to collaborate with digital asset provider Lympid to segment premium wine assets on the blockchain platform.
UXLINK received investment from UFLY Labs and established a strategic partnership with Solv Protocol.
The Web3 social platform UXLINK announced a strategic partnership with Solv Protocol and received investment from UXLINK's ecological fund UFLY Labs.
Centralized finance
The API platform Alpaca focused on stock and cryptocurrency trading completed $52 million in Series C financing.
The API platform Alpaca, focused on trading stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies, announced it completed $52 million in Series C financing. Investors include 850 Management, Derayah Financial, National Investments Company, Portage Ventures, and Unbound. According to reports, Alpaca is a self-clearing broker-dealer and brokerage infrastructure company based in the United States, covering stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, having raised over $170 million in funding. Alpaca's investors include Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Unbound, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Elefund, and Y Combinator.
Quantitative trading startup Theo completed $20 million in financing, led by Hack VC and others.
Quantitative trading startup Theo completed $20 million in financing, aimed at providing ordinary investors with returns previously reserved for high-frequency trading firms. The company was co-founded by former Optiver trader Abhi Pingle and TK Kwon, and secured $4.5 million in seed round financing led by Manifold Trading in March 2024, followed by an additional $15.5 million investment led by Hack VC and Anthos Capital in April 2025. Other investors include Flowdesk, Selini Capital, and individual investors from Citadel, JPMorgan, Jane Street, and Optiver.
Since its launch in June 2024, the Theo platform has attracted $50 million in deposits, with an average user yield of 7%-8% over the past three months and an annual yield of 18%-20%. The platform name comes from the trading term 'theoretical price', and it currently primarily interfaces with DeFi protocols like Aave, but plans to expand its business to centralized exchanges like Binance. The founder stated that deposit limits would be lifted by the end of April, with future plans to connect with traditional financial markets. Both rounds of financing have been conducted in the form of token warrants, and the company's valuation has not been disclosed.
The digital asset trading platform BitradeX completed £12 million in Series A financing, led by Bain Capital.
The AI-driven digital asset trading platform BitradeX completed £12 million (about $15.96 million) in Series A financing, led by Bain Capital. The funding will be used to establish a global AI strategy laboratory and upgrade compliance infrastructure. According to reports, BitradeX was founded in 2022, with its core product, the ARK trading model, based on a trillion-parameter architecture, integrating methodologies from DeepSeek and Qianfan, providing high-frequency trading execution with sub-second latency. The platform holds licenses from the UK's FCA and the US's MSB. Its pioneering AI protection pool mechanism uses 100 BTC as initial reserve funds.
Venture Capital Fund
Early supporter of Solana, RockawayX, launched a new $125 million fund.
Prague-based crypto venture capital firm RockawayX announced the completion of fundraising for its second early-stage fund of $125 million, which closed in the first quarter of this year and will primarily invest in early-stage Solana ecosystem projects. This institution, which invested in Solana back in 2018, currently manages around $2 billion in assets and has offices in Prague, Dubai, and London, with two-thirds of its 45 employees being engineers. RockawayX CEO Victor Fischer stated that two-thirds of the new fund will be allocated to seed round investments, with the remainder allocated to liquid assets.
Despite a 22% drop in US market crypto venture capital in the first quarter, RockawayX's 2021 fund has returned over five times, mainly benefiting from early investments in Solana, market maker Wintermute, and lending protocol Morpho Labs. The institution has invested in over 15 Solana ecosystem projects and will jointly launch the accelerator center 'Solana City' in Dubai with the Solana Foundation and development company Helius Labs on May 1.
Astra Fintech established a $100 million fund to support the development of Solana in Asia.
Global blockchain payment provider Astra Fintech announced that it has established a $100 million fund to support the development of the Solana ecosystem in Asia. Through this fund, Astra Fintech plans to invest in accelerating the development of related projects and establish partnerships with developers, companies, and regulatory agencies. The fund will operate out of South Korea and focus on projects and developers engaged in PayFi solutions (i.e., a series of systems that utilize blockchain technology to facilitate payments).
