Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 15 financing events in the global blockchain space last week (August 11-17), with a total funding scale exceeding $156 million. Additionally, listed companies' cryptocurrency asset reserve financing summed to over $1.055 billion, as summarized below:
In the DeFi sector, four financing events were announced, including the stablecoin protocol USD.AI, which completed $13 million in Series A financing led by Framework Ventures.
The Web3 gaming & NFT sector announced a financing event where the developer of Shrapnel completed $19.5 million in financing, led by Gala Games.
The Web3 + AI sector announced three financing events, including the AI Agent service platform HolmesAI, which completed seed + round financing with participation from Waterdrop Capital and others.
The infrastructure & tools sector announced three financing events, including the blockchain-based identity verification platform 1 Kosmos, which completed $57 million in Series B financing, led by Forgepoint Capital.
The centralized finance sector announced three financing events, including Web3 payment infrastructure company Transak, which completed $16 million in strategic financing, co-led by IDG Capital and Tether.
In other sectors, four publicly listed companies completed financing to establish cryptocurrency treasuries, including 180 Life Sciences, which completed $425 million in private financing to implement its Ethereum treasury strategy.
DeFi
The stablecoin protocol USD.AI completed $13 million in Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures.
The stablecoin protocol USD.AI has announced the completion of a $13 million Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Bullish, Dragonfly, and Arbitrum. USD.AI, developed by Permian Labs, provides loans collateralized by GPU hardware specifically for AI companies, with an approval efficiency improvement of over 90%. The project has secured $50 million in deposits and plans to publicly issue an ICO with a gamified distribution model.
The DeFi smart agent platform Almanak has completed $8.45 million in financing, with participation from Delphi Labs.
DeFi smart agent platform Almanak completed $8.45 million in financing, with participation from Delphi Labs, HashKey Capital, BanklessVC, NEAR Foundation, RockawayX, Matrix Partners, AppWorks, Sparkle VC, Shima Capital, and others.
Hyperbeat has received a total investment of $5.2 million from ether.Fi and Electric Capital.
Hyperbeat announced it has secured a total of $5.2 million in financing from ether.Fi and Electric Capital. The funds will be used to build yield infrastructure aimed at the Hyperliquid ecosystem, serving traders, protocols, and institutional users.
Main Street completed $400,000 in financing, with Sonic as the investor.
The DeFi project Main Street completed an undisclosed round of financing on August 15, raising $400,000, with Sonic as the investor. Specific financing rounds and more investment details are currently undisclosed.
Web3 Games
The developer of Shrapnel has completed $19.5 million in financing, led by Gala Games.
Seattle-based game studio Neon Machine announced the completion of $19.5 million in financing, with the latest round led by Gala Games, and participation from Griffin Gaming Partners and Polychain Capital. The funds will be used to support the global launch of its award-winning FPS game Shrapnel and its plans for the Chinese market, which will begin closed testing in 2025 and open testing in early 2026.
Previous news indicated that the developer of the crypto shooting game 'Shrapnel', Neon Machine, was reported to be in financial crisis.
AI
The AI Agent service platform HolmesAI completed seed + round financing.
HolmesAI announced the completion of 'seed + round' financing, with investors including Bitrise Capital, Waterdrop Capital, CGV Fund, and other well-known institutions. To date, HolmesAI has completed a total of $3 million in financing, with participation from HashKey Group and industry-leading cloud computing companies in its early incubation. HolmesAI is an AI Agent service platform based on Persona, which is a personalized knowledge base, enabling agents from various industries to achieve high levels of humanization, unleashing human creativity.
DeAgentAI received strategic financing from Momentum.
The decentralized AI infrastructure project DeAgentAI announced a new round of strategic financing, invested by top DEX Momentum from the Sui ecosystem. The two parties will engage in deep cooperation around AI Infra construction, ecological collaboration, and scene implementation, continuously driving the large-scale application of AI Agents in the Sui ecosystem. DeAgentAI is the largest AI Infra project on Sui, dedicated to building a smarter and more trustworthy on-chain AI network.
Decentralized AI development protocol RICE AI completed Series A financing, led by FLOKI.
Decentralized AI development protocol RICE AI completed Series A financing, led by FLOKI, with participation from DWF Labs, TokenFi (community presale), Vibe Labs, and others. RICE AI focuses on the development of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) robots and is powered by the RICE token. It aims to address the bottleneck of scarce data for robot AI through a crowdsourcing mechanism to collect and train foundational robot models (RFM) on a large scale.
Galaxy has announced the completion of $1.4 billion in project financing to accelerate the expansion of its Helios AI data center.
Galaxy Digital announced that it has completed $1.4 billion in project financing to support the expansion of its Helios data center campus in Texas. This financing will be used for the renovation and expansion of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure in the first phase. Galaxy has provided $350 million in self-funding, and the remainder will be covered by debt financing. CoreWeave has signed a second-phase leasing agreement, committing to utilize the entire approved power capacity of 800MW from Helios, with expected average annual revenue exceeding $1 billion over the next 15 years. Galaxy plans to make Helios one of the largest AI data centers in the world.
(not included in this financing weekly report statistics)
Infrastructure & Tools
1Kosmos completed $57 million in Series B financing to advance biometric identity security.
The blockchain-based identity verification platform 1 Kosmos announced the completion of $57 million in Series B financing, led by Forgepoint Capital and Origami's Oquirrh Ventures, with participation from Craig Abod, founder and president of Carahsoft, NextEra Energy Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures, and the management team of 1 Kosmos. 1 Kosmos uses a private, permissioned blockchain to encrypt and store personally identifiable information (PII), helping businesses transform identity recognition into business drivers, and advancing the future development of identity verification and passwordless identity.
Zoth has received a $15 million strategic investment from Bolts Capital to promote RWA on-chain.
Blockchain protocol Zoth has announced a $15 million strategic funding commitment from Bolts Capital to accelerate its 'Real World Assets' (RWA) on-chain ecosystem construction. Zoth will focus on compliance and innovation, prioritizing the development of the RWAFi protocol, initially focusing on the tokenization of government bond products, with plans to expand into emerging markets and alternative assets. Previously, Zoth faced security incidents with ZeUSD, and the official statement emphasizes strengthening security and trust. Zoth is currently preparing for a token issuance (TGE) and will later announce its tokenomics, ecological incentives, and project roadmap.
Mesh has completed over $130 million in financing, with the new financing round amounting to $9.5 million, with participation from PayPal Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.
Mesh has announced new investments from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, ByBit, and SBI Japan, bringing its total financing amount to over $130 million. Part of the new funds is settled in PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin, and Mesh's technology supports instantaneous transfers. Mesh provides crypto payment infrastructure for businesses, allowing users to pay with over a hundred cryptocurrencies, and merchants can settle instantly in stablecoins or fiat currency. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its products and APIs to serve more payment platforms. According to Cryptorank data, this financing round amounted to $9.5 million.
Others
Education:
HackQuest has announced the completion of $4.1 million in Pre-A financing, co-led by Animoca Brands and Open Campus.
Web3 developer education platform HackQuest has announced the completion of $4.1 million in Pre-A financing, co-led by Animoca Brands and Open Campus, with participation from Gate Ventures, Hash Global, HashKey Capital, Bytetrade Labs, StepN, Outlier Ventures, and several angel investors including Scott Moore, founder of Public Works, YY, partner at Signum Capital, Riccardo, head of ecology at Outlier Ventures, and James, co-founder of Jambo.
HackQuest stated that this financing round will be used to accelerate the development of its developer platform and to expand its influence in the global developer community by acquiring high-quality platforms in the same field. Currently, HackQuest has established official developer ecosystem collaborations with 30 public chains including Solana, Mantle, Xion, Arbitrum, Consensys, Injective, Soniclabs, 0G, Flow, and Moca Network, and has reached official Web3 education collaborations with universities such as Nanyang Technological University, Universiti Malaya, and the University of the Philippines.
Cryptocurrency Asset Reserves: (not included in this financing weekly report statistics)
180 Life Sciences has completed a $425 million private financing round to initiate its ETH treasury strategy.
According to StockTitan, 180 Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATNF) has successfully completed $425 million in private financing to implement its Ethereum treasury strategy. This PIPE (Private Equity Investment) transaction was priced at $2.65 per share, led by Electric Capital and Harbour Island, with participation from well-known cryptocurrency investment firms such as Borderless Capital and Polychain Capital.
The company plans to primarily use the raised funds to purchase Ethereum (ETH) and initiate a yield generation program managed by Electric Capital. This program aims to obtain returns that exceed traditional ETH staking through a combination of strategies such as staking, lending, and providing liquidity. Additionally, the company announced significant governance restructuring, including the appointment of McAndrew Rudisill as chairman of the board and the addition of several independent directors. After completing this PIPE financing, the company may also raise up to $150 million further through the issuance of fixed-income securities.
US stock SharpLink announced new financing of $400 million to continue increasing its ETH holdings.
According to official news, SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET) announced it has signed a securities purchase agreement with five top global institutional investors, successfully raising $400 million through a registered direct offering. As of August 10, 2025, the company holds approximately 598,800 Ethereum (ETH), in addition to approximately $200 million in unallocated ATM financing, with an estimated total value of over $3 billion for its ETH holdings.
US-listed company Heritage Distilling has completed $220 million in private financing to initiate its IP treasury strategy.
According to Businesswire, Heritage Distilling Holding Company (NASDAQ: CASK) has announced the completion of $220 million in private financing ($100 million in cash and $120 million in IP tokens), with participation from the Story Foundation and institutions such as a16z crypto and Amber Group, to initiate the world's first IP token digital asset treasury strategy.
This transaction adopts a 'equity + token' mixed PIPE structure, where Heritage will raise $100 million in cash through the issuance of common stock and warrants while receiving IP tokens from institutions such as the Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.4 per share. After the transaction is completed, the company's treasury will hold approximately 52.5 million IPs (valued at $361 million based on the closing price of $6.8785 on August 10, 2025).
WISELINK led a $10 million financing round for Top Win, becoming the first publicly listed company in Taiwan to invest in a Bitcoin treasury.
NASDAQ-listed Top Win International announced it has completed $10 million in financing, led by Taiwanese publicly listed company WISELINK CO., LTD. (TW: 8932), becoming the first publicly listed company in Taiwan to invest in a Bitcoin treasury.
WiseLink completed an investment through a three-year convertible bond and established a strategic partnership with Top Win to promote a 'Bitcoin + Cross-border Finance' framework. Top Win plans to use the funds primarily to purchase Bitcoin and may invest in publicly listed companies adopting the Bitcoin treasury strategy while also using it for operating capital. This financing also attracted other private investors, including United Capital Management founder Chad Koehn and four other investors.
On May 16, it was reported that Top Win has rebranded to AsiaStrategy and is collaborating with Sora Ventures to advance its Asian Bitcoin treasury strategy.
Centralized Finance
Transak completed $16 million in strategic financing, co-led by IDG Capital and Tether.
Web3 payment infrastructure company Transak has announced the completion of a $16 million strategic financing round, co-led by IDG Capital and Tether, with participation from Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures. Transak plans to use the funds to expand its stablecoin payment network and enter new markets. The company states that about 30% of its $2 billion transaction volume comes from stablecoin liquidity and has obtained regulatory licenses in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and India. Tether currently holds over 60% market share in the stablecoin market.
Kenya's Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin has completed a $4.9 million financing round, led by Flourish Ventures.
Kenya's Web3 payment platform HoneyCoin has announced the completion of a $4.9 million financing round, led by Flourish Ventures. The funds will be used to expand operations, enrich the product line, and bring in executives. HoneyCoin founder David Nandwa founded the company at the age of 19 in 2020, and the platform currently has a monthly transaction volume exceeding $150 million, serving 350 enterprise clients and hundreds of thousands of users. HoneyCoin achieves instant or same-day settlements through a stablecoin-compatible platform, supporting business in 45 countries and has established partnerships with institutions like MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe. This financing will help further expand its team and compliance layout.
Blockchain payment company Riva has completed $3 million in seed round financing, led by Project A, with participation from J.P. Morgan and others.
Global payment company Riva Money announced the completion of $3 million in seed round financing led by Project A, with personal investors from Revolut, Monzo, and J.P. Morgan participating. Riva optimizes cross-border payment processes using blockchain technology and stablecoins, solving pain points such as high costs and slow settlements in existing systems, while providing better exchange rate options. The company was co-founded by former Revolut and Wise executives Niklas Hoejman and Mahendra Katoch, and is applying for payment institution licenses in the UK and EU, as well as MICA and VASP licenses to promote global regulatory expansion.
