Highlights of this episode
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 17 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (April 27 - May 3), with a total funding scale exceeding US$176 million. A summary is as follows:
The DeFi sector announced four investment and financing events, including the completion of an $18 million Series A funding round for crypto derivatives trading platform Liquid, led by Neo and Left Lane Capital;
In the AI+Web3 sector, two investment and financing events were announced. Among them, Kaisar Network, a decentralized AI computing Layer 1 network, announced that it has completed a $4 million financing round to date.
Five investment and financing events were announced in the Infrastructure & Tools sector, among which Squads, a multi-signature agreement ecosystem of Solana, completed an $18 million equity financing round led by Solana Ventures.
Two investment and financing events were announced in the centralized finance sector. Among them, crypto exchange service company Fun completed a $72 million Series A financing round, led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire.
The prediction market sector announced one investment and financing event: prediction market platform XO Market completed a $6 million seed round of financing.
Three other investment and financing events were announced in the Web3 application sector, including a $3.2 million funding round for Chance Studios, a collectible trading card game platform.
DeFi
Crypto derivatives trading platform Liquid has completed an $18 million Series A funding round, led by Neo and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Haun Ventures, K5 Global, SV Angel, AntiFund, and Sunflower Capital. Founded by former Two Sigma quantitative researcher Franklyn Wang, Liquid initially positioned itself as a platform aggregating crypto perpetual contracts and has since expanded to secondary markets for stocks, cryptocurrencies, forex, Polymarket positions, and pre-IPO company equity, offering leverage up to 200x in some jurisdictions. The report notes that while platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood are simultaneously expanding into non-crypto assets, Liquid aims to create a unified interface for universal leveraged exchanges to cover the retail trading needs of various risk assets.
RWA yield platform Nuva Digital has raised $5.2 million in seed funding, led by Morgan Creek Digital with participation from Ulu Ventures and others. The funds will be used to build its RWA yield platform, Nuva Finance. Incubated by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs, Nuva positions itself as a self-custodied RWA marketplace connecting asset issuers and users. Users deposit USDC to receive nvAsset tokens representing their share, with yields reflected in the token price. The initial offerings will include nuYLDS and nuHELOCs products based on Figure Technologies' on-chain assets, corresponding to the SEC-registered yield-generating stablecoin YLDS and over $16 billion in home equity loan assets, respectively. Nuva also plans to issue a NUVA utility token in the future; specific launch dates for the platform and tokens have not yet been disclosed.
Solana yield trading platform Exponent has raised $5 million in seed funding, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, RockawayX, L1D, Prelude, Theia Blockchain, and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko. The round was structured with SAFE plus token options, and the valuation was not disclosed. Exponent plans to launch a new version of its platform next month, expanding from a single-rate trading platform to a yield infrastructure, introducing an on-chain rate order book and strategy vault. This will support the conversion of floating yields into fixed or leveraged positions, and allow asset managers to issue fixed-rate revolving and hedging strategies. Since its launch in late 2024, the platform has processed over $2 billion in yield trading and served over 35,000 users. Approximately $1 million of the new funding will be used for security investments such as auditing and bug bounties.
Legend Trade, an on-chain trader competition platform, announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed funding round led by Electric Capital, with participation from Amber Group and GSR Markets LTD. This brings its total funding to over $5 million. Legend Trade is described as a "trader-to-trader" on-chain derivatives platform where users compete against each other through perpetual contracts, with winners determined by price movements and trading performance. Within three weeks of its public beta test, the platform's trading volume exceeded $80 million. The project stated that Season 0 will launch next week.
AI
Kaisar Network, a decentralized AI computing Layer 1 network, announced it has raised $4 million to date, including a $1 million strategic pre-seed round. Kaisar Network was incubated by Outlier Ventures and Borderless Capital, with investors including Merov Capital, StoneBlock, WM Capital, Arche Fund, Q42, and Unicorn Ventures. Kaisar also announced the launch of Token AI, allowing users to access decentralized GPU computing, AI credits, and proxy services.
Voran raises $3 million in seed funding, with participation from IBC Group and others.
Decentralized computing platform project Voran has announced the completion of a $3 million seed funding round. Investors include IBC Group, Mario Nawfal, CGVFOF, 0xALLINCLUB, Harbor Digital VC, and several early Web3 participants. The project stated that the funds will primarily be used to accelerate platform development, expand infrastructure, and advance the deployment of scalable decentralized computing capabilities.
Infrastructure & Tools
Fence raises $20 million, led by Galaxy Digital.
Fence, a startup specializing in asset-backed financial infrastructure, has raised $20 million in funding, led by Galaxy Digital with participation from Parafi Capital and Crane Ventures. The company aims to transform the back-office processes of the approximately $6 trillion asset-backed financing market. Fence utilizes blockchain, smart contracts, and asset tokenization to automate loan pool tracking, collateral verification, and fund transfers, replacing traditional forms, PDFs, and email processes, all without explicitly emphasizing its "blockchain company" positioning. The company already has partnerships with institutions such as BBVA, BlackRock, and Fortress, managing approximately $1.5 billion in assets on its platform. With this funding, Fence plans to expand into the US market and continue optimizing its product.
Squads, a multi-signature protocol project within the Solana ecosystem, has completed an $18 million equity funding round led by Solana Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, L1D, and others, bringing its total funding to $42.9 million. Squads will use the funds to expand its stablecoin settlement platform, Altitude, which focuses on enabling businesses to manage funds and payments using stablecoins instead of traditional bank accounts. Since its public beta launch last December, Altitude has processed over $200 million in payments for exporters and cross-border teams, with funds held in stablecoins through a self-custodied wallet. Squads claims its platform incorporates compliance procedures such as sanctions screening, anti-money laundering, transaction monitoring, and corporate KYC, and integrates with payment service providers like Bridge and MoonPay to cover global operations.
UnblockPay, a stablecoin financial services platform, announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round led by Prelude, with participation from several well-known institutions and angel investors, including Plug and Play, Wintertermute, and Signature Ventures. The funds raised will be primarily used to develop compliant financial products, help companies integrate stablecoin systems into their daily financial operations, build standardized cross-border settlement solutions, improve the seamless two-way exchange capabilities between fiat currency and mainstream stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, and continuously expand the ecosystem of compliant stablecoin enterprise services.
Four Pillars has secured Series A funding from Pantera Capital and Further Ventures.
Four Pillars announced it has secured Series A funding from Pantera Capital and Further Ventures, with the specific amount undisclosed. It will transform from a research institution into a blockchain research and infrastructure provider for institutional users. According to the announcement, in its three years of operation, Four Pillars has partnered with over 100 protocols and companies, publishing more than 600 research reports. Going forward, it will focus on three main areas: FP Research (divided into five specialized departments: Crypto, Investment, Institutional, Asia, and Technology), FP Validated (institutional-grade validator infrastructure providing staking services), and FP Institution (a newly established institutional department providing workshops and consulting services).
Yunfeng Financial, backed by Jack Ma, officially announced the completion of its strategic investment in cross-border payment service provider WooshPay. The specific investment amount was not disclosed. WooshPay holds dual regulatory qualifications from the UK's FCA and Hong Kong Customs, classifying it as a compliant financial infrastructure platform. Following this investment, Yunfeng Financial will integrate its digital asset infrastructure, AlphaToken, to create an AI+Web3 model, perfecting a complete ecosystem for asset tokenization and compliant settlement. Yunfeng Financial has already obtained a virtual asset trading license from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, enabling it to compliantly launch trading services for mainstream digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Centralized Finance
Cryptocurrency exchange startup Fun announced it has completed a $72 million Series A funding round, led by Multicoin Capital and tech venture capital firm SignalFire, with participation from Infinity Ventures, Pharsalus Capital, and Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, among others. The deal was completed in January of this year but was only recently made public. Fun declined to disclose the valuation of the funding round.
Fun focuses on providing the infrastructure for depositing and withdrawing funds between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies (such as USD) on its platform, enabling users to complete fund transfers without going through exchanges or banks. Its clients include prediction market platform Polymarket, crypto derivatives platform Lighter, and lending protocol Aave. Currently, it processes more than $18 billion in payments annually. The company's founder and CEO, Alex Fine, said that as more fintech companies and new banks adopt tokens and stablecoins, Fun hopes to become the "gateway to the new economy."
Tether led a $14 million Series A funding round for Latin American digital wallet platform Belo, with participation from Titan Fund, The Venture City, Mindset Ventures, and G2. Belo stated that it will use the new funds to expand into Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay, and continue to strengthen its presence in Brazil, focusing on serving freelancers, remote workers, and users with cross-border money flows.
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Belo currently boasts over 3 million users in Latin America. Its product is a digital wallet built on crypto infrastructure, allowing users to hold and transfer local currencies and "digital dollars" (stablecoins). Stablecoins have seen rapid adoption in emerging markets like Latin America in recent years, primarily for hedging against inflation, cross-border remittances, and bypassing high-cost foreign exchange systems. Belo addresses this by integrating payments, currency exchange, and cross-border transfers into a single application process, utilizing crypto infrastructure to complete settlements in the background, thereby reducing the cost and latency of cross-border transfers.
Prediction Market
Prediction market platform XO Market has raised $6 million in seed funding, with investors including 20VC, Picus Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The platform focuses on a user-built market model and has attracted over 30,000 users and more than 600 active markets since its mainnet launch, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $150 million. XO plans to launch "XO Vaults," allowing users to contribute funds to provide liquidity for prediction markets based on strategies or categories (such as sports and politics), targeting an annualized return of approximately 8% to 10%, and supporting passive market-making participation similar to "copy trading."
other
Chance Studios, a collectible card game platform, has raised $3.2 million in funding.
Chance Studios, a trading card game (TCG) collecting platform, has raised $3.2 million in funding, led by Makers Fund and Hashed, with participation from Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, Gam3Girl Ventures, and Digital Elm. Chance aims to provide a unified platform for TCG collectors, enabling instant circulation, transparent trading, and social interaction of collectibles.
DeSci project NanoVita announced the completion of strategic financing, with participation from Harbor Digital Ventures and others.
NanoVita, a DeSci project, has officially announced the completion of a strategic financing round, the amount of which was not disclosed. This round of financing was led by Credit Scend, Harbor Digital Ventures, and Apus Capital, among others. NanoVita is a decentralized science (DeSci) protocol that integrates nanotechnology, AI bio-intelligence, and real-world health data, aiming to build an open and transparent health research infrastructure. Previously, NanoVita had completed a seed round with participation from Cryptogram Venture (CGV), UDS Space, Candaq Fintech Group, and Susie Venture, as well as a Pre-A round with participation from K24 Ventures, LandScape Capital, and WestLabs.
Blockworks completes Series A extended funding round at a valuation of $192 million.
Crypto data and research platform Blockworks announced the completion of an extended Series A funding round, valuing the company at $192 million. The round was co-led by Parafi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Advancit Capital, MoonPay, and other institutions. More than 20 founders and operators from projects such as Solana, LayerZero, Pyth, EigenLayer, Kraken, Arbitrum, and Polygon also participated in the round in their personal capacities.
Investment institutions
Founders Fund's fourth growth fund raises $6 billion.
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund has raised $6 billion for its fourth growth-stage investment fund, Founders Fund Growth IV, to invest in later-stage companies, marking the fund's largest fundraising ever. Of this, $4.5 billion came from limited partners (LPs), including sovereign wealth funds; the remaining $1.5 billion came from Founders Fund's senior management and staff, including Peter Thiel himself.
