Highlights of this episode
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 18 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (November 17-23), with a total funding scale exceeding US$1.334 billion; in addition, listed companies raised over US$300 million in cryptocurrency asset reserves. A summary is as follows:
- In the DeFi sector, six investment and financing events were announced, including the completion of a new $7 million financing round for RateX, a yield trading protocol in the Solana ecosystem, with participation from Animoca Ventures and others.
- Two investment and financing events were announced in the Web3+AI sector. Among them, ZENi, an AI agent intelligent data layer, completed a $1.5 million seed round of financing, led by Waterdrip Capital and Mindfulness Capital.
- Three investment and financing events were announced in the infrastructure & tools sector, among which CratD2C, a Layer 1 decentralized autonomous smart chain, received a strategic investment of $30 million from Nimbus Capital;
- Three investment and financing events were announced in the centralized finance sector, including the completion of a €30 million Series A funding round by French crypto bank and fintech company Deblock.
- In the area of other Web3 applications, four investment and financing events were announced, including the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round for Web3 game WizzWoods, led by Animoca and IVC;
- In addition, one publicly traded company completed a financing round for its crypto treasury strategy: Onfolio Holdings raised $300 million.
DeFi
TronBank, a TRON ecosystem infrastructure provider, announced that it has secured strategic investment from five international institutions, with BlockX leading the $10 million round. Other participating institutions include Sky Venture Labs, K300 Ventures, Blockin.Ventures, and Onebit Ventures. TronBank is a DeFi platform on the TRON blockchain, providing energy leasing, TRX staking, and on-chain yield services through secure and transparent smart contracts. TronBank currently focuses on three main areas: energy leasing, TRX staking finance, and yield optimization mechanisms.
RateX, the revenue-sharing protocol for the Solana ecosystem, has raised a total of $10.4 million in funding over the past two years. Its latest funding round raised $7 million, with investors including Animoca Ventures, ECHO, GSR, Crypto.com Capital, Gate, Rzong Capital, BGX Capital, and Summer Capital.
The protocol, as described, helps users trade and manage profits through tokenized financial products. The recently launched Mooncake upgrade supports trading of leveraged tokens without liquidation. In June of this year, the US-listed DeFi Development Corp. strategically integrated its staked tokens with the RateX ecosystem to obtain additional yield strategies.
HelloTrade, a blockchain trading platform founded by former BlackRock executives, has completed a $4.6 million Series A funding round, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Mirana Ventures and several angel investors. The company was co-founded by Kevin Tang, former Senior Director of BlackRock's Digital Assets team, and Wyatt Raich, former Head of Engineering at the Digital Asset Labs. Its aim is to provide overseas investors in Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries with convenient access to US stocks and commodities through blockchain technology. The platform will support derivatives such as perpetual futures and is scheduled to launch between the end of this year and early next year.
Mu Digital has announced the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed funding round, with investors including UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital, CMS Holdings, Cointelegraph Accelerator, and Echo. Mu Digital focuses on bringing real-world assets from Asia's $20 trillion credit market onto the blockchain and plans to launch its Monad mainnet on November 24th. Products include the Asia Dollar (AZND), offering yields of 6-7%, and muBOND, offering yields up to 15%.
Takadao completes $1.5 million seed funding round and launches LifeCard for stablecoin spending.
Takadao, a Riyadh-based Saudi Arabian Web3 financial platform with offices in Singapore, announced the completion of a $1.5 million seed funding round. Investors included Hasan VC (Malaysia), Syla Invest (France), Wahed Ventures (UK), Ice Blue Fund (Japan), Istari Ventures (USA), Adverse (Saudi Arabia), and Draper Associates from Silicon Valley. This brings its total funding to approximately $3.1 million (including previous pre-seed rounds and other investments). In addition, Takadao launched LifeCard—a prepaid VISA card that allows users to use stablecoins like cash at any VISA-enabled location.
USD.AI development team Permian Labs announced it has received investment from Coinbase Ventures.
Permian Labs, the development team behind USD.AI, announced it has received investment from Coinbase Ventures, though the specific amount was not disclosed. USD.AI is a structured on-chain lending system that connects decentralized liquidity with real-world financing for GPU infrastructure that supports artificial intelligence. Permian Labs is responsible for developing and maintaining the USD.AI protocol, which aims to facilitate on-chain secured lending operations using verifiable productive assets as collateral. USD.AI also issues the stablecoin USDai and the yield-generating sUSDai, both of which form the basis of the protocol.
AI
Numerai completes $30 million funding round at a $500 million valuation.
Numerai, an AI-powered decentralized hedge fund, has raised $30 million at a $500 million valuation, led by a university endowment fund. This represents a five-fold increase in valuation compared to its previous round in 2023. Existing investors, including Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, and Paul Tudor Jones, also participated in this round.
ZENi, an AI agent intelligent data layer, announced the completion of a $1.5 million seed funding round led by Waterdrip Capital and Mindfulness Capital, with participation from Rootz Labs, Attention Ventures, DePIN-X, and Metalabs Ventures. ZENi is described as an intelligent data layer supporting AI agents and the emerging InfoFi economy. It plans to build the data intelligence backbone upon which AI agents rely, transforming online and on-chain signals into structured intelligent information and enabling automated execution.
Infrastructure & Tools
CratD2C, a Layer 1 decentralized autonomous smart chain (DASC), has secured $30 million in strategic investment from private alternative investment group Nimbus Capital. This funding will strengthen CratD2C's global infrastructure, expand its diverse "12+1" ecosystem, and accelerate the rollout of its flagship product within the network. CratD2C is described as an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain supporting an interconnected ecosystem encompassing e-commerce, real estate, DeFi, and asset tokenization. CratD2C is based on a DPoS mechanism and has been audited by CertiK and Hacken.
0xbow, a developer of compliant privacy protocols, announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed funding round led by Starbloom Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Boost VC, Status, and several other well-known investors. 0xbow's Privacy Pools protocol, launched in March 2025, achieves on-chain privacy and regulatory compatibility through zero-knowledge proofs and a real-time compliance layer (ASP), and has processed over $6 million in transactions to date. The protocol was recently integrated into Kohaku, a wallet launched by the Ethereum Foundation.
Stablecoin issuer Tether announced an investment in Parfin, aiming to accelerate institutional adoption of its USDT stablecoin and enhance Latin America's access to efficient blockchain settlement solutions. Parfin is described as a Latin American digital asset custody, tokenization, trading, and management platform that provides financial institutions with tools to securely explore the potential of digital assets and blockchain technology.
DAT
(These types of transactions are not included in this week's financing report statistics)
Onfolio Holdings, a publicly traded company, raised $300 million to build a digital asset reserve.
Onfolio Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ONFO, ONFOW) announced that it has secured up to $300 million in financing through a convertible bond arrangement with a U.S. institutional investor. This agreement provides Onfolio with substantial long-term capital to build its digital asset treasury (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana), generate yield through staking, strengthen its balance sheet, and accelerate the growth of its operations. The initial transaction terms are as follows: $6 million in gross proceeds will be raised upon the first closing approximately November 18, 2025 (subject to customary conditions). An additional $2 million is expected to be raised upon the second closing approximately 30 days later. Potential future tranches of financing could reach up to $292 million, subject to certain conditions.
Centralized Finance
US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has secured a $200 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities, raising its valuation to $20 billion. This funding round follows its $600 million round completed in September, which valued the company at $15 billion. Investors include Jane Street, DRW, and Oppenheimer. Kraken plans to use the funds for global expansion, payment product development, and preparations for an IPO next year. Citadel founder Ken Griffin has historically held a cautious stance on the cryptocurrency market, and this move is seen as a key signal of a shift in his attitude towards digital assets.
French crypto-bank fintech company Deblock has raised €30 million in Series A funding to support its expansion in Europe, with Germany set to become its next core market. The round was led by Speedinvest, with participation from Commerz Ventures and Latitude, and existing investors 20VC, Headline, Chalfen Ventures, and Kraken Ventures also participating. Since its launch in France in April 2024, Deblock has amassed over 300,000 users. It offers Europe's first fully on-chain banking solution, including a regulated EMI euro account and a 100% self-custodied crypto wallet. Users can manage fiat currency and digital assets on a single platform, trade over 100 cryptocurrencies without restrictions, and use the funds for everyday payments such as rent, shopping, and cross-border transfers.
Tether announces strategic investment in Bitcoin lending marketplace Ledn
Tether announced a strategic investment in Ledn, a Bitcoin-secured lending marketplace, to expand its Bitcoin-secured lending business opportunities. Ledn's infrastructure encompasses custody, risk management, and clearing systems. Since its inception, Ledn has issued over $2.8 billion in Bitcoin-secured loans, including over $1 billion in 2025, marking its strongest annual performance to date. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, Ledn issued $392 million in loans, nearly matching its total for the entire year of 2024. The company now reports that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has exceeded $100 million, highlighting the continued growth in market demand for secure Bitcoin-secured lending products.
other
Predicting the market:
Kalshi raised $1 billion in funding at a valuation of $11 billion, led by Sequoia and CapitalG.
Prediction market platform Kalshi has completed a $1 billion funding round, valuing the company at $11 billion, led by Sequoia and CapitalG. This round comes less than two months after its previous $300 million funding round at a $5 billion valuation. Kalshi allows users to place bets on various events and operates within legal boundaries, with annualized trading volume exceeding $50 billion. Its main competitor, Polymarket, is also reportedly planning a funding round at a valuation of $12-15 billion.
FastX Network Raises $3 Million in Funding
FastX Network has completed a $3 million funding round, led by IBC Group, Castrum Partner, Alpha Capital, Gemhead, and TBV Partner. FastX Network is an AI-driven decentralized prediction market that uses custom LLM models for cryptographic predictions and integrates real-time data. It is accessible via a web page and a Telegram bot.
Web3 games:
Web3 game WizzWoods raises $10 million in Series A funding.
Web3 gaming project WizzWoods announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Animoca Brands and Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), with participation from several angel investors. This funding round will accelerate product development and drive WizzWoods' growth in the Web3 gaming sector.
Blockchain-based shooter game XOCIETY has raised $1.6 million, led by Neoclassic Capital and Winguard.
Blockchain-based shooter XOCIETY has raised $1.6 million to prepare for an Early Access launch on the Epic Games Store in November 2025. The funding round, announced on November 19th, was led by Neoclassic Capital and Winguard. The funds will be used to expand the Sui blockchain infrastructure and support XOCIETY's growth within the broader Web3 gaming ecosystem.
Venture capital firms
New crypto incubator Obex has raised $37 million to support yield-generating stablecoins.
In an interview, the team behind the new crypto incubator Obex announced that it has raised $37 million to support the development of a next-generation yield-generating stablecoin led by Framework Ventures, LayerZero, and the Sky ecosystem. The initiative aims to invest in and fund projects that bring real-world asset-backed strategies to on-chain, introducing institutional-grade risk control and underwriting practices to this rapidly evolving field. Obex will become Sky's latest fund allocator, providing financial support to help the project scale from the protocol's large reserves and generate yields through strategies.
The program will focus on stablecoins backed by high-quality real-world assets, with a particular emphasis on three core areas: computational credit (such as tokenized GPU infrastructure), energy assets (such as municipal-grade solar and battery deployments), and lending to large fintech companies. The incubator will provide early-stage teams with funding, technical resources, and access to Sky infrastructure for 12-week projects.
