AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #63

🗓️ Week of: Mar 10-16, 2024

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(See "Funding Rounds" section for the complete list of deals)

$1.74B+ was raised across 43 funding rounds in Web3. The week was marked by two significant public market deals, including Coinbase's $1.1B convertible note deal and Bitfarms' announcement of a $375M at-the-market equity offering program. However, excluding these two transactions, over $274M in capital was raised in venture-backed rounds, a level consistent with what we've observed since February. Both deal flow and capital investment continue to remain strong as crypto markets rally further into a bull market.

The rally in 2024 also appears to be impacting the types of projects obtaining the most funding given crypto’s overall market cap is over $2.7T. Base protocols, including Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain networks, have seen an uptick in funding since February. Many of these projects opt for private token raises, given the role that tokens play for utility and security within the networks. Most notably, this includes Berachain's $69M raise (covered in this edition) and Monad's reported $200M raise, which is set to close soon. Moreover the market is providing optimal timing for projects looking to launch a token while also capturing very healthy valuations.

🏆 Largest Funding Round

(Note: Excludes public market deals)

➡️ Berachain announced $69M in a private token sale co-led by Brevan Howard's crypto arm, BH Digital and Framework Ventures. The round reportedly valued the project at $1.5B. The funding round also comes less than 12 months from a $42M token raise in April 2023, which included notable investors Polychain, Hack VC, Shima Capital, and Robot Ventures amont others.

Berachain is a high-performance EVM-compatible modular Layer 1 blockchain. The network uses Proof-of-Liquidity, a novel consensus mechanism adapted from CometBFT (a fork for Tendermint Core, pioneered by the Cosmos network) that aims to align network incentives, creating synergies between Berachain validators and the ecosystem of projects and minimizing the adverse impacts of staking centralization. The Berachain Protocol is built on Polaris, a high-performance blockchain framework for building EVM-compatible application, which allows for smart contracts compiled from Solidity or Vyper. Furthermore, the network is enabled by three main tokens:

• BERA, a transactional utility token used to pay transaction fees,

• BGT, a governance token used to secure the network through staking with validators,

• Honey, a native stablecoin for the network pegged one-to-one with USDC

The project was originally started as a NFT collection geared to the DeFi community, before eventually shifting development towards a DeFi focused Layer 1 network. The project's co-founders remain pseudonymous, including Smokey The Bera and Dev Bear, who all boast pseudonyms in line with the project's cartoon-bear theme.

Why this matters?👉 2024 has minted yet another unicorn, at least on the basis of protocol valuation. Berachain has already built an extensive following among DeFi enthusiasts and was of the talks at ETH Denver. With a sizable valuation, it remains to be seen if the project can live up to expectations once it releases its mainnet later this year. Much of its appeal comes from the creation of a purpose-built Layer 1 network aimed at DeFi, made possible by the increasing trend towards modular blockchain architectures.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ Elixir is a modular delegated proof of stake (DPoS) network designed to enhance liquidity on orderbook exchanges. It allows users to supply liquidity to trading pairs in order to earn rewards. The protocol is cross-chain and composable, enabling orderbook decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to natively integrate Elixir into their infrastructure. This integration allows exchanges to bootstrap liquidity by tapping into the Elixir network, thereby offering greater liquidity for various trading pairs. Currently, there are 30+ native integrations across leading DEXs.

Recently, Elixir announced a $8M Series B funding round, valuing the project at $800M. The round was co-led by Mysten Labs, developers of the Sui blockchain, and Maelstrom, the family office of Arthur Hayes, with participation from Manifold Trading, Amber Group, GSR, and Flowdesk. This round follows a $7.5M Series A in October 2023 led by Hack VC, and a $2.1M Seed round in January 2023.

Why this matters?👉 Elixir was first featured in Funding Round Up #42. Most noteworthy is the company's ability to close three funding rounds in under 18 months, clearly signaling that the project is demonstrating promising signs of traction and potential profitability. The project appears to have been successful in pooling liquidity and making it available across multiple DEXs, which is likely becoming a valuable resource as trading volumes have been soaring since the start of 2024.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

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All Rounds

Bitfarms - Private Placement ($375.0M) | Global vertically integrated Bitcoin mining operation: https://bitfarms.com/

Tookeez - Seed ($1.5M) | Blockchain-based loyalty points and rewards platform for brands and retailers: https://www.tookeez.com/

DreamOS - Seed ($2.1M) | Intuitive, and user-centric way multi-chain wallet: https://www.dreamos.app/

UniSat - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Non-custodial wallet for Bitcoin, Ordinals, and other BRC-20 assets: https://unisat.io/

Bluwhale - Seed ($7.0M) | Web3 wallet analytics tool leveraging personalized AI and contextual data: https://www.bluwhale.com/

Eclipse - Series A ($50.0M) | Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain network built to leverage the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM): https://www.eclipse.xyz/

Blockus - Seed ($4.0M) | All-in-one Web3 game development stack: https://www.blockus.gg/

NFTfi - Series A+ ($6.0M) | Peer-to-peer, decentralized lending protocol for NFT collateralized loans: https://nftfi.com/

XLink - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Universal bridge protocol connection Bitcoin assets to other Bitcoin Layer 2 and EVM chains: https://www.xlink.network/

MetaCene - Series A ($10.0M) | Blockchain based massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG): https://metacene.io/

Elixir - Series B ($8.0M) | Automated market maker protocol across centralized and decentralized exchanges: https://elixir.finance/

Kaskade Finance - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Cross-chain incentivization layer solving for liquidity bootstrapping: https://www.kaskade.finance/

SnowSeed (aka. PT. Gaudi Verse) - Strategic ($5.0M) | NFT and asset-backed token issuance and crowdfunding platform: https://www.snowseed.io/

Oneness - Seed ($4.0M) | Modular gaming-intent Bitcoin Layer 2 network designed for consumer-grade games: https://onenesslabs.io/

Studio 369 (aka. Metalcore) - Private Sale ($5.0M) | Web3 game studio and developer of Metalcore, a mechanized combat NFT-based game set in a chaotic alien world: https://www.metalcore.gg/

DeMAR - Private Sale (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized Mixed Reality (MR) infrastructure network (MR-DePIN) built on Solana: https://www.demr.xyz/#/

Muchables - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Gamefi game based on Blast: https://www.munchables.app/

Asterix - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Developer of DND404 contract that interlinks a fungible ERC-20 and non-fungible ERC-721 token contracts: https://www.asterixlabs.io/

UXLINK - Private Sale ($9.0M) | Web3 social infrastructure featuring social protocols and series of social networking DApps: https://www.uxlink.io/

ClearToken - Seed ($10.0M) | Developer of clearing house and Central Counterparty (CCP) for digital asset markets: https://cleartoken.io/

OrangeDX - Private Sale ($1.5M) | Bitcoin and BRC20 DeFi hub, offering trading, swap, lending, and more: https://orangedx.com/

BitRealms - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Open metaverse social gaming platform built on Merlin Chain within the Bitcoin ecosystem: https://bitrealms.ai/

Eyris - Seed ($3.0M) | Cybersecurity and data protection platform enabled by private blokchain technology: https://eyris.tech/

Fjord Foundry - Seed ($4.3M) | Liquidity Bootstrapping Platform (LBP) connecting projects with engaged backers to generate liquidity for new tokens: https://www.fjordfoundry.com/

Coinbase - Convertible Note ($1,100.0M) | Cryptocurrency exchange and cryptocurrency wallet platform that allows users to buy, sell, and store various cryptocurrencies: https://www.coinbase.com/

DLC.Link - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Cross-chain infrastructure to enable smart contract settlement on native Bitcoin using Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs): https://www.dlc.link/

SHUI - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Liquid staking protocol built for the Conflux network: https://app.shui.finance

Polyhedra Network - Private Sale ($20.0M) | Interoperability, privacy, and scalability platform that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology to develop applications including, a ZK bridge (zkBridge), a ZK decentralized identity solution (zkDID) and a scalability solution using a large-scale distributed proof generation network (ParaPlonk): https://polyhedra.network/

Clique - Series A ($8.0M) | Compute coordination network organizing various heterogeneous compute resources to be allocated for general applications and smart contracts: https://www.clique.tech/

mmERCH - Seed ($6.4M) | Web3 fashion brand leveraging generative algorithms to create digital and physical garments: https://www.mmerch.xyz/

Pallet Exchange - Seed ($2.5M) | Social NFT marketplace based on the Sei blockchain: https://pallet.exchange/

Param Labs - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Game developer specializing in multiplayer blockchain games including Kiraverse and Pixel to Poly: https://paramlabs.io/

Range - Seed ($2.7M) | Security infrastructure for sovereign blockchains and rollups, focusing on the Cosmos and modular ecosystems and bridges such as the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC): https://www.range.org/

D2X - Series A ($10.0M) | Pan-European institutional exchange for digital asset futures and options: https://www.d2x.com/

Carbonated - Series A ($13.0M) | Web3 gaming studio and developer of MadWorld, an apocalyptic NFT shooting game: https://playmadworld.com/

Berachain - Private Sale ($69.0M) | EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, built using the Cosmos SDK, and secured by the Proof-of-Liquidity Consensus Protocol: https://berachain.com/

Syntropy - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized, multi-purpose on-chain data streaming oracle for applications and blockchains: https://www.syntropynet.com/

9 Lives Interactive (aka. Nyan Heroes) - Strategic ($3.0M) | Developer of Nyan Heros, a third-person shooter game built on the Solana blockchain: https://nyanheroes.com/

Meson Network - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) and marketplace for bandwidth: https://www.meson.network/

Avalon Finance - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized lending protocol built on Merlin Chain within the Bitcoin ecosystem: https://www.avalonfinance.xyz/

Ten (fka. Obscuro) - Private Sale ($9.0M) | EVM-based encrypted Layer 2 for Ethereum using Secure Enclave technology: https://www.ten.xyz/

Pac Finance - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Self-paying lending and margin trading protocol built on Blast L2: https://pac.finance/

Honeypot Finance - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Community-run DeFi hub built on Berachain: https://honeypotfinance.xyz/

New Funds

Thirdweb - Superchain App Accelerator ($3M)

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🐕 About

AWeb3VC is a source for venture funding news, emerging startups and trends across Web3. I've been closely following cryptocurrencies and digital assets since 2013 and started working in the space since 2018. Now I'm on a mission to build the most extensive venture ecosystem for BUIDLERS in Web3, starting first by tracking those BUIDLERS.