Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 10 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (1.26-2.1), with a total funding scale exceeding $197 million. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 6 investment and financing events. Among them, AC's new project Flying Tulip completed a $25.5 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to $225.5 million so far;
- The Web3+AI track announced 1 investment and financing event. AetheriumX completed an $8 million strategic financing round, co-led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital;
- The Infrastructure & Tools sector announced 2 investment and financing events. Among them, the crypto payment network Mesh completed a $75 million Series C funding round led by Dragonfly Capital;
- The Centralized Finance sector announced 1 investment and financing event. The crypto trading platform Talos completed a $45 million funding round with participation from Robinhood, a16z, and others.
DeFi
AC's New Project Flying Tulip Completes $25.5 Million Series A Funding, Total Funding Reaches $225.5 Million So Far
Flying Tulip, a unified on-chain financial system founded by Sonic Labs creator Andre Cronje, announced it has completed a total of $225.5 million in institutional funding at the same fully diluted valuation of $10 billion as its seed round. This funding includes a $25.5 million Series A private token sale conducted through Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures, as well as a $200 million seed round completed last September.
In addition to institutional funding, Flying Tulip also raised $50 million through Impossible Finance's Curated platform and plans to launch another public sale on CoinList next week. The project stated that it has received approximately $1.36 billion in investment intentions so far. If the existing allocation quotas are fully filled, the remaining funding quota is about $400 million.
Token Creation Platform Doppler Completes $9 Million Seed Round Led by Pantera Capital
The token creation and issuance protocol platform Doppler has completed a $9 million seed funding round. This round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Variant, Figment Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The team revealed that the financing was completed in Q2 2025 in the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). Doppler is one of the two main products under Whetstone Research, the other being Pure Markets. Doppler compresses processes like token deployment, liquidity launch, and governance through an integrated interface and employs a price discovery auction mechanism designed to limit sniping and generate protocol-owned liquidity on the first day. The Doppler platform creates over 40,000 assets daily, with a cumulative value exceeding $1.5 billion and cumulative trading volume exceeding $1 billion.
Gold and Foreign Exchange Tokenization Market Tenbin Labs Completes $7 Million Funding Led by Galaxy Digital
Galaxy Digital led a $7 million funding round for Tenbin Labs, aimed at building a tokenized gold and foreign exchange market. The project focuses on bringing traditional financial assets on-chain, expanding the practical application of crypto assets in the global market.
Trading Platform Everything Completes $6.9 Million Seed Round Led by Humanity Protocol
Trading platform Everything announced the completion of a $6.9 million seed funding round led by Humanity Protocol, with participation from Animoca Brands, Hex Trust, and Three Point Capital. The platform aims to create an "Everything Exchange" integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, prediction markets, and payment functions. The platform plans to launch an Everything Points system where users can earn points by holding assets, trading, and inviting friends. The total points will determine the allocation of the future platform token E airdrop and ecological rewards. The public sale of the E token is planned to be launched subsequently via Telegram and web mini-programs.
On-Chain Finance Application Bleap Completes $6 Million Seed Round Led by Blossom Capital
Bleap, a self-custody and stablecoin payment on-chain finance application backed by former Revolut executives Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes, has completed a $6 million seed funding round. Joao Alves stated that this round, led by Blossom Capital, was completed last summer. The company did not disclose the post-money valuation. Bleap plans to use the new funds to develop yield vaults, expand on-chain trading functions, and drive business growth in Latin American and European markets. This funding round comes after Bleap completed a $2.3 million pre-seed round in late 2024, which was led by Ethereal Ventures, founded by Consensys creator Joe Lubin.
RWA Infrastructure Project Golden FI Completes $2 Million Seed Round Led by Gold Chain Capital
Golden FI, a Web3 physical asset (RWA) digitization infrastructure platform, announced the successful completion of a $2 million seed funding round. This round was led by strategic partner Gold Chain Capital, with participation from four other globally renowned investment institutions deeply involved in the Web3 and fintech sectors. According to the official statement, information about the other four participating institutions has not been disclosed due to strategic considerations.
Web3 Gaming
AetheriumX Completes $8 Million Strategic Financing
AetheriumX announced the completion of an $8 million strategic financing round, co-led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital. The funds from this round will be used to optimize its DCIP protocol, expand DeFi and GameFi modules, and focus on the Asia-Pacific market to build a sustainable and verifiable on-chain interactive economic ecosystem.
Infrastructure & Tools
Crypto Payment Network Mesh Completes $75 Million Series C Funding Led by Dragonfly Capital
The crypto payment network Mesh announced the completion of a $75 million Series C funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $1 billion. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures. The company's cumulative funding has now exceeded $200 million. The funds from this round will be used to accelerate expansion in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and to drive product development. Positioned as an asset-agnostic unified payment network, Mesh already covers over 900 million users. It allows users to pay using any asset like Bitcoin or Solana, while merchants receive instant settlement in stablecoins like USDC or PYUSD, or local fiat currency. Part of this funding round was also settled in stablecoins.
Sony Innovation Fund Invests $13 Million in Soneium Co-Developer Startale, Initiating its Series A
Sony's innovation fund has invested an additional $13 million in Startale Group, the co-developer of the Soneium blockchain, as the first tranche of its Series A funding. Previously, Startale received a $3.5 million seed investment from Sony in 2023 and secured $3.5 million in a seed extension round from UOB Venture Management and Samsung Next in 2024, bringing its total public funding to $20 million.
Headquartered in Singapore, Startale co-developed the Ethereum Layer2 network Soneium and the ecosystem entry application Startale App with Sony's Blockchain Solutions Lab. Soneium, built on the OP Stack, focuses on applications for the entertainment industry and general scenarios. Since its mainnet launch in January 2025, it has processed over 500 million transactions, boasts 5.4 million active wallets, and supports over 250 active decentralized applications.
Centralized Finance
Crypto Trading Platform Talos Completes $45 Million Funding with Participation from Robinhood, a16z, etc.
Robinhood participated in an extension of the Series B funding round for crypto trading platform Talos, valuing the company at approximately $1.5 billion. Talos focuses on providing crypto trading infrastructure for global institutions, serving clients with assets under management totaling around $21 trillion. This $45 million extension also attracted new strategic investors including Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Karatage, while existing investors a16z crypto, BNY, and Fidelity Investments also participated. Robinhood stated that Talos's flexibility and rapid adaptability will further enhance the liquidity and functionality of its crypto business.
Venture Capital Firms
Venture Firm Escape Velocity Completes $62 Million Fundraise, Focusing on DePIN and Crypto Project Investments
Venture capital firm Escape Velocity has completed its second fundraise, totaling $62 million, primarily to support DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) and broader crypto sector projects.
The fund attracted notable investors including Marc Andreessen and Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital. The largest limited partner in the fund, Cendana, contributed $15 million. Mahesh Ramakrishnan, co-founder of Escape Velocity, expressed belief that decentralized physical infrastructure will see a breakthrough despite the current market downturn in the DePIN space. The firm has previously invested in DePIN projects like Daylight and Glow in the solar energy sector and plans to continue seeking high-quality projects that go beyond market hype.
