Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 15 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (3.23-3.29), with a total funding scale exceeding $767 million. The details are as follows:
- DeFi sector announced 2 investment and financing events, among which Kairos Labs completed a $2.4 million seed round led by 6th Man Ventures;
- AI+Web3 sector announced 3 investment and financing events, among which Origins Network completed an $8 million funding round with investors including Animoca Brands;
- Infrastructure & Tools sector announced 3 investment and financing events, among which Startale Group, the co-developer of the Soneium blockchain, completed a $63 million Series A funding;
- Centralized Finance sector announced 2 investment and financing events, among which cross-border payment company Tazapay completed a $36 million Series B funding led by Circle Ventures;
- Prediction Market sector announced 1 investment and financing event, Intercontinental Exchange made an additional $600 million investment in Polymarket.
DeFi
On-chain Interest Rate Swap Protocol Kairos Completes $2.4 Million Seed Round
Kairos Labs announced the completion of a $2.4 million seed round led by 6th Man Ventures, with participation from Lattice, Advancit Capital, Compa Capital, and others. The official team also released a technical whitepaper introducing its permissionless, non-custodial interest rate swap protocol built on the EVM ecosystem. The protocol has already accumulated over $300 million in notional swap trading volume during the testing phase and is expected to launch on the Ethereum mainnet and Base within weeks. Kairos allows anyone to create swap markets based on fixed/floating rates, tenors, collateral, and oracle parameters, providing infrastructure for hedging interest rate fluctuations for DeFi lending protocols like Aave and Morpho, and supports the construction of fixed-income products around ETH staking yields and various on-chain/off-chain interest rates.
Tori Finance Secures Seed Round Led by Delphi Ventures
Tori Finance announced the completion of a seed round of financing, with Delphi Ventures as the lead investor. Specific funding amount and valuation for this round have not been publicly disclosed. Tori launched the composable yield token strUSD, packaging institutional-grade delta-neutral strategies on-chain, targeting a maximum annualized yield of approximately 15%.
AI
Origins Network Secures $8 Million Funding with Participation from Animoca Brands
Origins Network announced the completion of an $8 million funding round with investors including Animoca Brands, tbv, Candaq, Castrum, CoinvestorV, and several family offices and angel investors. The project focuses on verifiable compute and plans to continue building an infrastructure layer for an AI-native future, achieving transparency and verifiability in computing power, data, and execution processes. Officially stated, it has secured strategic support from AWS and Tencent Cloud. The next phase will accelerate core infrastructure upgrades, expand decentralized computing capacity, deepen AI integration across the network, and invite developers to participate in ecosystem building.
London Compliance Tech Company Eunice Secures $8 Million Funding with Participation from Moonfire Ventures
London-based compliance technology company Eunice completed seed and pre-seed rounds totaling $8 million. Investors included Moonfire Ventures, Speedinvest, Openspace Ventures, and several angel investors from the finance and crypto industries. Eunice utilizes AI agents to provide traceable, auditable due diligence and disclosure infrastructure for alternative assets such as digital assets and private equity, helping institutions generate structured, asset-level risk control and compliance reports. The company initially served digital asset exchanges and custodians (such as Coinbase, Crypto.com, Copper, Zodia Custody) and participated in the UK FCA regulatory sandbox. It is now expanding its business to broader private markets including pensions, endowments, and funds of funds.
AI-Driven Web3 Marketing Analytics Platform PeakAI Completes $2 Million Seed Round
AI-driven Web3 marketing analytics platform PeakAI completed a $2 million seed round. Investors included Cogitent Ventures, Covey Network, CatcherVC, 10K Ventures, MARBLEX Corp., PAKA, and ViaBTC Capital. It is reported that the platform combines blockchain data with decentralized marketing infrastructure, helping brands conduct marketing activities through micro-influencers and settle payments in USDC.
Infrastructure & Tools
Soneium Co-developer Startale Completes $63 Million Series A with Participation from SBI Group
Startale Group, the co-developer of the Soneium blockchain, completed a $63 million Series A funding round. This includes a $50 million second round led by SBI Group and a previous $13 million first round funded by Sony's Innovation Fund. The company stated that the new funds will be used to expand the Layer1 network Strium to support institutional-grade tokenized securities and real-world asset trading, and promote the adoption of stablecoins like JPYSC.
Startale and SBI had previously collaborated to launch Strium, a Layer1 blockchain focused on tokenized securities and real-world asset trading, as well as JPYSC, the first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. Startale also collaborated with Sony to launch the Ethereum Layer2 network Soneium and continues to expand its ecosystem.
Ethereum Block Builder Eureka Labs Completes $6.7 Million Seed Round
Ethereum block builder Eureka Labs completed a $6.7 million seed round co-led by Spark Capital and Collider Ventures, using a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) plus token warrant structure. The new funds will be used to advance its "programmable block" technology. The startup was founded in December 2024 and is currently the fourth-largest block builder on Ethereum. Its "programmable block" technology allows adding logic during the block construction process, enabling features like intra-block temporary credit and state-aware pre-computation, giving developers more guarantees at the block level.
Privacy-Focused Stablecoin Payment Network Payy Completes $6 Million Seed Round Led by FirstMark Capital
Startup Payy, focused on private stablecoin payments, completed a $6 million seed round led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto. Payy was formerly the Web3 database project Polybase, pivoting to stablecoin payments in 2023. It currently offers a self-custody wallet and a Visa card supporting USDC spending, and is developing the Payy Network, a Layer2 network on Ethereum using zero-knowledge proofs to achieve on-chain privacy for transaction amounts, addresses, etc. The company claims its platform already covers over 100,000 users in 120 countries with an annualized transaction volume of approximately $130 million. It will subsequently focus on providing stablecoin payment solutions for financial institutions and fintech companies and plans to launch a native token.
Centralized Finance
Cross-Border Payment Company Tazapay Completes $36 Million Series B Led by Circle Ventures
Singapore-based cross-border payment company Tazapay completed a Series B extension led by Circle Ventures, bringing the total Series B funding to $36 million. New investors include CMT Digital and Coinbase Ventures, joining Circle Ventures, Peak XV Partners, January Capital, and GMO Venture Partners in this extension. Existing investors include Ripple, Norinchukin Capital, ARC180, and RTP Global.
Tazapay is dedicated to building cross-border transaction settlement payment infrastructure for businesses. It currently holds licenses or has completed registration in Singapore, Canada, Australia, and the US, and is applying for relevant licenses in the UAE, EU, and Hong Kong. The company stated that the funds will be used to obtain more regulatory approvals and develop automated payment process products.
Foreign Exchange Settlement Company XFX Completes $17 Million Series A, Focusing on Fiat and Stablecoin FX Settlement
Foreign exchange settlement startup XFX announced the completion of a $17 million Series A round led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Its previous seed round was $9 million. XFX was co-founded by three former Bitso employees and is headquartered in Miami. It focuses on providing high-speed foreign exchange and payment infrastructure between fiat currencies and stablecoins for institutional clients. It currently supports USD, Mexican Peso, Colombian Peso, and various stablecoin conversions, focusing on deep liquidity in a few currency pairs. It plans to use the new funds to expand its quantitative team and strengthen cooperation with trading desks and banks.
Prediction Market
Intercontinental Exchange Makes Additional $600 Million Investment in Polymarket
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced that, pursuant to its previous investment arrangement with prediction market platform Polymarket, it has completed a new round of $600 million in direct cash investment in Polymarket, which is part of its equity financing. Additionally, ICE is expected to purchase up to an additional $40 million in Polymarket securities from some existing shareholders. ICE had previously made an initial direct investment of $1 billion in Polymarket in October 2025. Upon completion of this transaction, ICE will have fulfilled all its investment obligations to Polymarket. ICE stated that this investment is not expected to have a material impact on its financial performance and capital return plans. Specific terms such as valuation will be disclosed upon completion of this funding round.
Others
Luxury Watch Raffle Platform watch.fun Completes $8.6 Million Funding Led by Crypto.com Capital and Solana Ventures
Luxury watch raffle platform watch.fun completed an $8.6 million funding round led by Crypto.com Capital and Solana Ventures, with participation from Spartan Capital, Animoca Brands, and others. watch.fun is built on Solana and focuses on weekly watch raffles, offering tickets starting at $19 to raffle watches like Rolex Daytona, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and Patek Philippe Nautilus, with each raffle being verifiable on-chain and "provably fair." Watches are sourced, authenticated, and shipped by partner Wristcheck. New funds will be used for product development, expanding the "drop" catalog, compliance and licensing, global business expansion, team growth, and plans to introduce membership tiers, referral rebates, and other features.
On-Chain Lottery Project Megapot Completes $5 Million Pre-Seed Round Led by Dragonfly
On-chain lottery project Megapot announced the completion of a $5 million pre-seed round led by Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Bankless Ventures, and others. Officially stated, its first lottery prize pool exceeded $1 million, with tickets purchased by players from 124 countries, and 19 jackpot winners have been generated. This round of funding will be used to advance Megapot's global expansion, launch new game玩法, and lower the barrier for developers and game operators to integrate Megapot's infrastructure.
Web3 Social Gaming Platform Verse8 Completes $5 Million Seed Round
Web3 social gaming platform Verse8 completed a $5 million seed round. Investors included Neowiz, Story Foundation, Nexpace, Nexus, and MARBLEX Corp. It is reported that the platform combines social networking, gamification, and blockchain ownership, allowing users to create, interact, and monetize content in a decentralized environment, connecting entertainment and the digital economy through on-chain identity and interactive virtual spaces.
Catapult Secures Investment from KuCoin Ventures in Latest Funding Round
Catapult announced that it has received investment from KuCoin's venture capital arm, KuCoin Ventures, in its latest funding round to accelerate project growth and begin a new phase of expansion. Catapult stated that it is launching fast-paced, high-volatility, zero-friction token issuance products by combining gamification mechanics with primary trading scenarios, positioning itself as a new type of token issuance platform.
DAT:
Solana Treasury Company Artelo Biosciences Completes $11 Million Private Placement
Nasdaq-listed Solana treasury company Artelo Biosciences announced the private placement sale of a total of 3,188,407 shares of common stock at $3.45 per share, raising a total of $11 million. The new funds will be used for general corporate purposes and repaying part of its transitional debt. According to the latest data from StrategicSolanaReserve, Artelo currently holds 45,883 SOL.
(This financing event is not included in the weekly statistics)
