The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure, and the increasing attention that companies are paying to bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in the ForkLog review.
The Colosseum accelerator raised $60 million for the first fund
Solana-focused accelerator Colosseum has raised $60 million in its first fund to support early-stage ecosystem startups, The Block reports.
The structure invests in projects selected during the hackathons. The standard size of investments in a startup is $250,000, the check can grow in subsequent rounds, said Colosseum co-founder Clay Robbins.
According to him, the fundraising began at the end of 2023 with a plan of $50 million.
The Foundation has already funded the first 10 teams on Solana. Among them: the Ore mining token project, the Urani swap aggregator and the DePIN BlockMesh protocol.
"Cryptocurrency is still at an early stage of the adoption cycle, and Colosseum's model of integrating online hackathons with an accelerator and a foundation can guide the development, application and growth of any technology," Robbins believes.
Vitalik Buterin supported the MegaETH Ethereum project in a $20 million round
MegaLabs, a blockchain developer called MegaETH, raised $20 million during a seed round of financing led by Dragonfly Capital.
Proud to announce MegaETH's $20M Seed Round
MegaETH is the first Real-Time Blockchain, streaming transactions at 100,000 TPS with millisecond latency
Our mission is to turn cutting-edge ideas into everyday reality with fully onchain, interactive & sophisticated apps
✨Story… pic.twitter.com/aaWaNSqxNx
Other participants in the round include Figment Capital, Folius Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holding, Tangent and Credible Neutral, as well as angel investors like Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin.
MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kun told The Block that the company started fundraising in December 2023. The financing is structured as warrants for tokens plus shares.
The team positions MegaETH as the first "real-time blockchain" compatible with Ethereum. The protocol aims to achieve a throughput of 100,000 TPS, whereas other EVM networks provide only three-digit values, Kuhn explained.
According to the statement, the speed of transaction processing is provided by two main factors:
heterogeneous blockchain architecture that improves performance by allowing nodes with different configurations to specialize in specific tasks;efficient use of hardware resources to their limits due to the "hyperoptimized" execution environment of the Ethereum Virtual Machine."The creation of hyper-scalable EVM implementations is a key prerequisite for the true scaling of Ethereum. I am glad to see that great developers are taking on this task," Buterin commented.
MegaLabs plans to launch a public testnet in early autumn, and the main network towards the end of the year.
Sonic's L2 Protocol on Solana raised $12 million
Solana-based second-tier gaming network Sonic has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round organized by Bitkraft Ventures. This is reported by CoinDesk.
Galaxy Interactive and Big Brain Holdings are also among the investors.
The project was launched by the infrastructure company Mirror World Labs.
The firm will direct funds to the development of the protocol, including the creation of "built-in mechanisms designed specifically for the development and execution of games on Solana."
The team plans to use solutions like sandboxes, customizable primitives and extensible data types to facilitate the development of games on the blockchain and attract new projects to the ecosystem.
The Renzo restaking platform has raised $17 million
Renzo's liquid restaking protocol has raised $17 million in investments following two rounds of financing. One was held by Galaxy Ventures, the second by Brevan Howard Digital Nova Fund.
Renzo is excited to announce a $17M fundraise led by Nova Fund – Brevan Howard Digital and @galaxyhq
Participation includes @Maven11Capital @FigmentCapital @ProtagonistXYZ @SevenXVentures @BanklessVC @280Capital @AntalphaGroup @Consensys @l2iterative https://t.co/RMffWat2lb https://t.co/X759SHBA38 pic.twitter.com/YT30x9SKsS
Renzo helps users to re-stake ETH or "wrapped" versions like wBETH or stETH through interaction with EigenLayer.
Depositing assets gives users the opportunity to use the ezETH LRT token on other DeFi platforms to generate additional income.
In January, the project attracted $3.2 million in seed investments.
DePIN-Verida project received $5 million investment
The developer of the DePIN network Verida raised $5 million in a seed financing round involving O-DE Capital Partners, ChaiTech Ventures and Simurg Labs.
🌐 Verida raises $5M to revolutionize data privacy in the age of generative AI.
With backing from top investors, we're empowering users to control their data and secure personalized #AI experiences. ✨
Read more on @TheBlock__: https://t.co/53VEIaomYS pic.twitter.com/kjkeNHkyGR
Other investors include Gate Labs, HASH CIB, Bison Capital, Amesten Capital and Mysten Labs co-founder Evan Chen.
According to the results of the round, Verida was estimated at $50 million.
The project will use the funds raised to develop alternative decentralized solutions aimed at users who do not want their personal data to be used to train AI models.
The team intends to offer information storage and management through a variety of nodes, the operators of which will be network participants.
Electric Capital leads $3 million round for Wasabi
Wasabi, a leveraged memcoin and NFT trading protocol based on Blast's L2 solution, raised $3 million during a seed funding round.
Excited to announce our Seed Round led by @ElectricCapital to make high-growth, emerging assets trading accessible to all.
Joining Electric are the best builders, investors and traders from across DeFi and Web3, including @alliancedao @Memeland @santiagoroel @LucaNetz @0xCygaar… pic.twitter.com/tLzIeExOh3
Other participants include Alliance, Memeland, Spencer Ventures, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz and other investors.
The project has been collecting funding since January, co-founder Eren Derman told The Block. He did not comment on the structure of the round and the assessment based on its results.
Wasabi allows trading with leverage "assets with a long tail," the entrepreneur said. According to him, there are not enough such effective offers on the market.
Traders can open long, short and staking positions on memcoins and NFT. For such exotic coins, the leverage is 2-3 x, whereas for flagship coins like ETH and USDB it reaches 10x, explained Derman.
According to him, Wasabi is the first protocol that allows trading using borrowed funds backed by real assets. This eliminates the counterparty's risk, Derman stressed.
ForkLog also reported that the mining company Hut 8 has attracted $150 million in investments from Coatue Management through convertible bonds.