Cryptocurrency venture capital firm CMT Digital raised $136 million for its fourth fund; Bitcoin lending platform Lava announced it has raised an additional $200 million to build Lava’s suite of Bitcoin financial instruments.
Highlights of this episode
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 13 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (November 3-9), with a total funding scale exceeding US$808 million; in addition, listed companies raised over US$705 million in cryptocurrency asset reserves. A summary is as follows:
- In the DeFi sector, five investment and financing events were announced, with Accountable completing a $7.5 million funding round led by Pantera Capital.
- One investment and financing event was announced in the Web3+AI sector: Donut Labs, a Web3+AI browser project, completed a $15 million seed round of financing, with BITKRAFT participating in the investment;
- The infrastructure & tools sector announced six investment and financing events, including a $25 million funding round for crypto infrastructure company Commonware, led by Stripe-backed startup Tempo.
- In the centralized finance sector, one investment and financing event was announced: Standard Money, the developer of USDsd, the stablecoin in the BNB Chain ecosystem, completed an $8 million strategic financing round.
- In addition, two publicly traded companies completed financing for their crypto treasury strategies, with Nasdaq-listed shipping company OceanPal completing a $120 million PIPE.
DeFi
Bitcoin lending platform Lava announced that it has raised an additional $200 million to build its suite of Bitcoin financial instruments. The funding comes from global capital partners, including venture capital and debt financing, with angel investors Anthony Pompliano and Eric Jackson participating in this round.
Cryptocurrency trading app Fomo raises $17 million in Series A funding, led by Benchmark.
Cryptocurrency trading app Fomo has raised $17 million in Series A funding, led by Benchmark, bringing its total funding to $19 million. The project attracted 140 industry leaders as angel investors through a unique strategy, including Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, and former Coinbase CTO and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan. Launched in May of this year, Fomo integrates with Apple Pay for quick account opening and trading. The platform supports cross-chain trading of millions of crypto assets, charges a 0.5% transaction fee and waives gas fees, and features built-in social features that allow users to track others’ trading strategies.
Rift, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction protocol, raises $8 million from Paradigm.
Rift, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction protocol, announced that it has secured $8 million in funding from Paradigm to bring native Bitcoin transactions to Ethereum and other platforms.
Liquid, a DEX aggregator, has raised $7.6 million in seed funding, led by Paradigm.
Decentralized perpetual contract aggregator Liquid has raised $7.6 million in seed funding, led by Paradigm, with participation from General Catalyst and several angel investors in the crypto and technology sectors. Liquid integrates platforms such as Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Ostium, providing a one-stop solution for non-custodial trading, yield, risk control, and analytics. The founder is Franklyn Wang, former head of AI at Two Sigma. The platform has already facilitated over $500 million in trading volume.
Soneium’s ecosystem liquidity center, Kyo Finance, has completed a $5 million Series A funding round, led by Castrum Istanbul and others.
Soneium’s ecosystem liquidity hub, Kyo Finance, announced the completion of a $5 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $100 million. The round was led by Castrum Istanbul, TBV, and BZB Capital. The core objective of this protocol remains to establish a single liquidity layer to eliminate chain boundaries and complexities in decentralized finance (DeFi).
AI
Donut Labs, a Web3+AI browser project, has raised $15 million in seed funding. Investors include BITKRAFT, Makers Fund, Sky9 Capital, Altos Ventures, and Hack VC, as well as participants from the Solana, Sui, and Monad ecosystems. The project plans to embed autonomous transaction agents into the browser, enabling users to perform on-chain transaction analysis even offline.
Donut Browser already has a waiting list of over 160,000 users, and the company plans to use the funding to develop a profitable smart browser that can integrate real-time market intelligence and execute automated trades. Donut Browser states its goal is to transform how users interact with the financial internet by embedding autonomous trading agents directly into the browsing experience. These agents can analyze markets, calculate risk, and execute on-chain transactions, even when the user is offline.
Infrastructure & Tools
Ripple announced that it has secured $500 million in strategic investment led by institutional investors including Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace, valuing the company at $40 billion.
Crypto infrastructure company Commonware raises $25 million, led by Stripe-backed startup Tempo.
Tempo, a payment blockchain jointly launched by Stripe and Paradigm, has completed its first strategic investment, leading a $25 million funding round for crypto infrastructure company Commonware. As part of the agreement, the Stripe-backed project will collaborate with Commonware to develop faster methods for processing blockchain payments. Commonware’s founder revealed that this round represents a significant increase in valuation compared to its $63 million seed round. Founded in 2024, this for-profit company has only seven employees and already boasts four clients through its open-source software services, with each client generating over a million dollars in revenue annually. Its open-source technology helps other businesses quickly deploy customized blockchains.
Hardware and software company Arx Research has raised $6.1 million in seed funding, led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Inflection, Placeholder, Seed Club Ventures, and 1kx. The company officially launched “Burner Terminal,” a handheld POS device that integrates digital assets and traditional payments.
This terminal is EMV secure and supports stablecoin, contactless card, and chip-based payment methods. It also integrates the Flexa network to support crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Designed specifically for small businesses like food carts and hair salons, the product utilizes WiFi and LTE networks for mobile payments. Consumers can complete payments via smartphone touch, Burner card, or QR code scanning. A founding partner at Castle Island Ventures pointed out that this marks the first time stablecoins have truly penetrated the physical retail market. The company’s CEO stated that if merchants directly accept stablecoins, the fee structure could be nearly free.
Solana ecosystem project Harmonic has raised $6 million in seed funding, led by Paradigm.
Harmonic, a Solana ecosystem infrastructure project, has completed a $6 million seed funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from several key Solana stakeholders as angel investors. Harmonic aims to build Solana’s first open block-building system, aggregating bids from multiple block builders in real time to help validators obtain the optimal block. This system addresses the current issue of overly centralized block-building power in the Solana network, operating similarly to an order routing system in high-frequency trading.
Sprinter raises $5.2 million in seed funding, led by Robot Ventures.
Sprinter, a cross-chain infrastructure project founded by several early Ethereum developers, has raised $5.2 million in seed funding, led by Robot Ventures with participation from Uniswap Labs Ventures and others. Sprinter focuses on “solving-as-a-service,” providing uncollateralized credit and quote-based Swap APIs to improve transaction execution efficiency, and is currently in private beta testing.
Zynk, a cross-border payment infrastructure company supporting stablecoins, has completed a $5 million seed funding round led by Hivemind Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Alliance DAO, Transpose Platform VC, Polymorphic, Tykhe Ventures, and Contribution Capital. The new funds will primarily be used to expand its transaction channel coverage, enhance its liquidity, technology, and compliance infrastructure, and establish partnerships with leading global payment service providers. Zynk provides payment companies with instant cross-border settlement services that eliminate the need for pre-deposits by integrating fiat and stablecoin settlement channels. Zynk’s co-founder and CEO stated that its core technology lies in embedding liquidity directly into the network, eliminating the need for pre-deposits in traditional payments. Currently, the platform supports instant cross-border settlements in six major currencies, including USD, EUR, and Indian Rupee, and has achieved an average monthly growth of 70% since its quiet launch in April. The team comprises fintech experts from institutions such as Amazon Pay India and Morgan Stanley.
DAT
(These types of transactions are not included in this week’s financing report statistics)
Tharimmune completes $540 million private funding round to establish Canton token treasury
Nasdaq-listed Thaimmune announced the completion of a $540 million private funding round, led by DRW and Liberty City Ventures, with participation from ARK Invest, Bitwave, Broadridge, Clear Street, Copper, Digital Asset, and other companies. The new funds will support the company in establishing the Canton utility token treasury and purchasing tokens.
Digital asset finance company Hyperscale Data, Inc. announced the completion of its previously disclosed “ATM” equity offering, further strengthening the company’s balance sheet and accelerating its growth plans. Through this offering, the company sold a total of 255,490,454 Class A ordinary shares, raising a total of $125 million.
Swiss Bitcoin treasury company FUTURE completes CHF 28 million funding round
Future Holdings AG, a leading Swiss Bitcoin treasury company, announced the successful completion of a CHF 28 million strategic funding round. This round was led by prominent investment firms including Fulgur Ventures, Nakamoto, and TOBAM, all with strong backgrounds in both traditional finance and the Bitcoin sector. Future is led by an experienced team including Richard Byworth, Chairman of Syz Capital, CEO Sebastien Hess, and co-founders such as Blockstream CEO Adam Back. Future’s business model is based on a Bitcoin balance sheet, encompassing treasury operations, research and analysis, infrastructure development, and consulting services, aiming to drive institutional Bitcoin adoption. Future plans to host the Future Bitcoin Forum in Switzerland in 2026 to further solidify its industry position.
Stewards completes $10 million PIPE funding round to establish DOLO digital asset treasury
Stewards, a U.S. over-the-counter publicly traded company, announced that it has entered into a $10 million token-for-equity financing deal with the Dolomite Foundation. The deal will be conducted using a private equity (PIPE) model, and the funds will reportedly be used to support Stewards in building a digital asset treasury for Dolomite’s native token, DOLO.
Centralized Finance
Stablecoin developer Standard Money completes $8 million strategic funding round
Standard Money, the developer of the BNB Chain ecosystem stablecoin USDsd, has completed an $8 million strategic funding round led by Yzi Labs, with participation from Gate.io, Crypto.com, and Animoca Brands. Standard Money claims to have received investment from YZi Labs, but YZi Labs denies this claim. YZi Labs stated that Standard Money is a renamed version of the Tranching protocol, a project in Binance Labs’ Q3 incubation program, and that YZi Labs did not lead its strategic investment round. USDsd is a yield-seeking algorithmic stablecoin based on the stablecoin USDT. The funds raised will be used to support Standard Money’s mainnet launch, expand its liquidity partnerships, and grow its global operations.
Venture capital firms
Crypto venture capital firm CMT Digital raised $136 million for its fourth fund.
Cryptocurrency venture capital firm CMT Digital has raised $136 million for its fourth fund, a round that closed in early October, attracting participation from family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and several large institutions. Specific investors were not disclosed. CMT Digital has allocated approximately 25% of its $136 million to investments in the popular stablecoin sector, betting on startups such as Coinflow and Codex.