Mike Chan’s Post

Hello from Asia! Here are the 5 most interesting crypto fundraises (according to me) for the week ending 11/15/24: 1) 0G Labs Modular AI chain 0G Labs raised a $40M Seed round and a $250M token purchase commitment from Hack VC, Delphi Digital, OKX Ventures, and many others. 🤯 The funds will be used to accelerate the development of dAIOS, which will decentralize AI processing, enhance data privacy and security, and facilitate real-time AI computations without bottlenecks. 0G Labs will have a massive warchest to decentralize AI processing. Love to see it! 2) TAC (TON Access Control) EVM network extension for TON TAC (TON Access Control) raised $6.50M in a Seed round led by Hack VC (they’ve been busy!), Symbolic Capital, TON Ventures, and others. TAC aims to connect Ethereum dApps with Telegram's base of over 900 million users. This will allow Ethereum developers to create applications that can be accessed directly within Telegram. Cue Ethereum tap tap games?!?! 3) BetHog Inc Crypto-based casino and sportsbook BetHog raised $6M in a Seed round led by 6th Man Ventures (6MV), with participation from Will Ventures, Bullpen Capital, and others. BetHog was founded by the founders of FanDuel, who is a US leader in sports betting. So these guys are gonna crush! 4) Brevis Verifiable computation layer Brevis has successfully raised $7.5 million in a Seed round led by Polychain Capital and Binance Labs. Brevis allows blockchain applications to offload complex computations to an off-chain network and generate ZK proofs that can be verified on-chain. This allows devs to perform data-intensive tasks at lower cost while maintaining security and verifiability. 5) Notabene Crypto travel rule compliance platform Notabene raised $14.50M in a Series B funding round led by DRW Venture Capital, with participation from ParaFi Capital, Wintermute, and others. Notabene provides compliance solutions for crypto transactions for financial institutions globally. They'll play a super important role as crypto gains institutional adoption! Congrat to all the teams! If you enjoyed this content, please Like and Repost this! And give me a follow for more content like this!

This week's top airdrops The cryptocurrency market remains stable, while bitcoin (BTC) is aiming for the psychological $70,000 mark. For crypto enthusiasts, airdrops are a chance to get new tokens for free and become part of active crypto communities. This week, four interesting giveaways are particularly worth paying attention to. SupraOracles The SupraOracles team made a snapshot of user accounts on October 21 and is now preparing to give away SUPRA tokens. The project has already raised $26.52 million from venture capital giants like Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, Animoca Brands and HTX Ventures. The criteria for participating in the SupraOracles Airdrop were quite simple. They included participating in various campaigns and completing tasks. The project also launched a program called Supra Starcade. SUPRA 250 million has been allocated for it. Participants will have to perform tasks in the testnet. Scroll This week will see the long-awaited airdrop of Scroll. The project, which raised an investment of $80 million, made a snapshot of user accounts at the end of last seven days, October 19. SCR trading on leading trading platforms will begin today, October 22. The project has already opened a page for branding coins. A total of 571,774 addresses were allowed to participate in the giveaway. The total issue of SCR will amount to 1 billion tokens, of which 15% are intended for the community. Airdrop will be divided into two phases. Within the first, Sroll will distribute 7%, and during the second, it will distribute 8%. "The Scroll team is so greedy! After allocating 23% to themselves, they in addition decided to make a sybil airdrop by allocating 1 million+ points to each team member,” wrote one crypto investor and trader on X (ex-Twitter). Eclipse Eclipse's first Level 2 (L2) solution, running on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), has raised a $65 million investment, with Polychain Capital, Delphi Ventures, Tribe Capital, Hack VC and Placeholder Ventures participating in the funding round. In order to participate in the Eclipse token giveaway, you will need to mine non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the mainnet or through the project's official bridge as soon as they go live. An important task - you need to add the Eclipse network to your wallet before mining NFTs. Aptos According to Aptos tokenomics, 51% of the project's total token supply is for the community. The airdrop date almost coincided with the second anniversary of the launch of the projects main network. Participation in the Aptos Airdrop involves NFT minting. In honor of the anniversary, the developers introduced a limited edition of tokens. "If you're here, it means you're here first to celebrate the second anniversary of the Aptos core network. We've released a commemorative NFT AptosTwo - tokens available for a limited time. Mint your AptosTwo tod

Happy Friday! Here are the 5 most interesting crypto fundraises (according to me) for the week ending 12/6/24: 1) Sekai Story Protocol-based storytelling platform Sekai raised a $3M Seed round led by Hashed, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, OrangeDAO, and others Sekai is an AI storytelling platform that enables users to create interactive stories collaboratively by mixing and matching story assets then monetizing them. Crypto facilitates collaboration and getting paid properly for your work like never before! 2) Union Labs Interoperability developer Union Labs raised $12M in a Series A round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital, LongHash Ventures, and others Union Labs is developing a modular, ZK-powered cross-chain interoperability layer between Ethereum and the Cosmos ecosystem. Bridges and interoperability is still a big, largely-unsolved problem. 3) USDX.money Synthetic, USD stablecoin USDX.money raised $45M in a funding round from NGC Ventures, BAI Capital, and others USDX is similar to Ethena and uses a delta-neutral hedging strategy to maintain its peg with USD. You can also stake USDX to receive sUSDX rewards. There is currently $185M TVL in USDX 4) BLIFE Bitcoin-based Web3 ecosystem BLIFE Protocol raised $7M led by UTXO Management, with participation from Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Animoca Brands, and others BLIFE aims to provide community experiences such as gaming, DeFi, and IRL events on the Bitcoin blockchain, using their decentralized ID as the backbone. 5) Fiamma ZK network Fiamma raised $4M in a Seed round led by Lightspeed Faction and L2 Iterative Ventures (L2IV), with participation from BOB, Astera Ventures, and others Fiamma leverages Bitcoin’s security via Babylon and BitVM2, and its key products include a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge and a BitVM2-powered ZK verification layer on Bitcoin Congrats to all the teams for their fundraises! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a Like and Repost. And follow me for more crypto and VC content! Thanks for reading!

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! Here are the 5 most interesting crypto fundraises (according to me) for the week ending 11/29/24: 1) Lulu Chain AI-based emotional value blockchain LuluChain raised $5M in a round led by DG Capital, with participation from SMO Capital, Unionblock, and others. Lulu Chain is a modular blockchain that utilizes AI to analyze participants' emotional states across various social platforms and transforms this into quantifiable, tradable assets. Crypto will make everything a market - even emotions! -- 2) Rise Stablecoin-powered payroll and compliance company Rise raised $6.3M in a Series A round led by Draper Associates, Polymorphic Capital, and more Rise is a hybrid, cross-border payment infrastructure that blends fiat currencies, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. Its first product is a Global Contractor Payment system, which allows for both domestic & cross-border fiat and crypto payments for contractors across the world. Eventually everyone will be paid in crypto with platforms like Rise! -- 3) Talus L1 Blockchain for AI Agents Talus Network raised $6M in a Strategic round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Animoca Brands, and many others. Talus Network facilitates the creation, operation, and monetization of onchain, autonomous smart agents. Built on the MoveVM, Talus Network offers developers the tools to seamlessly develop, own, and monetize these composable smart agents. Bots, I mean AI agents, everywhere! -- 4) Rarimo ZK-based, privacy-first social protocol Rarimo Foundation raised $2.5M in a funding round from angel investors Vitalik Buterin, Keone Hon, Nick White, and many others. Rarimo is a privacy-first, multi-chain interoperability protocol that allows users to selectively disclose social graph information, enabling anonymous interactions across different blockchain networks while maintaining the integrity of their historical actions and connections. Privacy x Social is a winning combo! -- 5) Bleap Self-custodial payments platform Bleap raised $2.3M in a Pre-seed round led by Ethereal Ventures, with participation from Maven 11 Capital, Alliance DAO, and others. Bleap is a wallet-connected debit card that allows users to spend their funds directly from any EVM non-custodial wallet without off-ramping. More and more people will spend their crypto in the real world with solutions like this! -- Congrats to all the teams for their fundraises! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a Like and Repost. And follow me Mike Chan for more crypto and fundraising content! Thanks for reading!

Happy Frrriiiiiddaaay! Here are the 5 most interesting crypto fundraises (according to me) for the week ending 10/25/24: 1) Bluesky Decentralized social media platform Bluesky Social raised $15M in a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, and others. As you may know, Bluesky was started by Jack Dorsey but he's not there anymore. The ironic thing is that while it’s decentralized, Bluesky isn’t a blockchain company, but it’s being funded by blockchain-focused VC firms. And Bluesky insists that blockchain / crypto isn't on its roadmap. Interesante. 2) Moonwalk Fitness Gamified fitness rewards platform Moonwalk Fitness raised a $3.4M Seed round led by Hack VC, with participation from Binance Labs Fund, Reciprocal Ventures, CMS Holdings, and others. This is an iteration on move-to-earn apps like Stepn. In past apps, users simply earned tokens for exercising. This led to super high token inflation and thus plummeting token price. Moonwalk encourages users to hit daily step goals by staking USDC, SOL, or BONK. To win $, users must either meet their crew’s step goal or maintain pace with the leader’s highest completed days. If they fail to do so, they forfeit a portion of their stake, which is then distributed among the winners. Pretty interesting model! 3) Craftt Decentralized workforce benefits platform Craftt raised $2M in a Seed round led by Superscrypt, with participation from Digital Currency Group. The goal of Craftt is to offer universal benefits like health insurance, greater earnings opportunities, and exclusive work-life benefits and rewards—subsidized through a decentralized network. The way we work is changing, so the tools to manage this need to change as well. 4) Karpatkey DAO treasury and risk management protocol karpatkey raised $7M in a funding round from AppWorks, Wintermute, Borderless Capital, and others. Karpatkey already works with many DAOs on treasury management, and now they have the funding to grow. I know the Karpatkey team and they are amazing builders! Congrats to them! 5) Echo Protocol BTC restaking platform Echo Protocol closed a Pre-seed round led by The Spartan Group, with participation from ABCDE Capital, Maelstrom, Selini Capital, and others. There is over a trillion dollars of BTC ready to be deployed, and restaking will capture a big chunk of that. BitcoinFi is aliiiiive! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a Like and Repost! And follow me for more content like this! Have a great weekend!

In May, HackQuest partnered with Nanyang Technological University Singapore NTU Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NTU I&E) to launch the NTU I&E x HackQuest MOOC, “Ideating and Building on Web3” (hackquest.io/web3mooc). The internet is on the cusp of a major transformation, with Web3 poised to reshape how we interact, transact, and own. Fueled by blockchain technology, Web3 promises a more decentralized internet, where power shifts from corporations to users. According to metrics reported by TechCrunch and Bloomberg, as secondary market activities pick up, VC investment in crypto startups reached $2.52 billion across 603 deals in Q1 2024 alone, citing “positive effects from legal wins last year from Ripple and Grayscale”, “positive sentiments around decentralized finance (DeFi) on Solana”, and “demand increasing for the biggest cryptocurrency post-SEC spot bitcoin ETF approvals in the US” as contributing factors. Users are here too. More than half a billion people had become cryptocurrency users or owners by the end of 2023, according to cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com. For founders and aspiring founders in Web3, now is the time to build. This MOOC is designed to guide founders and aspiring founders through ideating and building Web3 projects under the mentorship of leading founders, investors, and researchers from both industry and academia. The course series will be delivered in two-hour weekly sessions from May 28 to the end of September, combining on-site, live, and recorded lessons to help you learn at your own pace. Since opening registrations in early May, we have received over 500 applications and welcomed hundreds of aspiring founders to join us live each week. Missed the live stream? No worries! You can catch up with the recordings, slides(hackquest.io/web3mooc), and study notes(hackquest.io/blog). Register for FREE to access upcoming sessions at hackquest.io/web3mooc. Our guest speakers include the best in the industry and academia: Ed Felten from The Arbitrum Foundation, Yat Siu, Alan Lau, and Mohamed Ezeldin from Animoca Brands, Scott Moore from Gitcoin, Sergey G. from Axelar Network, haider rafique from OKX, Austin Griffith from BuidlGuild and Ethereum Foundation, Anna Y. from Solana Foundation, Gloria Kimbwala (She/Her) from Morph, Jamie Burke from Outlier Ventures, Abhishek Saxena from Polygon Labs, Suji Yan from Mask Network, Diane Dai from DODO, Neil HAN from Reddio, Michael Yuan, and Ernie Teo, PhD, CFtP and Yi Li from NTU. We’d like to sincerely thank the NTU I&E team—Louis Phee, Boon Chow LIM, Silvia Yu—and the Media Relations team—Lester Kok—for all their help and support. This initiative would not be possible without the invaluable support of our sponsors: Morph, Open Campus, Solana Foundation, GaiaNet.AI, Mask Network , and Moonshot Commons. What’s Next? We are pleased to announce an upcoming collaboration with NTU for TOKEN2049. Further details will be shared soon.

🔥🔄 Sei: Empowering Decentralized Exchanges with Unmatched Performance 🔁🔥 Inception and Purpose: 🚀 Origins of Sei: Sei marks a pivotal advancement in blockchain technology as the first sector-specific Layer 1 blockchain, meticulously crafted for trading to provide exchanges with a competitive edge. Born out of the necessity to address the unique requirements of decentralized exchanges (DEXes), Sei aims to revolutionize trading in the crypto space. 💡 Empowering DEXes: Decentralized exchanges (DEXes) represent the cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, extending beyond automated market makers (AMMs) and order books to encompass NFT marketplaces and gaming platforms. Despite their ubiquity, DEXes face significant challenges due to the limitations of existing Layer 1 blockchains. Sei emerges to bridge this gap and empower DEXes with unparalleled reliability, scalability, and speed. Technology and Features: 🔗 Sector-Specific Design: Sei's architecture is meticulously tailored to meet the rigorous demands of trading, offering DEXes a dedicated infrastructure optimized for high-performance transactions. By focusing on the specific needs of the trading sector, Sei sets a new standard for reliability and efficiency in decentralized exchange operations. ⚙️ Unmatched Performance: Sei prioritizes reliability, scalability, and speed, providing DEXes with a robust and resilient platform to execute trades seamlessly. With lightning-fast transaction processing and minimal downtime, Sei ensures uninterrupted trading experiences, even during periods of high demand. Adoption and Community: ⚡ Fueling Network Effect: DEXes command the largest network effect in the crypto space, serving as the focal point for vibrant ecosystems to thrive. Sei's innovative approach to blockchain technology fuels the growth of decentralized exchanges, attracting developers, traders, and enthusiasts to join its community and contribute to its evolution. 🌐 Building Partnerships: Sei collaborates with leading exchanges, developers, and industry pioneers to expand its reach and foster adoption. By forging strategic partnerships and integrations, Sei strengthens its ecosystem and accelerates the mainstream adoption of decentralized trading platforms. Category: Layer 1 Date of launch:August 2023 Founder:Sei Labs Link to the CoinMarketCap:https://lnkd.in/ejf73DYJ Link to the Websitehttps://lnkd.in/ev5D792g 🔁🔥 #Sei #DecentralizedExchanges #BlockchainInnovation @SeiNetwork @larry0x @LayerZero_Labs

Crypto companies that fundraised over the past week: Payments Coinflow Labs is a financial platform that facilitates the seamless flow of cryptocurrency and fiat transactions. Coinflow raised a $2.25 million Seed on May 28th led by CMT Digital and followed by Reciprocal Ventures, Jump Crypto, DCG, Draper Dragon, Blocktech Ventures, and several individuals. Liquid Staking BabylonChain Inc. is a Bitcoin staking protocol designed to enable Bitcoin holders to participate in Proof-of-Stake networks while earning yields securely without needing to bridge or wrap their BTC. The project raised on May 30th a Private $70 million round led by Paradigm and followed by Polychain Capital, Bullish, HashKey Capital, Mantle Ecosystem, Galaxy, Hack VC, ViaBTC Capital, Amber, and others. L2 Mint is a Layer 2 blockchain tailored for the NFT industry, facilitating the creation, trading, and management of NFTs with a focus on improving scalability and interoperability within the ecosystem. Mint raised a $5 million Seed round on May 30th from Jsquare, SNZ Capital, Antalpha, Mask Network , Predator Capital, GoPlus Security, Whitelist Ventures, and others. Perpetuals DuelNow is a competitive platform that allows users to place bets on a variety of sports and events. It offers a user-friendly interface for making wagers, managing bets, and viewing live odds. DuelNow raised on June 1st a Seed round from Charlie Lee, Richard Ma, Billy Markus, Crypto Rand, Mooncat, RR2 Capital, Marc Van Der Chijs, David Wong, and Jonathan Lee. Stablecoin Anzen Finance is a platform that offers USDz, a stablecoin backed by a diversified portfolio of real-world assets. Anzen raised on May 28th a $4 million Seed round from Mechanism Capital, Circle Ventures, Frax, Arca, Infinity Ventures, Cherubic Ventures, Palm Drive Capital , M31 Capital, and Kraynos Capital. More companies (Infrastructure, RWA, Gaming...) inside the latest issue of our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ehW7Bw9T

💰💰💰 💰Crypto casino Monkey Tilt raises $30 million Series A led by Pantera Capital .. only launched in March, it has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by crypto VC firm Pantera Capital. Polychain Capital, PokerGO, Hack VC, Dream Ventures, Accomplice VC, Mirana and Josh Hannah — the VC and co-founder of Flutter Entertainment https://lnkd.in/esj9dyeq 💰 Pantera Capital raises $20m to back Telegram Messenger-linked blockchain TON After investing in May (largest ever for them), it has bet on TON again while Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov is still detained. https://lnkd.in/e3jHYqh7 💰 Rise raises $6.3 million to expand in Europe ..... from Draper Associates, Polymorphic Capital and DCG , etc. Launched in 2022, the NY based Franco-American start-up has developed a blockchain payment solution for businesses (salaries, invoices, etc.). https://lnkd.in/eh47mHie 💰 World Liberty Financial raises $30m, Partior takes home $20m The Donald Trump-backed startup raised $30 million from billionaire Justin Sun, founder of Tron (TRON) blockchain https://lnkd.in/dZ3PP7Qh     💰The Funding: Why ICOs are being revived "For many of you who have delayed using tokens to distribute control of your project and build community due to fears of regulatory overreach, you should now have greater confidence in your project's use of tokens as a legitimate and lawful tool," a16z crypto said. https://lnkd.in/eKDMmStf 💰 Deblock, a crypto wallet start-up, has reportedly secured £13.3 million in new funding ..with the round led by Headline, Hoxton Ventures, Chalfen Ventures, and 20VC Deblock seamlessly integrates traditional current accounts with a non-custodial crypto wallet. https://lnkd.in/e-wH3S8M   💰Ex-Revolut duo raise $2.3 million to build 'blockchain bank account' Bleap ... Maven11 , Alliance DAO, Robot Ventures and Credibly Neutral also participated alongside key executives from Revolut, Phantom, OKX, EigenLayer and Consensys. https://lnkd.in/e6pYBJG3 💰Story Protocol-based AI startup Sekai raises $3 million in seed round led by Hashed and includes a16z CSX, Azuki, Orange DAO and Zypsy https://lnkd.in/ea88arbS     💰 Folks Finance Secures $3.2 Million in Series A Funding at a $75 Million Valuation to Expand DeFi Solutions Platform led by Borderless Capital as well as SOVO Ventures, Mapleblock Capital, Algorand Ventures, and more, bringing the total funding to $6.2 million. https://lnkd.in/e9bU9bPT 💰 Avant, a DeFi protocol similar to Ethena, secures $6.5 million in seed funding at $25m implied valuation ..strategic investments from Superlayer, Avalaunch, GoGoPool, Daybreak Digital, and Linda Kreitzman. https://lnkd.in/ePsKgp-T 💰 Cypher Capital Group, a multi-strategy crypto investment firm, Invests $10m in Kernel's ,a Restaking Protocol on BNB Chain. ..which will be used to further develop its cross-chain restaking platform and expand its capabilities within the DeFi ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/e2tB7-kf

Dive into this week's crypto funding frenzy! 💰 💥 From groundbreaking Series A rounds to ambitious seed fundings, the crypto world is buzzing. 🚀 Aligned Layer raises $20M Series A: Led by Hack VC, Aligned Layer is set to become an actively validated service (AVS) on EigenLayer, leveraging restaking for added security. 📊 0g Labs secures $35M: With a focus on data availability, 0G Labs is sparking competition with Celestia and EigenLayer in the blockchain space. 💡 Othentic Labs scores $4M seed funding: Finality and Breyer Capital lead the charge in funding Othentic's innovative approach. 🌟 Movement Labs leads with $38M Series A: Polychain Capital backs Movement Labs as it launches Movement, a layer-2 solution using Facebook's Move software stack. 💼 Turnkey raises $15M: Turnkey focuses on wallet infrastructure services, attracting significant investment for its expansion. 📈 Pantera seeks $1B for new fund: Bloomberg reports Pantera's ambitious goal as the crypto market continues to surge. 🔥 Founders Fund joins Alliance crypto accelerator: Founders Fund shows confidence in the crypto ecosystem with its investment in the Alliance accelerator. 💻 Prime Intellect secures $5.5M: With a focus on decentralized AI development, Prime Intellect is poised to make waves in the industry. 🐕 Shiba Inu meme coin raises $12M: The Block reports a successful token sale for Shiba Inu, attracting non-US VCs. 💡 Carv raises $10M: Led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures, Carv focuses on building a modular data layer for the future. Follow Leo Ventures for more funding updates! 💼 #CryptoInvestments #Bitcoin #FundingDeals #Web3 #Crypto #memecoin