In the week of May 19 to May 25, blockchain startups raised a total of over $258 million, with Farcaster leading the way with a $150 million series A round for their decentralized social protocol.
Crypto Fundraising reported that four startups secured $179.2 million in Series A rounds, while 12 startups received $24.1 million through undisclosed rounds. Additionally, five startups obtained $21.3 million from seed rounds, and two managed to raise a combined $20 million from strategic rounds. Two more startups collected $9 million from private rounds, and one startup raised $5 million from a public sale round.
Farcaster, an Ethereum-based decentralized social media protocol, achieved unicorn status with its $150 million Series A funding round led by Paradigm. Other notable investors included a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Standard Crypto. This funding round brought Farcaster’s valuation to an impressive $1 billion, positioning them as a unicorn in the industry. Co-founder Dan Romero mentioned that the capital would be used to increase daily active users and enhance developer tools like channels and direct messaging, as well as to hire more engineers to support these efforts.
Plume Network, a modular Layer 2 network for integrating real-world assets on-chain, announced a successful $10 million seed funding round led by Haun Ventures. The company plans to simplify the process of bringing assets like real estate and art onto blockchain platforms with this funding.
In another development, Blockless, a decentralized physical infrastructure network project, raised $8 million in early funding rounds to support its expansion. Co-founder Butian Li revealed plans to launch a test network soon, with a main network and native BLESS token slated for release in Q3 2024.
Pencils Protocol, an auction platform and yield aggregator, secured $2.1 million in seed funding, while IVX, a native options protocol project, raised $1.2 million in a seed round. Cysic, a zero-knowledge hardware acceleration company, raised $12 million in a pre-A funding round, and RunesFi, an infrastructure hub for Bitcoin, received $400,000 in funding.
Overall, the week showcased significant funding activities in the crypto and blockchain space, with various startups securing substantial investments to drive innovation and growth in the industry.