Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 10 blockchain-related investment and financing events globally last week (Jan. 26 - Feb. 1), with a total funding amount exceeding $197 million. An overview is as follows:
- DeFi stands for "Decentralized Finance."The aspect has been announced.6AC's new project, Flying Tulip, has raised a $25.5 million Series A round of financing, bringing the total amount raised to date to $225.5 million.
- Web3 + AIThe race track has been announced.1AetheriumX secures $8 million in strategic funding, co-led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital.
- Infrastructure & ToolsThe field has been announced.2Triggered a financing and investment event, where the encrypted payment network Mesh completed a $75 million Series C round, led by Dragonfly Capital;
- Centralized FinanceThe field has been announced.1Talos, a crypto trading platform, has completed a $45 million financing round, with participation from Robinhood and a16z, among others.
DeFi stands for "Decentralized Finance."
Flying Tulip, a unified on-chain financial system founded by Andre Cronje of Sonic Labs, has announced that it has raised a total of $225.5 million in institutional funding to date at the same $10 billion fully diluted valuation as its seed round. The funding includes a $25.5 million private token round (Series A) led by Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures, as well as a $200 million seed round completed in September of last year.
In addition to institutional financing, Flying Tulip has also raised $50 million through the Curated platform of Impossible Finance, and plans to launch another public sale on CoinList next week. The project team stated that they have received approximately $1.36 billion in investment commitments so far. If the current allocation is fully filled, the remaining fundraising target will be around $400 million.
Token creation platform Doppler completes $9 million seed round, led by Pantera Capital
Doppler, a token creation and issuance protocol platform, has successfully completed a $9 million seed funding round. The round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Variant, Figment Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The team revealed that the funding, which took place in the second quarter of 2025, was structured as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) with token rights. Doppler is one of two major products under Whetstone Research, the other being Pure Markets. Doppler streamlines the processes of token deployment, liquidity bootstrapping, and governance through integrated interfaces. It also employs a price discovery auction mechanism designed to limit front-running and generate protocol-owned liquidity on the first day of a token's launch. The Doppler platform creates over 40,000 assets daily, with a cumulative value exceeding $1.5 billion and total trading volume surpassing $10 billion.
Galaxy Digital led Tenbin Labs' $7 million funding round, aiming to build a tokenized gold and foreign exchange market. The project focuses on bringing traditional financial assets onto the blockchain, expanding the practical applications of crypto assets in the global market.
Trading platform Everything Completes $6.9 Million Seed Round, Led by Humanity Protocol
Trading platform Everything has announced the completion of a $6.9 million seed funding round, led by Humanity Protocol, with participation from Animoca Brands, Hex Trust, and Three Point Capital. The platform aims to build an "Everything Exchange" integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, prediction markets, and payment functionalities. The platform plans to launch the Everything Points system, through which users can earn points by holding assets, trading, and inviting friends. The total points accumulated will determine the future airdrop allocation of the platform's native token E, as well as ecosystem rewards. The public sale of E tokens is scheduled to follow, launching via Telegram and a web-based mini-program.
On-chain financial application Bleap, which focuses on self-hosting and stablecoin payments, has completed a $6 million seed round of funding. The application is backed by former Revolut executives Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes. Joao Alves stated that the round, led by Blossom Capital, was completed last summer. The company has not disclosed its post-money valuation. Bleap plans to use the new funds to develop yield vaults, expand on-chain transaction capabilities, and drive business growth in Latin America and Europe. Prior to this round, Bleap had raised a $2.3 million pre-seed round in late 2024, led by Ethereal Ventures, founded by ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin.
RWA infrastructure project Golden FI completes $2 million seed round led by Jin Chain Capital
Web3 Real-World Asset (RWA) digital infrastructure platform Golden FI has announced the successful completion of a $2 million seed round. This round was led by strategic partner Jinlian Capital, with participation from four additional globally renowned investment institutions specialized in Web3 and fintech. According to the official statement, information about the four participating institutions has not been disclosed for strategic business reasons.
Web3 Games
AetheriumX Completes $8 Million Strategic Financing
AetheriumX announces the completion of an 8 million USD strategic financing round, jointly led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital. The funds from this round will be used to optimize its DCIP protocol, expand its DeFi and GameFi modules, and focus on the Asia-Pacific market to build a sustainable and verifiable on-chain interactive economic ecosystem.
Infrastructure & Tools
Crypto payment network Mesh completes $75 million Series C funding round, led by Dragonfly Capital
Crypto payment network Mesh has announced the completion of a $75 million Series C funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $1 billion. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures. The company has now raised over $200 million in total funding. The funds will be used to accelerate expansion in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, as well as to drive product development. Positioned as an asset-agnostic unified payment network, Mesh has already reached over 900 million users. It enables users to pay with any asset, such as Bitcoin or Solana, while merchants can instantly settle in stablecoins like USDC or PYUSD, or in local fiat currencies. Notably, a portion of this latest round of funding was also settled in stablecoins.
Sony's innovation fund has made an additional investment of $13 million in Startale Group, a joint developer of the Soneium blockchain, as the first tranche of its Series A funding. Previously, Startale received a $3.5 million seed investment from Sony in 2023, and in 2024, it secured an additional $3.5 million in seed extension funding from Dahua Ventures Management and Samsung Next, bringing the total publicly disclosed funding to $20 million.
Startale is headquartered in Singapore and has jointly developed the Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium and the Startale App, an ecosystem entry application, with Sony Blockchain Solutions Lab. Built on the OP Stack, Soneium focuses on entertainment industry applications and general-purpose scenarios. Since its mainnet launch in January 2025, Soneium has processed over 500 million transactions, boasting 5.4 million active wallets and supporting more than 250 active decentralized applications.
Centralized Finance
Robinhood has participated in the B-round expansion financing of the cryptocurrency trading platform Talos. This funding round has valued Talos at approximately $1.5 billion. Talos specializes in providing cryptocurrency trading infrastructure to global institutional clients, serving customers with a total asset management size of about $21 trillion. The $45 million expansion round also attracted new strategic investors, including Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Karatage, while existing investors a16z crypto, BNY, and Fidelity Investments also joined the round. Robinhood stated that Talos's flexibility and rapid adaptability will further enhance liquidity and functionality for its cryptocurrency business.
Venture capital firm
The venture capital firm Escape Velocity has completed its second round of fundraising, securing a total of $62 million, which will primarily be used to support DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) and broader blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.
The fund has attracted well-known investors, including Marc Andreessen and Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital. The largest contributor to the fund, Cendana, contributed $15 million. Mahesh Ramakrishnan, co-founder of Escape Velocity, stated that despite the current market downturn in the DePIN sector, he believes decentralized physical infrastructure will achieve a breakthrough. The company, which previously invested in DePIN projects such as Daylight and Glow in the solar energy field, plans to continue seeking high-quality projects that go beyond market hype.