This Issue's Highlights
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 16 blockchain-related funding and investment events globally last week (March 30 – April 5), with a total funding volume exceeding $264 million, as summarized below:
- The DeFi sector has announced two investment and financing events: RWA infrastructure company Midas has completed a $50 million Series A round led by RRE and Creandum.
- In the AI + Web3 space, one investment and financing event was announced: the decentralized AI agent network ARO Network completed a $5 million strategic funding round.
- The infrastructure and tools sector announced four investment and financing events, including OpenFX, a startup focused on foreign exchange market making and cross-border remittances, which raised $94 million in this round led by Accel and others.
- Five funding rounds were announced in the centralized finance sector, with Valinor completing a $25 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures;
- In the prediction market space, two investment and financing events were announced: Pump.fun led a $1 million pre-seed round for Pumpcade;
- Two other Web3 application sectors announced funding rounds: the Web3 chess project Pixie Chess completed a $5.2 million seed round led by Paradigm.
DeFi
RWA infrastructure company Midas completes a $50 million Series A round led by RRE and Creandum.
RWA infrastructure company Midas has completed a $50 million Series A round led by RRE and Creandum, with participation from Framework Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Midas will use the proceeds to expand its "Midas Staked Liquidity" (MSL) system, which enables instant redemptions for on-chain yield-bearing token products by introducing a standalone liquidity layer alongside the product and pre-allocating funds to meet redemption demands—addressing the liquidity bottleneck of traditional "vault" structures that require users to wait in line for redemptions. Midas reports that since 2024, it has issued $1.7 billion in tokenized assets and distributed $37 million in returns to investors.
RWA tokenization platform Brickken completes €3 million Pre-A funding round, with GRX among the investors.
Brickken, a RWA tokenization platform headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, has announced the completion of a €3 million Pre-A funding round, with participation from Dedagroup and GRX. The new funds will be used to strengthen the compliance of its RWA tokenization infrastructure, support the tokenization of assets such as equities, debt, bonds, funds, real estate, and commodities, and expand into the EU and UAE markets.
AI
Decentralized AI Agent Network ARO Network completes $5 million strategic funding round
The decentralized AI agent network, ARO Network, has completed a $5 million strategic funding round co-led by NoLimit Holdings and an undisclosed Asian data center operator. The project aims to build a decentralized shared network that deploys AI agents directly in users' homes, leveraging local resources to deliver personalized, privacy-preserving AI experiences. As of March 2026, its decentralized residential network has grown to over 1.18 million active nodes. Meanwhile, ARO Network has officially launched Testnet Sprint 2 to further streamline the user experience.
Infrastructure & Tools
Stablecoin cross-border payment infrastructure company OpenFX completes a $94 million funding round.
OpenFX, a startup focused on foreign exchange market-making and cross-border payments, has raised $940 million in funding, led by investors including Accel, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera, bringing its post-money valuation to approximately $5 billion. OpenFX enables faster and lower-cost settlement for large cross-border funds by using stablecoins as a bridge between banking systems and blockchain infrastructure. The company reports that over 98% of its transactions settle within 60 minutes, with its annualized payment volume increasing from approximately $4 billion to $45 billion. OpenFX plans to use the new funding to expand into Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Stablecoin card issuance platform Kulipa has completed a $6.2 million seed round led by 1kx and others.
Paris-based stablecoin card issuance infrastructure platform Kulipa has completed a $6.2 million seed round led jointly by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, with participation from White Star Capital and Fabric Ventures. The company enables fintech platforms and crypto wallets to issue white-label stablecoin payment cards while handling complex back-end processes such as payment processing, fraud management, pre-funding, and settlement. Since launching its infrastructure in February 2025, Kulipa has issued over 120,000 cards, onboarded 20 customers including Flutterwave, Solflare, and Ready, and achieved a 70% month-over-month growth in transaction volume. Kulipa currently operates in the EU, Argentina, and Nigeria, and is planning to expand into the U.S. market through a bank identification number sponsorship model.
Blockchain infrastructure platform Uniblock has completed a $5.2 million funding round, with participation from SBI and others.
The blockchain infrastructure platform Uniblock has announced the completion of a $5.2 million funding round, bringing its total raised to $7.5 million. Investors include SBI, AllianceDAO, CoinSwitch, Blockchain Founders Fund, Hustle Fund, AAF Management, NGC Ventures, Alchemy, and MoonPay. The funds will be used for platform expansion, market growth, and team development.
Uniblock connects to over 300 blockchains and 55 data partners through a single API, offering automated routing, failover, and data standardization services. The platform is currently used by 3,000 projects and 4,000 developers, with clients including Plume Network, Stellar, Hypernative, Oku Trade, nReach, and Apechain. Uniblock has also launched AI-native development tools, including MCP servers, llms.txt documentation, and Agent Skills, supporting AI coding environments such as Claude, Codex, and Cursor.
Quantum-safe Layer 1 blockchain developer Diamante completes $1.5 million in strategic funding.
Diamante Financial Technologies, a quantum-safe Layer 1 blockchain developer, has completed a $1.5 million strategic funding round led by Khofiz Shakhidi, founder of Jefferson Capital. Diamante utilizes post-quantum cryptography certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (FIPS 204). Additionally, Diamante has partnered with Minexx to tokenize Minexx’s rare earth elements business, marking the first institutional-grade commodity tokenization on a quantum-resistant blockchain.
Centralized Finance
Crypto-friendly bank Cross River Bank completes $50 million in new funding.
Cryptocurrency-friendly bank Cross River Bank has raised $500 million from existing investors, led by funds under T. Rowe Price, at a valuation just above $3 billion. The new capital will accelerate product launches, deepen partnerships, and expand international operations, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Founded in 2008, Cross River provides banking infrastructure to over 100 technology and fintech companies, including Stripe, Coinbase, and Affirm, and recently announced a payment partnership with the X platform. The bank has gained attention for its Solana chain integration and participation in Visa’s USDC stablecoin settlement pilot.
Valinor completes a $25 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures.
Valinor, a startup founded by former members of Blackstone’s private credit team, has announced the completion of a $25 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Susquehanna’s crypto division, Maven11, and the founder of TeraWulf, among others. Co-founded by Connor Dougherty and Lily Yarborough, Valinor plans to migrate private credit operations to the blockchain, replacing traditional lending processes reliant on spreadsheets and manual reviews with smart contracts to improve the efficiency of executing “rule-driven” loans such as $50 million revolving credit facilities. Currently with six employees, the company has already extended loans to a select number of fintech and crypto firms and intends to scale its lending activities while focusing on “real-economy credit” use cases.
Stablecoin clearing platform Better Money has raised $10 million in seed funding, led by a16z crypto.
The Better Money Company, founded by former a16z crypto investor Sam Broner and partner Adam Zuckerman, has announced the completion of a $10 million seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from BoxGroup, Sunflower Capital, Circle co-founder Sean Neville, and former Microsoft executive Charlie Songhurst. The project plans to build a stablecoin settlement platform offering centralized exchange and liquidity services for compliant stablecoins such as USDC and USAT that meet the Genius Act standards. By establishing direct accounts with issuers like Paxos, Stripe Bridge, and MoonPay, the platform aims to reduce institutional costs associated with buying and selling stablecoins on open markets.
Stablecoin cross-border payment network Latitude raises $8 million in funding, led by NEA.
Latitude, a cross-border payments startup founded by former Stripe and Coinbase employees, has announced an $8 million funding round led by NEA, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Coinbase, Paxos, and the Solana Foundation. Latitude’s core product, “Global Payouts,” serves U.S.-based businesses by enabling dollar payments to individual accounts in over 50 countries via a stablecoin infrastructure, automatically converting USD to stablecoins and then to local fiat currencies—it already serves content creator platforms like Zencastr. The company also provides stablecoin on-ramp infrastructure for crypto-native applications such as prediction markets, facilitating local currency-to-stablecoin conversions in markets like Mexico and the Philippines. Currently in testing, Latitude generates revenue through transaction fees; its team consists of 11 members and views traditional bank-based SWIFT foreign exchange payments as its primary competitor.
Digital asset services company Keyrock has completed a Series C round led by SC Ventures, with a valuation of $1.1 billion.
Belgian digital assets services firm Keyrock has completed a Series C funding round led by SC Ventures, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, at a $1.1 billion valuation, with Ripple participating as an existing investor. The funding round remains open, with a potential total size of up to $100 million. The new capital will be used to strengthen the balance sheet, expand the product offerings, and pursue acquisition opportunities. Founded in 2017, Keyrock provides market making, asset management, over-the-counter trading, and options services, serving more than 80 centralized and decentralized exchanges with over 200 employees globally. The company expanded its asset and wealth management offerings in September last year through the acquisition of Turing Capital.
Prediction markets
Pump.fun led a $1 million pre-seed round in Pumpcade, doubling down on live streaming prediction markets.
The Solana-based platform Pump.fun led a $1 million pre-seed round in the live-stream prediction market platform Pumpcade, with participation from Foundation Capital and angel investor RadioSolace. Pumpcade integrates directly into Pump.fun’s chat system, enabling users to create prediction markets with a single click during live streams, compressing the full market lifecycle to between 60 seconds and 30 minutes across themes such as crypto assets, stocks, and sports events. The project launched private testing in January, with approximately 500 users creating thousands of markets on the testnet. A public testnet and mainnet launch are planned for Q2 2026, with proceeds from this round primarily allocated to expanding the engineering team and advancing commercialization.
YZi Labs makes additional investment in the on-chain prediction market Predict.fun
YZi Labs has made an additional strategic investment in the on-chain prediction market Predict.fun following the second quarter of the EASY Residency program, with Susquehanna Crypto co-investing simultaneously. The announcement states that Predict.fun has achieved cumulative trading volume exceeding $1.8 billion and processed over 4 million orders, and completed its acquisition of Probable in March to strengthen its position within the BNB Chain prediction market ecosystem.
Others
Web3 chess project Pixie Chess completes a $5.2 million seed round led by Paradigm.
The Web3 chess project Pixie Chess has completed a $5.2 million seed round led by Paradigm, with participation from SEED CLUB and several angel investors. Pixie Chess is an encrypted chess game infused with magic, where each piece possesses unique abilities, combining collection, synthesis, and competition in a Web3 chess experience.
The DeSci project NanoVita has completed its seed funding round, with participation from institutions including CGV.
The DeSci project NanoVita has announced the successful completion of its seed funding round. The round was led by Cryptogram Venture (CGV), UNIVERSE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE PTE. LTD. (Singapore), Candaq Fintech Group, and Susie Ventures (BVI). NanoVita is a decentralized science (DeSci) protocol that integrates nanotechnology, AI-driven biological intelligence, and real-world health data to build an open and transparent infrastructure for health research.
The completion of this funding round marks the acceleration of NanoVita’s initiatives in nanotechnology, AI-driven biological intelligence, and blockchain-based health. The project will further advance the development of a decentralized health research ecosystem, leveraging blockchain technology to reconstruct and enable open sharing of health data value.
DAT
(This type of financing event is not included in the weekly report statistics.)
MetaPlanet raises $255 million, which could be used to acquire over 3,800 bitcoins.
The Japanese publicly listed company MetaPlanet has received the previously announced funding of $255 million from global institutional investors. At current prices, this capital could enable the purchase of over 3,800 bitcoins; if fully allocated to bitcoin acquisition, MetaPlanet could become the third-largest publicly listed company by bitcoin holdings. Previously disclosed details indicate that the financing structure includes warrants exercisable only when the stock price exceeds 1.01 times the adjusted net asset value, and the new shares issued must increase the number of bitcoins held per share, prohibiting dilutive issuance.
ZeroStack has entered into a $107 million 0G token financing agreement, locking up nearly 21% of the 0G supply.
Nasdaq-listed company ZeroStack Corp. has announced that it has finalized an agreement for a $107 million financing transaction anchored in 0G tokens, after which ZeroStack will hold approximately 21% of the total 0G token supply.
Under the financing terms, ZeroStack will establish a Texas-based company, Texas Blocker, to facilitate this transaction. The investor plans to contribute 142,232,948 native 0G tokens (valued at approximately $107 million). Texas Blocker will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeroStack upon completion of the share exchange, which is expected to occur around July 5, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and shareholder approval.