Funding Weekly Report | 10 publicly disclosed funding events; crypto payment network Mesh completes $75 million Series C funding round, led by Dragonfly Capital.

Highlights of this episode

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 10 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (January 26 - February 1), with a total funding scale exceeding US$197 million. An overview is as follows:

• In the DeFi sector, six investment and financing events were announced, including AC's new project Flying Tulip completing a $25.5 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $225.5 million.
• One investment and financing event was announced in the Web3+AI sector: AetheriumX completed an $8 million strategic financing round, co-led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital.
• Two investment and financing events were announced in the infrastructure & tools sector, including a $75 million Series C funding round for crypto payment network Mesh, led by Dragonfly Capital;
• One investment and financing event was announced in the centralized finance sector: crypto trading platform Talos completed a $45 million funding round, with Robinhood, a16z, and others participating.

DeFi

AC's new project, Flying Tulip, has completed a $25.5 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $225.5 million.

Flying Tulip, the unified on-chain financial system founded by Andre Cronje, founder of Sonic Labs, announced that it has completed a total institutional funding round of $225.5 million to date, at the same fully diluted valuation of $1 billion as its seed round. This funding includes a $25.5 million Series A private token funding round led by Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures, as well as a $200 million seed round completed last September.

In addition to institutional funding, Flying Tulip has raised $50 million through Impossible Finance's Curated platform and plans to launch another public sale on CoinList next week. The project team stated that it has received approximately $1.36 billion in investment intentions to date, and if the existing allocation is fully filled, the remaining funding amount will be approximately $400 million.

Doppler, a token creation platform, has raised $9 million in seed funding, led by Pantera Capital.

Doppler, a token creation and issuance protocol platform, has completed a $9 million seed funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Variant, Figment Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The team revealed that the funding will be completed in the second quarter of 2025 through a simple future equity protocol with token rights. Doppler is one of two products under Whetstone Research, the other being Pure Markets. Doppler streamlines the processes of token deployment, liquidity launch, and governance through integrated interfaces, and employs a price discovery auction mechanism designed to limit sniping and generate protocol-owned liquidity on the first day. The Doppler platform creates over 40,000 assets daily, with a cumulative value exceeding $1.5 billion and a cumulative trading volume exceeding $1 billion.

Tenbin Labs, a tokenization marketplace for gold and forex, has raised $7 million in funding, led by Galaxy Digital.

Galaxy Digital led a $7 million funding round for Tenbin Labs, which aims to build tokenized gold and foreign exchange markets. The project focuses on bringing traditional financial assets onto the blockchain and expanding the practical application of crypto assets in global markets.

Trading platform Everything has raised $6.9 million in seed funding, led by Humanity Protocol.

Trading platform Everything 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 create a "things exchange" integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, prediction markets, and payment functions. It plans to launch the Everything Points system, where users can earn points by holding assets, trading, and inviting friends. The total number of points will determine the future airdrop allocation of the platform's token, E, and ecosystem rewards. The public sale of the E token will subsequently launch on Telegram and a web-based mini-program.

On-chain finance application Bleap has raised $6 million in seed funding, led by Blossom Capital.

Bleap, an on-chain finance application that offers self-custodial and stablecoin payments, has raised $6 million in seed funding. The app 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 did not disclose its post-money valuation. Bleap plans to use the new funds to develop its yield vault, expand its on-chain transaction functionality, and drive growth in Latin America and Europe. Prior to this funding round, Bleap completed a $2.3 million pre-seed funding round in late 2024, led by Ethereal Ventures, founded by Consensys founder Joe Lubin.

RWA infrastructure project Golden FI has raised $2 million in seed funding, led by Golden Chain Capital.

Golden FI, a Web3 Real Asset (RWA) digital infrastructure platform, announced the successful completion of a $2 million seed funding round. The round was led by strategic partner Golden Chain Capital, with participation from four other globally renowned investment institutions specializing in Web3 and fintech. According to the company, information about the remaining four investors is not yet publicly available due to strategic considerations.

Web3 games

AetheriumX completes $8 million strategic financing

AetheriumX announced the completion of an $8 million strategic funding round, co-led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital. The funds will be used to optimize its DCIP protocol, expand its DeFi and GameFi modules, and focus on the Asia-Pacific market, building a sustainable and verifiable on-chain interactive economic ecosystem.

Infrastructure & Tools

Crypto payment network Mesh raises $75 million in Series C funding, led by Dragonfly Capital.

Crypto payment network Mesh announced the completion of a $75 million Series C funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion post-money. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures. This brings the company's total funding to over $200 million. The funds will be used to accelerate expansion in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and to drive product development. Mesh positions itself as an asset-agnostic unified payment network, already serving over 900 million users. It supports payments using any asset, including Bitcoin and Solana, while merchants settle instantly in stablecoins such as USDC and PYUSD, or their local fiat currencies. Part of this funding round was also settled in stablecoins.

Sony Innovation Fund invests $13 million in Startale, a co-developer of Soneium, launching its Series A funding round.

Sony's Innovation Fund has invested an additional $13 million in Startale Group, a co-developer of the Soneium blockchain, as the first tranche of its Series A funding round. Startale previously received a $3.5 million seed round investment from Sony in 2023 and a $3.5 million seed extension round investment from Dahua Venture Capital Management and Samsung Next in 2024, bringing its total publicly disclosed funding to $20 million.

Headquartered in Singapore, Startale has partnered with Sony's Blockchain Solutions Lab to develop the Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium and the Startale App, its ecosystem gateway application. Soneium, built on the OP Stack, focuses on entertainment industry applications and general-purpose scenarios. Since its mainnet launch in January 2025, it has processed over 500 million transactions, boasts 5.4 million active wallets, and supports over 250 active decentralized applications.

Centralized Finance

Cryptocurrency exchange Talos raises $45 million, with Robinhood, a16z, and others participating.

Robinhood participated in Talos's Series B expansion funding round, valuing the platform at approximately $1.5 billion. Talos focuses on providing crypto trading infrastructure to global institutions, serving clients with approximately $21 trillion in assets under management. This $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 investment. Robinhood stated that Talos's flexibility and rapid adaptability will further enhance the liquidity and functionality of its crypto business.

Venture capital firms

Venture capital firm Escape Velocity raises $62 million to focus on investing in DePIN and crypto projects.

Venture capital firm Escape Velocity has completed its second round of fundraising, raising a total of $62 million, which will be primarily used to support DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure) and projects in the broader crypto space.

The fund attracted prominent investors including Marc Andreessen and Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, with Cendana contributing $15 million as the largest contributor. Escape Velocity co-founder Mahesh Ramakrishnan stated that despite the current market downturn in the DePIN space, he believes decentralized physical infrastructure will see a breakthrough. The company has previously invested in DePIN projects such as Daylight and Glow in the solar energy sector and plans to continue seeking high-quality projects that transcend market hype.