Crypto Fundraising weekly
Dates: 10 – 16, Aug 2025

This week's biggest funding round

Bullish raised $1.1B in a Public sale funding round from .

Bullish is a regulated, institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange blending CeFi, DeFi, and traditional finance principles to offer secure, capital-efficient trading in digital assets. Launched in 2021 by Block.one and led by former NYSE president Tom Farley, it provides spot, margin, and derivatives trading through a hybrid CLOB + AMM order book model. Bullish maintains full-reserve, daily reconciliations, and independent audits, while ensuring compliance via GFSC licensing.

Pre-seed and Seed investment rounds

Hyperbeat raised $5.2M in a Seed funding round from ether fi Ventures*, Electric Capital*, Coinbase Ventures, Chapter One, Selini Capital, Maelstrom, Anchorage Digital, Node Capital, Fourth Revolution Capital (4RC), Relayer Capital, dlab, Breed VC, Heartcore Capital, Flowdesk, Luganodes, Nonce Classic, MEV Capital, DCF God, Bryan Pellegrino, MrBlock.

Hyperbeat is a DeFi-native infrastructure protocol built to scale the Hyperliquid ecosystem, including HyperEVM and HyperliquidX. It runs community-driven initiatives such as a validator node (in partnership with P2P.org) and automated liquidity strategies via non-custodial vaults. The platform integrates a permissionless lending and borrowing layer through Morpho, supporting assets like USDT, Bitcoin, and LSTs. Users can stake $HYPE tokens to secure the network, earn rewards, and participate in ecosystem growth.

HolmesAI raised $3M in a Seed funding round from Bitrise Capital, Cryptogram Venture (CGV), Waterdrip Capital.

HolmesAI is a decentralized AI agent platform that enables users to create highly personalized “Personas”—AI agents that mirror their language, behavior, and thought patterns. Leveraging blockchain, these Personas become tradable digital assets, granting their creators sovereignty and economic rewards when deployed.

Riva Money raised $3M in a Pre-seed funding round from Project A*.

Riva Money is a fintech startup that offers an adaptive cross-border payments platform that dynamically chooses between blockchain-based (using stablecoins) and traditional fiat rails for the fastest, lowest-cost transfers—available 24/7.

Other investment rounds

XMAQUINA raised $315K in a Public sale  funding round from .

XMAQUINA is a DePIN platform for tokenized autonomous robots, allowing people to share in the revenues from smart machines. It enables businesses to tokenize real-world assets, turning intelligent machines into public investment opportunities to scale robotics ventures. This approach enhances liquidity, stakeholder engagement, and market leadership while ensuring transparency through on-chain mechanisms.

Rice AI raised undisclosed amount in a Series A  funding round from Floki*, DWF Labs, TokenFi, Vibe Labs, CRG, OverDose.

Rice AI is a decentralized AI robotics platform that builds a token-based DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) to democratize robotics data sharing. The ecosystem enables robots worldwide—including the MiniBot M1 with onboard GPU capabilities—to upload sensor and interaction data in exchange for $RICE tokens. This data powers a decentralized AI foundry where developers can train and access foundation models for physical AI applications.

Mesh (ex Front Finance) raised $9.5M in a  funding round from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, Mirana Ventures, SBI Investment, Overlook Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Moderne Ventures, CE-Ventures (Crescent Enterprises).

Mesh is a startup developing a service that enables customers to easily transfer and manage digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, across various platforms. It provides a secure and direct wallet-to-wallet transfer solution without storing users' personal information or credentials. Mesh aims to make digital transactions more secure, compliant, and user-friendly by offering interoperability for businesses and users across the digital landscape.

DeAgent AI raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Momentum.

DeAgent AI is a decentralized Web3-native network for creating and managing autonomous AI agents that co-govern with humans. Leveraging blockchain anchors, verifiable consensus, zk-powered decision modules (“Lobe”), distributed memory, and tool-based extensibility, DeAgent agents ensure consistent, auditable decisions across sessions in a trust-minimized manner—ideal for decentralized governance, financial coordination, and personalized AI services.

USD AI (Permian Labs) raised $13.4M in a Series A  funding round from Framework Ventures*, Dragonfly Capital, Arbitrum Foundation, Flowdesk, CMT Digital, Big Brain Holdings, Hermeneutic Investments.

USD.AI, built by Permian Labs, is a GPU-collateralized stablecoin lending protocol tailored for AI startups. It issues USDai, a dollar-pegged token, and sUSDai, a yield-generating variant, allowing compute power (GPUs) to serve as collateral.

Bitlayer raised $5M in a Public sale  funding round from .

Bitlayer introduces itself as the first Bitcoin security-equivalent Layer 2 solution, built upon BitVM. This innovative platform envisions shaping the future of the Bitcoin ecosystem with its key pillar solutions, aiming to enhance scalability, efficiency, and security for Bitcoin transactions. Bitlayer seeks to empower developers and users within the Bitcoin community by providing advanced infrastructure for the decentralized web.

ZeroDev raised undisclosed amount in a M&A  funding round from Offchain Labs.

ZeroDev is a developer-first SDK and smart account infrastructure for building wallets and DApps powered by account abstraction (ERC-4337, EIP-7702). It delivers superior wallet UX with features like social login, passkeys, gas sponsorship, batch transactions, session keys, and chain abstraction, enabling asset use across blockchains without bridging. Ideal for Web2.5 apps, DeFi platforms, marketplaces, onramps, and onboarding flows, ZeroDev also develops Kernel, its dedicated infrastructure and tooling suite for seamless AA integration.

Neon Machine (Shrapnel) raised $19.5M in a  funding round from Gala Games*, Griffin Gaming Partners, Polychain Capital.

Neon Machine is a game studio based in Seattle known for developing the upcoming first-person shooter game, Shrapnel. Shrapnel is a sci-fi extraction shooter featuring in-game content, such as weapon parts, weapons, and cosmetics, offered as NFTs on its private crypto network built on Avalanche, providing both solo and team-based gameplay. It places a significant focus on user-generated content, enabling players to create their own game items using Shrapnel's technology, which can then be minted as NFTs.

ODX (ex Ordinox) raised $260.6K in a  funding round from Sonic Innovator Fund.

ODX (formerly Ordinox) is a Layer 1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK, acting as an omnichain trading layer that unifies liquidity across multiple blockchains. It virtualizes blue-chip tokens into onchain-native assets (called xAssets) that are tradable and composable across all chains and DeFi protocols—without requiring token wrapping or bridging. Supporting a unified user experience, ODX allows users to manage assets and perform DeFi actions through a single account, while offering MEV resistance and strong cross-chain interoperability.

HoneyCoin raised $4.9M in a  funding round from Flourish Ventures*, Visa, Lava, TLcom Capital, Antler, Musha Ventures, 4DX Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation (SDF).

HoneyCoin (honeycoin.app) is a fintech startup— a cross-border Web3 super app—designed to modernize global financial services, especially in Africa. It delivers a “financial services aggregator,” offering wallets, multi-currency payments, investments (with yields up to ~16%), USDT minting, OTC desk access, invoicing, payroll, and white-label solutions via API and SDK integrations.

Caesar raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from dingaling.

Caesar is an AI-optimized search engine delivering real-time, high-quality cryptocurrency and blockchain intelligence. Designed for the Web3 ecosystem, it aggregates and structures on-chain and off-chain data, making it instantly accessible for AI agents, developers, and researchers. By focusing on speed, accuracy, and context, Caesar enables smarter decision-making for traders, analysts, and Web3 applications that rely on live crypto market insights.

Transak raised $16M in a Strategic  funding round from IDG Capital*, Tether*, Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, Fuel Ventures.

Transak is a Web3 payments infrastructure provider that offers seamless fiat-to-crypto on-ramp and crypto-to-fiat off-ramp services. Designed for developers, it integrates easily into wallets, dApps, and platforms using SDKs or APIs, and supports multiple payment methods—cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay—in over 155 countries with KYC included. Transak also offers advanced tools like Transak One for one-step fiat-to-smart-contract flows, and Transak Stream for streamlined off-ramping to bank accounts. Its robust compliance footprint includes licenses in the US, Canada, UK, and beyond

1Kosmos raised $57M in a Series B  funding round from Forgepoint Capital*, Oquirrh Ventures*, NextEra Energy Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures.

1Kosmos is a cybersecurity platform offering identity-first authentication solutions that prioritize privacy, security, and usability. Its flagship BlockID product provides passwordless authentication via advanced biometrics and decentralized digital identity stored securely on a private blockchain. Certified to enterprise and government-grade standards—including FedRAMP High, FIDO2, NIST 800-63-3, ISO 27001, and SOC II—1Kosmos’s unified platform enables seamless identity proofing and authentication across workforce, customer, and citizen workflows.

PublicAI raised $2M in a Public sale  funding round from .

PublicAI is a Web3 AI Data Infrastructure and a decentralized marketplace for AI data annotations. It leverages blockchain technology to create a trustless and cross-border labor market, enabling global collaboration on tasks such as data annotation, and aims to address ethical concerns in AI training, data contamination, and domain expertise through its innovative decentralized platform.

HackQuest raised $4.1M in a Series A  funding round from Animoca Brands*, Open Campus*, STEPN, Gate Ventures, Hash Global, Hashkey Capital, ByteTrade Lab, Outlier Ventures, KIP Protocol, OnePiece Labs, Jambo, Scott Moore, Paul Taylor, YY Lai.

HackQuest is a Web3 education platform that collaborates with over 10 leading public chains, including Mantle Network, Solana, and Arbitrum, for official developer education and ecosystem construction. The platform aims to expand its curriculum and engage in course partnerships with institutions like Nanyang Technological University to support a broader range of Web3 builders in launching their projects.

Story Protocol (PIP Labs) raised $82M in a  funding round from Heritage Distilling.

Story Protocol is a web3 technology that aims to transform storytelling by providing infrastructure for creators to build narrative universes and imaginary worlds using open source principles. It enables the creation, governance, and licensing of intellectual property on the blockchain, allowing for the development of an ecosystem of modular story components that can be remixed and combined in new and innovative ways.

Sui (Mysten Labs) raised $20M in a  funding round from Mill City Ventures.

Sui is a high-performance, Layer 1 blockchain developed crafted to make digital asset ownership fast, secure, and accessible. It uses the object-centric Move programming language to enable parallel transaction execution, sub-second finality, and horizontal scalability, resulting in ultra-low fees even under heavy demand. Designed with Web3 in mind, Sui supports dynamic on-chain assets—like NFTs that evolve—and user-friendly features such as zkLogin and sponsored transactions. From DeFi and gaming to marketplaces and payments, Sui empowers developers to build innovative applications with Web2-style usability and Web3-scale infrastructure.

Silo Labs raised $122.5K in a  funding round from Sonic Innovator Fund.

Silo Finance is a decentralized, non-custodial lending protocol introducing risk-isolated, permissionless money markets—each asset has its own lending pool, paired with bridge assets like ETH or XAI. This design confines risk to individual markets, preventing cross-contamination from exploited or volatile tokens. With dynamic interest rates, isolating risk per silo, and modular vaults, the protocol enhances both safety and capital efficiency. Developers can also deploy custom markets via the “Hooks Stack.”

* fund, that lead investment round