Overview of Global Blockchain Investment and Financing Last Week

Last week (from April 21 to April 27), there were a total of 14 investment and financing events in the global Blockchain field, with a total funding scale exceeding 220 million USD, a decrease compared to the previous week. The main investment areas include DeFi, Web3 gaming, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure.

DeFi Field

The cryptocurrency staking protocol Symbiotic has completed a $29 million Series A financing. The funding will be used to launch a "Universal Staking Framework," which allows multiple cryptocurrencies to participate in network validation. It has currently been adopted by 14 networks and is expected to connect with 20 more ecosystem projects.

Web3 Games

The Solana-based gaming company MagicBlock has completed a $7.5 million seed round financing. The company plans to build real-time, non-fragmented infrastructure for decentralized games and applications using Solana's native Ephemeral Rollups technology. After the financing, MagicBlock will expand its engineering team, promote the development of the Solana application ecosystem, and optimize its real-time execution architecture.

AI Field

Decentralized AI startup Nous Research has completed a $50 million Series A funding round. The company focuses on developing open-source large language models, with its innovation being the utilization of the Solana Blockchain to coordinate globally distributed computing resources, encouraging users to contribute idle GPU computing power for model training through incentive mechanisms. The funding will primarily be used to enhance computing power reserves and expand the research team.

Infrastructure and Tools

1. The interoperability project Analog has completed a new round of financing of $15 million, planning to develop interoperability tools such as the Omnichain Analog Token Standard (OATS), which supports cross-blockchain asset transfers.

2. Bitcoin infrastructure company Arch Labs has completed a $13 million Series A funding round, reaching a valuation of $200 million. The funds will be used to accelerate the development and release of ArchVM, enabling smart contract functionality on Bitcoin.

3. DAO infrastructure provider Tally has completed a $8 million Series A funding round, aiming to expand its governance technology to more crypto-native decentralized autonomous organizations.

4. Privacy technology company Inco has completed a $5 million strategic round of financing, dedicated to solving blockchain privacy issues, allowing users to operate on-chain without disclosing sensitive information.

5. The decentralized service infrastructure startup Catalysis has completed a $1.25 million Pre-Seed round of financing and will develop a "security abstraction layer" for re-staking protocols.

6. Payment gateway Inflow completes $1.1 million seed round financing.

Other Applications

1. The blockchain-supported wine platform WineFi has completed approximately $2 million in seed round financing, which will accelerate product development, including enhancing valuation models and real-time market data feeds.

2. The Web3 social platform UXLINK has received investment from UFLY Labs and has formed a strategic partnership with Solv Protocol.

Centralized Finance

1. The API platform Alpaca, focused on stock and cryptocurrency trading, has completed a $52 million Series C funding round. Alpaca is a self-clearing brokerage and proprietary trading firm with business covering stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies.

2. Quantitative trading startup Theo has completed a $20 million financing round, dedicated to providing ordinary investors with the strategy returns that were originally exclusive to high-frequency trading companies.

3. The AI-driven digital asset trading platform BitradeX has completed approximately $15.96 million in Series A financing, which will be used to establish a global AI strategy laboratory and upgrade compliance infrastructure.

Venture Capital Fund Dynamics

1. Solana early supporter RockawayX has launched a new fund of $125 million, primarily investing in Solana ecosystem startups.

2. Blockchain payment provider Astra Fintech has established a $100 million fund to support Solana's development in Asia, with a focus on projects related to PayFi solutions.