This week, blockchain startups as well as various crypto projects raised collectively more than $100 Million in venture capital (VC).
Here’s the fun ing of June 16 to June 22. The activity reflects an increasing interest in blockchain applications, ranging from gaming and social networking to advanced cryptographic safety.
PQShield raises $ 37 million in Series B round
The biggest winner of the week was PQShield, a security startup. It closed a Series B round of $37 million to enhance its post quantum cryptography solutions.
The funding round, led by Addition, also included new investors like Braavos, Legal & General and Chevron Tech Ventures.
PQShield’s technology is designed to protect cryptographic systems from quantum computer-based hacks. Notable clients include Nvidia and AMD.
The company’s founder Dr. Ali El Kaafarani said that PQShield would use the new funds for hiring more people and facilitating closer working relationships with their partners and customers.
Renzo secures $17m in series A round
Renzo, the Ethereum ( Ethereum) restaking program, received the second-highest funding amount for the week.
It secured $17 in a Series A round led Brevan Howard Digital Nova Fund and Galaxy Ventures. In January, the platform raised $3.25 million in a round of seed funding led by Maven 11
Renzo allows users to restake Ethereum assets by providing ezETH. This liquid restaking coin can be used across decentralized financial platforms. Data from DefiLlama reveals has a current market capitalization of $115 million, and a total locked value of more than $3 billion.
Particle Network Bags $15 Million
Particle Network, an open-source blockchain developer, did well as well. The company raised $15M in a Series A round led by The Spartan Group & Gumi Cryptos Capital.
The Block reported that the round was structured as a simple contract for future tokens. SevenX Ventures Flow Traders and HashKey Capital were among those who participated.
Particle had previously raised $10 million over three funding rounds. This brought the total raised up to $25 million.
According to Pengyu Wan, the founder of Particle, the company will use the money for its work on chain absorption technology as well to expand its operations.
Sonic completes $12m Series A round
Bitkraft Ventures led a $12 million series A round for Sonic, a Solana layer-2 network that focuses on gaming. Galaxy Interactive and Big Brain Holdings were also involved in the round.
The project raised $16 million total after a $4-million round in 2022. This gives it a fully-diluted valuation of 100 million dollars.
The funds will be used to support Sonic’s mission of simplifying Web3 gaming complexity and integrating with various gaming genres.
ZKX raises $7.6m
, a pioneering decentralized social trading exchange (DEX), , announced on June 19 that it had raised $7.6 millions in total funding. This includes a recent seed round of $6.3 million.
Investors such as Flowdesk GCR and DeWhales have backed the initiative. It aims to improve perpetual swaps by enhancing social trading features and interoperability across chains.
In its announcement, it stated that the company would use the new capital to introduce new ZKX features, including social copy trade pool as well as expanding interoperability across chains to make perpetual swaps available to everyone.
The platform has also launched the native ZKX token at three major exchanges, including Bitget and KuCoin.
Gudchain completes $5m investment round
Gudchain is a layer-2 blockchain that uses OP-stack.
It received $5 million in funding led by Mechanism Capital. Manifold Capital, Skyvision Capital and Morningstar Ventures were also participants in the round.
The blockchain will be used to create Highstreet Market products and simplify web3 for gamers. The platform has also r reported signed up five flagship games. The team plans to launch them on the blockchain within six months.
Other notable funding
Several startups secured smaller but still significant funding rounds during the week.
- Zeek, 3 million dollar seed round The decentralized social collaboration platform raised $3 million dollars from investors including OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Animoca Brands.
- Wasabi: $3 million in seed funding Wasabi: The meme coins and non fungible token (NFT), leverage trading protocol, garnered $3 millions, led by Electric Capital to boost its defi offers.
- Bitwise $2.5 million investment Bitwise updated their S-1 form revealing a seed investment of $2.5 million for its Ethereum ETF. Pantera Capital has expressed interest in additional investments.
- Farworld Labs $1.75M pre-seed: Farcaster-native game company Farcade closed a $1.75M pre-seed to advance their Farcade platform.
- Ordinox receives $1 million in preseed funding The Cosmos-based automated BRC20s and Runes market maker received $1 million from DACM for its development and security audits.