Crypto Funding: $169 Million For Custody, Infrastructure, DAO Sports League

Crypto companies saw their funding rise this week, with about 11 companies bringing in a total of approximately $169 million. That’s a little less than double last week’s $88.5 million, though it falls short of the first week of April, where crypto companies raked in $251 million.

Unchained, a bitcoin custody solution and collateralized lender, raised $60 million in its series B round, making it the largest fundraiser this week. Its capital raise was led by Valor Equity Partners. This latest haul follows a prior $15 million in financing led by Ten31, according to a company statement. 

Unchained co-founder and CEO Joseph Kelly told Blockworks that his company offers a collaborative custody solution that currently secures “over $2 billion worth of bitcoin across thousands of clients.”

Collaborative custody, Kelly explained, means that his clients share multisig keys with the company so that there is never a single point of failure that leads to someone losing their assets. 

Kelly added that his clients that are holding two of three keys have “unilateral” control over their assets. “They can move [bitcoin] without Unchained interfering anytime they’d like. But by us holding one of those three keys, that means that if they don’t have access to a key…we can cosign with them on a transaction.”

With the new inflows, Unchained plans to expand their product offerings, expand its client base, and improve on its collaborative custody model.

Blockchain infrastructure and a DAO sports league

Another startup on the fundraising list this week was P2P.org, which raised $23 million in a series A round led by Jump Crypto, Bybit, and Sygnum’s DAO Fund. 

A press release from P2P.org said it is a non custodial staking provider on Ethereum and 49 other blockchains. With the latest funding round, the company said it plans to focus on R&D expansion initiatives and building a stronger community.

Konstantin Lomashuk, founder of P2P.org, said the Shanghai upgrade could increase institutional interest in ETH staking, adding, “Now that the upgrade is complete and as the market continues to expand, we may expect ETH staking to grow significantly in market size.”

Separately, Karate Combat, a Karate league structured as a DAO, raised $18 million. BITKRAFT Ventures led the funding round, with additional participation from Delphi Digital, The Operating Group, and Alpha Wave Global, among others.

The cash raised will support the May 10th launch of the Karate Combat App and $KARATE token, according to a press release.

Other notable fundraises this week

Bera Chain, a layer one blockchain, received $42 million in a private round led by Polychain Capital.

Tableland, a decentralized cloud database, had an $8 million series A round led by CoinFund.

---

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.