Funding Wrap: Franklin Templeton backs Bitcoin L2 Bitlayer 

Plus, Galaxy Ventures unveils a new fund focused on early-stage crypto firms

article-image

MAXSHOT.PL/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This week, Galaxy Ventures unveiled a new fund aimed at early-stage crypto firms, while the markets saw over $75 million flow into various projects around the crypto ecosystem.

Some of the project funding came from major traditional finance players, while ex-Coinbase employees raised more funds to focus on onchain gaming. 

First up is Bitlayer. The layer-2 blockchain raised $11 million in a Series A round, boosting its valuation to $300 million. 

The funding round was led by Franklin Templeton, a traditional finance giant known for its bitcoin and ETH ETFs, along with investment fund ABCDE.

Read more: 9 US spot ether ETFs go live after landmark approval 

Bitlayer said it’s the “first Bitcoin [layer-2] infrastructure project to receive strategic investment from an ETF-licensed institution.”

“We believe that Bitlayer’s unique approach and technology has the potential to unlock new use cases and opportunities for Bitcoin, and we look forward to exploring collaboration opportunities with our Bitcoin-focused financial products. This investment underscores our commitment to supporting innovation in the digital asset space,” Kevin Farrelly, managing principal at Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, said in a statement.

Read more: Bitcoin’s zero-knowledge future gets a test

GSR Ventures, Stake Capital Group and FalconX also participated in the round. 

Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol in the DeFi space, raised $4 million in a seed round led by Castle Island Ventures. Other participants in the round included Brevan Howard Digital and Animoca Ventures.

“We wanted to make sure, at the core of Kintsu, it was not only a force that was creating massive liquidity in the base layer for Monad, but that it was also encouraging decentralization,” Kintsu founder Stephen Novenstern told Blockworks.  

“So right in the center of our architecture, there’s what we refer to as the validator registry contract, which is quite simple. It’s a list of validators and the weights they each get. This gets completely controlled by the DAO and allows…validators permissionlessly [to] join the validator registry, and the DAO can control the weights — effectively, the percentage that goes to each validator. This kind of maximizes decentralization, even as the [liquid staking token] becomes huge on Monad,” he continued.

Other notable raises: 

  • Ledger Cathay’s fund led a $7.5 million strategic round for Thesis’ BitcoinFi project, Mezo. Other participants included GSR, Flowdesk and Mantle’s EcoFund.
  • Igloo, the parent company behind Pudgy Penguins, announced an $11 million raise in a round led by Founders Fund. Selini Capital and Fenbushi Capital were among participants in the round. 
  • Web3 infrastructure platform Caldera said it raised $15 million in a Series A led by Founders Fund. Sequoia Capital and Dragonfly also participated in the round. 
  • NPC Labs, an onchain gaming firm, announced it raised $21 million in preseed and seed rounds led by Pantera. Makers Fund and Mantle both participated in the round. 
  • OpenSocial Protocol said it raised $6 million in strategic backing, which was co-led by Framework Ventures and North Island Ventures. Other participants included Moonrock Capital and Aspen Digital.*
  • And special mention goes to Galaxy Asset Management, which announced Thursday it closed $113 million for a new venture capital fund. Galaxy Ventures Fund will focus on early-stage crypto companies. 

*While Blockworks founder Jason Yanowitz didn’t participate in the current round, he’s previously invested in OpenSocial Protocol.


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.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

dydx unlimited.png

Research

dYdX Unlimited is a revamp to the protocol's design and tokenomics.