Crypto funding: Metaverse, gaming and fintechs dominate $80M week

A new Ethereum layer-2 and an Avalanche-based blockchain also hit the ground running this week

article-image

Javier Martínez/Unsplash modified by Blockworks

share

Eleven crypto startups raked in approximately $80 million in new funds to expand product lines and start new projects. 

Animoca Brands was the heaviest hitter, raising $20 million via a new ordinary share offering priced at A$4.50 ($2.90), according to a press release.

Blockchain technology venture capital firm CMCC Global led the fundraise. Other investors participated as well, including Kingsway Capital, Liberty City Ventures, GameFi Ventures and others. 

Animoca co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu also personally invested. 

The fresh capital will go toward an ongoing project called Mocaverse, an online membership-based platform that features a 8,888-strong NFT collection.

The next development for the metaverse project will be the rollout of Moca ID, another NFT collection that’s non-transferable and will be used solely to establish people’s on-chain identity for access to exclusive experiences. There will also be the opportunity to amass loyalty points.

Blockchain financial services gain steam

French fintech Fipto and financial services company Flashwire raised hefty sums this week.

Fipto, based in Paris, took in $16 million and has been a registered digital asset service provider (DASP) in France since March 2023. It’s allowed to offer crypto asset exchange services and custody. 

The company mainly serves companies who want to manage their digital asset portfolio and send crypto internationally to other businesses. Fipto supports bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), tether (USDT) and six other cryptocurrencies. 

“Payments in digital currencies make it possible to simplify international transactions,” Fipto CEO and co-founder Patrick Mollard said in a statement. “Traditional transactions can take several days to complete, are difficult to trace and can be costly.”

Serena Capital and Motier Ventures were the main investors in Fipto. 

On the other hand, Flashwire, is perhaps most recognizable for its online banking platform that gives access to crypto, raised $10 million in a series A funding round. 

Legend Trading, Cobo, GATE.io, VeChain, CyberX, SuperChain Capital, and others participated in the round. 

Flashwire’s other products include Stella Pay, a Visa-debit card that’s crypto-enabled and Anxin Finance, a collateralized crypto lending platform exclusively for institutional clients.

After the fundraise, the company said it plans to hire more people, grow its product line, and enhance research and development capabilities. 

Other notable fundraises

  • GamePhilos raised $8 million in seed funding from Xterio, Animoca, and others to build a play-to-earn game called Age of Dino. 
  • Mythic Protocol closed an oversubscribed $6.5 million seed round led by Shima Capital and Alpha JWC to build a Web3-based shooter game called Riftstorm among other offerings.
  • Ethereum layer-2 protocol Layer N brought in $5 million from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and dao5.
  • Cross-border payment solution Parallax raised $4.5 million from Dragonfly Capital, Circle Ventures and a number of other venture capital firms and angel investors. 
  • Movement Labs locked down $3.4 million in pre-seed funding and is also launching a blockchain called M1 on Avalanche.
  • Octav received a seed investment worth $2.65 million to build a DeFi labeler to compete with the likes of Etherscan.
  • Crypto trading platform IMMIX emerged from stealth, closing a $2.7 million seed round led by MassMutual Ventures.
  • Wallet security firm 0xPass raised $1.8 million in an effort to boost safety for opting for non-custodial solutions.

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.

recent research

Research Report Templates (6).png

Research

In recent months, a number of highly accretive developments were implemented across the protocol to improve fee capture, expand product functionality, and ultimately drive value accrual to the RUNE token, with more upgrades on the immediate horizon. These developments include hiking the minimum swap fee parameter to increase revenue, adding a Burn System Income Lever to reduce the RUNE supply, the addition of COSM-WASM smart contracting and IBC to enable an application layer, new chain integrations, and more.

article-image

A repayment plan has officially been approved, nearly two years after FTX went bust

article-image

Coinbase filed an interlocutory appeal in its case against the SEC earlier this year

article-image

FTX “never had the crypto” to make in-kind distributions, witness says at FTX’s confirmation hearing

article-image

Lucid Ventures co-founder Meta said they don’t think Solana is “abnormal” in the VC world, where it’s “standard” for many projects to fail

article-image

Plus, Polymarket hits all-time highs in daily trading volumes

article-image

Bitcoin is now in the second half of its bull market, if the previous ones are anything to go by