Crypto Funding: LayerZero Makes Big Splash in $251M Week

Governance protocol M^Zero Labs picked up $22.5 million of its own as well

article-image

StockStyle/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto startup fundraising ticked upward this week, with 18 different companies raking in approximately $251 million total — a modest increase from last week’s $227 million. 

LayerZero, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, raised $120 million in its Series B round, securing the largest raise of the group by far and acquiring a $3 billion valuation. Investors in this messaging protocol for decentralized applications (dapps) included a16z, Christie’s, Sequoia Capital and OpenSea Ventures, just to name a few.

LayerZero’s multibillion-dollar valuation comes after crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger was said to be valued at $1.4 billion after its capital raise last week. 

Blockworks previously reported that LayerZero has its eyes on the gaming industry, where cross-chain messaging is becoming integral in the distribution of digital assets players win while playing.

A focus on permissionless token creation

Shifting over to digital currency, M^Zero Labs announced it had raised $22.5 million in a seed round. The lead investor was Pantera Capital with Road Capital, AirTree Ventures and others kicking in funds as well. 

M^Zero intends to serve as a way to “permissionlessly mint currencies under decentralized governance,” according to its website. 

Luca Prosperi, founder and CEO of M^Zero Labs, posted a thread on Twitter, explaining that his product will be a “neutral financial infrastructure” on top of Ethereum.

Loading Tweet..

Prosperi told Blockworks his aim is to launch M^Zero by the end of the year. 

Other notable funding rounds this week

  • RACA, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, raised $30 million for an expansion, $16 million of which came from DWF Labs.
  • SwissBorg, a European crypto investing platform, raised $23 million in its Series A round from thousands of investors. 
  • Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget secured $10 million from Dragonfly Capital.
  • Unstoppable DeFi raised 2,050 ETH, or about $3.8 million, through the launch of their new token UND.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 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.

Industry City | 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.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Unlocked by Template (7).png

Research

Union’s improvements upon Tendermint consensus through CometBLS, coupled with ZK proving through Galois, allow for a broadly scalable, cost efficient, and low latency IBC implementation that is feasibly scalable across every existing blockchain, virtual machine and runtime. The implementation offers modular crosschain interoperability without the need for trusted intermediaries.  

article-image

Kraken’s chief security officer Nick Percoco said the exchange turned the tables on a North Korean hacker

article-image

Or is it approximately the least cypherpunk thing we could do?

article-image

Over 20% of SOL-USD swap volume goes through SolFi

article-image

CEO Vlad Tenev calls expected clarity on listing crypto asset securities “a big opportunity”

article-image

Big Tech pulled US indexes back into the green Thursday, as investors waited for two more Mag 7 first-quarter reports after the bell

article-image

Charts and takeaways from Tuesday’s jobs report and Wednesday’s GDP print, as the economy digests the tariff war