Jack Kubinec

Israel-based zero-knowledge technology startup Ingonyama raised $21 million in seed funding. The company hosts open-source libraries for zk proof acceleration with a longer-term goal of creating zk-focused semiconductors.



The round was led by Geometry, Walen Catalyst Ventures and IOSG Ventures, with participation from Samsung Next and the companies behind ZCash, Arbitrum and Filecoin, among others.&nbsp;



Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptographic tool that allow a statement to be proven true without revealing the contents of the statement itself. Zk proofs are commonly used in crypto for verifying transactions on blockchain-scaling rollups.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/theres-too-much-trust-in-zero-knowledge-tech">There’s too much trust in zero-knowledge tech</a>



Though it has plans for chip design, the software is coming before the hardware for Ingonyama.&nbsp;



The company currently offers two open-source libraries for zk acceleration. ICICLE helps developers build zero-knowledge products on GPUs, which are data-intensive processors popular for crypto <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/mining">mining</a>.&nbsp;



“It should be very easy for developers to just play and not even understand what they&#8217;re doing when it comes to ‘what is the GPU?’ but still enjoy the benefits of zk acceleration out of the box,” Ingonyama founder Omer Shlomovits said.



Ingonyama offers a similar service called BLAZE for a class of semiconductors called FPGAs. The startup’s current main source of revenue is from clients using its open-source libraries. These clients will pay Ingonyama to make sure their zk infrastructure is properly maintained, Shlomovits said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Ingonyama thinks onboarding users to zk hardware will be easier once a larger number of developers are using the same software.



“Today I&#8217;m focusing on the software stack, but tomorrow once I have some kind of hardware of my own, [developers] can just take out the existing hardware, plug in new hardware, like an ASIC let’s say, and then you can get a performance boost that would return on investment pretty quickly,” Shlomovits said.



Shlomovits said Ingonyama is hoping to release some intellectual property in the coming months regarding zero-knowledge hardware.&nbsp;



Zero-knowledge proofs are a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zero-knowledge-rollups-ethereum">trendy concept in crypto</a>, and Ingonyama becomes the latest in a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zero-knowledge-animoca-uniswap">string of firms that have raised</a> on the promise of building out zk tech. A16z crypto <a href="https://a16z.com/big-ideas-in-tech-2024/">speculates</a> that SNARKs, an application of zero-knowledge, will go mainstream in 2024.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/a16z-2024-ideas-list">A16z’s crypto ideas list for 2024 spotlights AI, gaming</a>



Zero-knowledge proofs are also a popular solution for verifying transactions on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2s</a>. Ingonyama investors Starkware, Matter Labs, Scroll and Polygon all are working to ship ZKEVMs that batch transactions to take up less blockspace on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>.&nbsp;



Shlomovits is hoping to make Ingonyama central to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zero-knowledge-proof">zk</a> craze. The startup also offers so-called zk containers that make it easier for developers to build out zk projects.



“The way that we try to position ourselves is that you have to go through Ingonyama in order to actually scale your zk business,” Shlomovits said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

ZK tech startup Ingonyama secures $21M in seed funding

The Web3 social company Sleek announced a $5 million seed round — alongside plans for a platform where experts can tokenize their knowledge.



Sleek’s is at least the fourth crypto social startup fundraise announced this week, per <a href="https://cryptorank.io/funding-rounds">CryptoRank</a>. Sleek previously drew funding from Binance Labs through its incubation program in 2022.



Earlier this year, Sleek debuted business <a href="https://x.com/Sleekcard/status/1725185489802609169?s=20">cards</a> that can share Telegram contact info and display NFTs when put in proximity to a phone. The company has been on an apparent crypto <a href="https://x.com/Sleekcard/status/1724815838677459233?s=20">conference</a> tour in 2023, sharing its in-person networking tool.



With the fresh funding, Sleek says it is releasing a marketplace for domain experts in the first half of 2024.



The company told Blockworks that Sleek hopes to capitalize on the proliferation of online educational content by turning online creators’ knowledge into “liquid and accessible assets.”



Sleek’s platform will create bonding curves a la Friend.tech for video content or calls with creators. The company believes its platform will be preferable for educational creators because of the high time investment involved in producing long-form content on other platforms.



The forthcoming platform represents another <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/socialfi-web3-social-media">SocialFi</a> attempt to more efficiently monetize the creator economy. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-nft-moma-socialfi">Social apps Phaver and RepubliK recently closed seed rounds</a> with similar ambitions.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/socialfi-web3-social-media">What is SocialFi? Unpacking crypto’s answer to social media</a>



&#8220;Knowledge-based businesses like research firms and expert networks generate $100B+ of revenue per year, along with a new wave of creators who monetize their time by converting knowledge into online courses, [YouTube] videos, expert calls and content through subscription platforms like Patreon,&#8221; Sleek said.



&#8220;However, the market is fragmented and inefficient with a lack of discovery and distribution channels to people with domain expertise in tech, arts or business.&#8221;



Updated Nov. 17, 2023 at 9:42 am ET: Clarified that Binance’s investment in Sleek came through an incubation program rather than its seed round.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Sleek closes $5M raise to launch tokenized knowledge marketplace

A governance and smart contract management solution called Llama has successfully secured a $6 million investment. The funding round was spearheaded by investment firms Founders Fund and Electric Capital.



Llama is a governance application that manages smart contracts and permissions on behalf of protocols. The fundraise comes amid what some perceive as stagnation on the part of DAOs when it comes to innovative approaches to governance.&nbsp;



Llama told Blockworks that its full stack platform would streamline <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/governance">governance</a>.



“Currently, the space is very fragmented,” Llama co-founder Austin Green said. “There really isn&#8217;t one unified place that has the full stack for you to manage roles and permissions.”



DAO governance has been generally rocky of late. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-exploit-dao-hacker">A Solana DAO recently lost $230,000</a> after failing to notice a proposal that drained the treasury. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nouns-dao-treasury-fork-governance">The Nouns DAO saw half of its own treasury exit</a> via a “fork,” and Lido critics have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lido-centralization-debate-ethereum">focused on the platform’s DAO</a> as a point of concern for Ethereum’s credible neutrality.



When asked about the frayed reputation of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/daos">DAOs</a>, Green said that crypto governance hasn’t innovated enough past the “one token, one vote” approach popularized during <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/defi">DeFi’s</a> breakout in 2020. 



To make voting less one size fits all, Llama is working on “decentralization through access control,” Green said, where roles are split between different service providers based on their area of expertise. A grants team, for instance, could vote on decisions relevant to grant allocation, but not on changing lending risk parameters.&nbsp;



Notably, in a press release announcing its fundraise, Llama didn’t use the term “DAO” at all, opting to <a href="https://llama.xyz/blog/llama-raises-6-million-from-founders-fund-and-electric-capital">focus</a> on “governance&#8221; instead.



Llama’s fundraise isn’t the first example of venture capital showing interest in governance.



VCs <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hey-daos-are-venture-capitalists-your-friends">poured money into DAOs</a> in 2022. Tally, another governance platform, <a href="https://twitter.com/tallyxyz/status/1425850756884619272?lang=en">raised</a> $6 million of its own in 2021 in a round led by Blockchain Capital and Placeholder. And last week, Variant Fund’s general partner <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uniswap-dao-vc-governance">was the largest voter on a temp check for a Uniswap DAO investment decision</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Llama raises $6M for role-based governance platform

Michael Bodley

In a yo-yo of a year for digital asset investment managers, Arca has largely held its ground.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The hedge and venture fund firm, in fact, is in the middle of finalizing a Series B round, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Arca CEO Rayne Steinberg confirmed the fresh capital-raise in an interview with Blockworks, saying it ought to be finalized in the coming months.&nbsp;



That’s not to say it’s been a painless year for the Los Angeles-headquartered operation. There have been a number of headaches, from choppy returns to operational and fundraising pivots.&nbsp;



Case in point: Arca first started outreach for the Series B about a year ago — near the height of the bull market, long before digital assets <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/global-charts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lost</a> 70% of their collective market capitalization. 



The firm also booked significant losses in its flagship strategy earlier in 2022, when the top-heavy market’s bottom fell right out on the Terra ecosystem — following the de-pegging of Terra’s stablecoin, UST — as well as the rapid collapse of over-levered crypto lenders, including Celsius and Voyager.&nbsp;



Sources said Arca was hit with fairly minor redemptions. Its liquid products offer monthly subscriptions and redemptions. But savvy repositioning and open lines of communication to limited-partners appear to have prevented a more dire outcome. And, crucially, Arca’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arca-and-deso-foundation-kick-off-new-defi-funds" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">funds</a> had minimal exposure to FTX, Steinberg said, though he declined to specify an exact figure.&nbsp;



“Our investment mandate is broad, and our buckets are also broad, so those changed in an environment where [assets have become] super-correlated to macro,” Steinberg said.&nbsp;



The Arca head, tasked with heading business development for the Series B, decided to wait it out. The new plan: rejigger classification of the capital— settling on compliance, infrastructure and staffing, in both the parent company and its affiliate startup innovation and advisory division, Arca Labs.



“The environment really changed with Luna and upended it and really changed the makeup of who was going to be in it,” Steinberg said.



Following its seed round, Arca <a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/digital_asset_management_firm_arca_raises_10_million_in_series_a_funding/prweb17656592.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed</a> a $10-million Series A in January 2021 led by RRE Ventures. The firm likewise then-declined to detail its valuation.



Navigating regulation&nbsp;&nbsp;



Regulators, the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-grayscale-exploring-bitcoin-trust-options" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC</a> and the CFTC in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cftc-commissioner-ftx-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">particular</a>, have scrambled to get a handle on the swiftly changing developments, a push expected to intensify on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-crypto-friendly-politicians-are-headed-to-washington" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outcome</a> of the US’ midterms.&nbsp;



Steinberg welcomes the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-industry-must-report-bad-actors" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scrutiny</a>. Amping up the financial watchdogs’ powers, while perhaps overdue, ought to weed out an assortment of digital asset bad actors, including fraudsters. New regulation, as well as the potential for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-policy-proposals-ok-rep-says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">congressional legislation</a>, would give a leg-up to asset managers — including Arca — with robust compliance structures and featuring executives who cut their teeth on Wall Street.&nbsp;



The institutional investment manager&nbsp; — whose limited-partners are predominantly the likes of endowments and pension plans — has historically sourced potential investors from what Steinberg dubbed “the gateway [to] traditional finance.” It’s also important for the startup’s partners to maintain their own distribution channels.



Despite a number of indicators that deep-pocketed TradFi investors are sitting out crypto’s latest volatile session — and some prominent figures, according to industry participants, are pulling out entirely — Steinberg said the vast majority of the Series B’s likely backers have not had much exposure to recent market conditions.&nbsp;



Fending off the bear market



The chief executive declined to disclose the specific investors with Series B commitments, or entities now in the midst of due diligence. But there is some crossover between Arca’s existing limited-partner roster, according to Steinberg, formerly WisdomTree Asset Management’s co-founder.



The Arca co-founder also declined to comment on how much capital the firm is targeting for the venture round, citing the fundraise still being in the works — and would not disclose an approximate new valuation under the same rationale.&nbsp;



Arca’s exact year-to-date showing for its main fund isn’t known, but one source said they were “far outside the norm,” which typically has a “healthy respect for risk.” The team’s portfolio managers clawed back a “good chunk” of those losses in the coming months — and then dipped again as markets were rattled by FTX’s bankruptcy.&nbsp;The fund outperformed spot bitcoin and ether from the start of November through last Friday, however.



The asset manager’s flagship fund employs a global macro approach, utilizing a bottom-up, fundamental technique — pioneered by TradFi stock-pickers and adapted for crypto — to inform its trading. That vehicle, and additional investment products, are now quite overweight cash as market participants parse the likelihood of yet more counterparties having to close up shop before year end.&nbsp;



Steinberg and execs have undertaken a “deep dive” into Arca’s response mechanisms to contain sudden market plunges. The self evaluation has focused on risk, initial counterparty due diligence and regular followup check-ins.&nbsp;



“You can’t get everything right, and if you’re stagnant, you’re [in trouble],” Steinberg said. “What worked yesterday won’t work tomorrow. Even when things go wrong, you’ll have to evaluate them, too.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Dodging Worst of FTX, Arca Won’t Stay ‘Stagnant’

David Canellis

<div id="highlights-block_627a63ec98831" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Meduza continues to document Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine despite Moscow&#8217;s ban on independent reporting</li>
 <li>The Riga-based outlet was cut off from payment rail Stripe under strict Western sanctions imposed earlier this year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Independent Russian-language website Meduza has raised more than $260,000 in crypto after Western sanctions crippled its ability to field donations through other means.



Meduza, which operates out of Latvia, turned to crypto after fintech giant Stripe stopped supporting payments to the website. 



The <a href="https://meduza.io/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">news outlet</a> was established in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Independent reporting on the Ukrainian war is now basically illegal, but Meduza still publicly investigates and documents alleged Russian war crimes from its Riga newsroom.



Russia’s internet censors now block multiple news outlets — including Meduza — forcing Russia-based readers to access the site via virtual private networks and Telegram channels.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/IKjbZ7YAAdjxFX-nVWW8DPi8mjLtztiPL9jMO2SEG20KSZpAOoGURZltoLrnyVZDItWk-QQwyoyEix27z01XI4T9lDUXbfQnifriZ1_6XpWEInk_dq8dUlThuu7R97LEkbXfcd8rN5KWC_6t0Q" alt=""/><figcaption>Meduza&#8217;s homepage</figcaption></figure>



Last year, Meduza was labeled a “foreign agent,” which ultimately put a stop to local advertising revenue. Crypto has now reportedly enabled Meduza to rely entirely on funds sent from foreigners for the first time.&nbsp;



Before the war, Meduza fielded donations from around 30,000 Russian readers, according to Bloomberg. The outlet’s traffic has since been slashed by a third.



Meduza has recently been asking international audiences to donate cash (dollars, euros and crypto). It accepts bitcoin, ether (and Ethereum-based tokens), monero, BNB (and other BNB Chain tokens), Zcash, and Tether (USDT). Fiat contributions can still be sent via bank transfer or PayPal.



Meduza’s crypto donors have so far sent 3.75 BTC ($117,400), nearly 50 ETH ($118,400), and more than $30,000 in various ERC-20 and BNB Chain tokens, including stablecoins Tether and USDC. None of the trackable crypto has been withdrawn so far, according to blockchain data reviewed by Blockworks.



Large individual contributions include 12 ETH ($28,500) received last Monday and 1 BTC ($31,500) netted the day after.&nbsp;



The outlet says it will use that money to quickly resettle its 25 journalists, mostly in the Latvian capital. Meduza Editor-in-Chief Ivan Kolpakov told reporters that Meduza is currently only raising half of what it needs.



Germany’s Deutsche Welle and US-funded Radio Free Europe have also set up shop in Riga following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta is planning to start a new operation there as well, noted Bloomberg.



In any case, Meduza joins a growing list of journalistic organizations to accept contributions via crypto, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, WikiLeaks, Bellingcat and the Committee to Protect Journalists.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Russian-language Journalists Forced off Stripe by Sanctions Turn to Crypto

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6222590637379" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The total money invested this week came from over 20 deals and funds, PitchBook data showed</li>
 <li>Prominent venture capital firm a16z invested $70 million into DeFi staking platform Lido on Thursday</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



March started off strong as crypto companies and funds alike brought in another substantial week of capital, nearing a total of $1.34 billion. The total money invested this week came from over 20 deals and funds, PitchBook data showed.



The week’s biggest raise came from Electric Capital. The firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/electric-capital-raises-1-billion-to-launch-crypto-venture-token-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $1 billion</a> to launch two funds: a $400 million venture fund and a $600 million token fund. The capital raise brings the firm into the big leagues alongside major funds such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm and 10T Holdings.



On Thursday, the prominent venture capital firm, a16z, invested $70 million into DeFi staking platform Lido. The decentralized platform offers Ethereum staking and other proof-of-stake assets to users through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance structure.



The fresh funds from a16z will be used to build out its staking solution and prepare for upgrades surrounding the Ethereum transition from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake-whats-the-difference/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proof-of-work to proof-of-stake</a>, Jacob Blish, Lido’s head of business development and partnerships, said to Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The roadmap for 2022 is prioritizing the Ethereum network upgrade, researching and building out layer-2 solutions, and expanding to a number of new protocols,” Blish said.</blockquote>



Since 2022 started, Lido has launched liquid staking for Kusama and Polygon and plans to add Polkadot, Avalanche and Cosmos in the second half of the year, Blish noted.



In other news, a seed-stage venture capital firm, Arcanum Capital, launched its first fund of $12 million, Wednesday, to focus on blockchain technology companies in emerging markets — mainly in India.&nbsp;



“We launched the fund because we wanted a vehicle to raise significant institutional capital into, to then deploy into India and make a big impact,” James McDowall, founding partner at Arcanum Capital, said to Blockworks.



The company’s fund includes prominent investors like Polygon Co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, venture capitalist Tim Draper, and Bybit’s venture capital arm, Mirana Ventures, among others. To date, Arcanum has invested about $4 million in over 20 startups.



“We are seeing blockchain technology disrupt almost every industry,” McDowall said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“DeFi alone has trillions of dollars of market share to go at. Add in [non-fungible tokens], gaming, and decentralized applications, and it is clear that blockchain is a gargantuan technology trend in its relative infancy.”</blockquote>



Other notable capital raises this week include:&nbsp;



<ul><li>South African crypto exchange VALR’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/in-one-of-africas-largest-crypto-raises-south-african-exchange-takes-in-50m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> round</li><li>Thetanuts Finance closed an <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/thetanuts-finance-get-18m-in-seed-funding-to-flest-out-defi-platform/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$18 million</a> round to democratize DeFi-structured products</li><li>Pantera Capital led a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/subspace-labs-raises-33m-led-by-pantera-capital-to-further-web3-efforts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$33 million round</a> for Subspace Labs to further its Web3 efforts</li><li>Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto co-led a <a href="https://multicoin.capital/2022/03/02/dialect-the-smart-messaging-standard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$4.1 million</a> seed investment in smart messaging protocol Dialect&nbsp;</li><li>Ignite Tournaments closed a $10 million financing round to build a play-to-earn esports tournament and streaming platform</li></ul>



Check back next week for more funding news.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.

Funding Roundup: $1.34B Invested in Crypto Companies and Funds This Week

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_614395ff8802b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Venture capital fund, which requires a minimum investment of $1 million, has already raised half of its targeted amount</li>
 <li>The fund group invested in Galaxy Digital’s fund of funds and participated in a $15 million Series A funding round for Amberdata</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Franklin Templeton has so far raised $10 million for a blockchain fund, according to <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1882656/000188265621000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a regulatory filing</a>, and the firm is looking to raise an additional $10 million before launching.&nbsp;



The offering will be a venture capital fund that requires a minimum investment of $1 million, the September 14 document indicates.



A spokesperson did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.&nbsp;



It’s the San Mateo, California-based fund group’s latest step into the crypto space. The firm, which managed $1.56 trillion in assets as of the end of July, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/franklin-templeton-seeking-to-hire-crypto-trader-researcher/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted job listings</a> earlier this month to hire a cryptocurrency-focused trader and research analyst.&nbsp;



The trader will be tasked with executing trades for strategies using bitcoin and ether, as well developing quantitative trading strategies, according to the job post. The research analyst will keep portfolio managers and senior executives informed of various protocol regulatory, staking and business opportunities, a separate listing stated, as well as help develop and manage new crypto products.&nbsp;



The firm is still accepting applications for the jobs on its website.



Galaxy Digital <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/galaxy-closes-venture-fund-of-funds-backed-by-franklin-templeton/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously revealed</a> that Franklin Templeton is an investor in Galaxy’s first venture-focused multi-manager fund of funds, which is focused on providing institutional investors access to pre-vetted managers investing across digital assets.



The mutual fund giant <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/citi-leads-15m-investment-into-digital-asset-company-amberdata/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also participated</a> in a $15 million Series A funding round for digital asset data company Amberdata.



Franklin Templeton is looking to enter the crypto fund space as more — much larger — offerings have popped up in recent weeks.&nbsp;



Most recently, venture capital firm Jump Capital <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/jump-capital-launches-350m-fund-with-focus-on-crypto-defi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched a crypto-focused fund</a> over 17 times larger, with $350 million total capital commitment — its largest to date.&nbsp;



Pantera Capital is also launching a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/as-crypto-vc-funding-hits-record-high-pantera-launched-600m-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new blockchain fund,</a> and it is already more than halfway to its goal of a whopping $600 million. Meanwhile, Private equity firm 10T Holdings <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/10t-holdings-raises-750m-for-first-growth-equity-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced last week</a> that it has so far raised $750 million for its first two growth equity funds focused on digital asset companies. As of mid-June, venture capital funds in 2021 had put an <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-venture-funding-is-at-an-all-time-high-this-is-where-the-money-is-going/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">all-time high of $17 billion</a> into crypto companies and projects, according to data provider PitchBook.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Are you a UK or EU reader that can’t get enough investor-focused content on digital assets?<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a>&nbsp;in London on November 15th and 16th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) London. Use code ARTICLE for £75 off your ticket.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>

Franklin Templeton Prepping Blockchain Fund

<div id="highlights-block_614360bf86b5c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Participation in the round includes Sino Global Capital, Defiance, Delphi Digital, Robot Ventures, Spartan, Hypersphere Ventures, Protocol Ventures and Gen Block Capital</li>
 <li>The funds will be used for the further creation of its endpoints across the ecosystem, Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder of LayerZero Labs told Blockworks</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Binance Labs and Multicoin Capital co-led a $6.3 million Series A funding round for LayerZero, a new omnichain interoperability protocol, the company announced Thursday. 



Participation in the round includes Sino Global Capital, Defiance, Delphi Digital, Robot Ventures, Spartan, Hypersphere Ventures, Protocol Ventures and Gen Block Capital. The project has raised $2 million in a seed funding round bringing its total fundraising to $8.3 million to date, LayerZero said. 



The funds will be used for the further creation of its endpoints across the ecosystem, Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder of LayerZero Labs told Blockworks.&nbsp;



LayerZero has not been launched yet because it’s currently under three audits that are expected to be completed at the end of October, but Pellegrino said he expects the network to launch shortly after.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="323" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg" alt="Omnichain diagram" class="wp-image-7992" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-LayerZero-1024x323.jpg?w=1139 1139w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



“For cross-chain bridging and messaging, almost every existing approach falls into one of two broad categories. The first is having a consensus forming middle chain validate and forward messages between chains. The second is running a light node on-chain,” Ryan Zarick, co-founder and CTO of LayerZero Labs <a href="https://medium.com/layerzero-official/layerzero-an-omnichain-interoperability-protocol-b43d2ae975b6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote in a blog post</a>.



The omnichain protocol unites decentralized applications, or dapps, across blockchains. Most people think of cross-chains protocols, which is like having a bridge from Ethereum to Avalanche and while Ethereum has bridges to many other chains (BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana, Fantom, etc.), Avalanche does not connect to those, Pellegrino noted. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="458" height="189" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8003" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg?w=458 458w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16-layerzero-logo.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px" /></figure></div>



“So we might call Ethereum multi-chain but each of it’s connected chains are still siloed and have limited communication pathways. Omnichain is when all chains are connected to each other chain directly and natively,” Pellegrino said.



Its protocol runs an “Ultra Light Node” that provides the security of a light node with the cost-effectiveness of middle chains, Zarick said.&nbsp;



It connects disparate blockchains by passing messages between chains instead of centralizing security around a single hub, which allows for cheaper transactions but a single point of failure, it said. On-chain light nodes are secure but expensive while middle chains are inexpensive but less secure, Zarick said.&nbsp;



“I think most people can see that the proliferation of chains is not something that is going to stop anytime soon,” Pellegrino said. “We’re never going to have a chain that does it all perfectly, and different use cases have different needs. LayerZero enables dapps to take advantage of the benefit of each chain and utilize the best parts of them,” Pellegrino added.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Are you a UK or EU reader that can’t get enough investor-focused content on digital assets?<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a>&nbsp;in London on November 15th and 16th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) London. Use code ARTICLE for £75 off your ticket.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>

LayerZero Adds $6.3M in Series A Funding Led by Binance Labs and Multicoin Capital

<div id="highlights-block_60ef3b4f4438f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The company is also backed by IDG Capital, Binance, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Yale University, and others </li>
 <li>CertiK is one of the fastest growing organizations in the blockchain security space and has raised $48 million since its inception in 2018, including an $11 million funding round within the past year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



CertiK, a blockchain security firm, announced a $37 million Series B funding round co-led by Coatue Management and Shunwei Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, marking the largest single round of fundraising in the blockchain security space, the company said.&nbsp;



The company is also backed by IDG Capital, Binance, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Yale University, and others.&nbsp;



The funding will be used to expand its<a href="https://www.cybavo.com/blog/defi-hacks-2021/"> security technology</a> in the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance markets. 



The company does code auditing and has a platform called Skynet, which uses on-chain and off-chain data to provide real-time insights into the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/algorithmic-stablecoin-developer-sam-kazemian-calls-for-caution-on-regulation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security of DeFi applications</a> and to date has monitored over 2 million smart contract addresses and more than 2 billion on-chain transactions, it said. 



“Decentralized finance has grown enormously over the last 18 months, giving millions of people access to innovative financial tools and savings products,” said Kai Jiang, a partner at Coatue Management. “With such rapid innovation, security is of the utmost importance.”



The NYC-based startup is one of the fastest-growing organizations in the blockchain security space and has raised $48 million since its inception in 2018, including an $11 million funding round within the past year. 



The company was founded by professors at Yale University and Columbia University to use AI technology to audit and monitor blockchain protocols and smart contracts and has over $70 billion worth of digital asset value, including leading projects such as Aave, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Terra, Yearn, and Chiliz.



“The power of blockchain boils down to the power of the people,” said Ronghui Gu, CertiK co-founder and professor at Columbia University. “We’re proud to advance transparency in the space by providing the tools and resources – including our official audit reports – so the community can make sense of vital security information.”

Fundraise