Bessie Liu

A handful of crypto projects have received venture funding in the second week of 2023.



The most significant fundraise was secured by CyberX, a market maker for digital assets, which secured a $15 million Series A led by Foresight Ventures.



CyberX plans to use its latest financing to expand its team internationally, with a specific focus on its Asian and North American markets and on continuing to integrate DeFi protocols into its network.



&#8220;Liquidity is fundamental for further developments in this nascent crypto industry. It is pivotal to have experienced market makers like CyberX to retain market efficiency,” Forest Bai, CEO of Foresight Ventures, said in a statement.&nbsp;



“We believe CyberX has the advanced technology, experienced team, and extensive market knowledge to emerge at the forefront of the competition, which is why we have made this substantial investment of $15M into their future,” he said.



A social cryptocurrency wallet dubbed The Easy Company also secured a large amount of funding, closing a $14.2 million deal with investors including Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures, and 6th Man Ventures, among others.



The wallet is available on iOS and Android and is designed to combine user profiles with social discovery features similar to what exists on Instagram.



Another wallet company that caught venture capital interest was Momentum Safe (MSafe), a multi-signature wallet solution on the Aptos/Move ecosystem.



MSafe closed a $5 million seed round led by Jump Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Superscrypt (founded by Temasek), Redpoint Ventures, SV Angel, Shima Capital, and Spartan Group.



Proceeds from the latest financing round will be used to grow the MSafe team and invest in product development, the company noted in a statement. The team has upcoming features such as DAO tooling solutions and recurring payment capabilities to be expected over the next few months.



“MSafe&#8217;s non-custodial digital asset management platform offers best-in-class security, decentralization and flexibility needed by organizations,” Saurabh Sharma, head of investments at Jump Crypto, said. “Excited to support MSafe’s strong team with ambitious goals and capabilities to scale web3 financial services.”



Other noteworthy raises this week include:



<ul>
<li>Open source protocol for consensus capital markets, Alkimiya, landed $7.2 million in seed funding led by Castle Island Ventures and 1kx.</li>



<li>Decentralized peer-to-peer gateway on the Cosmos network, Quasar, received $5.4 million from Shima Capital, bringing it to a $70 million valuation.</li>



<li>Open Forest Protocol (OFP), an on chain measurement and reporting platform working on forestation, secured $4.1 million in pre-seed funding from over 17 venture capital firms and angel investors.</li>
</ul>



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Funding Roundup: Funding Gains Momentum in Second Week of 2023

<div id="highlights-block_6335a54b711bc" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The decision to launch on Polygon is Push Protocol’s first step toward a broader expansion across blockchains</li>
 <li>Its services are currently being used by popular DeFi protocols including MakerDAO, Uniswap and Aave</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Push Protocol, a decentralized communication network previously known as Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS), has launched on Polygon’s PoS chain.



The network is designed to enable cross-chain notifications and messaging for dapps, wallets and services. Users can connect the protocol’s app to their wallets and set notifications based on events occurring on-chain.



Its services are currently being used by prominent DeFi protocols on the Ethereum network including MakerDAO, Uniswap and Aave.&nbsp;



Push Protocol’s <a href="https://medium.com/push-protocol/epns-rebrands-into-push-protocol-the-communication-protocol-for-web3-2fb3e73305a5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recent rebrand</a> signals its decision to move into a multichain world, according to Harsh Rajat, CEO and co-founder of the protocol.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The launch of Push on Polygon is the first of many blockchains our platform will ultimately expand to, bringing an opt-in, native, censorship-resistant option to Web3 users everywhere,” Rajat said.</blockquote>



The company has close to 60,000 subscribers since it first launched on Ethereum mainnet in early 2022 and has facilitated over 17 million notifications across 100 channels, he said.



Push raised a $10.1 million token round in April this year led by Jump Crypto, the digital assets arm of quant trading firm Jump Trading, with participation from Tiger Global and other prominent venture capitalists.



Saurabh Sharma, head of venture investments at Jump Crypto, said in a statement that Push Protocol’s decision to launch on Polygon would ease the Web3 ecosystem’s reliance on Web2 notification systems. 



“Making communication native to the Web3 ecosystem and severing reliance on Web2-powered notifications means crypto users will benefit from improved UX [user experience], which in turn will drive adoption and use of Web3 tech,” he said.



Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, said the Push network adds “much-needed functionality to the Web3 ecosystem.”



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Polygon Onboards New Web3-native Communication Network

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61b1f748951a3" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“This funding round allows us to continue building out our network of institutional traders, CeFi exchanges, and DeFi protocols,” Anand Gomes, Paradigm’s co-founder and CEO said in a statement</li>
 <li>Paradigm has increased trading volume on its network by 1,300% year-over-year to $10 billion in total volume traded per month, it said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Paradigm.co, the liquidity and communications platform for institutions and professional traders, has closed a $35 million Series A round co-led by Alameda Ventures and Jump Capital, bringing its valuation to $400 million, the institutional liquidity network announced Thursday. 



Other investors include Genesis Trading, QCP Capital, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nexo-partners-with-fidelity-digital-assets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nexo</a>, Optiver US, IMC, GSR Markets, Akuna Capital, Babel Finance, MGNR, Avon Ventures, CMT Digital, executives at Goldentree Asset Management and Amber Group.&nbsp;



“This funding round allows us to continue building out our network of institutional traders, CeFi exchanges, and DeFi protocols, while also enhancing our 24/7 customer support, and expanding upon our current product offerings to better accommodate the needs of our clients,” Anand Gomes, Paradigm’s co-founder and CEO said in a statement.



<a href="https://www.paradigm.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paradigm’s</a> network is for derivatives traders across centralized finance and DeFi. It works with about 600 institutions and has increased trading volume on its network by 1,300% year-over-year to $10 billion in total volume traded per month, it said.&nbsp;



“We are super excited to be working with all our new investors, most of whom are already clients of Paradigm,” Gomes told Blockworks. “These strategic partnerships will help us accelerate our growth towards our goal of becoming the largest institutional liquidity network in crypto,” Gomes said.&nbsp;



This story was updated at 8:45 am ET to remove mention of Paradigm, the unrelated investment firm.



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Alameda Ventures, Jump Capital Co-led $35M Series A for Paradigm.co

<div id="highlights-block_618a54df7fce9" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>WOO Network’s trading volumes grew from $20 million daily in early 2020 to about $1 billion in daily volume as of October 2021</li>
 <li>Nexo’s partnership with Texture Capital will enable its expansion of institutional offerings to US-based investors</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The digital asset industry continues to show strong signs of capital investment, with no signals for slowing down as November takes off in the venture capital world. Neon Labs is the latest among <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/vaneck-led-50m-raise-for-cadenza-ventures-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple companies</a> that <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/parallel-finance-valuation-rises-67-to-250m-in-three-months/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have announced</a> significant fundraises this week, and it’s only Tuesday.&nbsp;



Neon Labs raised $40 million in a private token sale led by Jump Capital, the company shared. Additional investors include Three Arrows Capital, Solana Capital, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Ethereal Ventures, IDEO CoLab Ventures, among others.



Proceeds from the token sale will be used to scale Neon Labs’ team for research, core development, marketing and business development, it said in a statement. The capital will also be used to create incentive programs for development and innovation within the company’s ecosystem.&nbsp;



“The successful completion of our round is proof that the community believes in our cross-chain solution,” Marina Guryeva, director at Neon Labs said in a statement.&nbsp;



This sale comes at a time when the company is preparing to launch its Neon Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) 1.0 smart contract on Solana blockchain’s mainnet. The mainnet launch will allow Ethereum developers to build on Solana’s blockchain without needing to know Rust programming language, the company said.



“When we are talking about Ethereum dApps coming to Solana via Neon EVM, it’s more than just deployment of their contracts, Guryeva said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Sushi, Aave and several more dApps have confirmed their interest in deploying on Neon EVM, but they need us to enable integrations with the infrastructure providers to be able to do so.”&nbsp;</blockquote>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">WOO Network closes $30 million round</h3>



A deep liquidity ecosystem called <a href="https://woo.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WOO Network</a> has closed a $30 million Series A on Tuesday.



The round was oversubscribed by 200% and backed by Three Arrows Capital, PSP Soteria Ventures, Gate Ventures, QCP Capital and Crypto.com Capital. Investors from AVATAR (Avalanche Asia Star Fund), AscendEX, AntAlpha, MEXC Global, LBank, Fenbushi Capital, BitMart, 3Commas Capital, TokenInsight Research and ViaBTC Capital also participated in the round.&nbsp;



&#8220;The raise is intended to fuel our global expansion effort via regional offices, talent acquisition, marketing, legal licensing, and development of new innovative products in social trading, futures, and DeFi services,&#8221; Ran Yi, Head of Ecosystem at Woo, told Blockworks.



The capital influx follows the company’s launch of its trading platform WOO X and WOOFi, a decentralized exchange platform that aims to provide better swap prices and reduced slippage at lower fees, it said.&nbsp;



In general, WOO Network connects traders, exchanges, institutions and DeFi platforms with access to liquidity, trading execution and yield-generating strategies at close to zero costs.&nbsp;



Since its initial seed funding in 2020, the company’s trading volumes grew from $20 million daily in early 2020 to about $1 billion in daily volume as of October 2021, it said. In mid-September of this year, the company hit an all-time high of $2.6 billion in daily trading volume.&nbsp;



The capital raised will be used to expand globally with new talent and opening a new research and development regional office in Warsaw, Poland, as well as allocating funds toward the development of new product lines in futures, social trading and DeFi trading and yield generating products, it said.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Nexo acquires stake in SEC-registered Texture Capital&nbsp;</h3>



Nexo has acquired a stake in Texture Capital Holdings Corp., a parent company of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member and SEC-registered broker-dealer Texture Capital, it said in an announcement Tuesday.&nbsp;



Nexo is a regulated digital asset lending institution. Since it was founded in 2018, the company has processed over $50 billion for 2.5 million users across over 200 jurisdictions. Nexo made the strategic investment for an undisclosed amount as a part of Texture Capital’s seed funding round.&nbsp;



The two-year-old Texture Capital provides a regulated, blockchain-enabled marketplace for accredited and institutional investors with the addition of providing services for private capital liquidity. The company is a broker-dealer licensed for issuance and trading of Digital Asset Securities and is registered in all US states as well as a handful of territories, it said.



Nexo said the partnership with Texture Capital will enable Nexo to expand its institutional offerings to US-based investors, while possibly fostering broker-dealer licensing to help expand Nexo in the US market.



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Neon Labs Raised $40M, WOO Network Closes $30M, Nexo Invests in Texture Capital

<div id="highlights-block_613fc95e00e31" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“This new fund will have a large focus on crypto,” Johnson said</li>
 <li>There will also be continued investments across areas of FinTech, IT/data infrastructure, future of commerce and media and B2B SaaS, Johnson said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Venture capital firm Jump Capital has launched its largest fund to date of $350 million total capital commitment with an “increased concentration on the evolving crypto ecosystem,” according to the announcement.&nbsp;



This is Jump Capital’s 7th venture fund, which is 75% higher in capital from its 6th fund of $200 million, Peter Johnson, partner at Jump Capital, told Blockworks. The total amount raised across all seven funds has not been publicly announced, Johnson said.&nbsp;



Nine years ago, Jump Capital partnered with its sister company Jump Trading, which is a global technology, trading and research firm. Since then, it has had over 100 investments and nearly 30 exits, it said.&nbsp;



“This new fund will have a large focus on crypto,” Johnson said. “This is an area we have had significant success since we started investing in crypto companies in 2015,” and now Jump Capital is invested in over 10 crypto companies and projects that have over billion-dollars or more in valuations, he said.



The crypto investments will be led by Johnson and Jump Capital General Partner Saurabh Sharma, he said. Similar to previous funds, this new fund will focus on early-stage investments across areas of FinTech, IT/data infrastructure, future of commerce and media and B2B SaaS.



It will invest its crypto-related funds in both equity and tokens, across the areas of DeFi, financial applications, blockchain infrastructure, and Web 3.0, Johnson said.&nbsp;



“We are uniquely positioned for success in this area given the team’s backgrounds in consumer fintech, capital markets, distributed systems, computing infrastructure, and our connection with Jump Trading, which is one of the largest participants in the crypto markets,” he said.&nbsp;



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