Weekly Funding Roundup | 9 Projects Secure Funding, Total Raised Reaches $215 Million (Jan 19-25)
- Core View: From January 19 to 25, 2025, the global blockchain funding market saw a slight dip in activity. However, on-chain financial infrastructure and specific application areas (such as payments, asset tokenization) continued to attract significant capital, indicating a trend of capital focusing towards compliance and practical utility.
- Key Elements:
- A total of 9 funding events were disclosed during the week, raising a total of $215 million, showing a slight decrease from the previous week's 11 events and $232 million.
- On-chain IPO platform Superstate topped the list with an $82.5 million funding round. Its business aims to build regulated blockchain capital market infrastructure and currently manages over $1.2 billion in assets.
- Argentine fintech company Pomelo completed a $55 million Series C funding round. The funds will be used to expand its business in the Latin American market and launch a stablecoin credit card product.
- Bitcoin payment startup ZBD secured $40 million in funding, focusing on integrating Bitcoin payment solutions for video games.
- The intended use of funds for multiple companies clearly points towards compliance and product deepening. For example, River plans to launch yield products, and CheckSig has already obtained an EU MiCAR license.
According to incomplete statistics by Odaily, from January 19 to January 25, 2025, a total of 9 financing events were disclosed in the global blockchain field, slightly down from 11 in the previous week; the total financing amount was $215 million, a slight decrease from $232 million in the previous week.
The largest single financing round this week was the on-chain IPO platform Superstate announcing the completion of an $82.5 million funding round; followed by the Argentine fintech company Pomelo announcing the completion of a $55 million Series C financing round.
Below are the specific financing events (Note: 1. Sorted by the announced amount; 2. * indicates "traditional" field companies with some business involving blockchain):
On January 22, the on-chain IPO platform Superstate announced the completion of an $82.5 million funding round, led by Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global, with participation from Galaxy Digital, Haun Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, and others. The project's main business is to build regulated blockchain capital market infrastructure, allowing SEC-registered companies to issue digital shares directly to investors and settle on public chains such as Ethereum and Solana. Superstate currently manages over $1.2 billion in assets.
On January 22, Argentine fintech company Pomelo announced the completion of a $55 million Series C funding round. This round was led by Kaszek and Insight Partners, with participation from Index Ventures, Adams Street Partners, S32, Endeavor Catalyst, Monashees, and TQ Ventures.
Pomelo stated that the funds from this round will be primarily used to expand the scale of its credit processing business in its two core markets, Mexico and Brazil, and to support the launch of credit card products denominated in global stablecoins.
On January 22, Bitcoin payments startup ZBD announced the completion of a $40 million Series C funding round, led by Blockstream Capital, which contributed $36 million. The project's main business is providing Bitcoin payment software and payment infrastructure for video games.
ZBD stated that the funds from this round will be used to launch a more comprehensive suite of payment products within the next year.
On January 23, River announced the completion of a $12 million strategic funding round, with investors including Tron DAO, Justin Sun, the Maelstrom Fund founded by Arthur Hayes, The Spartan Group, and several Nasdaq-listed companies from the US and Europe. The funds will be used to accelerate ecosystem deployment, deepen stablecoin liquidity, and promote the integration of satUSD in trading, lending, staking, and yield scenarios. River plans to launch yield products for retail and institutional clients, including Smart Vault and Prime Vault, providing a unified interface for accessing yields through protocol-native and institutional-grade strategies.
On January 21, the Dutch cryptocurrency platform Finst announced the completion of an €8 million Series A funding round, led by Endeit Capital, with participation from existing investors including Eelko van Kooten, founder of Spinnin' Records, and Mark Franse, co-founder of DEGIRO. This financing brings Finst's total funding to €15 million. The Finst platform was founded in 2023 and has obtained crypto asset service authorization from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).
Cork Completes $5.5 Million Seed Funding Round, Led by a16z, CSX, and Road Capital
On January 21, Cork announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed funding round, led by a16z, CSX, and Road Capital, with participation from BitGo Ventures, Cooley, IDEO Ventures, PEER VC, and WAGMI Ventures. Cork is a startup focused on tokenizing risks in a new "on-chain infrastructure category," building tools to make implicit risks in emerging real-world asset classes transparent and tradable.
AKEDO Completes $5 Million Seed Funding Round, Led by Karatage
On January 19, AKEDO announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round to accelerate the development of its AI-native content creation engine and Launchpad. This round was led by Karatage, with participation from Sfermion, Collab+Currency, MARBLEX, Seed Club, The Open Platform, TON Ventures, Gagra Ventures, Kenetic Capital, Metalabs Ventures, and others.
Warden Completes $4 Million Strategic Funding Round, with Participation from 0G, Messari, Venice
On January 25, Warden posted on platform X that it had completed a $4 million strategic funding round at a $200 million valuation. This financing did not involve venture capital roadshows or traditional fundraising; all participants were developers already collaborating with them, including 0G, Messari, and Venice.
"Crypto-as-a-Service" Platform CheckSig Completes €3.5 Million Funding Round
On January 20, the European "Crypto-as-a-Service" platform CheckSig announced the completion of a €3.5 million funding round at a valuation of €33.5 million, bringing its total funding to date to €6.2 million. The company has obtained a MiCAR license and provides services such as crypto custody, crypto trading, and cryptocurrency tax withholding, aiming to offer secure and transparent cryptocurrency services to individual and institutional investors.
