In February 2023, RootData reported 120 public investment projects involving cryptocurrency venture capital (VC), a 62% increase compared to 74 projects in January and a 23% decrease from the 155 projects recorded in February 2022.
In February, infrastructure projects accounted for approximately 28% of the cryptocurrency market’s total financing, DeFi for 18%, and NFT/GameFi for 24%. The total amount of financing during that month was US$950 million, representing a 66.7% increase from the US$570 million seen in January 2023 and a 76.6% decline from the US$4.06 billion recorded in February 2022, ending four months of decline. Excluding CeFi, miners, and other centralized institutions, more than US$20 million have been rotated through the market during this time; the breakdown is as follows:
Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction, a blockchain chip startup, recently secured funding from Morgan Creek Digital and will use the funds to expand its engineering team. Alon Webman, CEO of Chain Reaction, stated that the company plans to start mass producing its flagship product Electrum in Q1 2023 and aims to launch a “fully homomorphic encryption” chip by the end of 2024. This chip will allow users to both process and encrypt data simultaneously.
Taurus
Taurus SA, a Swiss digital asset infrastructure company, has closed a funding round led by Credit Suisse and backed by Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group, and Cedar Mundi Ventures. This investment enables the firm to provide companies with comprehensive services related to issuing, hosting, and trading digital assets – including Asset Staking and Tokenization. Cedar Mundi Ventures is a Lebanese investment firm specializing in technology.
Sebre 56
Sabre56, a bitcoin mining consultancy, has recently raised $35 million to construct its hosting sites. This investment was primarily sourced from private funds, and the company aims to reach an installed capacity of 150MW by the end of 2021. So far, construction has already commenced on four locations in Wyoming and Texas with a total of 115MW.
TeraWulf
Cumulus Data recently announced plans to launch TeraWulf, the United States’ first nuclear-powered bitcoin mine. This groundbreaking move seeks to optimize energy efficiency in the crypto value chain by maximizing the power output of BTC mining operations. TeraWulf is scheduled to go live this year and will mark a major milestone for cryptocurrency mining in the US.
Coincover
Coincover, a leading provider of innovative technologies for protecting digital assets held by crypto companies and individual investors, closed a major funding round led by Foundation Capital. Their solutions include monitoring and analysis to detect unauthorized access, compensation in case of hacks, and strong end-to-end encryption vaults for secure storage and private key recovery. Also, their mission is to safeguard the digital assets of their users.
Towns
Towns, the first product from Here Not There Labs, is a Web3 group chat protocol and application designed specifically for online communities. This decentralized platform enables online communities to create blockchain-based gatherings without worrying about external organizations changing the rules or profiting off their activities. The financing of Towns was led by a16z crypto, allowing users to meet and chat freely in Spaces tailored to their needs and protected by their rights.
Beldex
Beldex, a privacy technology startup, recently secured funding led by digital asset market maker DWF Labs. The investment will be used to further research and develop the Beldex ecosystem, including BChat, a private messaging application; BelNet, a decentralized virtual private network (VPN); the Web3 browser; and cross-chain privacy protocols. DWF will also be providing advisory services and assisting with marketing initiatives.
