Funding Weekly Report | 10 Public Funding Events, Crypto Payment Network Mesh Completes $75 Million Series C Funding, Led by Dragonfly Capital

Highlights of the Current Period

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, last week (1.26-2.1), there were 10 blockchain investment and financing events globally, with a total funding amount exceeding $197 million. The overview is as follows:

• DeFi announced 6 investment and financing events, including AC’s new project Flying Tulip completing $25.5 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $225.5 million;
• Web3+AI track announced 1 investment and financing event, with AetheriumX completing $8 million in strategic financing, led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital;
• Infrastructure & Tools announced 2 investment and financing events, including Mesh, a crypto payment network, completing $75 million in Series C funding led by Dragonfly Capital;
• Centralized Finance announced 1 investment and financing event, with crypto trading platform Talos raising $45 million, with participation from Robinhood, a16z, and others.

DeFi

AC’s new project Flying Tulip completes $25.5 million Series A funding, with total funding reaching $225.5 million

Flying Tulip, a unified on-chain financial system founded by Andre Cronje, the creator of Sonic Labs, announced that it has completed institutional financing totaling $225.5 million at a fully diluted valuation of $1 billion, the same as its seed round. This financing includes a $25.5 million Series A private token sale via Amber Group, Fasanara Digital, and Paper Ventures, as well as a $200 million seed round completed last September.

In addition to institutional funding, Flying Tulip has raised $50 million through Impossible Finance’s Curated platform and plans to launch another public sale on CoinList next week. The project team stated that they have received approximately $1.36 billion in investment interest so far. If the current allocation is fully subscribed, the remaining funding capacity is about $400 million.

Token creation platform Doppler completes $9 million seed round, led by Pantera Capital

Doppler, a token creation and issuance protocol platform, has completed $9 million in seed funding, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Variant, Figment Capital, and Coinbase Ventures. The team revealed that the funding was completed in Q2 2025 via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT). Doppler is one of two main products under Whetstone Research, the other being Pure Markets. Doppler streamlines token deployment, liquidity bootstrapping, governance, and other processes through integrated interfaces, and employs a price discovery auction mechanism designed to limit sniping and generate protocol-owned liquidity on the first day. The platform creates over 40,000 assets daily, with a total value exceeding $1.5 billion and over $1 billion in cumulative trading volume.

Gold and Forex tokenization market Tenbin Labs raises $7 million, with Galaxy Digital leading

Galaxy Digital led a $7 million financing round for Tenbin Labs, aiming to build a tokenized gold and forex market. The project focuses on bringing traditional financial assets onto the blockchain, expanding the practical application of crypto assets in global markets.

Trading platform Everything completes $6.9 million seed round, led by Humanity Protocol

Everything, a trading platform, announced the completion of a $6.9 million seed round, with Humanity Protocol leading, and participation from Animoca Brands, Hex Trust, and Three Point Capital. The platform aims to create an “all-encompassing marketplace” integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, prediction markets, and payment functions. It plans to launch the Everything Points reward system, where users earn points through asset holdings, trading, and inviting friends. The total points will determine future airdrop allocations of the platform’s token E and ecosystem rewards. The public sale of E tokens will then be launched via Telegram and web mini-programs.

On-chain financial application Bleap completes $6 million seed round, led by Blossom Capital

Bleap, an on-chain financial app supporting custody and stablecoin payments, completed a $6 million seed round led by Blossom Capital. The app is supported by former Revolut executives Joao Alves and Guilherme Gomes. Alves stated that this round was completed last summer. The company did not disclose its post-funding valuation. Bleap plans to use the new funds to develop yield vaults, expand on-chain trading features, and grow its business in Latin America and Europe. Prior to this, Bleap raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed round at the end of 2024, led by Ethereal Ventures, founded by Joe Lubin of Consensys.

RWA infrastructure project Golden FI completes $2 million seed round, led by Jinlian Capital

Golden FI, a Web3 real-world asset (RWA) digitization infrastructure platform, announced the successful completion of a $2 million seed round. The round was led by strategic partner Jinlian Capital, with participation from four other globally renowned investment institutions specializing in Web3 and fintech. According to official statements, the remaining four participating institutions’ information has not been disclosed for strategic reasons.

Web3 Gaming

AetheriumX completes $8 million strategic financing

AetheriumX announced the completion of $8 million in strategic financing, led by CGV, GAINS Associates, DuckDAO, and Genesis Capital. The funds will be used to optimize its DCIP protocol, expand DeFi and GameFi modules, and focus on the Asia-Pacific market to build a sustainable, verifiable on-chain interactive economic ecosystem.

Infrastructure & Tools

Crypto payment network Mesh completes $75 million Series C funding, led by Dragonfly Capital

Mesh, a crypto payment network, announced the completion of $75 million in Series C funding, with a post-money valuation of $1 billion. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment, and Liberty City Ventures. The total funding raised by the company exceeds $200 million. The funds will be used to accelerate expansion in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and to promote product development. Mesh positions itself as an asset-agnostic, unified payment network, covering over 900 million users, supporting payments with assets like Bitcoin and Solana, with merchants settling instantly using stablecoins like USDC and PYUSD or local fiat currencies. Some of the current round’s funding is also settled in stablecoins.

Sony Innovation Fund invests $13 million in Soneium co-developer Startale, initiating its Series A funding

Sony’s Innovation Fund invested an additional $13 million in Startale Group, a blockchain co-developer, as the first tranche of its Series A funding. Previously, Startale received $3.5 million in seed funding from Sony in 2023, and in 2024, it secured an additional $3.5 million in seed extension funding from Dahua Venture Capital and Samsung Next, bringing total disclosed funding to $20 million.

Headquartered in Singapore, Startale co-develops the Ethereum Layer 2 network Soneium and the ecosystem entry application Startale App with Sony Blockchain Solutions Laboratory. Built on OP Stack, Soneium focuses on entertainment applications and general scenarios. Since its mainnet launch in January 2025, it has processed over 500 million transactions, with 5.4 million active wallets and supporting over 250 active decentralized applications.

Centralized Finance

Crypto trading platform Talos raises $45 million, with Robinhood, a16z participating

Robinhood participated in Talos’s Series B extension round, raising the company’s valuation to approximately $1.5 billion. Talos focuses on providing crypto trading infrastructure for global institutions, serving clients managing assets totaling around $21 trillion. The $45 million extension round also attracted new strategic investors including Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Karatage, while existing investors a16z crypto, BNY, and Fidelity Investments also participated. Robinhood stated that Talos’s flexibility and rapid adaptability will further enhance its crypto business liquidity and functionality.

Venture Capital

Venture firm Escape Velocity completes $62 million fundraising, focusing on DePIN and crypto projects

Escape Velocity, a venture capital firm, completed its second round of fundraising totaling $62 million, mainly supporting DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure networks) and broader crypto projects.

The fund attracted notable investors including Marc Andreessen and Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital. The largest contributor, Cendana, contributed $15 million. Escape Velocity co-founder Mahesh Ramakrishnan stated that despite the current market downturn in DePIN, he believes decentralized physical infrastructure will see breakthroughs. The firm has previously invested in DePIN projects like Daylight and Glow in the solar energy sector and plans to continue seeking high-quality projects beyond market hype.