Humanity Protocol attains unicorn status in VC roundup.
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Crypto Startups Soar with Venture Capital Backing
In the dynamic world of cryptocurrency, a new wave of startups is making waves, securing seed rounds and pre-A funding to fuel their ambitious visions. Let’s dive into the highlights of the latest venture capital (VC) activities that have propelled these innovators to new heights.
Humanity Protocol Achieves Unicorn Status with $30 Million Boost
Humanity Protocol, a trailblazing decentralized identity solution, has reached the coveted unicorn status, boasting a valuation of $1 billion. This remarkable milestone comes after the company secured a $30 million seed round, led by the esteemed Kingsway Capital. Joining the investment were industry heavyweights like Animoca Brands, Blockchain.com, Hashed, Shima Capital, and 20 more visionary players. According to Humanity Protocol’s Medium post, these funds will empower the team to expand and develop cutting-edge products, paving the way for the public testnet launch in the second half of 2024. This latest funding round follows strategic investments made earlier to build the “human layer” for web3, with backing from Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu, and other prominent VC funds.
Arch Labs Secures $7 Million to Enhance Bitcoin-Native Applications
New York-based Arch Labs has raised $7 million in seed funding to elevate its Bitcoin-native application platform. The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from OKX Ventures, Portal Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, CMS Holdings, and Tangent. Arch Labs plans to utilize these resources to support the hiring of core developers, the launch of the Arch Network mainnet in the second half of 2024, and ongoing nurturing of its vibrant app ecosystem. The company is pioneering a “bridgeless” trading experience directly on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain, featuring a Rust-based zkVM called the ArchVM and a decentralized verifier network.
Uxuy Clinches $7 Million to Promote Efficient, Low-Cost Asset Transactions
Singapore-based Uxuy has also secured $7 million in a pre-A funding round. This capital will be deployed to facilitate efficient, low-cost transactions of assets like Lightning Network taproot assets, ordinals BRC-20, and Runes. The impressive list of investors includes Binance Labs, UTXO Management (Bitcoin Magazine), JDI Ventures, Bixin Ventures, SWC Global, and Matrix Partners. Uxuy aims to provide a seamless trading experience across various blockchain networks and is incubated by Binance Labs.
Arcium Nabs $5.5 Million to Advance On-Chain Confidential Computing
Arcium, an on-chain confidential computing project from Bern, Switzerland, has secured $5.5 million in funding. Greenfield Capital led the round, with participation from Coinbase, Heartcore Capital, Longhash VC, L2 Iterative Ventures, and several angel investors. Arcium is building a parallelized confidential computing network that leverages multiparty computation execution environments (MXEs) for secure computation on encrypted data. The funds will support the expansion of development efforts and the upcoming private incentivized testnet and public testnet phases.
Gnosis Partners with Zeal, Invests $2 Million
Another notable development is the strategic partnership between digital wallet creator Zeal and Ethereum (ETH) sidechain Gnosis, with a $2 million investment from Gnosis. This investment brings Zeal’s total funding to $9 million, after the company’s previous successful $7 million seed round.
Zest Protocol Secures $3.5 Million to Enable BTC Yield Generation
Wrapping up the week’s VC highlights, the Bitcoin lending protocol Zest raised $3.5 million to empower BTC holders to generate yields on-chain. Led by billionaire investor Tim Draper, the seed round also saw contributions from Binance Labs, Flow Traders, Trust Machines, and others. Zest Protocol leverages the Nakamoto upgrade by Bitcoin layer-2 Stacks and the bridging asset sBTC, which is pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin, to create a fully native Bitcoin lending experience.
These captivating VC activities showcase the vibrant and ever-evolving landscape of the cryptocurrency industry, where innovative startups are attracting substantial investments to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of decentralized finance and beyond.
