A total of 13 public funding events occurred in the crypto market last week, with a cumulative amount of approximately $167 million | Investment and financing weekly report
Finishing: Luan Peng, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, from July 14 to July 20, 2025, a total of 13 public investment and financing events occurred in the blockchain and crypto industries, with a cumulative financing of approximately US$167 million.
From the perspective of track distribution, the projects that have received financing are mainly distributed in infrastructure and CeFi tracks. Popular projects include crypto infrastructure company Function, mini-game platform PlaysOut, tokenized money market fund platform Spik, and UK-listed digital asset operator Vaultz Capital.
In addition, according to Fortune Magazine, Dakota, a stablecoin bank founded by former Coinbase executive Ryan Bozarth, has completed a $12.5 million Series A financing, led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Kraken's Triton Ventures.
(List of projects that raised more than $5 million in financing last week, data source: Rootdata)
1. Infrastructure
Decentralized messaging protocol developer Ephemera has completed a $20 million Series B funding round, co-led by USV, a16z crypto, and Lightspeed Faction
According to The Block, Ephemera, developer of decentralized messaging protocol XMTP, has closed a $20 million Series B funding round aimed at building and growing its ecosystem.
The round was co-led by Union Square Ventures, a16z crypto, and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Offline Ventures, Sound Ventures (founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary), and Distributed Global.
Kun KUN, a stablecoin payment service platform, completed a Series A round of financing, with participation from BAI Capital and GSR Ventures
Kun KUN, a stablecoin payment service platform, has completed a Series A round of financing, with participation from BAI Capital, GSR Ventures, a Hong Kong-listed company, and Eternium Global, with a cumulative total financing of more than US$50 million.
Kun KUN is an innovative technology company with stablecoin payments and financial services as its core, based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe, covering emerging markets such as the Greater Bay Area, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
Mini-game platform PlaysOut completed a $7 million seed round of financing, with participation from OKX Ventures and others
According to the Financial Tech Times, mini-game platform PlaysOut has closed a $7 million seed round of financing. OKX Ventures, KBW Ventures, and Pacific Century Group participated. This financing will be used to expand its mini-game ecosystem, secure strategic partnerships, and expand the market.
It is reported that PlaysOut is a mini-game platform that helps developers publish mini-games on platforms such as Telegram, Discord and YouTube by embedding infrastructure such as blockchain functions, and PlaysOut is preparing to launch its embedded SDK in May.
Crypto infrastructure company Function has completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Galaxy Digital
Crypto infrastructure company Function has announced the completion of a $10 million seed round led by Galaxy Digital with participation from Antalpha and Mantle, CoinDesk reports.
Function (formerly Ignition) is committed to introducing institutional-grade yield to Bitcoin, and its flagship product, FBTC, is a fully reserved, composable representation of Bitcoin that currently has a total locked volume (TVL) of $1.5 billion.
Function says FBTC can serve as an on-ramp for institutional and corporate treasuries to efficiently deploy Bitcoin while maintaining full custody control with 1:1 asset backing. Galaxy will serve as an investor and core contributor, supporting FBTC in terms of liquidity, governance, and risk framework design.
Function CEO Thomas Chen said, "By 2026, it will no longer be enough to treat Bitcoin as a passive asset, and the new standard will be actively earning yield." ”
2. DeFi
Tokenized money market fund platform Spiko has closed a $22 million Series A funding round, led by Index Ventures
According to The Block, tokenized money market fund platform Spiko announced the completion of a $22 million Series A funding round, led by Index Ventures, with institutions such as White Star Frst, Rerail, Bpifrance, and Blockwall, as well as Revolut co-founder Nikolay Storonsky, Kyriba founder Jean-Luc Robert, and Bridge Angel investors such as co-founder Zach Abrams, Wise CTO Harsh Sinha, and Blackstone Co-Chief Investment Officer Lionel Assant participated.
It is reported that Spiko focuses on providing tokenized money market fund services to European companies, allowing users to obtain daily income by investing in low-risk assets such as the eurozone and U.S. Treasuries. The platform uses blockchain technologies such as Ethereum and Arbitrum and has currently processed over $900 million in liquidity. The company plans to collaborate with institutions such as Memo Bank and aims to exceed $1 billion in assets under management by 2025.
3. CeFi
Dakota, a stablecoin bank founded by former Coinbase executives, has completed a $12.5 million Series A funding round, led by CoinFund
According to Fortune Magazine, Dakota, a stablecoin bank founded by former Coinbase executive Ryan Bozarth, has completed a $12.5 million Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Kraken's Triton Ventures.
Dakota enables fund transfers through stablecoins, providing bank-like services for businesses and individuals. Its business model combines traditional banking functions with blockchain technology, mainly serving overseas enterprise users in the non-crypto field, and the platform has currently processed $1.6 billion in transaction volume, which is expected to reach $4 billion by the end of 2025. Despite not holding a banking license, the company is registered as a money services operator in the United States and Europe.
Nasdaq-listed Hilbert Group AB received a SEK 300 million investment in Bitcoin
Nasdaq-listed Hilbert Group AB announced that Deus X Capital will invest 300 million Swedish kronor in Bitcoin, totaling 233 BTC, to which it will now be transferred to Hilbert's balance sheet, bringing Hilbert's capital reserves to approximately 430 BTC, worth approximately $52 million (SEK 500 million), following the announcement last week of its initial issuance of SEK 200 million convertible bond financing.
4. Tools
Crypto infrastructure company Talos acquired blockchain data provider Coin Metrics for more than $100 million
According to Fortune, Talos, a New York-based digital asset trading infrastructure development company, has announced that it has acquired blockchain data provider Coin Metrics.
Valued at over $100 million, Talos was founded in 2018 by Wall Street veteran Katz and Ethan Feldman, who serves as the company's CTO, and its software helps institutional investors such as hedge funds and asset managers trade digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to a person familiar with the matter.
5. Others
Publicly traded GameSquare completed a $70 million public offering to increase its ETH holdings
According to PRNewswire, GameSquare Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GAME), a U.S.-listed gaming entertainment technology company, announced the completion of a $70 million public offering to sell approximately 46.67 million shares of common stock at $1.50 per share.
The company plans to use the majority of the proceeds to significantly increase its Ethereum (ETH) holdings, and GameSquare CEO Justin Kenna said the funding is a significant milestone for the company, allowing it to quickly scale up and create one of the most ambitious Ethereum treasury strategies in the open market.
Former FSL Chief Growth Officer Mable Jiang has announced the creation of Trends, an on-chain social protocol
Mable Jiang announced the creation of on-chain social protocol Trends while ending his full-time job at FSL but will continue to work as an advisor. Trends aims to create a value-anchored social protocol, advancing the convergence of information and finance.
The project has garnered early support from prominent founders and investors in the industry, including Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko, the Jupiter team, LayerZero founder Bryan Pellegrino, and Multicoin partner Tushar Jain.
Trends will first serve as X's on-chain curation layer, with plans to expand to more open content platforms in the future. The core concept of the protocol is to combine social behavior with value flow, so that each piece of content has its own value curve, and accounts that continue to produce high-quality content will accumulate reputation on the chain, thereby establishing a new paradigm of on-chain social capital.
Ondo Finance acquires blockchain development company Strangelove
According to official sources, Ondo Finance announced the acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove, and the specific purchase price has not been disclosed.
The acquisition will expand Ondo's engineering and product capabilities, allowing it to develop the infrastructure to bring RWAs on-chain.
British listed company Vaultz Capital has completed a £1 million fundraising plan to increase its Bitcoin holdings
Vaultz Capital, a UK-listed digital asset operating company, announced that it has completed a £1 million fundraising round through the issuance of 6,060,607 additional ordinary shares, which will be used to support its operating business and Bitcoin funding strategy.