April crypto VC roundup: Highest number of funding deals in crypto's history

This article is part of a monthly series from The Block that takes a closer look at where the most recent venture capital investments have been flowing.

The crypto funding craze continued in April, which featured a record 244 deals.

The previous record of 226 deals was set in March, and before that in May 2021. And the $4 billion in venture capital invested in crypto firms in April was also the third-largest monthly total ever. VCs invested $1.35 billion into the NFT and blockchain gaming category alone, reflecting a total of 95 deals.

Another category that drew vast amounts of capital in April — and for the third month in a row — was blockchain infrastructure. It drew $1.27 billion.

Below is the April roundup, organized by category, of all the VC fundraises worth more than $10 million announced last month.

Exchanges, wallets, stablecoin issuers

There were six raises larger than $10 million by firms specifically focused on crypto trading, custody and stablecoin issuance.

Stablecoin issuer Circle announced a $400 million funding round with investments from BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Research, Marshall Wace and Fin Capital. The funding round is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. 

Binance.US, the American affiliate of global crypto exchange Binance, closed its inaugural funding round, raising over $200 million at a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion. Investors included RRE Ventures, Foundation Capital, Original Capital, VanEck, Circle Ventures, Gaingels and Gold House. 

Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX raised over $135 million in a Series D funding round at a valuation of $2.15 billion. Pantera Capital and Steadview led the round. Other investors included Kingsway, DraperDragon, Republic, Kindred, Coinbase and Polychain.

Crypto exchange Fasset, which is focused on serving the Gulf Region, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Liberty City Ventures and Fatima Gobi Ventures. Other investors included Soma Capital, MyAsiaVC, and unnamed institutional investors and family offices from the Middle East and South Asia. 

Paris-based crypto wallet startup Dfns raised $13.5 million in seed funding led by White Star Capital. Other investors included Hashed, Susquehanna, Coinbase Ventures and ABN AMRO Ventures. Dfns aims to help companies secure crypto by sharding private keys and distributing the pieces across a peer-to-peer network. 

Afriex, a Nigerian blockchain-based money transfer startup, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital China and Dragonfly Capital. Other investors included Goldentree, Stellar Foundation and Exceptional Capital.

NFTs, and gaming and the metaverse

April saw 20 raises larger than $10 million for firms specifically focused on NFTs, blockchain gaming and the metaverse. 

Sky Mavis, the firm behind play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, raised a $150 million round led by Binance to reimburse users who lost funds in a recent $625 million hack. Other backers in the round included a16z, Dialectic, Paradigm and Accel. 

London-based games startup Improbable raised $150 million in a round led by a16z and SoftBank. It plans create "a network of interoperable metaverses powered by its Morpheus technology" called M².

Genies, a startup that creates digital avatars, raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation. Silver Lake led the round, with Bond, NEA and Tamarack Global participating. Genies recently debuted an NFT storefront with Dapper Labs and now it plans to build out a network of NFT-based avatar identity products.

Rario, a cricket-focused NFT platform, raised $120 million in a Series A round led by Dream Capital, the VC arm of fantasy sports platform Dream Sports. Other investors included Alpha Wave Global (previously Falcon Edge Capital), Animoca Brands, Presight Capital and Kingsway Capital.

South Korean mobile game developer Netmarble's subsidiary Metaverse Entertainment reportedly raised 100 billion won (nearly $80 million) from Hyundai Motor Group's "Zero1ne Fund 2." With this deal, Metaverse Entertainment will collaborate with Hyundai on various metaverse-related initiatives.

Fractal, the gaming-focused NFT marketplace founded by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, raised $35 million in a seed round led by Paradigm and Multicoin Capital. Other investors included a16z, Solana Labs, Animoca Brands, Coinbase Ventures and Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon.

South Korean crypto play-to-earn game developer ISKRA reportedly raised 42 billion won ($34.5 million) in its first funding round. Investors included local internet giant Kakao's blockchain company Crust, local game developers Wemade, NHN Bigfoot, Neowiz, and venture capital firm Fast Ventures.

South Korea-based metaverse startup DoubleMe reportedly raised $25 million in a Series A round co-led by Coentry Investment and NH Investment, with participation from Samsung Electronics. DoubleMe operates a metaverse platform called TwinWorld that allows users to build an artificial reality (AR) experience in a physical location.

Double Jump.tokyo, a Japan-based blockchain gaming startup, reportedly raised 3 billion yen ($23 million), from several investors including Amber Group, Circle Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Jump Crypto and Polygon Ventures. Double jump.tokyo is the maker of the My Crypto Heroes game and plans to develop more blockchain-based games.

Live Bash, a US-based entertainment technology startup, raised $21 million in a seed funding round. It did not disclose investors; it just said "successful fintech pioneers" backed its round. Live Bash plans to offer "physical, fully equipped performance spaces in major cities across the globe that utilize proprietary blockchain technology to help everyone digitize performances and build portfolios of digital assets."

Civitas, an upcoming play-to-earn game being developed by Directive Games, raised $20 million in funding led by Delphi Digital and Three Arrows Capital. Other investors included Framework, Bitkraft, DeFiance, Sfermion. Yield Guild Games YGG and Merit Circle. Civitas will be a 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) city-building game that aims to be community-driven and collaborative. The game will be run by a DAO and players will earn a stake in the DAO and the game.

Community Gaming, a play-to-earn gaming platform that lets users create their own esports tournaments and gaming competitions for any game they like, raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by SoftBank Group's SB Opportunity Fund. Other investors included Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, BITKRAFT Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners and CoinFund.

Swedish gaming startup GOALS, which is building a multiplayer football game in which users can own players as NFTs, raised $15 million in a seed funding round. Northzone led the round. Other investors included Cherry Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Banana Capital, FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique, Axie Infinity co-founder Aleksander Larsen and Sorare co-founder Nicolas Julia.  

Polemos, a Singapore-based play-to-earn gaming guild, raised $14 million in a seed round. Investors included Delphi Digital, QCP Capital, Framework Ventures, Golden Tree Asset Management, IOSG Ventures and SushiSwap.

Digital fashion house The Fabricant raised $14 million to build a "wardrobe of the metaverse." Greenfield One led the round. Other investors included Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's Sound Ventures, and Red DAO.

NFTBank.ai, a South Korea-based startup that provides portfolio tracking and analytics for digital collectibles, reportedly raised 15 billion won (nearly $12 million) in Series A funding. Investors included Hashed, Sequoia Capital, Digital Currency Group, Alameda Research and Dapper Labs.

LimeWire, which is building a platform for music-focused NFTs, raised $10.4 million in a private token sale co-led by Kraken Ventures, Arrington Capital and GSR. Other investors included Crypto.com Capital, CMCC Global, Hivemind, SwissBorg Ventures, 720Mau5 — the fund behind Canadian music producer Deadmau5 and DAO Jones – a group of investors from the music industry, including electronic music artist Steve Aoki.

Ready Player DAO, a play-to-earn gaming guild, raised $10.2 million in a round led by The Chernin Group, with participation that included Sterling VC, 1kx, Hashed and ConsenSys Mesh.

Blockchain gaming startup Apeiron raised $10 million in funding led by Hashed. Apeiron is a "god-themed" play-to-earn NFT game and its universe is made up of "many Constellations, which contain Stars, which themselves are orbited by Planets," according to its website.  

PROOF, the web3 media startup behind the popular NFT projects Moonbirds and Proof Collective, raised $10 million from Alexis Ohanian's VC firm, Seven Seven Six Ventures, and True Ventures. Kevin Rose, the founder of PROOF, is also a partner at True Ventures.

Don't forget DeFi and Web3 

There were 12 raises that surpassed $10 million for DeFi and web3 projects in April, with OneFootball and 0x Labs raising the biggest rounds. 

Football media platform OneFootball raised $300 million in Series D funding, led by blockchain VC Liberty City Ventures, as it plans to expand into web3. OneFootball also formed a joint venture with Liberty City Ventures and Animoca Brands called OneFootball Labs to enable clubs to release digital assets and fan-centric experiences based on blockchain technology.  

0x Labs, which provides a decentralized exchange protocol and infrastructure for NFT platforms, raised $70 million in Series B funding led by Greylock Partners. Other investors included OpenSea, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto and actor Jared Leto.

Tribal Credit, a B2B payments and financing platform for startups in emerging markets, raised $41 million in a token sale. The firm sold its native token TRIBL privately and publicly. The private token sale, worth $22.7 million, saw participation from SoftBank Latin America Funds, Shima Capital, Coinbase Ventures and CoinList Ventures. The public token sale, worth $18.3 million, was conducted via CoinList. 

Ethereum wallet Argent raised $40 million in a Series B round. Fabric Ventures and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn's investment firm Metaplanet led the round. Other investors included Paradigm, Index Ventures, Starkware, Jump Crypto and Animoca Brands.

Decentralized identity startup Spruce raised $34 million in Series A funding led by a16z. Other investors included Y Combinator, Electric Capital, Ethereal Ventures, SCB 10X, Robot Ventures and Gemini Frontier Fund. Spruce provides open-source tools that let users collect and control their data to help with necessary web3 authentication.

US neobank Cogni, which plans to launch a web3 savings account on DeFi rails starting with Solana, raised $23 million in a round led by Hanwha Asset Management and CaplinFO. Solana Ventures, FTX Ventures and Ship Capital also participated in the round. 

​​Ondo Finance, a crypto startup that provides structured products built on top of decentralized exchanges, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Peter Thiel's VC firm Founders Fund and Pantera Capital co-led the round. Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global, GoldenTree, Wintermute and Flow Traders.

Context, a web3 startup that allows users to monitor other people's crypto wallets and transactions through an Instagram-esque feed, raised $19.5 million in a seed round led by Variant Fund and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Other investors included Dragonfly Capital, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, Phantom co-founder Francesco Agosti and CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors.

Decentralized mapping network developer Hivemapper raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Multicoin Capital. Other investors included Craft Ventures, Solana Capital, Shine Capital, Spark Capital, Founder Collective and Homebrew. 

Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) raised $10.1 million in a Series A funding round led by Jump Crypto. Other investors included Tiger Global, ParaFi, Sino Global Capital, Polygon Studios, Wintermute, Woodstock Ventures and Zebpay. EPNS enables smart contracts to send notifications to crypto wallet users. 

Crypto liquidity aggregator FLUID raised $10 million in funding co-led by GSR, Ghaf Capital, and 21Shares. FLUID says its AI-based smart order routing protocol offers "high throughput at ultra-low costs, ultra-low latency, and zero counterparty risk" for both CeFi and DeFi markets. 

Decent DAO, a venture studio collective for developing Web3 projects, raised $10 million in funding. Investors included Decent Labs, BlockTower Capital, Cumberland DRW, Digital Currency Group, GSR and 1kx. 

 Tools of the trade

The remaining 14 fundraises from April above $10 million were from the infrastructure category. They include firms developing blockchain networks, mining infrastructure and data analytics platforms. 

Layer 1 blockchain project NEAR Protocol raised $350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. Other investors included FTX Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Republic Capital and Hashed.

Bitcoin mining infrastructure provider Crusoe Energy Systems raised $350 million in a Series C equity funding round led by G2 Venture Partners. Other investors in the round included Valor Equity Partners, Polychain Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Founders Fund, Winklevoss Capital, DRW Venture Capital, CMT Digital and Castle Island Ventures. Crusoe also closed credit facilities expandable up to $155 million. 

Blockchain audit firm CertiK raised a total of $148 million in April via two rounds: $88 million and $60 million. Investors included SoftBank Vision Fund, Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. CertiK is now valued at over $2 billion. 

Lightning Labs raised $70 million in Series B funding, led by Valor Equity Partners. Global asset manager Baillie Gifford, alternative investment manager Brevan Howard, bitcoin startup NYDIG, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev participated in the funding. Lightning Labs is building a new Taproot-enabled protocol known as Taproot Asset Representation Overlay (Taro) to bring assets like stablecoins to the Bitcoin blockchain.

BloXroute, a crypto startup that provides tools for DeFi trading, raised $70 million in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Other investors included Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSR, Jane Street and Flow Traders. 

Blockchain data analytics firm Flipside Crypto raised $50 million in new funding at a $350 million valuation. Republic Capital led the round. Other investors included True Ventures, Galaxy, Terra, Dapper Labs and M13 Ventures (founded by Paris Hilton's husband, Carter Reum). 

​​Boba Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling project that utilizes optimistic rollups, raised $45 million in Series A funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. Investors included Crypto.com, Huobi, Will Smith-led Dreamers VC and M13 Ventures.

ConsenSys-incubated BlockApps, an enterprise blockchain firm, raised $41 million in funding led by Liberty City Ventures. Other investors included ConsenSys, Morgan Creek Digital and Eidetic Ventures. 

Nic Carter's Coin Metrics, a crypto data firm, raised $35 million in Series C funding, led by Acrew Capital and BNY Mellon. Other investors included Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, Cboe Global Markets, Brevan Howard Digital and Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund.

Lithuania-based blockchain developer Zenith Chain reportedly raised $35 million in funding from GEM Digital Limited. GEM Digital is a crypto investment firm based in the Bahamas and part of Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Group, a $3.4 billion alternative investment manager.

Ethereum scaling project Scroll, which utilizes zk-rollups technology, raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital. Other investors included Bain Capital Crypto, Robot Ventures, the Ethereum Foundation's Ying Tong and Carlos Aria, and members of the Ethereum community, including Anthony Sassal, Ryan Adams and Santiago Santos. 

Venly, a Belgium-based crypto startup that provides tools for web2 businesses to integrate web3 technologies, raised over €21 million ($23 million) in Series A funding. Courtside Ventures led the funding. Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Tioga Capital and Leadblock Partners.

Nomad, a cross-chain messaging protocol that offers a crypto bridge to swap assets across blockchains, raised $22.4 million in series A funding led by Polychain Capital. Other investors included 1kx, Ethereal Ventures, Circle Ventures, Amber, Robot Ventures, Figment and Archetype. 

Jan3, a newly launched Bitcoin-focused startup by ex-Blockstream executive Samson Mow, raised $21 million in funding at a $100 million valuation. Jan3 aims to advance the Bitcoin network and its Layer-2 networks such as Lightning Network and Blockstream-operated Liquid Network.  

New crypto VC funds

Venture capital firms have to raise funds, too. The largest rounds in April came from Dragonfly Capital, Union Square Ventures and Framework Ventures. Overall, the month saw 20 new fund launches by both existing and new VC firms.

Crypto VC Dragonfly Capital launched its third fund worth $650 million, its largest one to date. The fund looks to back all kinds of crypto startups, including DeFi, gaming and infrastructure builders, from their seed rounds to Series B and beyond.

Union Square Ventures, an active investor in the crypto space, raised a total of $625 million via two new funds: a $350 million opportunity fund and a $275 million core fund. The firm will continue to invest in both web2 and web3 companies and projects. 

Framework Ventures launched its third crypto fund, dubbed FVIII, worth $400 million. The firm will invest around half of that amount in the blockchain gaming space because it is "the best top of funnel opportunity for crypto over the next decade." 

Early-stage focused VC Slow Ventures raised a total of $325 million for its two funds: its fifth seed fund (Slow Ventures V) and its second opportunity fund (Slow Opportunity II). Slow Ventures plans to continue investing in fintech and web3 space. It also intends to help project launch and manage DAOs.

MassMutual Ventures, the venture unit of Fortune 500 financial services company MassMutual and an investor in the crypto space, raised a $300 million new fund to back early-stage startups in Asia and Europe. MassMutual Ventures recently invested in Singapore-based DeFi portfolio analytics platform Treehouse Finance.

Crypto entrepreneur Joe McCann unveiled his new investment firm Asymmetric. The firm aims to raise a $1 billion fund. It has secured some commitments from high-profile investors, including a16z's Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, Solana's Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, FTX, Circle, and former Coinbase president Asiff Hirji.  

Limitless, the team behind the metaverse project Next Earth, launched a venture capital firm called Limitless Capital with a $260 million fund. The firm plans to help startups launch, build and scale new businesses within the metaverse. 

Conductive Ventures, which is an investor in the blockchain gaming company Forte, launched its third fund worth $200 million. The fund plans to invest in technology startups, including those working in the blockchain sector.

Ignite (formerly Tendermint), a core development team that created the blockchain-interoperability protocol Cosmos, launched a $150 million accelerator to invest in multichain crypto projects. The accelerator is also backed by nearly a dozen crypto firms and VCs, including Alameda Research, Hashkey Capital, Chorus One and Figment. 

White Star Capital announced its second crypto fund worth $120 million. Half of that amount has already been committed by investors, including its lead backer, gaming giant Ubisoft. White Star hopes to raise the other half amount in the near future. 

A trio of former Citi executives — Alex Kriete, Greg Girasole and Frank Cavallo — launched a crypto-focused investment firm Motus Capital Management with a $100 million fund. Motus will invest in tokens with smaller market capitalizations on behalf of its clients.

Crypto exchange KuCoin's venture arm KuCoin Ventures and its NFT marketplace Windvane launched a $100 million creator fund to support early-stage NFT projects. The fund will also invite 99 NFT creators to join the Windvane NFT marketplace. 

Uniswap Labs, the main developer of the Uniswap decentralized exchange protocol, launched a new venture unit. Uniswap Labs Ventures will invest in startups building blockchain infrastructure, developer tools and consumer-facing applications. Uniswap Labs did not disclose fund size but said it will directly invest from its balance sheet. 

Hong Kong-based Newman Capital launched a $50 million investment fund to increase web3 adoption in Asia. The fund will invest in web3 startups, including those building decentralized applications and NFT platforms.

Veteran game investor Jon Goldman debuted his venture firm Tower 26 with a $50 million fund. The firm will invest in virtual reality games and related areas like the metaverse. 

Symphony Digital launched its inaugural fund, Symphony Digital Opportunities Fund, worth $40 million to invest in the crypto space. Several institutional and private investors backed the fund, including Animoca Brands.

Crypto staking infrastructure company Chorus One formally launched a VC unit, Chorus Ventures, with a $30 million fund. The company is currently an investor in over 25 startups, including Lido, Anchor and Quicksilver. Chorus Ventures will focus on investing in staking, interoperability and blockchain infrastructure startups.

Crypto and stock brokerage eToro launched a $20 million creator fund, eToro Art, for NFTs. The company looks to support upcoming NFT projects and creators, as well as buy some NFTs itself. 

NFT project Moonbirds' COO Ryan Carson unveiled an NFT-focused fund called 121G. The fund has already seen commitments of $40 million in ether. It will focus on getting "hard-to-acquire blue chip NFTs." 

Jameson Lopp, bitcoin developer and co-founder of crypto custody startup Casa, formally launched his VC firm, called Lopp VC. The firm aims to invest in technology startups that empower ordinary people. It is primarily looking for pre-seed and seed-stage startups, targeting commitments between $50,000 and $250,000.

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