PayPal, Morgan Creek, a16z Continue to Lead Major Crypto Funding Rounds

Investment in the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to surge, with $254 million committed this week alone. Decentralized finance, gaming, and blockchain infrastructure companies are particularly attractive to investors, with 25 companies receiving funding.

Among those securing significant investment is Chain Reaction, an Israeli semiconductor and blockchain privacy company. The company raised $70 million in a Series C funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital, bringing its total funding to $115 million. Chain Reaction plans to expand its engineering and development teams, with a focus on strengthening the value of predominant blockchain technologies and revolutionizing the use cases for blockchain in the future.

Another notable funding story is Here Not There, which raised $25.5 million in a series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company plans to build Towns, a decentralized group chat protocol and app that allows users to gather in “towns” where they can set boundaries without worrying about third-party organizations taking away their rights. The company was founded by Brian Meek, the former CTO of STRIVR Labs, and Ben Rubin, the founder of Houseparty.

Chaos Labs, a company dedicated to blockchain security, secured $20 million in a funding round co-led by PayPal and Galaxy Digital. The risk management platform will use the funding to continue building out risk and security products to help secure the DeFi ecosystem. As the DeFi ecosystem continues to grow, security will remain a top priority to ensure mainstream adoption.

Other notable funding stories this week include India-based web3 gaming company Kratos Studios, which raised $20 million in a seed funding round led by Accel, reaching a valuation of $150 million. Order book-based decentralized exchange Mangrove raised $7.4 million in a series A round led by Cumberland and Greenfield Capital. On-chain gaming lab Curio also raised $2.9 million in a seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto.

These investments in privacy, security, and decentralized communications will enable companies to develop innovative technologies and services that will help revolutionize the use cases for blockchain technologies in the future. As the industry continues to grow, it will be vital that security remains a top priority to ensure mainstream adoption.