Despite the bear market, many crypto projects continue to launch and finance themselves. Focus on some of the biggest fundraising in the ecosystem in 2023.
Blockstream continues its momentum.
Last January, BlockStream raised $125 million to develop its mining activity. Indeed, the company specializing in Bitcoin mining claimed at the time that it would use these funds to expand its mining facilities. The company stated:
Hosting has remained a resilient market segment compared to 'prop' miners and their lenders who have been more directly exposed to bitcoin price volatility and margin compression.
Hosting is a service provided by data centers to miners so that they can store their mining rigs to extract bitcoins in exchange for remuneration.
Founded in 2014, BlockStream claims to be "the world leader in technologies developed around Bitcoin and blockchains." Apart from mining-related services, BlockStram offers different products. Among the latter, we find the Liquid network, a layer 2 Bitcoin, that allows issuing security tokens and digital assets.
BlockStream also offers a wallet called Green or Core Lightning, a service dedicated to companies wishing to implement the Bitcoin overlay.
Despite the slump the mining sector experienced since the bear market started, BlockStream continues to finance its development. Currently, the company has more than 500 megawatts of energy capacity for its mining services.
BitGo, asset conservation as a central issue
Last month, BitGo raised $100 million. BitGo is another giant in the crypto landscape. The company provides asset custody and financial services to companies and institutional players. According to Bloomberg, this recent fundraising brought the company's valuation to $1.75 billion.
With these new funds, the company intends to continue its growth and its establishment in different countries worldwide. In recent months, BitGo has attempted to acquire Galaxy Digital or Prime Trust. Two attempts ended in failure.
Players like BitGo will play a key role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Offering asset custody services and other regulated financial services, they help connect the crypto ecosystem and institutional players.
LayerZero: interoperability as a credo
Among the year's biggest fundraisers, we find LayerZero Labs, the developer of layer 2 LayerZero. The company raised $1.20 million from a16z, Sequoia Capital, Circle Ventures, and Samsung Next.
This new fundraising brings its valuation to $3 billion. This is LayerZero Labs' second fundraising after March 2022 for $120 million.
LayerZero is an innovative project with a single watchword: interoperability. The project presents as "an omnichannel interoperability protocol that allows cross-chain applications to be created." LayerZero allows ultra-light message transfer between different networks.
Thus, sending tokens in a single transaction to these different blockchains is possible. With LayerZero, the idea is to connect the many blockchains that have emerged in recent years, an ambition similar to a project like Cosmos.
The idea is to remove bridges, known for their many vulnerabilities. Indeed, many hacks have occurred in recent years, such as that of the Harmony Bridge.
Stargate Finance is the most famous application built using LayerZero. Via this app, it is possible to send tokens to 13 different networks, such as Ethereum, Optimism, Base, Kava, or even zkSync. Stargate also offers staking and liquidity pools. Currently, more than 378 million dollars are locked on the protocol, according to the specialist site DeFiLlama.
Ledger: The number 1 cold wallet continues its growth
We no longer present Ledger, the French company that has become the world's number 1 in the cold wallet sector. This year, Ledger raised $1.09 million in March 2023 for a valuation that remains the same ($1.4 billion). Cascading bankruptcies, particularly the resounding collapse of FTX, have pushed many investors toward hardware wallets.
Ledger was on all fronts this year. Recently, we learned that the company was integrating PayPal into its Ledger Live application. Thus, using the payment service to invest in cryptocurrencies is now possible. Currently, this feature is only available to US residents.
The company launched a crypto trading platform reserved for institutional clients earlier this year. Called TradeLink, this tool aims to facilitate regulated access to cryptos for large companies. The platform puts security at the heart of its design to avoid the risks traditionally associated with centralized exchanges.
The Ledger corporate network is connected to numerous custodians and crypto exchanges to dilute risk.
Despite the controversies linked to its Recover service, Ledger continues its growth year after year and remains a key player in the crypto ecosystem.
Worldcoin: a crazy project that is causing concern!
This year, it's difficult to miss the Worldcoin phenomenon. Tools for Humanity, the team behind the project, raised $115 million last June. We found a16z and Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global among the investors.
Worldcoin is an open-source protocol founded by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT, the AI-based conversational chatbot, one of the stars of 2023. According to the company's website :
The Worldcoin project consists of a digital identity platform and digital currency, received simply by being human.
Wordlcoin puts digital identity at the heart of its project. The project wants everyone to easily identify themselves online without sharing sensitive data. To do this, it is necessary to scan your iris using a biometric device called Orb. Subsequently, you have a digital passport called WorldID. Worldcoin is based on a new concept called "proof of identity," or proof of personhood in English.
Since its launch, criticism has been pouring in, and many regulatory authorities have looked into Sam Altman's project. This is particularly true in Franc e, where the CNIL examines the project's legality. For the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties, the conditions of conservation of the biometric data of their users are suspect. The CNIL has.
Countries like the United Kingdom, Kenya, and Argentina also have the project in their sights.
All these companies and projects demonstrate the vitality of the crypto ecosystem despite a never-ending bear market. These recent fundraising rounds are good news for an industry that continues to develop year after year.
