Indian startup Mintoak, backed by PayPal, raised $3.5 million through its acquisition of fintech firm Digiledge, marking the first acquisition in India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) space.
This acquisition comes amid growing interest in CBDCs, with major fintech players like Google Pay, PhonePe, and AmazonPay joining the pilot project. Talking about fundings overall…In February, blockchain and cryptocurrency startups saw a significant rise in venture capital funding, with DeFi projects attracting notable investments. A total of $1.11 billion was raised by 137 crypto companies, including $176 million for 20 DeFi projects and $230.7 million for eight business service providers. Despite market volatility and uncertainty due to geopolitical factors, crypto venture capital is expected to exceed $18 billion in 2025, driven by positive regulatory developments and improving macroeconomic conditions.
Flowdesk Raises $102 mn to Expand Trading and Liquidity Desks
Flowdesk has raised $102 million in funding, led by HV Capital and a debt facility from BlackRock-managed funds, to expand its digital asset trading and liquidity business. The company plans to use the funds to scale its over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives business, launch a crypto credit desk, and increase its workforce. Flowdesk aims to expand into key global markets, including the Middle East, with a focus on the UAE. The company is also prioritizing tokenization, working with token issuers to enhance liquidity for tokenized assets, and plans to expand services to include stablecoins, tokenized securities, and money market funds. Existing investors Eurazeo, Cathay Innovation, and ISAI also participated in the funding round.
Across Raises $41 mn in a Paradigm-Led Token Sale to Expand Intents-Based Tech
Across, an interoperability startup and co-creator of the ERC-7683 standard, has raised $41 million in a strategic token sale led by Paradigm, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and Sina Habibian. This brings the project’s total funding to $51 million, following a $10 million private token sale in 2022. Across aims to unify the Ethereum ecosystem by addressing fragmentation and connects Ethereum with Layer-2 networks like Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync, and Polygon in seconds.
DoubleZero Foundation Raises $28 mn to Expand a ‘Global Fiber Network’ for Blockchains
DoubleZero Foundation, which supports the DoubleZero protocol for building a global fiber network for high-performance blockchains, has raised $28 million in a token round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital. Other investors include Foundation Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, and Borderless Capital. The funds will be used to hire key staff in marketing, developer relations, and business development, and to transition the network from testnet beta to public mainnet later this year.
Berachain Liquid Staking Protocol Infrared Raises $14 mn in Series A Token Round
Infrared Finance, a Berachain liquid staking protocol, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Citizen X, Halo Capital, No Limit Holdings, NGC Ventures, and Selini Capital. The company also revealed a previous strategic round in June 2024, initially backed by Binance Labs (now YZi Labs), which later saw investments from Hack VC and No Limit Holdings, totaling $2.25 million. Infrared’s total funding now stands at $18.75 million, including a $2.5 million seed round. The Series A round, structured as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT), closed in January 2025. Infrared also announced it would not use the IRED ticker for its token as initially planned.
a16z Crypto Leads $7 mn Funding Round For Encrypted Blockchain Developer Seismic
Web3-focused venture firm a16z crypto has led a $7 million funding round for Seismic, an encrypted blockchain developer. Other participants in the round included Polychain, 1kx, dao5, and NGC. Furthermore, Seismic is working on implementing app-level onchain privacy, beyond just wallet-level encryption, to create new use cases for financial partnerships, social experiences, and more.
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