Accelerated Funding in Crypto Sphere: A $72M Week Focusing on Cross-chain Oracles and NFT Apparel

Eight pioneering crypto startups have garnered an impressive $72.2 million this week, with the lion’s share attributed to a firm perfecting a cross-chain oracle solution.

Supra, innovating in the cross-chain domain, secured $24 million in preliminary private investing rounds with participation from prominent investors like Animoca, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey, and numerous others. Accessible on over 40 testnets like Aptos, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain, Supra is escalating its presence and is poised to airdrop a native token to its diverse range of investors, funds, and node operators. Another highlight of this week’s funding arena is the fusion of NFTs and apparel. Web3 startup IYK, symbolizing “If You Know,” has amassed nearly $17 million, led by a16z Crypto and fortified by Collab Currency, Lattice Capital, 1kx, Synergis Capital, and more.

IYK is carving a niche by incorporating NFC chips into apparel, enabling instantaneous verification of authenticity through a simple smartphone tap, subsequently rewarding users with NFTs. With notable collaborations including Adidas and independent musician VÉRITÉ, IYK is redefining merchandise interaction and ownership, demonstrated by the exclusive limited shirt release at NFT NYC 2023.

In parallel, Rated Labs, the entity behind Rated Network Explorer, has raised over $12 million in a Series A round, spearheaded by Archetype and supported by Placeholder, 1confirmation, Cherry, and Semantic. This infusion will catalyze enhancements in their explorer tool and facilitate the introduction of new API consoles and launch credentials for node operators, reinforcing their commitment to meticulous Ethereum beacon chain analysis.

Another notable mention is the innovative layer-2 network Fhenix, which secured $7 million in seed funding, marking the initiation of its journey to introduce fully homomorphic encrypted smart contracts by early 2024. Multicoin Capital and Collider Ventures led the round, showcasing the immense potential perceived in Fhenix’s endeavor to ensure on-chain data confidentiality through encryption, a significant shift from prevalent zero-knowledge proofs.

Fhenix CEO, Guy Itzhaki, highlighted the unprecedented nature of FHE to Blockworks, elucidating its capability to utilize encrypted on-chain data as if it’s non-encrypted, ensuring unparalleled data confidentiality and usage flexibility.

This week has served to progress innovation and diversified developments occurring within the crypto ecosystem, underscoring the extensive potential and multifarious applications of blockchain technology, ranging from secure and versatile cross-chain solutions to groundbreaking amalgamations of NFTs and everyday apparel. The sustained investment influx attests to the evolution of the crypto industry at large.