Top 10 crypto projects that raised venture capital in August

Crypto fundraising is once again down in August, as its the summer, and valuations for deals are now much lower and comparable to those of early last year. With valuations now lower, VCs are now once again interested in participating.

In August 2024, crypto startups raised $938 million across 112 unique rounds. These projects span various sectors, such as SocialFi, BitcoinFi and AI, and have secured funding ranging from $1.5 million to $7.6 million.

Let's look at the ten most exciting projects that raised capital in July 2024 without further ado.

MetaDAO

MetaDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) built on the Solana blockchain, pioneering a unique governance model known as futarchy. This model uses prediction markets to make decisions instead of traditional token-based voting. The principle behind futarchy, developed by economist Robin Hanson, allows participants to speculate on the potential outcomes of decisions, using market signals to determine which actions should be taken. If a decision is predicted to increase the value of the DAO’s token (META), it will be implemented. This system aims to avoid the pitfalls of traditional governance, such as voter apathy and centralized power​

In August 2024, MetaDAO raised $2.2 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, a prominent venture capital firm known for its focus on crypto projects. The funding also saw participation from several contributors within the Solana ecosystem. These funds will be used to further develop MetaDAO's platform, expand its futarchy-based governance system, and enhance collaboration with other Solana-based projects. MetaDAO's goal is to revolutionize decision-making in decentralized organizations by offering a more efficient, market-driven alternative​

Zoth

Zoth is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that focuses on bridging traditional financial assets (TradFi) with the decentralized world, specifically through the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). Their platform allows institutional and accredited investors to access secure, fixed-income yield products backed by real-world instruments like U.S. Treasury Bills and corporate bonds. By tokenizing these assets and bringing them on-chain, Zoth provides transparency, accessibility, and enhanced liquidity to traditionally less liquid financial instruments​

Zoth's mission in the crypto space is to create a sustainable yield layer that combines permissioned RWAs with permissionless DeFi products. Their focus is on providing reliable, low-risk financial solutions that appeal to institutional players seeking stability in the often volatile crypto market. This aligns with the broader movement of bringing traditional finance onto the blockchain, making previously exclusive financial products more accessible

In August 2024, Zoth successfully raised $4 million in a strategic funding round. This capital will be used to launch their flagship product, the Tokenized Liquid Note (ZTLN), which invests in short-term, high-quality financial instruments. The raised funds will also support Zoth's goal of scaling their platform to handle more assets and integrate with multiple blockchain ecosystems, including Ethereum and Polygon. This positions Zoth as a key player in the growing intersection of TradFi and DeFi

Payman

Payman is an innovative AI-to-human payment platform that allows AI systems to compensate humans for completing tasks. By integrating AI with human capabilities, Payman enhances the performance of AI systems by connecting them with human workers for tasks requiring human intelligence, such as marketing, product feedback, and more. The platform supports both fiat and cryptocurrency payments, making it flexible and accessible for users across various regions and payment preferences.

Their mission in the crypto space is to facilitate seamless collaboration between AI and humans, creating a future where AI can autonomously engage human workers for tasks it cannot handle alone. This creates new job opportunities for people while improving the efficiency and capabilities of AI systems.

In August 2024, Payman raised $3 million in pre-seed funding, with backing from prominent investors such as Visa, Coinbase Ventures, Boost VC, and Spartan Group. These funds will be used to further develop Payman’s platform, enhance its marketplace, and expand its reach in the AI-human collaboration space. The goal is to create a robust ecosystem where AI and humans can work together more efficiently, with AI taking charge of tasks like payments and task assignment.

This strategic funding will also help Payman continue its efforts in bridging the gap between artificial and human intelligence, creating a new dynamic for the future of work and payments in the AI-driven economy.

Lync

Lync is a mobile-centric Layer 2 roll-up designed to bring over 7 billion smartphone users on-chain. Built on Movement Labs' ecosystem, Lync aims to provide scalable and efficient solutions for developers and builders to create mobile applications and games on the blockchain. By offering high throughput and low transaction costs through its Move stack, Lync allows developers to create apps with minimal friction and costs, significantly reducing the time required to bring projects to market​

Lync’s mission in the crypto space is to enable widespread blockchain adoption by making it easier for developers to create mobile-first applications. They believe that the lack of mobile-first solutions has hindered crypto's growth, and their goal is to address this gap by offering tools that allow developers to seamlessly integrate crypto functionalities into mobile apps​

In August 2024, Lync raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. This capital will be used to continue building their infrastructure, onboard new developers, and support the creation of consumer-grade apps and games. The funding round was supported by investors like Movement Labs, Aptos, Levitate Labs, and several angel investors​. This financial backing will help Lync scale its operations and expand its ecosystem to support a new wave of mobile-centric Web3 applications.

Nexio

Nexio is a cutting-edge Bitcoin scaling solution designed to address the challenges of scalability, security, and transaction costs within the Bitcoin ecosystem. It leverages a parallelized rollup technology powered by MoveVM, a virtual machine initially developed by Facebook. This solution allows Nexio to support over 30,000 transactions per second while maintaining gas fees below $0.01. By incorporating advanced cryptographic techniques like zk-Rollups and Multi-Party Computation (MPC) Threshold Signatures, Nexio significantly enhances transaction validation, preventing vulnerabilities like reentrancy attacks and single points of failure.

The platform’s main goal is to revolutionize Bitcoin’s scalability and usability, making it more viable for complex applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and NFT marketplaces. Nexio aims to unlock Bitcoin's full potential by providing scalable, secure, and cost-effective infrastructure for developers and users.

In August 2024, Nexio raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. The funding round was led by Lattice and included participation from HTX Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, and several other notable investors. These funds will be used to further develop Nexio's parallelized rollup technology and drive the adoption of its solutions, enabling Bitcoin to support a wider range of applications and improving overall network efficiency. This move positions Nexio as a key player in enhancing Bitcoin's performance and security while making it more accessible to a broader user base.

TONX

TONX is a platform layer designed to scale Web3 applications by providing developers with essential tools and infrastructure to build efficiently on the TON blockchain. As a "SuperApp" platform, it enables seamless development for various decentralized applications (dApps) and supports a vast ecosystem of over 950 million users. The key product driving this ecosystem is the TONX API, a stable and reliable RPC (Remote Procedure Call) tool that simplifies development by offering efficient backend support for blockchain projects.

TONX's mission is to foster a robust and secure blockchain environment, empowering developers to create innovative solutions and driving the broader adoption of Web3 technologies. It also offers other products like TONX Node, which provides security and scalability for node consensus, and TONX Security, a tool that helps identify vulnerabilities in smart contracts.

In August 2024, TONX raised $4 million in a seed funding round co-led by SNZ Ventures and Summer Ventures. This funding will be used to enhance their technology stack, particularly the TONX API, and to support further development of their platform. The goal is to expand TONX’s capacity to support more developers and increase the scalability of Web3 applications

Satflow

Satflow is a Bitcoin infrastructure startup focused on enhancing the Bitcoin Layer 1 ecosystem for institutional-grade trading and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). The platform aims to provide advanced order types, high-speed data access, and robust liquidity pools, making it highly attractive for market makers and high-volume traders. By focusing on improving the trading experience and increasing decentralization, Satflow intends to elevate Bitcoin's capabilities for a broader range of users and institutional investors.

The company's mission in the crypto space is to create a more efficient and secure Bitcoin trading environment. They aim to provide decentralized tools that meet the needs of traders and developers, enhancing Bitcoin's functionality in the financial ecosystem. Satflow's infrastructure is built to support large-scale, high-frequency trading, addressing key issues like transaction speed and security, which are critical for Bitcoin's mainstream adoption.

In August 2024, Satflow successfully raised $7.6 million in a seed funding round. This investment, led by Variant Fund and supported by other major players like Coinbase Ventures, UTXO Management, and Nascent, will be used to further develop Satflow's trading platform. The funds will help the company enhance its service offerings and support its mission to make Bitcoin's trading infrastructure more scalable and efficient

Crunch Lab

Crunch Lab is an AI-focused research community that supports CrunchDAO, a platform where AI researchers engage in distributed machine learning competitions. Through these competitions, participants can develop machine learning models and earn rewards in the form of CRNCH tokens. These tokens grant governance rights within the CrunchDAO ecosystem, fostering a collaborative environment for data scientists and researchers. Crunch Lab's mission is to advance the intersection of AI and blockchain technology by providing researchers a space to develop and share models that contribute to financial forecasting and other predictive applications.

In August 2024, Crunch Lab raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Multicoin Capital, with additional backing from Factor Capital, Fabric VC, and Elixir Capital, bringing the total capital raised to $5.3 million. The funds will be used to enhance CrunchDAO's platform, build partnerships with financial institutions, and expand its data feed services. These developments are expected to help generate additional revenue and strengthen the platform's infrastructure, allowing it to scale further​

Credbull

Credbull is a platform focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), particularly offering high-yield private credit products. Their system allows investors to access fixed returns by participating in credit markets that operate on blockchain technology. The platform aims to attract a range of users, from individual investors seeking reliable returns to institutions looking for more efficient ways to lend and borrow in the decentralized finance space.

Credbull's mission within the crypto industry is to bridge the gap between traditional finance and decentralized platforms by creating transparent, efficient, and accessible credit markets. By offering secure lending and borrowing options with high returns, they aim to make DeFi more approachable for both experienced traders and newcomers to the crypto space.

In August 2023, Credbull successfully raised $7.6 million in a seed funding round. Led by Variant Fund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and other prominent investors, this capital will be used to further develop their platform and expand their range of credit products. The funds will also support scaling their infrastructure to accommodate growing demand and ensure the platform's continued security and efficiency​

Legion

Legion is a platform focused on merit-based Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that aims to democratize early-stage fundraising for blockchain projects. It provides access to non-accredited investors, enabling them to participate in token offerings that were previously restricted to venture capital or private investors. Legion uses a unique accountability and reputation system that allows projects to assemble communities of long-term supporters, minimizing the risks posed by bots and short-term investors. This reputation system tracks investor behavior both on-chain and off-chain, ensuring a more sustainable and aligned community around each project.

The platform's mission in the crypto space is to ensure fair, transparent, and accessible fundraising for new projects while adhering to regulatory standards such as MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets). This creates a safer environment for retail investors and encourages the development of strong, engaged communities around new blockchain ventures.

In August 2024, Legion raised $2 million in seed funding, led by Cyber Fund, with participation from notable names like AllianceDAO, Delphi Labs, and CoinGecko. The capital will be used to enhance its reputation system, further develop its accountability features, and secure necessary licenses for pre-token fundraising under MiCA regulations. This funding will help Legion scale its platform and continue to offer more equitable fundraising options for new crypto projects

It is encouraging to witness the capital flowing into the early stages of the crypto industry. Sectors that are popular among venture investors tend to become popular among the general public around 12-18 months later. Make sure to explore and utilize these early-stage projects, as you may receive handsome rewards through an airdrop!

That’s it for this month’s top 10 crypto projects that raised funding! If you’d like to receive the next edition, and all our other top content, directly in your inbox, subscribe to our no-nonsense weekly newsletter here!