Top 10 crypto projects that raised venture capital in March

Crypto fundraising is reaching new highs. After reaching new ATHs for BTC, venture investors have regained their risk appetite (and have once more proven to be followers, not leaders).

In March 2024, $1.02 billion was raised by crypto startups across 166 unique rounds. These projects span various sectors such as RWA, Interoperability, Gaming, and A.I., and have secured funding ranging from $1.5 million to $30 million. The trend is clearly up as displayed by the chart below.

There were a few crypto sectors that stood out. Tokenizing real-world assets enables fractional ownership and makes high-value assets more accessible. RWA has took center stage after Larry Fink has gone on live television broadcasting RWA to the public. The merger of AI and Crypto also stood out as one of the most funded (and exciting) categories. Without further ado, let's take a look at the 10 most interesting projects that raised capital in March 2024.

Stack

Stack is a protocol that aims to bring loyalty points on-chain, allowing companies to introduce loyalty points into their services using an SDK. The protocol provides features such as the distribution of points, exchange with rewards, tracking, and listing on leaderboards. Stack is built as a layer-3 blockchain, meaning its points attestation data rolls up to Base's layer-2 blockchain, which in turn rolls up to Ethereum. This design allows for low gas fees and maintains blockchain auditability.

By bringing points on-chain, Stack aims to align with the inherent strengths and use cases of blockchains, such as transparency, security, and interoperability. The protocol is designed to provide value to both issuers and users of loyalty points. Companies can use Stack to manage and analyze point allocations, design and publish leaderboards, and enable trustless token redemptions on EVM chains.. Users can benefit from the transparency and security of on-chain points, which can be used for various purposes, such as incentivizing community engagement, adding gamification to projects, and reducing the risk for both brands and consumers.

Stack is not limited to trading on open markets, but points program managers could decide to make the points exchangeable, similar to American Express' program where points can be converted into Delta Skymiles. The protocol's approach to building out tools for managing points programs will allow web2 teams to more easily engage with crypto and enable web3-native experiences.

Stack recently raised $3 million in seed funding, with Archetype Ventures leading the round. The funding will be used to further develop the protocol and bring on-chain points attestations to the crypto industry. The project's goal is to make on-chain points more affordable and simpler than traditional off-chain points, which can be abused for personal gain.

Utilia

Utilia is an institutional-grade crypto operations platform that allows organizations of all sizes to securely manage their digital assets. Utilia's platform is non-custodial, meaning that users retain control over their assets, and it is chain-agnostic, supporting various blockchain networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, EVM chains, and Solana. The platform is designed to address the challenges faced by companies in managing digital assets, including operational, regulatory, and security issues.

Utilia's platform is powered by Multi-Party Computation (MPC) key management, which divides private keys into multiple shares held by the customer and Utilia. This ensures that the control over the private key is divided between the two parties, eliminating the risk of single points of failure. Utilia offers a seamless user experience, with onboarding taking less than five minutes, and supports integrations with exchange accounts, DeFi, and bank accounts.

The company has recently raised $11.5 million in seed funding from leading web3 and fintech VC funds and angel investors, including NFX, Wing VC, Framework Ventures, and Balaji Srinivasan. The funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand Utilia's team of 25 people. Utilia's platform is already used by dozens of leading institutional investors and crypto-native firms, facilitating over $3 billion in transactions in the past six months.

Ionet

Ionet is a decentralized cloud service that aims to create the largest network of GPUs for AI processing by aggregating one million GPUs from various independent computing power providers. The platform is designed to address the challenge of GPU scarcity and high cost that hinders the innovation and growth of the AI industry. By connecting one million GPUs distributed across the globe, Ionet provides GPU computation that is accessible, adaptable, and instant, enabling one-click deployment of extensive GPU clusters.

Ionet's mission is to unlock the untapped potential of idle GPUs found within computers worldwide, including underutilized independent data centers and crypto mining farms. The platform seeks to democratize access to AI development tools and potentially spur a new wave of innovation in the field by offering GPU computation at up to 90% cost savings compared to traditional cloud services.

Ionet has successfully raised $30 million in Series A funding. This significant financial boost, announced on March 5th, was led by prominent investors such as Hack VC, Solana Labs, and the exchange OKX. This funding round highlights the growing investor interest in AI-driven technologies amid the escalating global demand for AI capabilities, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.

Hedgehog Protocol

Hedgehog Protocol is an innovative platform dedicated to addressing the challenges posed by fluctuating transaction fees in the cryptocurrency market. It aims to provide tools and solutions that enable users and protocols to hedge against the volatility of crypto transaction costs. The heart of Hedgehog Protocol's offering is a derivative token designed to mirror the current transaction fee prices, particularly focusing on Ethereum's dynamic fee structure. By creating an asset whose price reflects the moving average of transaction fees over recent blocks, Hedgehog allows for hedging strategies that can protect against unexpected spikes in transaction costs, making blockchain operations more predictable and financially manageable.

The mechanism behind Hedgehog Protocol draws inspiration from the concept of decentralized stablecoins, like DAI, which maintain their value through overcollateralized vaults and a minting and redemption process that fosters arbitrage opportunities. However, Hedgehog distinguishes itself by pegging its derivative token, BaseFee, not to a fixed monetary value but to the average transaction fee prices on the Ethereum network. This innovative approach leverages arbitrage to align the value of BaseFee with transaction costs, thereby offering a novel method for users to hedge against fee volatility without needing to directly predict market movements.

Hedgehog Protocol recently secured $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from a mix of venture capital firms and prominent angel investors. The participating investors include notable figures and firms within the blockchain and DeFi ecosystems, such as Marshland Capital, Tenzor Capital, and individuals like Vasiliy Shapovalov of Lido Finance. The capital will primarily support the continued development and expansion of the protocol, focusing on refining its derivative token model and exploring additional on-chain derivatives to benefit the broader blockchain ecosystem.

Peaq Network

Peaq is a layer-one blockchain designed specifically for Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Networks (DePIN) and Machine Real-World Assets (Machine RWA). It distinguishes itself by focusing on the "Economy of Things," aiming to facilitate seamless interaction and economic transactions between machines and decentralized networks. With an architecture capable of scaling to support over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining minimal transaction costs, peaq sets the foundation for a new era of web3 infrastructure. Its environmentally friendly design and large developer ecosystem make it an attractive platform for DePIN applications, providing a solid base for building and optimizing machine-centric blockchain solutions.

Peaq operates using both Rust and EVM Smart Contracts, offering developers flexibility and convenience for building diverse applications. The network is enhanced by Modular DePIN Functions accessible through the peaq SDK in JavaScript, which equips developers with essential tools like Self-Sovereign Machine IDs, data verification, and autonomous AI agents. These functions are designed to be deployed effortlessly, promoting the development of sophisticated DePINs and dApps. Additionally, peaq's interoperability features, including seamless integration with Polkadot, cross-chain capabilities with major blockchains like Cosmos, Solana, and Ethereum, and bridges to over 30 blockchains via Wormhole, position it as a central player in the interconnected blockchain ecosystem.

Recently, Peaq raised $15 million in pre-launch funding to fuel its journey towards revolutionizing the Economy of Things. This significant financial backing, led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with contributions from other top funds and investment firms, underscores the industry's confidence in peaq's vision and technology. The investment will facilitate peaq in scaling its operations across various fronts, notably by advancing DePIN-focused development and enhancing the adoption of DePINs on the network. This not only promises more value for the community but also accelerates the real-world application of web3 technologies.

Mantra Chain

Mantra Chain is a Layer 1 blockchain platform designed to facilitate the tokenization and management of Real World Assets. It operates with a clear focus on regulatory compliance, ensuring that all transactions and assets within its ecosystem meet global standards. Mantra Chain aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi by making it easier for traditional financial institutions to onboard into the blockchain space.

The operation of Mantra Chain is built on the Cosmos SDK, leveraging its infrastructure to achieve high performance, scalability, and interoperability among different blockchain networks. It utilizes Tendermint consensus, known for its security and fork-accountability, ensuring a secure and reliable platform for users. This approach not only attracts developers and institutions from traditional financial backgrounds but also encourages a wider adoption of blockchain technology across various sectors.

Mantra Chain's mission is to facilitate the seamless transition of institutional capital onto the blockchain, unlocking the vast potential of the $16 trillion RWA economy. It aims to address key challenges such as liquidity fragmentation and cross-chain interoperability, providing a stable and scalable infrastructure for the tokenization of real-world assets. By doing so, Mantra Chain strives to enhance market liquidity, promote economic development, and increase accessibility to financial markets, particularly in regions like the Middle East and Asia which are poised for significant growth.

Recently, Mantra Chainsuccessfully raised $11 million in a funding round led by Shorooq Partners, a prominent investor in the MENA region's venture and technology sector. This investment will be directed towards three primary goals: building a regulatory-compliant infrastructure, empowering developers with necessary tools for RWA-focused protocols, and expanding the tokenization of real-world assets.

Clique

Clique is an infrastructure project aiming to transform how both on-chain and off-chain applications access and utilize computing resources. By establishing a heterogeneous compute coordination network, Clique is positioned to revolutionize the computational landscape, offering an efficient and optimal resource allocation for applications with diverse needs. The platform facilitates access to a wide variety of compute vendors, each specializing in specific areas such as verifiable compute with zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), confidential compute with trusted execution environments (TEE), and AI-based compute with GPUs. This allows applications to select computing resources that best fit their requirements in terms of trust, privacy, security, performance, and cost.

The working mechanism of Clique is centered around an auction-based system that efficiently matches the diverse computational demands of applications with the most suitable compute providers. This agnostic approach to compute jobs, whether stemming from smart contracts needing verifiable computations or traditional applications requiring extensive data processing, ensures that every application can find its ideal compute solution within Clique’s network. The service employs game-theoretic mechanisms to drive a fair and transparent auction process, optimizing the matching between applications' needs and compute providers' offerings. Clique's mission is to empower a vibrant digital economy in the era of AI transformation by streamlining the interconnection and communication of computing power.

In its recent Series A funding round, Clique successfully raised $8 million. This investment was led by Polychain Capital, with contributions from a notable lineup of investors including Bankless, Robot Ventures, Santiago R. Santos, Balaji Srinivasan, and founders from prominent blockchain projects like Lido, Polygon, Scroll, and Uniswap Foundation, among others. The funds from this round are intended to further Clique's mission by enhancing the development of its compute coordination network. This includes expanding its range of compute vendors, improving the auction-based allocation system, and broadening the platform's reach to support more on-chain and off-chain applications.

Blackwing

Blackwing is an modular blockchain designed to change the trading industry, particularly focusing on liquidation-free leveraged trading for a wide range of assets through its unique "Limitless Pools" feature. Blackwing utilizes Initia's foundational technology to stand at the forefront of modular chains. This allows for seamless integration across any application-specific chain, preserving decentralization while offering cost-efficiency and enhanced security for traders. With Blackwing, the necessity to move assets across different chains is eliminated, enabling traders to operate within a single, interconnected ecosystem seamlessly. This not only simplifies the trading process but also significantly reduces the associated risks and costs.

The mission of Blackwing is centered around providing an insane community focus, striving to ensure that every community member enjoys the best possible trading experience. This includes access to a broad range of assets, lowest possible fees, fastest execution times, and optimal pricing. Blackwing's goal is to become the go-to platform for all trading dimensions, setting a new standard in the DeFi space. If it falls short in any aspect, the team considers it a failure, reflecting their commitment to excellence and user satisfaction.

The $4.5 million raised in the recent funding round will be used to further develop Blackwing's innovative blockchain and "Limitless Pools" feature. Specifically, the funds are intended to refine the platform's modular architecture, enhance its seamless cross-chain trading capabilities, and expand its offering to include a more diverse range of assets. By doing so, Blackwing aims to address the existing limitations within the leveraged trading space, offering a safer, more efficient, and user-friendly platform that caters to the needs of traders across the spectrum.

QnA3.ai

QnA3.ai is an AI-powered Web3 knowledge-sharing and search platform designed to democratize access to information within the crypto ecosystem. It aims to simplify the process for users to access Web3 information and knowledge with a single click, leveraging its proprietary data lake. This platform stands out by empowering users to effortlessly find and utilize Web3 data, making it easier for both newcomers and experienced users to navigate the complex landscape of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

QnA3.ai operates by integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced data engineering to sift through vast amounts of Web3 data. It not only provides users with direct access to information but also offers sophisticated logical analysis capabilities. This enables users to not just acquire data but to understand and interpret it, helping them make informed decisions. The platform's capabilities are geared towards eliminating informational noise and providing meaningful insights, thereby supporting users in developing robust decision-making frameworks.

The mission of QnA3.ai is rooted in the vision of a decentralized, transparent, and inclusive digital future, where AI technology is accessible to everyone rather than being controlled by a select few. It emphasizes the importance of democratizing AI in the context of Web3, aligning with the principles of distributing power and decision-making to mitigate the risks associated with centralized control and bias. QnA3.ai's approach to democratizing AI involves a community-driven model, ensuring that the benefits of AI and blockchain integration are widely available, fostering an environment where technology serves the broader community.

As part of Binance Labs' Incubation Season 6, QnA3.ai was among the early-stage projects to receive investment, indicating recognition and support from one of the most significant players in the blockchain industry.

Tensorplex Labs

Tensorplex Labs is an artificial intelligence and Web3 startup focused on creating capital and intelligence software for decentralized AI networks, such as Bittensor. It aims to democratize artificial intelligence by making it decentralized, transparent, and accessible to all. This mission is achieved through the development of infrastructure that facilitates easy access for capital and human contribution to open-source AI.

One of its first products is stTAO, a liquid staking token for Bittensor (TAO), which within a month of its launch, achieved more than $12M in total value locked. This milestone demonstrates the strong product-market fit and the growing interest in decentralized AI infrastructure.

The startup recently raised $3M in a Seed round funding co-led by Collab+Currency and Canonical Crypto. Additional investments came from notable entities including Digital Currency Group (DCG), Accomplice, GoldenChain, Mechanism Capital, Quantstamp, Amber Group, and several angel investors such as Fiskantes, The $3M funding is set to be used for the continued development and expansion of Tensorplex Labs' product offerings and infrastructure for decentralized AI networks. With the introduction of a new Bittensor subnet that incentivizes human participation in AI training, Tensorplex Labs plans to innovate further in the decentralized AI space. The investment will also support the creation of additional applications and tools designed to supercharge AI development and use cases using decentralized technologies.

It is encouraging to witness an increase in 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!