Billions Flow to the Crypto Market

This has truly been a calm and steady week, no major market-moving news, no fear or uncertainty, and a welcome pause in global conflicts. BTC started the week at around $101K and steadily climbed, closing near $108K. Meanwhile, altcoins are gradually gaining traction again. I can only hope this period of stability and quiet strength continues for a while longer.

This week marks one of the most significant periods for crypto fundraising, with venture capital investments totaling $1.6B flowing into the market. Two standout deals include major raises by Kalshi and Metaplanet, and Polymarket is expected to join this wave of large-scale funding soon.

1. Kalshi raised $185M at $2B valuation, Polymarket nearing a raise of $200M at $1B valuation

Prediction market - Kalshi has raised $185M in a funding round that values the company at $2B, the round was led by Paradigm, with participation from venture capital companies Sequoia Capital, Multicoin Capital and other investors. 

CEO and co-founder of Kalshi - Tarek Mansour said the funding will be used to expand Kalshi’s technology team and integrate its prediction contracts into more brokerage platforms. Currently, Kalshi contracts are available through Webull and Robinhood Markets.

On the other hand, Kalshi’s direct competitor - Polymarket is reportedly nearing a $200M raise at a $1B+ valuation. The round is being led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and includes $50M in previously unannounced funding, the deal would mark Polymarket's status as a crypto unicorn. 

The main difference between the 2 newly unicorns are: Kalshi is directly regulated by the CFTC in the U.S. so that you can legally bet on it as a U.S. citizen, while Polymarket is the crypto based unregulated markets. 

2. Zama raised $57M at $1B valuation to build a Confidential Blockchain

Confidential Blockchain Protocol - Zama has raised $57M at $1B valuation in a Series B funding round led by Pantera Capital, Blockchange Ventures.

The Zama Confidential Blockchain Protocol enables private smart contracts on any L1 or L2 network, leverages Zama’s state-of-the-art Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology,. As the most advanced confidentiality solution today, said themselves, it fully encrypted transaction inputs and contract states so no one, including node operators, can view the data. It supports seamless interaction between private and public contracts, giving developers flexibility to build across Dapps and tokens. With programmable confidentiality, developers control exactly who can decrypt information. 

Rather than creating a new chain, Zama acts as a cross-chain privacy layer, letting users access confidential Dapps without bridging or switching networks. The first testnet will be live on July 1st, with a mainnet on Ethereum planned in the coming months, alongside with the release of the $ZAMA token.

3. GTE - the “world fastest” DEX raised $15M from Paradigm

Decentralized trading platform - The Global Token Exchange (GTE) has raised $15M in a Series A funding round led by Paradigm.

GTE (Global Token Exchange) is a decentralized trading platform built on MegaETH, utilizing its 1ms block time and 100,000 TPS. GTE uses a so-called CLOB, or central order book, to match buy and sell orders based on price and time priority. The design is closer to traditional exchanges like the NYSE than blockchain-based automated market makers, which facilitate trading using liquidity pools, algorithms, and dynamic pricing.

The founders said GTE attempts to solve two major issues in crypto, the "blind trust" required to use centralized exchanges as well as the "high order latency and unfeasible transaction costs" commonly seen on DEXs, according to a statement.

Beside its main trading venue, GTE is building a token launchpad, a deeply liquid vehicle for established projects looking to do their TGE. GTE Takeoff is a permissionless token launcher for devs to cheaply create tokens and bootstrap liquidity via its bonding curve.

4. Blueprint Finance raised $9.50M to build Glow Finance and Concrete

Company that builds DeFi apps - Blueprint Finance has raised $9.50M in a Strategic funding round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from YZi Labs, VanEck, LeadBlock Bitpanda Ventures, Decima and many more.

Concrete is Blueprint Finance’s first product released in early 2024, is specifically tailored to lending and borrowing on any EVM-compatible blockchain. 

Earlier this year, Blueprint Finance launched its second product called Glow Finance, which is a rebranded and updated version of a Solana blockchain-based lending platform called Jet Protocol which Blueprint Finance acquired in 2024. Glow focuses on allowing investors in the Solana ecosystem to lend, borrow, and trade within one platform.

5. Veda raised $18M from Coinbase & CoinFund

DeFi infrastructure provider - Veda has raised $18M in a funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Maelstrom, GSR Markets LTD, Animoca Ventures, BitGo, Mantle Network, Draper Dragon and many more.

Veda is the largest vault infrastructure platform
in DeFi, enabling institutions to launch and manage on-chain financial products at scale. It helps manage, price, secure, and automate digital assets at the protocol level. Veda is designed to be non-custodial and work well with other systems. 

Veda also simplifies difficult tasks like moving assets across different blockchains, boosting returns, and managing risks. Projects that use Veda can bring on new users smoothly while providing clear safety measures in real time. 

Since launch, Veda has achieved:

• Over $3.5B TVL
• 100k+ depositors
• 10+ vaults with $100M+ in each
• Integrations with protocols like ether.fi, Plasma, Lombard Finance, Mantle Network, Tac, Turtle.Club and more.

Conclusion

This week saw 32 funding rounds with an overwhelming total amount of $1.6B, doubling the amount raised since last week. 

Among the highlights is the fierce competition between two major prediction market unicorns, Kalshi and Polymarket, both raised a significant amount, valued over $1B- $2B and backed by the best of the market. 

These prediction markets have emerged as one of the most exciting trends in the crypto space right now, capturing the industry's attention and driving significant investment momentum.