Mara Holdings secured $1 billion in funding for 28 projects

Compiled by Golden Finance, Mara Holdings secured $1 billion in funding this week. MARA leverages blockchain-based digital asset computing to support energy transition by converting idle or underutilized energy into economic value. It deploys scalable data centers powered by excess energy, contributing to sustainable development and optimizing global energy efficiency. MARA focuses on creating value from renewable and waste energy while ensuring the security of its blockchain network. Pre-seed and Seed Funding: Stable secured $28 million in seed funding from investors including Bitfinex*, Hack VC*, USDT0*, Franklin Templeton, Castle Island Ventures, eGirl Capital, ByBit, Mirana Ventures, SIG DTI (Susquehanna International Group), Nascent, Blue Pool Capital, BTSE, KuCoin Ventures, Paolo Ardoino, Nathan McCauley, and Gabriel Abed. Stable is a layer 1 blockchain designed for stablecoin-native applications. Using USDT (Tether) as its gas token, it supports zero-fee peer-to-peer transfers and smart contracts running on stablecoins. Its USDT0 mechanism enables cross-chain transfers without a bridge, offering a gas-free architecture with built-in fiat on-ramps and enterprise-grade throughput. It is primarily targeted at cross-border payments, fund management, foreign exchange, and institutional applications. Taceo secured $5.5 million in seed funding from Archetype*, a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), Cyber Fund, A Capital, Polymorphic Capital, Daedalus, WAGMI Ventures, and others. TACEO, a cryptography-focused infrastructure provider, leverages coSNARKs (a hybrid mechanism combining zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party computation) to enable privacy-preserving collaborative computation. Its tools, such as coCircom and coNoir, allow developers to run encrypted computations on shared data. Its TACEO:Proof network supports off-chain Groth16 proof generation via a decentralized MPC subnet. Due secured $4 million in seed funding from Speedinvest*, Semantic Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Strobe Ventures (formerly BlockTower Capital), Polymorphic Capital, and others. Due is an international payments platform that leverages blockchain protocols and scaling solutions to facilitate secure and low-cost cross-border transactions through non-custodial accounts. It aims to provide continuous access to global liquidity, ensuring faster settlement and lower fees. ARO Network secured $2.1 million in pre-seed funding from No Limit Holdings (NLH), Dispersion Capital, Escape Velocity, Maelstrom, and others. ARO is a decentralized edge cloud platform that leverages unused network resources (bandwidth and computing power) to support real-time content delivery and AI tasks. Anyone can run an ARO node and earn $ARO tokens by contributing resources. The platform aims to reduce latency, improve cost-effectiveness, and scale global AI infrastructure. Circle (HyperCircleApp) secured $12 million in seed funding. Circle is a yield farming application built on HyperCycle, allowing users to earn income by participating in HyperCycle's decentralized AI computing network. The application runs on HyperCycle's Layer-0++ architecture, using HyPC tokens and HyperShares to activate computing nodes to benefit from AI collaboration, and provides a simplified interface to access the ecosystem. Midl secured $2.4 million in seed funding from Draper Associates and Draper Dragon. Midl is a native Bitcoin execution layer, bringing smart contracts and DeFi functionality to Bitcoin without the need for bridges or sidechains. Users can interact with DApps, issue tokens, stake tokens, and more through its native wallet. Midl's token (MIDL) is used for staking, liquidity incentives, governance, and revenue distribution, while its gamification mechanism, "Gears," encourages developer and early user participation.

Other Funding Rounds

Mawari Network secured an undisclosed amount from 071labs.
Mawari is a distributed network for metaverse content delivery. Based on Web3 mechanisms, it enables efficient distribution and rendering of metaverse content to mobile devices through distributed resource sharing.

Mill City Ventures III secured $450 million in funding from Karatage*, Sui Foundation, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, and others.
Mill City Ventures III, a publicly listed professional finance firm, recently launched its first SUI treasury strategy and has acquired over 76 million SUI tokens.

Subzero Labs (Rialo) secured $20 million in funding from Pantera Capital*, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Its project, Rialo, is a developer-centric Layer 1 blockchain compatible with the Solana VM and RISC-V smart contracts, supporting privacy and web-native connectivity, targeting applications such as AI and prediction markets. Aria (Inutan X) secured $5 million in funding from Folius Ventures*, Spartan Group*, and others. Aria, an RPG game developed by Inutan Studios, is governed by the $ARIA token. Finloop secured $10 million in Series A funding from the Solana Foundation. Hong Kong-based AI-powered institutional wealth management platform supports the issuance and management of virtual and real-world assets (RWAs). Billions Network secured $30 million in funding from Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others. A privacy-focused digital identity protocol that uses zero-knowledge proofs to support human and AI entity verification. Bitcoin Layers secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Starkware and others. An open-source research platform focused on risk assessment for Bitcoin scaling solutions. Falcon Finance secured $10 million in funding from World Liberty Financial. A protocol that provides a mechanism for minting, staking, and earning USDF stablecoins. STON fi secured $9.5 million in Series A funding from Ribbit Capital* and CoinFund*. A decentralized exchange built on the TON blockchain, offering a near-zero-fee and low-slippage trading experience. RD Technologies secured $40 million in Series A funding from Zhongan International*, Sequoia China (now Sequoia Hongsheng), and others. Launched the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDR and the licensed RD Wallet to advance Hong Kong's Web3 financial infrastructure. FG Nexus (formerly Fundamental Global) secured $200 million in funding from Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Hivemind. Transforming into a capital markets company centered around an ETH treasury. ETH Strategy secured $46.5 million in funding. A liquidation-free ETH leveraged strategy protocol utilizing an on-chain treasury model. D2X secured $5 million in strategic funding from Circle Ventures*, CMT Digital*, and others. A regulated European crypto derivatives exchange focused on serving institutional investors. GAIB secured $10 million in funding from Amber Group*.
Monetizing enterprise-grade GPUs to build the computing power economic foundation for the future of AI.

Euler secured an undisclosed amount of funding from M31 Capital.
A modular lending protocol on Ethereum that supports long-tail assets and customized financial strategies.

Billy Bets secured $1 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures and others.
An AI-powered on-chain sports betting agent that uses a $BILLY token buyback and burn mechanism to participate in profits.

Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group (Pr1bit) secured $1 million in funding.
A London-listed AI SaaS company expanded into Bitcoin Lightning Network nodes and stablecoin payments.

Zodia Custody secured $18.3 million in funding from Pharsalus Capital*, Circle Ventures, and others.
A digital asset custody service provider jointly established by Standard Chartered Bank and Northern Trust.

Pear Protocol secured $4.1 million in strategic funding from Castle Island Ventures* and others.
A decentralized pairs trading protocol supporting up to 60x leverage and narrative-driven trading.

H100 Group secured $11.4 million in funding.
A Swedish AI health tech company became the first Swedish publicly listed company to use Bitcoin as a treasury asset.

Manifold Labs (Targon) secured $10.5 million in Series A funding from OSS Capital*, DCG, and others.
Building Targon, a decentralized AI inference cloud, provides Bittensor node services and analytical tools.