This week, Galaxy Ventures unveiled a new fund targeting early-stage crypto firms, while the crypto markets saw over $75 million flow into various projects across the ecosystem. Among the notable recipients of this funding was Bitlayer, a layer-2 blockchain that raised $11 million in a Series A round, boosting its valuation to $300 million.
The funding round was led by traditional finance giant Franklin Templeton, known for its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, along with investment fund ABCDE. This marks the first time a Bitcoin layer-2 infrastructure project has received strategic investment from an ETF-licensed institution.
“We believe that Bitlayer’s unique approach and technology have the potential to unlock new use cases and opportunities for Bitcoin. We look forward to exploring collaboration opportunities with our Bitcoin-focused financial products. This investment underscores our commitment to supporting innovation in the digital asset space,” said Kevin Farrelly, managing principal at Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, in a statement.
Other participants in the funding round included GSR Ventures, Stake Capital Group, and FalconX.
In other funding news, Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol in the DeFi space, raised $4 million in a seed round led by Castle Island Ventures. Brevan Howard Digital and Animoca Ventures also participated in the round.
“We wanted to ensure that at the core of Kintsu, it was not only creating massive liquidity in the base layer for Monad but also encouraging decentralization,” Kintsu founder Stephen Novenstern told Blockworks. He explained that the validator registry contract, a simple list of validators and their weights controlled by the DAO, maximizes decentralization even as the liquid staking token grows on Monad.
The crypto funding landscape continues to evolve, with significant investments from traditional finance players signaling a growing interest and confidence in the potential of digital assets and blockchain technology.
