venturecapital

Happy Friday! Here are the 5 most interesting crypto fundraises for the week ending 5/23/25:

1. World

Decentralized human identity protocol World (fmr Worldcoin) raised $135M in a direct WLD token sale from a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, Selini Capital, and others.

World’s Orbs scan your eyeballs to prove that you’re human and not a bot. They have surpassed 26M users and 12.5M Orb-verified World IDs worldwide. WLD’s price popped over 30% after the fundraise was announced. 

The funds will be used to accelerate the rollout of Orbs globally. 

Orbs everywhere.

3. Rover

Bitcoin liquid staking protocol Rover raised $4.1M in a Seed round from Animoca Ventures, CMS Holdings, Bloccelerate, and many others. 

Rover is built on the Botanix Spiderchain and enables BTC holders to stake their assets and receive rovBTC, a liquid staking token that maintains liquidity and allows participation in DeFi activities.

Mainnet launch coming soon!

4. Roxom

Bitcoin-based trading platform Roxom raised $17.9M from Draper Associates, Borderless Capital, Kingsway Capital, and Ego Death Capital.

Roxom is developing a BTC-denominated securities exchange and a 24/7 media network, RoxomTV, both built around a 100% Bitcoin treasury and designed to integrate Bitcoin standards into global finance.

Bitcoin DeFi on fire!

5. TrueX

Stablecoin-native exchange TrueX raised $11M in a Series A round led by Accomplice and RRE Ventures with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Variant Fund, and PayPal Ventures.

TrueX is a non-custodial, stablecoin-native crypto exchange launched by former Coinbase, Circle, and Goldman Sachs executives, designed to offer advanced spot trading with native stablecoin settlement and a strong focus on security. 

The platform uses PayPal USD (PYUSD) as its preferred settlement token, with third-party custody provided by Paxos, and targets institutional clients seeking efficient, low-slippage stablecoin trading.

The institutions are definitely here!

Congrats to all the teams for their fundraises!

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Thanks for reading!

2. Catena Labs

Fully-regulated, AI-native financial institution Catena Labs raised an $18M Seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures.

Catena enables AI agents, businesses, and consumers to transact safely and efficiently in the emerging AI economy.

The funds will accelerate development of its open-source Agent Commerce Kit to address challenges in identity, payments, and compliance for AI-driven commerce.

TradFi Bbanks will get left behind!