Weekly Crypto Funding: 9 Deals; Levl Raises $7M Seed Led by Galaxy Ventures
Last week (Feb 9–15) the blockchain sector recorded nine disclosed funding events totaling over $48 million. Infrastructure and tools led activity with four deals: Levl, a stablecoin payments infrastructure startup, raised $7.0M seed led by Galaxy Ventures to expand wallet and fintech integrations and push into LATAM and Africa; Superset closed a $4.0M seed to build a cross-chain stablecoin/on‑chain FX liquidity layer; Birch Hill secured $2.5M Pre‑Seed for on‑chain credit/RWA infrastructure; and privacy‑focused stablecoin project Zoth raised a strategic round (amount undisclosed). Centralized finance saw a large seed round: AI quant trading firm Inference Research raised $20M led by Li Lin’s Avenir Group to scale sovereign AI trading infrastructure. Other Web3 deals included Bullshot (meme platform) $7.5M private raise, YOAKE receiving ~$3.2M from Sony Innovation Fund, Xross Road $1.5M Pre‑Seed for IP/AI comic tooling, and DePIN game protocol YOM $3.0M strategic round. The report excludes two major AI financings (Anthropic’s $30B G round and Bretton AI’s $75M B round). Key figures: Galaxy Ventures, Avenir Group, Sony Innovation Fund, 7RIDGE, ParaFi Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Animoca Brands. Implications: the week shows continued investor appetite for stablecoin rails, RWA/credit infrastructure and AI-driven trading, with notable capital concentration in infra and payments solutions that could support faster on‑chain settlement and cross‑border flows.
Neutral
The disclosed financings emphasize infrastructure — stablecoin rails, RWA/credit tooling and AI trading — rather than speculative token launches, which suggests constructive but measured market impact. Large seed rounds (Levl $7M, Inference Research $20M) indicate investor confidence in payments and AI-driven trading infrastructure; these can improve settlement speed and institutional participation over time, a bullish factor for on‑chain utility. However, amounts are moderate relative to market capitalization of major crypto assets and do not directly inject liquidity into token markets, so immediate price impact is likely limited. Historically, infrastructure funding rounds tend to yield neutral-to-positive medium-term effects (improved on‑chain services, gradual adoption) but rarely trigger near-term rallies unless tied to major protocol launches or large token issuances. For traders: expect higher interest in stablecoin and infra tokens over months, modestly increased flows into related ecosystems, but no strong short-term directional signal for BTC/ETH. Monitor subsequent product launches, on‑chain volume growth, and any token distributions tied to these projects as catalysts for price moves.