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Institutional Bulletin: Colosseum Launches $60 Million Fund, MegaETH Secures $20 Million

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Institutional Bulletin: Colosseum Launches $60 Million Fund, MegaETH Secures $20 Million

The cryptocurrency industry continues to attract an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. ForkLog reviews the most significant events of recent weeks.

Colosseum Accelerator Raises $60 Million for First Fund

The Solana-focused accelerator Colosseum has raised $60 million for its first fund to support early-stage ecosystem startups, reports The Block.

The structure invests in projects selected during hackathons. The standard investment in a startup is $250,000, with the potential to increase in subsequent rounds, noted Colosseum co-founder Clay Robbins.

According to him, fundraising began at the end of 2023 with a target of $50 million.

The fund has already financed the first 10 teams on Solana. Among them are the mining token project Ore, the swap aggregator Urani, and the DePIN protocol BlockMesh.

“Cryptocurrency is still in the early stages of adoption, and Colosseum’s model of integrating online hackathons with an accelerator and fund can guide the development, application, and growth of any technology,” Robbins believes.

Vitalik Buterin Supports Ethereum Project MegaETH in $20 Million Round

MegaLabs, the developer of the blockchain called MegaETH, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round led by Dragonfly Capital.

Other participants in the round include Figment Capital, Folius Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holding, Tangent, and Credible Neutral, as well as angel investors like Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin.

MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kun told The Block that the company began fundraising in December 2023. The financing is structured as token warrants plus equity.

The team positions MegaETH as the first Ethereum-compatible “real-time blockchain.” The protocol aims to achieve a throughput of 100,000 TPS, while other EVM networks provide only three-digit figures, Kun explained.

According to the statement, transaction processing speed is ensured by two main factors:

“Creating hyper-scalable EVM implementations is a key condition for true Ethereum scaling. I am pleased to see that great developers are tackling this task,” commented Buterin.

MegaLabs plans to launch a public testnet in early autumn and a mainnet closer to the end of the year.

Sonic L2 Protocol on Solana Raises $12 Million

The gaming-focused second-layer network Sonic on Solana has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round organized by Bitkraft Ventures, reports CoinDesk.

Investors also include Galaxy Interactive and Big Brain Holdings.

The project was launched by the infrastructure company Mirror World Labs.

The firm will direct the funds to develop the protocol, including creating “built-in mechanisms specifically designed for developing and executing games on Solana.”

The team plans to use solutions like sandboxes, customizable primitives, and extensible data types to facilitate blockchain game development and attract new projects to the ecosystem.

Renzo Restaking Platform Raises $17 Million

The liquid restaking protocol Renzo has raised $17 million in investments following two funding rounds. One was conducted by Galaxy Ventures, the other by Brevan Howard Digital Nova Fund.

Renzo helps users restake ETH or “wrapped” versions like wBETH or stETH through interaction with EigenLayer.

Depositing assets allows users to utilize the LRT token ezETH on other DeFi platforms for additional income.

In January, the project raised $3.2 million in seed investments.

DePIN Project Verida Secures $5 Million Investment

DePIN network developer Verida has raised $5 million in a seed funding round with participation from O-DE Capital Partners, ChaiTech Ventures, and Simurg Labs.

Other investors include Gate Labs, HASH CIB, Bison Capital, Amesten Capital, and Mysten Labs co-founder Evan Chen.

Following the round, Verida was valued at $50 million.

The funds will be used to develop alternative decentralized solutions focused on users who do not want their personal data used for AI model training.

The team intends to offer storage and management of information through multiple nodes operated by network participants.

Electric Capital Leads $3 Million Round for Wasabi

Wasabi, a protocol for trading leveraged meme coins and NFTs based on the L2 solution Blast, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round.

Other participants include Alliance, Memeland, Spencer Ventures, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz, and other investors.

The project has been raising funds since January, co-founder Eren Derman told The Block. He did not comment on the round’s structure or valuation.

Wasabi allows trading with leverage on “long-tail assets”, the entrepreneur explained. He noted that the market lacks such efficient offerings.

Traders can open long, short, and staking positions on meme coins and NFTs. For such exotic coins, leverage is 2-3x, while for flagship ones like ETH and USDB, it reaches up to 10x, Derman explained.

According to him, Wasabi is the first protocol allowing trading with borrowed funds backed by real assets. This eliminates counterparty risk, Derman emphasized.

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