In the midst of a bear market, blockchain-based startups continue to gather funding. In a recent example, Blockaid, a partner of MetaMask, successfully raised $33 million in October. However, despite these individual success stories, the total funding in the cryptocurrency industry has seen a significant drop, mirroring levels from 2020. The third quarter of 2023 amassed a total of $2.1 billion across 297 deals, according to data from Messari.
Investor Approach During Bear Markets
As is often observed in bear markets, investors are exercising increased caution and are taking a more meticulous approach towards potential projects. There appears to be a preference for projects with tangible, real-world applications. For instance, in October, the Nature Science Journal highlighted the potential of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to support underfunded scientific research.
Notable Funding Rounds in October
Several projects managed to secure funding in October. London-based fintech, Untangled Finance, raised $13.5 million to expedite the process of bringing institutional-grade credit with a built-in liquidation mechanism on-chain. The company is focused on tokenizing real-world private credit assets, such as invoices and SME loans, into on-chain structured credit pools. These pools then enable the issuance of collateralized debt notes to both DeFi and TradFi investors.
Nocturne, a protocol that allows on-chain private accounts, announced a $6 million seed funding round. The funding is expected to speed up the production and deployment of Nocturne’s protocol across various ecosystems. A portion of the round will also be allocated to legal work as the team continues to adapt to changing regulatory requirements.
Account Labs, a Web3 wallet provider, secured $7.7 million in funding. Coinciding with the announcement, the company also launched its first consumer-facing app, UniPass Wallet, on Polygon. The UniPass Wallet app enables users to create and access a self-custody Web3 wallet with only a Google account and top up with any Mastercard or Visa card.
Blockchain in Healthcare and Infrastructure
Rymedi, a blockchain-based healthcare data exchange platform, announced a Series A round of $9 million. The funds will be used to enhance data security and healthcare record accessibility for patients. Rymedi claims to serve over 1 million patients in over 1,200 locations across the United States, Africa, and Australia.
Layer-1 protocol, Waterfall Network, secured $2 million ahead of its mainnet launch, which is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2024. The protocol is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and employs a technology called Directed Acyclic Graph or “DAG,” which allegedly allows for unlimited scalability.
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