TL;DR
- BlonkFi has completed its pre-seed funding round led by UOB Venture Management and Signum Capital.
- The platform seeks to solve liquidity problems for volatile mid-market capitalization assets by allowing these assets to be used as collateral.
- The memecoin sector on Solana has shown significant growth, highlighted by the recent rise of dogwifhat (WIF) as the fourth-largest memecoin by market cap.
BlonkFi, an innovative money market protocol on the Solana blockchain, has successfully closed its pre-seed funding round, announced via a post on X (formerly Twitter).
This round was led by UOB Venture Management and Signum Capital, with additional participation from Manifold Trading, Kyros Ventures and Hypotenuse Labs.
BLONK ALERT!
BlonkFi is excited to announce it has successfully closed its pre-Seed fundraising, led by UOB Venture Management and @Signum_Capital .
Investors in this round include @ManifoldTrading , @KyrosVentures , @hypotenuse_labs and other strategic partners.
BlonkFi is a… pic.twitter.com/uo8BoVieBc
— BlonkFi – Collateralize Your Memes (@BlonkFi) July 29, 2024
While the exact amount raised has not been disclosed, the news marks a significant step in BlonkFi’s development.
BlonkFi’s primary goal is to address the problem of illiquidity in volatile mid-market cap assets such as memecoins.
These assets can be used as collateral to obtain liquidity, a solution that responds to a crucial need in the market.
The platform’s mission is to build a profitable economy around memecoins, an emerging market valued at over $46 billion.
By allowing users to safely use these volatile assets as collateral, BlonkFi acts as a core liquidity infrastructure layer that unlocks greater composability for these high-volatility, high-attention assets.
The Solana blockchain, known for its low transaction costs , has become a preferred venue for trading memecoins.
According to data from CoinGecko, the memecoin sector on Solana has increased by 4.3% in the past day.
The platform has seen a wave of new coins featuring caricatures of public figures like Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Among these, dogwifhat (WIF) has recently emerged as the fourth-largest memecoin by market cap, after raising over $690,000 in community donations to display its mascot at the Sphere, a famous entertainment venue in Las Vegas.
The Growth of BlonkFi and Funding in Crypto Startups
The rise of memecoins and other innovations in the crypto space have led to a significant increase in startup funding.
Since May 2014, crypto startups have raised more than $100 billion.
Peak funding for cryptocurrency startups was reached in October 2021, with over $7 billion raised in that month.
The second highest figure was recorded in February 2022, totaling $3.67 billion.
Recent research indicates that nearly half of all cryptocurrency funding comes from investors in the United States.
The remaining investments are spread across several countries, with the United Kingdom accounting for 7.7% and Singapore for 5.7%, according to figures from the second quarter of 2023.
Between late 2023 and the first half of 2024, several high-profile financing rounds took place.
Together.AI and cross-chain protocol Wormhole secured investments of $225 million each, while open-source cloud storage firm Totter and Eigenlayer raised $101 million and $100 million, respectively.
Other notable rounds include Swan Bitcoin’s $165 million and Blockchain.com’s $110 million.
Most recently, Galaxy Asset Management raised $113 million for a cutting-edge crypto venture fund, dubbed Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP, with the goal of driving investments in approximately 30 companies.
This increase in funding reflects continued interest and confidence in the transformative potential of blockchain and crypto-asset technologies as the sector continues to evolve and expand.
