Crypto VC Funding Heats Up: World Secures Whopping $135M While Slash Nabs $41M

Venture capital’s throwing big money at crypto again—and this time, Asia’s not the only player at the table.

World just locked down a jaw-dropping $135 million raise, while Slash—no relation to the Guns N’ Roses guitarist—pocketed a cool $41 million. Guess institutional FOMO’s back on the menu.

Meanwhile, traditional VCs are still trying to explain their ’blockchain skepticism’ from 2022. Funny how nine-figure checks cure amnesia.

World Foundation

• Raised $135 million from a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Selini
• World (WLD) has raised $375 million so far
• According to the announcement on May 21, the funds will be used to expand its iris-based identity network, World ID.

Slash

• Slash scored $41 million in a Series B round
• The project has a fully diluted valuation of $370 million
• Goodwater backed the investment
• Slash has raised $60 million so far

Catena Labs

• Catena Labs secured $18 million in a Seed round
• The investment was backed by a16z crypto, Breyer Capital, and Z Ventures
• Gained +1 new investor

Roxom

• Gathered $17.9 million in an Unknown round
• Investors include Draper Associates, Borderless, and Kingsway Capital
• Roxom has raised $22.2 million so far

TrueX

• A team of Coinbase alumni collected $11 million to debut True Markets, a stablecoin-native DeFi app offering real-time execution and self-custody on Solana.
• The investment was backed by Accomplice, Framework Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures
• TrueX has raised $20 million so far

Projects

• Hyperdrive: Raised $6 million in a Series A funding
• Acurast bagged $5.4 million Public sale with $90 million fully diluted valuation
• VOYA Games (Craft World) raised $5 million in an unknown round
• Rover raised $4.1 million Seed investment
• Stablecorp (QCAD) raised $1.8 million in an unknown round
• Fermi Labs bagged $1.2 million in a pre-seed round