Robot Ventures · 219

Open source AI startup Nous Research closes $75M funding round led by Robot Ventures

Comparatively, Nous Research, a startup belonging to Hermes, an open source AI intelligence company, has completed a new round of financing. The scale of this round raised at least 75 million US dollars, and the company's valuation reached 1.5 billion US dollars after the investment. This round of financing was led by Robot Ventures, and several well-known institutions such as Union Square Ventures (USV) participated in the funding. Its core product, Hermes, is an open source local AI agent, which has accumulated 214,000 Stars and nearly 40,000 Forks on the GitHub platform. It supports users to deploy and operate locally on personal computers and virtual servers, and has autonomous execution capabilities such as web search and code generation. (Techcrunch)

39d ago#financing

On-chain earnings company Ground closes $3.6 million pre-seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi

Comparatively, on-chain revenue infrastructure startup Ground announced the completion of a $3.6 million pre-seed funding round, which was co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi, with Nascent, Robot Ventures, Chapter One, and Consonant Ventures participating. According to reports, Ground mainly provides APIs for fintech companies and asset management institutions, so that they can access on-chain revenue products in existing applications without building their own blockchain integrations. Its target customers include fintech platforms, digital banks, wealth managers, exchanges, and asset management companies to build income, savings, and investment products.

59d ago#financing

The 300 million valuation is a thing of the past, and the market is repricing

Author: Bibi News Original title: Reproduction of signals at the bottom of history? Messari, valued at 300 million, sold for 10 million. Messari used to be the crypto industry's closest data platform to Bloomberg. At its peak, it was valued at 300 million US dollars. Its founder, Ryan Selkis, was the first to reveal that Mt. Gox is insolvent. After becoming famous, he founded Messari with the goal of incorporating data, research, and disclosure from the crypto world into a professional platform. It covers more than 40,000 crypto assets, and the Mainnet conference held every year in New York is one of the industry's most important summits. In September 2022, hedge fund giant Brevan Howard's crypto division led its Series B financing, followed by Point72 and Coinbase Ventures, with a valuation of about $300 million. On June 12, 2026, Messari was bought by rival Blockworks at a price of around $10 million. This isn't the current state of a company. When the primary market valuation and the coins in your wallet are shrinking drastically, is the entire crypto industry's collective repricing? Crypto companies collectively shrink in July 2024. Messari founder Selkis resigned as CEO due to a series of controversial remarks, and co-founder Eric Turner took over. Turner also left in March 2026, and CTO Diran Li took over. At the same time, the company made large-scale layoffs, turned a U-turn to AI, and announced that it would become an AI-first company. But AI is not only the direction of transformation for Messari; it is also one of the reasons for its decline. The core products sold by Messari are research reports and data collation. In the past, an analyst spent a week writing an industry report, but now it can be completed in a few hours using AI tools. When research costs are close to zero, it is difficult for businesses selling research reports to receive any more money. This is not a cyclical difficulty; it is a structural threat. Eventually, Messari's data platform and API were merged into Blockworks, and the eight-year entrepreneurial story came to an end. But Messari is no exception. From 2025 to 2026, a quieter and deeper change is taking place: companies that don't issue coins and make money by selling products and services can't hold up. The data platform is closing its doors. DappRadar, which has been in operation for seven years, tracks more than 18,000 decentralized applications on 93 chains, uses 500,000 monthly users, and announced its shutdown in November 2025 due to “financial unsustainability”. The on-chain analysis platform Parsec has been in operation for five years and shut down in February 2026. CoinGecko is currently negotiating the overall sale and has hired investment bank Moelis as an advisor. The media is underselling or layoffs. CoinDesk, the benchmark for crypto media, was once rumored to sell for 300 million US dollars, cut 45% of the editorial team in August 2023, and was bought by Bullish for about 75 million dollars in November of the same year. Bankless, one of the most influential brands in crypto podcasts, has over 1,300 shows, a $35 million VC fund, and quietly cut most of its team in May of this year. Blockworks, which bought Messari, also shut down its entire news department in October 2025, putting all resources into the data business. Its founder put it bluntly: users are increasingly using data as their primary source of information rather than news. On-chain data company Dune laid off 25% of employees in May 2026. Since VC did not invest in 2017, more than 800 crypto investment funds have been set up around the world. Today, only about half are still in operation. In 2025, 63% of crypto hedge funds lost money. The new fund is also unable to raise money. Only 8 new crypto VC funds were set up in Q1 2026, the lowest since Q3 2020, and the amount raised was only 12% of the 2022 peak. From October 2025 to April 2026, monthly investment in crypto VC plummeted from $3.85 billion to $660 million, falling more than 80% in six months. Where did the money go? Went to AI. In 2025, VC financing in the AI sector was 192.7 billion US dollars, exceeding half of the world's total VC for the first time. A partner at Robot Ventures, a crypto fund founded by the founder of Compound, said a very direct statement: “AI has taken away oxygen, and talent and LP's attention have been taken away. Many people who should have started crypto businesses are now starting AI companies. “People are walking too. Multicoin Ca...

66d agoLuxurytracy

Nova Markets completes a new round of financing, with Wintermute Ventures and others participating

In comparison, Nova Markets announced the completion of a new round of financing, with Wintermute Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain VC, Cumberland, GSR, Greenfield Capital, Hash3, Bodhi Ventures, and Kairos Research participating. The main business of the project is on-chain capital and forecasting market infrastructure. The financing will be used to move more perpetual contracts and forecasting markets to the chain.

79d ago

Perp DEX BULK, in which Solana's founder participated, has launched the first quarter points program

According to the news, Solana Ecosystem Perp DEX project BULK announced that it has launched the first quarter points program. Pre-deposits are now open, and 1 million AURA (or points) will be distributed every week until the exchange is officially launched. Earlier, BULK announced that it has completed a $8 million seed round, led by 6th Man Ventures and Robot Ventures, with Big Brain Holdings, Wintermute, and Solana co-creator Anatoly Yakovenko participating.

81d ago

Paxos Labs closes $12 million funding round led by Blockchain Capital

According to the news, Paxos Labs has spun off from stablecoin issuer Paxos and raised $12 million, led by Blockchain Capital, Robot Ventures, family office Maelstrom, and DeFi developer Uniswap Labs. Paxos Labs co-founder Bhaumik Kotecha declined to disclose the valuation of this round of funding. Chad, CEO of Paxos Cascarilla is also the CEO of Paxos Labs, which will mainly provide large enterprises with a service provider to create and manage their own stablecoins.

130d ago

Stablecoin startup Payy closes $6 million seed round

According to the news, stablecoin startup Payy completed a $6 million seed round, led by FirstMark Capital, with the participation of Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto, in the form of a SAFE agreement with token warrants. So far, Payy has raised a total of $8 million. This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

150d agoburnking

TGE in a bear market, is backpack the starting point or the end?

Article: Maher, Foresight News Original title: Backpack today's TGE, what kind of script will the bear market open? On March 23, Solana's eco-famous wallet and centralized exchange Backpack will launch the BP token TGE. According to information previously released by Backpack, the total supply is set at 1 billion pieces, and the contract address is: BPxxFRCxKUVHIG4HS1LH7KZQV6SPJHzFEK4x6FVBJPCY. Currently, Backpack has launched a pledge page. You can cancel the pledge at any time during the first 7 days, and you will have to wait 7 days to release the pledge after 7 days. Users can check the BP token allocation after clicking Agree. 25% of the tokens will be unlocked at TGE (24% for point holders; 1% for Mad Lads). 37.5% of the tokens will be unlocked before the IPO. Unlock gradually according to key milestones. All tokens are distributed to users who reach each incremental supply milestone, and these milestones are based on measurable regulatory progress, product expansion, and broader market access. Unlocked 37.5% after listing. As corporate treasury funds, they are fully locked in until 1 year after the IPO. Tokens are held as strategic digital assets for long-term value creation. All team members and investors get token exposure through the corporate treasury. Of these, 25%, or 250 million, were immediately unlocked during the TGE phase, all targeted to community users, and no team or investor share participated in the initial circulation. Backpack founder Armani Ferrante revealed the guiding principles for the project's tokenomics design. Its core goal is to prevent insiders from selling to retail investors, and founders, executives, employees, or venture investors cannot profit from tokens until the project is listed in the US. Furthermore, the tokens in circulation will be exclusively distributed to users and used as incentives for business growth when entering key milestones such as entering new regions (such as the European Union, Japan, and the United States) or launching new products (such as forecasts, stocks, bank cards, etc.). Armani Ferrante emphasized that none of the founders, executives, team members, or venture investors received a direct token distribution. The entire team's share allocation will remain in the company's treasury and locked up for at least one year after listing. Team members hold shares in the company, and the company holds most of the token supply, and the team can only benefit after the company goes public or an equity withdrawal event occurs. Users need to log in to Backpack's official website or mobile app to complete the TGE verification process. The system will automatically calculate and distribute shares based on the relative share of points at the time of the snapshot. Mad Lads NFT holders only need to connect to the corresponding wallet to be automatically allocated, and no additional action is required. Once completed, users can see the “TGE Verified” badge in Credits - Achievements. The points accumulation mechanism announced by Backpack includes multi-dimensional indicators such as transaction volume, asset holding time, invitations, and depth of product usage. In addition, Backpack introduced a pledge exchange mechanism. Users can pledge BP for at least one year to convert it into company shares at a fixed rate. A total of 20% of Backpack's shares will be distributed to qualified pledgers, and the amount of pledge time, amount, and platform product usage will be used as weighting factors to determine priority IPO rights. What is the value geometry? Prior to this airdrop, Backpack's anti-witch measures were also continuously upgraded, in addition to requiring all accounts participating in the points campaign to pass KYC (identity verification). In the “Epilogue” (final chapter) phase in early 2026, Backpack officially carried out an audit to identify and recover more than 50 million so-called “false points” through data analysis. Backpack requires all eligible airdrop candidates to perform a second manual confirmation before the deadline of March 15, 2026. Many script numbers may already be in an “offline” or “management vacuum” state after a long run. Require manual clicks and even re-verification within a specific window to filter out automated accounts that “run after swiping”. User X mocked Metabape and “opened a 270,000 cent account. Take a look: 1000 coins.” Backpack's “milestone unlock+equity conversion” model is the first of its kind in the industry. In addition, the backpack has received UAE, UK and Europe...

152d agoLuxurytracy

On-chain analytics tool Parsec is gradually discontinuing operations

According to an announcement published on Thursday, Parsec, a customizable on-chain analysis tool, is about to stop operating. “After five years of development, Parsec is now offline. We are processing refunds and canceling existing subscriptions,” the team wrote on X Platform and its website. “We are forever grateful to those who have gone through the ups and downs of the chain with us. It was an amazing trip.” Parsec provides an on-chain analytics platform and terminal that enables users to build custom dashboards and data visualizations, particularly for DeFi and NFTs, and API access. The project was launched in early 2021 and has received funding of $1.25 million and $4 million respectively. Participants include institutions such as Galaxy Digital, Polychain Capital, Robot Ventures, and Uniswap Ventures.

184d agoWendy

After the MegaETH mainnet is online, these 8 dApps deserve priority experience

Author: Amir Ormu, Crypto KOL Compiled by: Felix, PanNews Original Article Title: MegaETH Mainnet Online, Inventory of Eight Unmissable DAppMegaETH announced the official launch of the main network on February 9, and launched The Rabbithole, an ecosystem front-end, to enable users to discover applications, cross-chain and exchange assets, and obtain ecological notifications. As the main network went live, crypto KOL Amir Ormu published an article taking stock of 8 potential projects in its ecosystem. Details of the content are as follows. MegaEth has been in the spotlight recently, but most people are limited to Fluffle NFT sales, oversubscribed public token sales, or $250 million pre-deposits that sell out in less than a minute. However, most people only saw MegaETH's superficial hustle and bustle, ignoring MegaETH's dApp ecosystem. Many people don't even know that many real applications have already been born on this “real-time blockchain” (Real-Time Blockchain). This article condenses hours of research into a 10-minute read, and takes you through 8 potential dApps you must know before MegaEth TGE. 1. EuphoriaEuphoria is an evolved version of the “point-and-click” (tap-tap) game in the field of trading. From slot machines to last year's Hamster (Hamster Run) explosion, it's proven that humans naturally love to click on anything that promises value. The problem with these types of games is that most of them aren't designed for long-term development; they only attract rewards to “jerk people” who don't run away. Currently, most of these games have fewer than 100,000 users, and Hamster surpassed 300 million at its peak. Most of today's trading apps copy each other: same functionality, different logos. People trade to make money without any emotional experience, which is exactly what Euphoria wants to solve. If the deal becomes fun, more people will participate. Platforms like Memecoin and Polymarket prove one thing: it's not the platform with the most complex functionality that wins the market, but the one that most resonates with ordinary users. Euphoria combines the point-and-click experience that has been popular for years with trading and gamification elements, making it a true game changer. This kind of real-time interaction would not be possible without MegaEth's performance support. Euphoria is one of MegaETH's top projects, receiving more than $7 million in financing, and investors include top venture capitalists such as Santiago R Santos and Robot Ventures. Currently, Euphoria is being tested on the testnet, and only some members can participate. If you want to try it, you can go to the official website and join the waitlist. 2. BlackHavenBlackHaven aims to be a digital asset vault (DAT) for the MegaETH ecosystem, with an architecture designed to continuously absorb $MEGA through different financial instruments. It is supported by a diverse portfolio of on-chain yield assets, aims to generate sustainable returns, and serves as the core liquidity engine of the MegaETH ecosystem. Blackhaven's design focuses on two parts: for risk-averse investors who want safe, sustainable returns without risk. Aimed at native DeFi users, who want unique risk/reward strategies. Blackhaven is entirely community-centered, and 80% of the tokens will be distributed to the community. Team members include the former head of growth at OlympusDAO, the founder of AlfaDAO (AlfaDAO is currently one of the most well-known cryptocurrency DAOs), and a former SushiSwap contributor. Their early access campaign has ended, attracting more than 45,000 users, and the team said they expect more users to join in the future. 3. Bad BunnzBad Bunnz is the most well-known NFT brand on MegaETH. The team has been working silently behind the scenes, and has gone from being a disadvantaged group in the ecosystem to becoming a PFP supported by MegaEth's most influential people. Even if you just stay loyal, you can do it at $MEGA...

193d agoLuxurytracy