Riot Platforms acquires Block Mining in $92.5M deal, NPC Labs raises $18M

This week's crypto funding highlights include investments in web3 gaming, ethereum scaling, bitcoin infrastructure, and decentralized ai.

Riot Platforms takes over block mining

Our funding roundup begins with an acquisition. On July 24, bitcoin (btc) mining firm Riot Platforms said it had acquired Block Mining, a Kentucky-based bitcoin mining company, in a $92.5 million deal.

According to Riot, this acquisition could potentially increase its operating capacity by 60 megawatts, with plans to expand to 110 MW by the end of 2024.

Riot paid $18.5 million in cash and $74 million in common stock for the acquisition.

NPC Labs, $18 million

Web3 gaming infrastructure startup NPC Labs, founded by three former Coinbase employees, has raised $18 million in a seed funding round.

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Pantera Capital led the round, with participation from Mantle EcoFund, Makers Fund, Bitscale Capital, Hashed, Mirana Ventures and Collab+Currency.

This brings the total amount of money raised by the project to $21 million, after having raised $3 million in a recent pre-seed funding round.

NPC Labs said it will use the funding to bring on new team members, especially engineers. It also seeks to increase on-chain gaming adoption through its game scaling ecosystem, B3.fun, which is built on Base.

Boiler, 15 million dollars

Caldera, a web3 infrastructure platform, also benefited from VC activity this week, raising $15 million in a Series A funding round.

Founders Fund led the round, which also included participation from Lattice, Dragonfly, Arkstream Capital and Sequoia Capital. This brings Caldera’s total funding to $25 million, with the project having raised $10 million in 2023.

The US-based startup aims to help developers launch ethereum packages or scale networks “with a single click.” It has a long list of clients, including Injective, RARI Chain, and ApeChain, which together have a total value locked of over $800 million.

Igloo Inc., $11 million

The parent company of the Pudgy Penguins nft project, Igloo, Inc., also got in on the action, raising $11 million to develop Abstract, a new layer-2 scaling network on ethereum (eth).

Founders Fund led Igloo’s funding round, which included investments from Selini Capital, Everest Ventures, 1kx and Fenbushi Capital.

Igloo reportedly plans to use the money raised to establish a new entity, Cube Labs, to oversee the development of Abstract.

In June, Igloo acquired another layer-2 network, Frame, which is primarily focused on nfts. Igloo has said it will use the Frame team to help develop the Abstract project.

Bitlayer, $11 million

bitcoin Layer-2 startup Bitlayer has successfully raised $11 million in its Series A funding round. The round, led by Franklin Templeton, ABCDE, and Framework Ventures, brings Bitlayer’s total investment to $16 million.

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Notably, Franklin Templeton’s participation marks the first strategic investment by an ETF-licensed institution in a bitcoin Layer-2 project.

Other major crypto venture capital fundraisings

While the projects mentioned above generated the largest investments this week, several other notable rounds helped push the week's VC funding total, including the deal with Riot Platforms, to over $210 million. Here are a few of them, according to crypto-fundraising.info/deal-flow/” target=”_blank” rel=””>data From the crypto fundraiser:

• a priori raised $8 million in a seed funding round led by Pantera Capital, bringing its total funding to $10 million.
• Half raised $7.5 million in a strategic funding round led by Ledger Cathay Fund.
• OpenSocial raised $6 million in strategic funding led by Framework Ventures and North Island Ventures, bringing its total funding since inception to $26 million.
• DAO Base completed a $6 million funding round with investments from SevenX Ventures, AntAlpha Ventures and more.
• Red3 Raised $5.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Borderless Capital, EV3, IoTeX Eco fund, SNZ, Waterdrip Capital and Bing Ventures participated in the round.
• Red Pill ai raised $5 million in its seed funding round led by Animoca Brands and DFG.