One of the ways to keep up with crypto is by tracking VC funding and raises. In this bear market, despite high-interest rates, capital doesn’t seem to stop flowing to the industry. The rate of it is much slower compared to the previous year, but regardless, a handful of teams can do their project without much worrying about the market situation.

My source for raises is no other than the good old reliable DeFiLlama raises. I actually wrote a guide on how to use it (just ignore the part about FTX and Alameda.) Apart from DeFiLlama, I also used other sources like Twitter and newsletters — but mostly DeFillama.

1. Renegade

This project instantly caught my attention when I see who was backing it. Known as the thinkers of the crypto space, it’s a good assumption if you think they would not just back any crypto project. It must be something special.

And it is.

According to the whitepaper, Renegade promises “complete anonymity during the entire lifecycle of a trade”. Their arrival is at the right time. 1. When CeFi has proven itself untrustworthy thanks to FTX. 2. When the government is being at its most antagonistic toward crypto we might as well think Coinbase and UniSwap are the FED after all. 3. When MEV trying to sabotage your trade somehow. In short, Renegade is an anonymous exchange with sophisticated offers related to security, privacy, and MEV protection.

Just like typical new project fresh raising, their website only offers a handful of initial information — and a waiting list.

2. Alongside

The name rings a bell because it sounds like Otherside, the BAYC metaverse project. Although it turns out they’re not related, they’re backed by the same A16Z. Only, Alongside is a crypto financial service rather than a metaverse protocol.

Alongside allows investors to invest in crypto through indexes, just like you would do in TradFi through SP500 or Nasdaq. Instead of buying individual crypto-assets, you buy an index token just like you buy an ETH that tracks SP500.

Attempts to give the crypto market an index are not a new thing. Some projects have done it in the past, but to no avail due to the unpredictability of the market. However, now that Alameda has gone and we found out that they were indeed why crypto looked like an unstable wreck in the past, making index becomes an endeavor worth reliving again.

3. OPNX

I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Su Zhu’s new project. The fallen ex-3AC commander is back in the market wiping up a new exchange. Initially, it was about to be called GTX, as in one alphabet away from another notorious now-bankrupt FTX exchange. After much outcry and mocking, they changed it to the final name OPNX.

What does OPNX aim to do? What kind of exchange is OPNX? How dare Su Zhu whip up another company when their old one is still in bankruptcy process — and both Su Zhu and Davis still owed a lot of money to their debtors?

Believe it or not, OPNX hoped to raise $25 million of funding as per The Block. They have launched a website now and opened a waitlist, although the exact amount of funding they obtained remains a mystery.

What a trauma-inducing landing page.

OPNX makes your locked fund tradable so you can use it as collateral when trading. It could work kinda like stETH liquid staking derivatives — but not quite.

People are generally dismissive (They’re not OPN-minded, lol) of the idea, thanks to Su Zhu’s reputation. Some potential I see is that repayment for bankruptcy could take years. With years of potential idle capital, Su Zhu could be into something here. My curiosity lies more in the mechanism, as in how they’re gonna make derivatives out of the locked assets and make them tradable assets.

4. Superplastic

I promised myself to get out of my (crypto) comfort zone and include a project that’s too ‘wacky’ for my taste.

I feel like I’m too boomer for this

One of them is superplastic. Again, it’s the name that initially intrigued me. The second would come from the list of investors, which includes big Tradtech names like Amazon and Google ventures. Decrypt revealed that Sony Japan and Animoca were also pitching in.

Superplastic is an NFT project. And with my humble understanding of the NFT world, it looks like this project offers NFT-ed characters that potentially could be TV show stars with Amazon making dibs on their usage rights.

5. Monad

Another day, another new EVM-compatible layer 1. One thing interesting about Monad is the list of angel investors as you see in the screenshot below. Familiar with the name? Yep. A particular someone is supposed to be an Ethereum-only dude, but backing a new layer 1 blockchain? Scandalous.

The description on their Twitter page read, “Monad is a fundamentally optimized EVM blockchain. At 10,000 TPS, Monad is the fastest, cheapest, and most censorship-resistant EVM L1.” Yep, you can’t get any more generic than that.

Peeking further, on their website, apparently, the solution they offer regarding performance is something around “asynchronous, parallel execution”, which reminded me of Fantom (hmm….).

So far I’m not impressed much by the tech they offer. However, being backed by serious names in the space, there’s potential craziness coming out of it (Airdrops, crazy rallies, etc.)

6. Phi

Is crypto gaming still a thing? Apparently, it is, as shown by the willingness of VC investors to throw money at them.

One of the latest raises is a ‘modest’ $2 million seed round for Phi, a web3 social gaming project. Their release announcement features names familiar in crypto as the backers, alongside VCs like Delphi Digital and Polygon ventures.

As for the project itself, I gotta admit that I am intrigued. The platform looks fun and inviting to see around.

After I dig more, I am convinced this is a great project to introduce web3 /DeFi to a new audience. Phi invites you to do a ‘crypto adventure’ such as claiming NFTs, swapping tokens, or buying NFTs. There are quests, rewards, and competitions.

This is a suitable project for beginners in crypto and DeFi. It’s interactive, with quests available on several chains such as Ethereum and Polygon. You get points when you complete a quest. Rather than play-to-earn, it’s more like learn-by-play-and-earn.

7. Space ID

So many name services, and so little time.

I believe the next phase of crypto projects would involve services that make our web3 life easier. Space ID is an example of those projects.

The screenshot of their website is pretty explanatory. You can register web 3 domains in one place. Currently, three blockchains are supported (Ethereum, BSC, and Arbitrum.) Hopefully, there will be more to come.

The most interesting feature is still yet to come: The universal domain. With it, you won’t be confused with a lot of your dot something. No matter which blockchain it is, you will have one identity that you can use across the ecosystem.

With capital becoming increasingly expensive, VCs and investors now have to think twice before funding something. I like it this way because they will be encouraged to find a project really worthy of their money.

On the other side, there’s also increasing competition among founders. Everyone must deliver their best to gain the attention of investors. The quality of projects increases and the tendency to overvalue decreases.

This is what I’m experiencing as I was building this list. Raises are more interesting than they used to be. Although here and there you’ll still see nonsensical projects, the overall quality is improving across the various sub-sector of crypto.