Crypto Startup Funding Rises to $2.7B in Q2, Ethereum Gas Fees Hit 5-Year Low

Venture capital funding for crypto startups increased 2.5% in Q2 compared to Q1, reaching $2.7 billion despite a 12.5% drop in total deals.

Venture capital funding for crypto startups rose by 2.5% in Q2 compared to Q1, reaching $2.7 billion despite a 12.5% drop in total deals, according to PitchBook data.

This marks a significant decline from the peaks of 2021 and 2022, but PitchBook projects that at current rates, crypto startups could raise $10.8 billion in VC funding for 2023.

Infrastructure projects led Q2 funding, with notable raises including Monad’s $225 million Series A, BeraChain’s $100 million Series B, and Babylon’s $70 million early-stage round. Two “mega-rounds” saw Farcaster raise $150 million and Zentry secure $140 million.

Crypto News: Ethereum Gas Fees Hit 5-Year Low

Median Ethereum gas prices dropped to a five-year low of 1.9 gwei on August 10, according to BitInfoCharts data. At current rates, low-priority transactions cost around 1 gwei or $0.07 to complete.

This represents a 98% decrease from the March 2023 high of 83.1 gwei, with gas prices reaching new lows following Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade on August 4. The upgrade introduced data blobs to lower layer-2 network costs.

As layer-2 activity increases, some concerns have been raised about sustaining Ethereum's base layer. Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann suggested raising the gas limit to generate more layer-1 activity and fund staking rewards.

Zcash Founder Joins Shielded Labs, Pushes for Hybrid PoS Upgrade

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox has joined Shielded Labs as head of product, aiming to accelerate the protocol's upgrade to a hybrid proof-of-stake system, according to a Blockworks report.

Wilcox, known for his contributions to Zcash and the Zcash Foundation, will now lead a team to rapidly implement the Zcash Sustainability Fund and “Crosslink” hybrid consensus mechanism.

The upgrade aims to introduce ZEC staking, enabling faster transaction finality, shorter confirmation times, and safer interoperability with other networks. Shielded Labs, an independent Swiss organization, has received donations to support these initiatives.

Crypto News: Venezuela Blocks Binance and X

Access to Binance and other online services has been blocked in Venezuela as the government cracks down on unrest over disputed presidential election results.

Anti-censorship group VE sin Filtro detected a DNS block affecting Binance's website and mobile app on August 9, while the government also ordered a 10-day ban on social media platform X.

Binance assured users that funds on the exchange remain safe and advised using a VPN to bypass the restrictions.

Canto Blockchain Suffers 33-Hour Outage

The Canto blockchain has been down for over 33 hours due to a consensus issue, with the team planning an upgrade on August 12 to fix the problem and resume normal operations.

Launched in August 2022, Canto is a Cosmos-based, permissionless blockchain designed for decentralized finance applications.

The outage began on August 11, and despite the disruption, Canto assures users that all funds are safe and will be available once the chain is back online.

This setback comes after Canto reversed its decision to integrate with Ethereum as a layer-2 network earlier this year. The blockchain's activity has declined in recent months, ranking 80th in total value locked on-chain, according to DefiLlama.