Venture capital funding continues to pour into the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry in March

Across Protocol raises $40M via token sale from Paradigm, Bain Capital Crypto and Multicoin Capital. RWA tokenization is a key driver of the growing market

Venture capital funding continued to pour into the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry in March, even as market commentators began to sensationalize the ‘end of the bull market’ amid Bitcoin’s 30% retracement from its yearly highs.

VC flows are usually considered a good indicator of the overall health of the blockchain industry, with higher deal activity reflecting strong investor appetite and growing innovation in the space.

As Cointelegraph reported, blockchain startups raised a combined $1.1 billion in February alone, with projects spanning decentralized finance, decentralized physical infrastructure networks and payments attracting the lion’s share of capital flows.

Early signs suggest that March was arguably a stronger month for crypto VC deals, evidenced by the growing size of the investment rounds and the number of investors participating.

Eight deals are featured in this month’s VC Roundup — and seven of them were valued in the eight-figure range.

Across Protocol raises $41M via token sale

Crosschain interoperability platform Across Protocol raised $41 million in a token sale that was led by San Francisco-based venture firm Paradigm. Coinbase Ventures, Bain Capital Crypto and Multicoin Capital also participated in the token sale round.

Across Protocol is expanding Ethereum layer-2 connectivity through so-called “intents,” an architecture approach that decouples asset transfers and message verification.

“The urgent tasks — moving assets and fulfilling the intent — are carried out immediately by a relayer [...] while the time-consuming message verification is done afterward,” wrote Aiden Park, an engineer and technical writer, in an explanatory note on intents.

“This approach enables Across to send messages cheaply, quickly, and securely, setting it apart from other message-passing protocols,” he said.

Ribbit Capital leads $23.6M Crossmint raise

Enterprise Web3 company Crossmint has closed a $23.6 million funding round to scale its onchain onboarding technology, which is designed to help companies and AI agents effortlessly embrace Web3 without needing any blockchain expertise. The funding round was led by San Francisco-based venture firm Ribbit Capital.

According to Crossmint co-founder Rodri Fernandez, the platform provides low-code APIs for a variety of blockchain functions, including wallets, stablecoins, tokenization and credentials. The announcement also claimed that more than 40,000 companies and developers are now using Crossmint across more than 40 blockchains.

Financial app Abound gets backing from Near Foundation, Circle Ventures

New York-based remittance app Abound has closed a $14 million funding round led by Near Foundation, with participation from Circle Ventures.

The Abound app has been designed to bridge the remittance gap between India and its vast diaspora of citizens in the United States. The app claims to have already processed more than $150 million in remittances.

Abound was developed by the Times of India Group, a Mumbai-based media company.

Although it’s not entirely clear how blockchain technology and digital assets factor into Abound’s service offerings, if at all, participation from Near and Circle suggests that blockchain-focused companies are increasingly focused on cross-border payments and remittance services.

Chronicle closes seed round

Chronicle, an Ethereum Oracle and tokenization infrastructure provider, raised $12 million in seed funding led by Strobe Ventures, formerly known as BlockTower Venture Capital. Additional investors included Galaxy Vision Hill, Brevan Howard Digital, Tioga Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Gnosis Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and several angel investors.

Chronicle connects protocol developers to real-time data feeds, which are essential for DeFi and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization ecosystems. The company cited growing institutional interest in RWA tokenization as one of the reasons for its early success in raising capital.

DeFi-yielding stablecoin Level debuts with $2.6M in funding

In March, blockchain developer Peregrin Exploration debuted the Level USD stablecoin with $2.6 million in backing from Dragonfly Capital, Polychain, Flowdesk and others.

Level USD is a yield-bearing stablecoin that issues digital dollars collateralized by restaked stablecoins. The stablecoin’s market capitalization has grown significantly since its launch, reaching $116 million at the time of writing.

Level USD is integrated with several DeFi protocols, including Pendle, LayerZero and Specta. It can also be used as collateral on noncustodial lending platform Morpho.

Halliday raises $20M for Agentic Workflow Protocol

No-code blockchain developer Halliday has closed a $20 million Series A funding round to scale its Agentic Workflow Protocol (AWP) — an AI tool that helps developers build DeFi applications without the need to write smart contracts.

The funding round was led by a16z Crypto, with additional participation from SV Angel, the Avalanche Blizzard Fund, Credibly Neutral, Alt Layer and other angel investors.

Through AWP, blockchain companies can