Crypto VC funding: Auradine secures $153m, World Liberty Fi inks deal with DWF Labs

Amidst a steady crypto market, total crypto VC funding hit $293.2 million for the week of April 13-19, 2025, with Auradine’s $153 million Series C leading the charge.

This week, capital flowed into infrastructure, AI, and DeFi projects across various funding stages. While Auradine dominated the headlines, several other projects secured notable investments to fuel their growth.

As per Cryptofundraising data, here’s a breakdown of the major crypto funding rounds that closed during this period:

Auradine, $153 million

• The Santa Clara, California-based company raised $153 million in am oversubscribed Series C round
• StepStone Group led the effort with support from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Premji Invest, and others.
• Since its 2022 founding, the company has raised over $300 million.
• Auradine Inc. also announced a new business unit, AuraLinks AI, which will develop open-standards networking solutions to meet the growing bandwidth and cooling demands of next-gen AI data centers. The AuraLinks team includes veterans from tech giants like Cisco, Google, and Microsoft.

LayerZero, $55 million

• Venture capital firm a16z Crypto has acquired an additional $55 million worth of LayerZero’s native token, ZRO. 
• The newly purchased tokens will be subject to a three-year lockup period, demonstrating the firm’s long-term commitment to the project.
• The move builds on a16z’s previous backing of LayerZero, having led both the Series A+ and Series B funding rounds. 
• The project has raised $318.3 million so far.

World Liberty Financial, $25 million

• Web3 investment firm DWF Labs acquired $25 million of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) tokens.
• WLFI also launched its USD1 stablecoin, which is now live and actively trading on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. On March 25, WLFI confirmed the launch plans for USD1, but no launch date or exchange listing was provided.
• USD1 is a stablecoin backed by U.S. Treasuries, cash, and equivalents, with BitGo serving as the reserve custodian. This has raised alarms among lawmakers and financial analysts alike. During an April 2 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee focused on stablecoin regulation, Democratic Representative Maxine Waters said that President Donald Trump may intend to use USD1 to replace the U.S. dollar in government functions.

Optimum, $11 million

• The tech company, which aims to develop the world’s first high-performance memory infrastructure for blockchains, has raised $11 million in seed funding.
• 1kx led the round with participation from investors including Robot Ventures, Spartan, Animoca, GSR, and Finality Capital Partners.
• The funding will support the development of Optimum’s technology based on Random Linear Network Coding and help grow its team.

Resolv Labs, $10 million

• Resolv raised $10 million in a Seed round
• Investors include Cyber Fund, Maven11, and Coinbase Ventures

Projects < $10 million

• ORO AI: $6 million in Seed funding for AI, data service, and infrastructure projects
• Neutri: $5 million Seed round for DApp, DeFi, derivatives, and stablecoin development
• Rekord AG: $4.5 million Seed investment focusing on API, data service, identity, infrastructure, and IoT
• Glider: $4 million in unknown round funding for AI, DeFi, portfolio management, and trading
• Embr Labs: $1.8 million Pre-seed raise targeting gaming, the Injta ecosystem, and meme categories