Speaking at the Token2049 event in Dubai, Changpeng Zhao spilled the tea on crypto regulation and setting up national crypto reserves via his new found love for consultancy. During a wide-ranging fireside chat with Raoul Pal at the Token2049 conference…

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After months of volatility and extreme fear, crypto markets turned a positive 
corner in the second half of April, highlighting the industry&#8217;s big sentiment 
shift.
For venture capital, it was business as usual, with investors continuing to 
pour money into promising startups across layer-1 blockchains, infrastructure, 
real-world asset tokenization (RWA), and Web3 social media.
This edition of VC Roundup highlights six notable funding deals from April.
## Unto Labs raises $14.4M for layer-1 blockchain
Blockchain R&amp;D company Unto Labs raised $14.4 million to continue developing 
its scalable layer-1 network called Thru. The pre-seed and seed funding was 
led by venture firms Electric Capital and Framework, with support from angel 
investors in the Solana engineering community.
The company is led by former Solana contributor Liam Heeger, who argues that 
&#8220;blockchains painted themselves into a corner by inventing custom Virtual 
Machines (VMs),&#8221; which he believes has prevented mainstream adoption.
Thru is built on the RISC-V standard, an open-source computer architecture not 
limited to blockchain and crypto-specific use cases.
An Electric Capital partner named Ren called Thru the &#8220;next logical step&#8221; in 
blockchain development after Ethereum pushed smart contracts and Solana raised 
the standard on network performance.
_**Related:**__**VC Roundup: 8-figure funding deals suggest crypto bull market 
far from over**_
## MIT-incubated Optimum closes seed round
Blockchain infrastructure developer Optimum closed an $11 million seed round 
with participation from at least 16 venture capital firms, including 1kx, 
Robot Ventures, Spartan, Longhash, and Animoca.
Optimum is building a high-performance memory layer for the blockchain using 
Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) technology, which was developed at MIT by 
protocol founder Muriel Medard.
Medard, a professor at MIT, told Cointelegraph in March that RLNC is akin to 
&#8220;breaking a puzzle into small pieces, mixing those pieces together into 
equations, and sending them to your friends.&#8221;
&#8220;Even if a few pieces get lost, your friends can still put the whole puzzle 
together from the pieces they receive,&#8221; she said in describing how RLNC can 
help blockchains overcome scalability issues.
_Source:__Optimum_
## Octane launches with $6.75M in funding to bring cybersecurity to crypto
Archetype and Winklevoss Capital led a $6.75 million seed round for Octane, an 
AI cybersecurity startup focused on detecting vulnerabilities in blockchain 
systems. Additional investors included crypto exchanges Gemini and Circle.
In its announcement, Octane pointed to data from DefiLlama&#8217;s exploit tracker, 
which shows that crypto attacks have caused over $11.3 billion in losses, more 
than half of which stem from DeFi hacks.
_The monthly sum of crypto exploits. Source:__DefiLlama_
Octane&#8217;s platform is designed to continuously analyze smart contracts for 
potential vulnerabilities and offers AI-powered tools to help developers 
identify emerging threats.
## a16z backs Inco&#8217;s $5M raise
Blockchain confidentiality protocol Inco has closed a $5 million funding round 
led by Andreessen Horowitz&#8217;s Crypto Startup Accelerator, also known as a16z 
CSX. Additional investors included Coinbase&#8217;s venture capital arm, 1kx 
Capital, OrangeDAO, Script Capital, and South Park Commons.
Inco leverages cryptography to develop confidential computing technology for 
blockchains. Its first product, Inco Lighting, is designed to bring privacy to 
onchain applications.
Inco founder Remi Gai said blockchains have successfully solved issues like 
scalability and abstraction, but &#8220;confidentiality remains the final 
challenge.&#8221;
The announcement referenced a Paradigm research report identifying privacy as 
one of the three main barriers preventing traditional finance from adopting 
blockchain technology.
_**Related:**__**VC Roundup: Investors continue to back DePIN, Web3 gaming, 
layer-1 RWAs**_
## a16z, Coinbase Ventures contribute to Towns Protocol&#8217;s $10M raise
Towns Protocol, a Web3 social media platform, raised $10 million in a Series B 
round led by a16z, with additional backing from Coinbase Ventures and 
Benchmark. The Series B brings Towns&#8217; cumulative funding to $25.5 million 
since early 2023.
Shortly after announcing the fundraise, Towns revealed plans to launch 10 
billion TOWNS tokens on Base and Ethereum in the second quarter of this year.
Towns is an open-source protocol that allows users to build messaging apps for 
their digital communities. As of April 29, it has generated $11.5 million in 
total revenue, with 90% paid out to the creators of individual Towns, 
according to developer Ryan Cooley.
_Source:__Ryan Cooley_
## RWA-focused Colb raises $7.3M to boost pre-IPO equity opportunities
Switzerland-based fintech firm Colb Asset SA raised over $7 million in an 
oversubscribed seed extension to advance the tokenization of pre-IPO equity in 
companies like SpaceX and OpenAI.
While Colb did not identify its backer, it said the round was funded by a 
single private investor managing over $20 billion in assets.
The new capital will support Colb&#8217;s efforts to expand its tokenization 
platform and cross-border payment infrastructure, potentially boosting 
adoption of its USC stablecoin, which it says is the first Swiss-compliant, US 
dollar-pegged stable asset.
_**Related:**__**&#8217; Contrary to popular belief,&#8217; regulation isn&#8217;t slowing 
tokenization &#8212; Prometheum CEO**_

VC Roundup: Funding surge targets confidentiality, tokenization and Web3 infrastructure

Ripple&#8217;s failed bid for Circle highlights the competitive landscape in the 
crypto sector, emphasizing the strategic importance of stablecoin dominance.
The post Ripple bid up to $5 billion to acquire Circle but offer was turned 
down appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Ripple bid up to $5 billion to acquire Circle but offer was turned down

Visa and Bridge are partnering to launch stablecoin-linked Visa cards for 
seamless crypto-backed payments Visa and Stripe-owned stablecoin platform 
Bridge have announced plans to launch stablecoin-linked Visa cards, aiming to 
make crypto-backed payments as seamless as traditional card purchases. The…