Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) has secured over $25 million in seed funding to speed Zcash protocol upgrades and build out its self-custodial Zodl wallet. The round is led by prominent crypto investors and targets privacy-focused financial infrastructure.
Zcash rose 4.1% to $217.80 after the team announced a $25 million funding round from top venture firms following its split from the Electric Coin Company, pushing ZEC's 24‑hour gain to 9.8%. The round aims to finance development, audits and ecosystem growth under the project's independent roadmap.
A major governance collective, ACI, has withdrawn from Aave governance after opposing a contentious funding proposal, citing self-voting and insufficient transparency. The split highlights growing governance friction at the $26 billion DeFi protocol.
The Ethereum Foundation has started Project Odin, a 12‑month initiative embedding advisors into critical infrastructure teams like Vyper to develop sustainable, non‑grant funding models. The program's first cohort is now live.
Ripple will launch a dedicated XRPL funding hub in 2026 to centralize access to grants and accelerator programs, building on more than $550 million it has deployed into XRPL initiatives since 2017.
Roughly $300 million in disclosed crypto funding closed in the first week of February, with custody and compliance names like Anchorage and TRM Labs among the headline deals. The rounds highlight renewed investor appetite for infrastructure and security-focused firms.
TRM Labs raised $70 million in a financing round backed by Goldman Sachs, pushing its valuation above $1 billion and earning it unicorn status. The firm's multi-blockchain transaction-tracing software is seeing growing demand from law enforcement and financial institutions amid rising crypto crime.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has downplayed a reported $20 billion fundraising plan after investors pushed back against a proposed $500 billion valuation target, the Financial Times reports. The move underscores market skepticism about the scale of the issuer's ambitions for USDT.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin transferred 16,384 ETH from his personal holdings to support open-source and privacy work as the Ethereum Foundation adopts austerity measures.
Andreessen Horowitz announced a $15 billion fund focused on AI and crypto after capturing more than 18% of venture funding in 2025. The firm frames the move as part of a mission to “give everybody a shot.”