Scroll emerges as hottest early stage crypto project on CryptoRank

Data from CryptoRank shows that Ethereum layer 2 network Scroll is the most searched early-stage project on the platform.

Interest in the project stems from its recently concluded funding round, which raised $50 million and saw its valuation rise to $1.8 billion.

Investors in the round included Polychain Capital, IOSG, Variant Fund, Sequoia China, Newman Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Bain Capital Crypto, and Moore Capital Management.

An update: To accelerate plans for developing our zkEVM, pursue cutting-edge research, and continue building with a broader community, we’ve raised capital from a global set of participants.

— Scroll (@Scroll_ZKP) March 6, 2023

The platform previously raised $33 million in two rounds of funding but did not disclose its valuation then. Its total funding to date now stands at $83 million.

Scroll’s network is built with zk-rollup technology, which aids in scalability. Its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) technology aggregates transactions and generates proof that they are all valid. This proof is then sent to Ethereum, where the transactions are approved.

PolyHedra has its moment in the sun

Another project trending on CryptoRank is web3 infrastructure startup PolyHedra Network, which raised $10 million in February. PolyHedra’s funding round was co-led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital and featured Animoca and Dao5.

Polyhedra have created multiple infrastructure products and services based on zero-knowledge proof technology, including a zero-knowledge bridge (zkBridge) solution for sending assets between web2 and web3 systems.

It has also built a zero-knowledge decentralized identity solution (zkDID) and a scalability solution for accelerating zero-knowledge rollups.

Polyhedra Network is building a full-stack suite of ZKP-based Web3 solutions focusing on interoperability, scalability, and privacy.

— Polyhedra Network (@PolyhedraZK) February 10, 2023

Towns and Chaos Lab raise $45 million combined

Towns is another one that’s currently bubbling. The web3 social startup is on no fewer than 121 watchlists on CryptoRank.

The project, fronted by Here Not There Labs, is focused on implementing the town square concept on the Ethereum blockchain using smart contracts and allowing communities to trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and play games.

The platform recently announced a $25.5 million investment round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Benchmark and Framework Ventures also took part in the Series A funding round.

Rounding off the top four most popular projects on CryptoRank is Chaos Labs. The decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management protocol’s popularity comes in the wake of a $20 million seed funding round that Galaxy and PayPal Ventures co-led.

Other investors involved in the round included HashKey Capital, Coinbase Ventures, SamsungNext, Avalanche Foundation, and Jump Crypto.

Chaos Lab’s first year of operations has seen it collaborate with leading DeFi platforms such as Aave, Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (CHAIN), Osmosis, and BENQI. The protocol secured and optimized the said platforms against exploitations and black swan market events.