decentralized

According to the New York Daily, the decentralized data infrastructure project Permacast based on Permaweb announced the completion of its Series A funding round on January 15, 2025, raising over $5 million. Combined with the previously completed seed round and Pre-A round, the total funding raised by the project has reached $8.9 million.This round of financing received support from several leading Web3 funds, technology investment institutions, and strategic angel investors. Seed round investors include OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, ChainVision, Foresight Research, and Digital Humanism (DRF); Pre-A round investors include ClearingPoint, 7 O'Clock Capital, Cipholio Ventures, SilverFox Foundation, and a number of private investors; Series A round investors include CoinSummer, angel investor Tomasz Boryniec, Waterwood Investment (Tsinghua), Scorpio VC, and a number of private investors.Permacast stated that as AI models reshape the way information is created and utilized, the demand for trustworthy, permanent, and verifiable data infrastructure is growing. The new funds will be used to accelerate protocol development, expand decentralized network infrastructure, strengthen ecological cooperation, and expand the engineering and product teams. The team stated that a permanent, verifiable, and open data network will become the foundational infrastructure for future intelligent applications.

Storj Labs voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the Northern District of West Virginia on July 26 to address historical debt issues while maintaining ongoing operations. Storj stated that services would not be affected during the reorganization, and customer obligations would continue to be fulfilled. The parent company Inveniam supports this reorganization, believing it is the right path to achieve sustainable development.Kaloyan Raev, the Director of Software Engineering at Storj, stated that the company's fundamentals are strong, and the constraints on growth are due to early legacy debts. After the reorganization, a "clean foundation" will be established, and there are plans for management, the token community, and investors to participate in the post-reorganization ownership distribution. Storj has previously focused its business on the core distributed storage field and is disposing of prior acquisitions and non-core businesses. This reorganization follows a significant governance adjustment faced by the company in the decentralized storage sector after Inveniam's acquisition of Storj in 2024.

The decentralized AI intelligent network DGrid announced that its decentralized AI model marketplace (DGrid Model Marketplace) is officially online.The marketplace is open to three types of model providers: model developers, model fine-tuners, and model deployers with computing infrastructure capabilities. They can freely list models on the platform, set their own prices, and earn real-time settlement revenue when models are called. For developers, the marketplace provides a unified entry point to discover, compare, and directly call various models through a unified API, without the need to switch between different platforms or connect to multiple interfaces.DGrid stated that the model marketplace is the "supply side" of its network, working in coordination with the AI Gateway (access side) responsible for calls, connecting AI creators and users. Currently, DGrid has aggregated over 200 mainstream models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, MiniMax, GLM, Kimi, and has more than 15,000 paid users.In terms of quality assurance, the marketplace is supported by DGrid's self-developed Proof of Quality (PoQ) mechanism. PoQ conducts independent, random sampling of model providers through the platform's own benchmark test set and records the verification results on-chain to ensure service quality and pricing transparency—this mechanism does not touch user call data. The core members of the DGrid team have doctoral backgrounds from institutions such as Stony Brook University and have published 4 academic papers related to PoQ.Currently, the DGrid Model Marketplace is officially online. Model providers can apply to join, and developers can also experience one-stop AI model discovery and access services through the platform.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Jack Dorsey, the founder of Block (formerly Square), announced the launch of the open-source decentralized group chat application Buzz, aimed at challenging team collaboration platforms like Slack. Buzz is built on the decentralized social protocol Nostr and is designed for teams composed of humans and AI agents, supporting chat, project management, coding, and PR collaboration.Block stated that the application is decentralized and open-source, allowing users to have full control over their data, and teams can collaborate with members and dedicated agents in a shared space.

Bit-Play, a one-stop decentralized aggregation ecological platform, has officially launched comprehensively. Relying on the trend of Web3 technological innovation, the platform is built on the core principles of transparency, autonomy, security, and inclusiveness, creating a new generation of decentralized comprehensive ecological system. It covers four core areas: on-chain interaction, lightweight creation, decentralized social networking, and ecological co-construction incubation, redefining the service standards of the blockchain ecosystem in the new era.Bit-Play, based on the core technological advantages of decentralization, has established a brand new on-chain interaction system, fundamentally breaking the barriers of traditional platforms. It realizes a new model of data openness and transparency, user autonomy in rights confirmation, and fair co-construction of the ecosystem, promoting the true implementation of Web3 technology for civilian use and community service.

The perpetual contract trading platform Ostium on Arbitrum is suspected to have been attacked, resulting in a loss of approximately 12 to 18 million USDC, accounting for about 35% of its over 34 million dollar treasury size.The attacker allegedly compromised the oracle signer’s private key, utilized the registered PriceUpkeep relayer to submit favorable prices for future times, and looped opening and closing positions to deplete the treasury funds. Currently, Ostium officials have not responded.

According to Techcrunch, Nous Research, the developer of the open-source agent Hermes, is finalizing a new round of financing, expected to be led by Robot Ventures, with participation from institutions like USV. The company's valuation is approximately $1.5 billion. Sources indicate that the scale of this round of financing is at least $75 million.Its core product, Hermes, as an open-source local AI agent, has accumulated 214,000 stars and nearly 40,000 forks on the GitHub platform. It supports users in deploying and running locally on personal computers and virtual servers, with autonomous execution capabilities such as web retrieval and code generation.

The decentralized derivatives trading platform 01 Exchange officially announced that the retroactive points claim is now live. If users have traded during the testing phase, they can now claim additional points. Starting this Tuesday, bonus points will be distributed daily, and traders will receive the corresponding additional points over the next two weeks.Previously, 01 Exchange announced that it has been acquired by N1 Chain, a project supported by Founders Fund.

The AI Agent no-code operating platform X-Agent, based on the Web3 social network, officially releases its core "Litepaper V1" to the world. The white paper details how it reconstructs the decentralized AI agent ecosystem and commercialization path through no-code deployment and secure sandbox technology.The core technologies and solutions are as follows: 1) Speak to Build (no-code deployment): Allows users to create and deploy professional-grade AI agents to Telegram, WhatsApp, or the web in minutes using pure natural language. 2) SRE Cryptographic Sandbox (physically isolated security): A unique physically isolated operating environment that perfectly protects user private keys and sensitive credentials while enabling agents to have enterprise-level autonomous asset changes and on-chain collaboration capabilities.Market performance and latest data: X-Agent has surpassed 1,000,000+ cumulative global users, and the AI agents have autonomously completed over 1,100,000 actual business tasks, consuming/destroying over 8.4 billion model tokens. The project has previously raised $1.8 million in funding and has a highly cohesive localized community in Japan and South Korea. The native token $XAGT serves as the network's settlement hard currency, directly used for SRE computing Gas fee settlement, transaction commission payment, and staking endorsement. The team and investors have a strict 12-month Cliff lock-up. The community quota is completely non-inflationary and can only be unlocked through actual sandbox task consumption algorithms, ensuring that each token is supported by real business demand. According to the latest roadmap, X-Agent will open a new no-code public portal in Q3 2026 and launch a decentralized Agent Store in Q1 2027.

According to official news, the blockchain investment institution TBV announced its investment in the decentralized on-chain trading system Universe Pro to support the development and construction of its unified on-chain trading infrastructure.Universe Pro is committed to integrating spot trading, perpetual contracts, on-chain analytics, and liquidity mechanisms within a non-custodial framework. The core system module of the platform is the UNAI engine, which is mainly responsible for coordinating DEX liquidity participation, MEV-related execution, market-making scheduling, and payment settlement. This collaboration will further assist Universe Pro in optimizing its core infrastructure, product architecture, execution system, and on-chain verification capabilities.

According to Decrypt, the AI-driven decentralized finance infrastructure project TrueDAO announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing round, led by Brevan Howard Digital, with participation from Zee Prime Capital and Jump Capital.The funds raised will primarily be used for the development of core AI protocols, the construction of AI risk control systems, security audits, compliance work, and the expansion of ecosystem partnerships. After the financing is completed, TrueDAO will advance the launch of the testnet, developer tools, and ecosystem integration plans.

The decentralized AI protocol Prime Intellect has completed a $130 million Series A financing round, led by Radical Ventures, with participation from NVIDIA Ventures, Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, and existing investors, bringing the total funding to over $150 million to build an open superintelligent stack.Founded in 2024, Prime Intellect is dedicated to building an "open superintelligent stack" that provides enterprises with a full-stack AI agent development infrastructure covering computing, large-scale reinforcement learning, sandboxing, evaluation, and deployment. Its clients include over 6,000 enterprises and startups such as Ramp and Zapier, with an annual revenue exceeding $100 million. The company plans to expand its computing clusters and reinforcement learning scale, and is betting on cutting-edge directions such as long-cycle agents, recursive language models, and continuous learning.

BitTorrent officially announced that it will fully launch a long-term BTT token buyback plan in the third quarter of 2026. According to the plan, 100% of the revenue generated by BitTorrent's decentralized services will be used quarterly for BTT token buybacks, aiming to inject long-lasting and stable liquidity support into the token ecosystem.At the same time, after each buyback is completed, the official will release a detailed on-chain audit report to ensure that the flow of funds and the entire execution process are open and transparent. The launch of this milestone initiative not only strengthens BTT's value anchoring as the core asset of the ecosystem but also marks the official entry of the BitTorrent ecosystem into a new stage of sustainable development driven by revenue and value feedback.

Digital Currency Group (DCG) subsidiary Yuma announced the launch of a market-wide fund aimed at providing investment opportunities in the Bittensor network's native token TAO and its subnet ecosystem through a single investment strategy. Currently, Bittensor has launched 128 subnets, with a total asset value exceeding $900 million.DCG founder and CEO Barry Silbert stated that most AI investments are currently flowing to a few centralized legacy companies, which are now trying to enter the public market. Bittensor offers an alternative: an open, decentralized network built by builders and innovators at the forefront of artificial intelligence development.

According to Cryptopolitan, the decentralized lending protocol Goldfinch, supported by a16z, announced it will gradually shut down. Last Friday, an anonymous investor, Edward Morra, publicly accused the protocol of mismanagement, leading to over $50 million in user fund losses, stating that borrower defaults and failed loan restructurings made it nearly impossible for depositors to recover their funds. Just a day after the post was published, the project announced it would enter a gradual shutdown phase.The protocol's native token GFI fell from a peak of $32.94 in January 2022 to below $0.07, a decline of 99.8%, with its market capitalization dropping from over $390 million to less than $6 million. Goldfinch was founded in 2021 by former Coinbase employees, aiming to connect crypto capital with credit enterprises overlooked by traditional banks, with a16z leading its $25 million financing in January 2022. Problems began to emerge months after the funding: the Kenyan motorcycle financing company Tugende Kenya defaulted, two underlying positions in the $2 billion loan from the U.S. credit fund Stratos nearly went to zero, and the Singapore borrower Lend East could only repay 58% of the principal. As the loan portfolio deteriorated, the protocol turned to institutional credit funds but ultimately could not turn the situation around.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, stated on social media that it would be a wonderful thing if the world could have a truly trustworthy and neutral global coordination and digital asset settlement platform. It is the large-scale and rigorous decentralization achieved by the Ethereum platform that makes this vision possible. Soon, and in the near future, more organizations with trustworthy neutrality and ample funding will join in to promote this mission alongside the Ethereum Foundation.These organizations will focus on facilitating the development of the entire Ethereum ecosystem and advancing the areas of interest for many financial institutions adopting Ethereum technology, including: Ethereum Mainnet, Layer 2 networks (L2), and private Ethereum networks. In the future, these three major systems will be able to achieve near real-time interoperability and composability, while ETH will flow freely within this expanded Ethereum ecosystem landscape.

Bittensor co-founder const posted on the X platform, detailing the current state of decentralization of the project, future roadmap, and goals. Bittensor has not yet achieved decentralization at the economic incentive layer, which is still led by the core team, including const himself, two engineers, and a core group of contributors. The project has been live for over 5 years, with no pre-mining, and has 128 subnet teams and over 20 core validator teams, achieving decentralization at the ownership distribution level. The team chose to rapidly iterate at the cost of "maintaining centralization" rather than slowly advancing "democratic" decision-making.Regarding future update plans, Bittensor will promote validators to re-enter the competitive mechanism while opening liquidity pools for two-way investment to symmetrize the market and prevent on-chain signals from being manipulated. Additionally, a belief mechanism will be introduced to grant voting rights to Alpha token holders. In the coming weeks, updates will also be made to TaoFlow and its derivatives, further fine-tuning the issuance distribution algorithm to optimize the distribution method of inflation. Const expects to complete the construction of core mechanisms within the next year and a half, at which point the three pillars of incentive alignment, value optimization, and true ownership will operate in synergy, ultimately achieving complete decentralization by abandoning centralized control.

According to the official announcement, the decentralized perpetual contract exchange Satori Finance, supported by Coinbase Ventures and Jump Capital, has announced that due to a prolonged market downturn leading to unsustainable revenue, it has decided to gradually shut down the platform.All services of Satori will officially terminate at 19:59 Eastern Time on July 16, 2026. The official reminds users to close positions and withdraw all assets as soon as possible before this deadline, as funds may become inaccessible after the deadline. It is reported that the platform completed a $10 million financing in 2022, with a historical cumulative trading volume of nearly $99 billion.Recently, due to a significant correction in the crypto market, several industry startups (such as Botanix, Syndicate Labs, etc.) have announced shutdowns.