Cryptocurrency exchange Manta Exchange has announced the completion of a new round of financing with participation from ABCDE Capital, UOB Venture Management, C² Ventures, and Ocular.<br>According to the RootData platform, Manta Exchange offers a copy trading engine with a risk management system. The platform caters to various copy trading preferences, including fixed amount, percentage-based, and algorithmic automatic copy trading. The team's background includes key roles in well-known organizations such as Baidu, Huobi, KuCoin, OKX, Game Space, Longtu Korea, Bibox, and AAX Exchange.

Bullish, a company run by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley, announced on Monday that it has acquired cryptocurrency-focused media company CoinDesk.

Web3 protocol and developer ecosystem, Saga, has raised $5 million in a seed extension round led by Placeholder. This marks the largest percentage stake in a pre-Layer-1 launch in Placeholder's history. The funds will be used to expand the team, build partnerships, and grow the Innovator Program. Saga's Integrated Stack aims to provide blockspace in a horizontal, scale-out fashion. Additionally, Saga is offering an airdrop to U.S. persons as defined by Section 7701(a)(30) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

On November 20th, DeFi protocol Panoptic based on Uniswap raised $7 million in seed funding to help develop its perpetual options decentralized trading platform. The funding round was led by European cryptocurrency investment company Greenfield Capital, with participation from HashKey, gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC), L1D, Heartcore Capital, Comma3, and Zee Prime Capital.<br>This funding will help Panoptic further develop the platform during the current beta testing phase before its release on the Ethereum mainnet and the release of its V2 product. (The Block)

On November 20th, AR hardware company Rokid completed a $20 million equity financing round, led by NetDragon. At the same time, the two companies signed a 5-year strategic partnership agreement to use Rokid's augmented reality (AR) technology to explore metaverse opportunities globally.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson invited recently dismissed OpenAI (ChatGPT) CEO Sam Altman to collaborate on building a decentralized large language model (LLM) on Cardano. Earlier today, the OpenAI board announced that its CEO Sam Altman has resigned and stepped down from the company's board, and the company's chief technology officer Mira Murati has been appointed as interim CEO.

DeFi lending market Credix Finance announced that it has secured a $60 million credit line. The loan was obtained through a partnership with an alternative investment management company in the United States that focuses on asset-based lending opportunities and manages a $3 billion investment portfolio.

Hong Kong-based Web3 social network, Sleek, has raised $5 million in a seed round to bring blockchain-powered social media to the masses and power the ownership economy. The company's platform, which includes Sleek Card and a knowledge marketplace launching in 2024, aims to revolutionize human connection by making networking simple, fun, and productive. Sleek Card has already facilitated over 300,000 connections and partnered with several events, while the knowledge marketplace will allow domain experts to monetize their knowledge into liquid and accessible assets. Investors include Binance Labs, Shima Capital, and Spartan Group.

On November 17th, according to The Block, Web3 social network platform Sleek completed a $5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Binance Labs, Shima Capital, Spartan Group, Symbolic Capital, Market Across, and Big Brain Holdings. This round of financing was achieved through a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). Insiders say that Sleek's valuation in this round of financing is $50 million.

Web3 technology company BLOCKSMITH announced that it has successfully completed its angel round of financing, attracting investment from SBI Group, Headline Asia, J-CAM Corporation, and others. Previously, the company's 100% equity was held by its parent company KLab Inc. and founder Tetsuya Sanada. This is the company's first external funding, and this financing is to strengthen its financial situation and prepare for listing. The funds raised will be used for product development, research, and other aspects.