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Optimum Funding:- In a major stride toward addressing blockchain scalability and state access challenges, Optimum, a Web3 infrastructure startup, has raised $11 million in a funding round led by prominent crypto investors.

The company is building a “memory layer” that aims to enable instant and permissionless access to historical on-chain data across all major blockchains.

The seed funding round was co-led by Maven 11, 1kx, and Galaxy Ventures, with participation from Hashed, Robot Ventures, and Inflection.xyz, among others.

The capital will be used to expand the team, enhance developer tools, and roll out the core infrastructure of Optimum’s memory layer across multiple ecosystems.

The investor lineup reflects growing appetite for data infrastructure in Web3.

Can Optimum Solve Blockchain’s “Amnesia Problem”?

Blockchains, by design, are optimized for consensus and verification, not for storing or querying massive amounts of historical data.

Most decentralized applications (dApps) rely on third-party indexers or off-chain solutions to access older states, creating bottlenecks, points of failure, and a lack of verifiability.

Optimum addresses what it calls the “amnesia problem” of blockchains by offering a composable memory layer that allows developers and smart contracts to fetch any historical data directly, quickly, and trustlessly.

Web3, our “world computer” lacks a high-performance memory layer. Like any computer, memory is critical for blockchains to store, access, and update data efficiently.

Instead of a proper memory architecture, blockchains currently rely on a patchwork of best-effort solutions… pic.twitter.com/2gghJx7KID

— Optimum (@get_optimum) April 15, 2025

How It Works

Optimum’s memory layer operates as an abstraction over multiple blockchains, storing compressed and verifiable summaries of historical state data.

It uses advanced cryptographic techniques—such as zero-knowledge proofs and succinct data commitments—to ensure data integrity and composability.

This means developers can ask questions like “What was the ETH balance of this address on June 1, 2021?” directly on-chain without relying on centralized APIs like Etherscan or The Graph.

The memory layer is designed to work across Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, and other major Layer-1 and Layer-2 chains, positioning Optimum as a universal data availability protocol.

What’s Next?

Optimum plans to launch a testnet version of its memory layer by Q3 2025, starting with support for Ethereum and Solana.

The full mainnet rollout is scheduled for early 2026, accompanied by an SDK and GraphQL-like query language for developers.

The team is also exploring incentive models to decentralize data provisioning, including potential token rewards for nodes that contribute to the memory network.

As blockchain moves from raw ledgers to intelligent state machines, Optimum is positioning itself as the memory that powers the next generation of decentralized computing.

The post Optimum Raises $11M Funding to Build “Missed” Memory Layer for Blockchains appeared first on CoinGape.

Russia is preparing to launch a government-backed cryptocurrency exchange that will operate under an experimental legal framework. This crypto exchange is limited to wealthy investors, as the government continues to explore digital financial tools while maintaining its domestic ban on crypto payments.

Russia New State-Backed Crypto Exchange

According to a local newspaper, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia are developing a new crypto exchange. The crypto exchange will fall under the country’s Experimental Legal Regime (ELR), where new financial instruments get trialled before being introduced widely. This move aims to align Russia with crypto as digital assets are recognized worldwide, and countries like the US are trying to become the world’s crypto capital.

Maria Anton Siluanov, the Russian Federation Minister of Finance, confirmed the work on the project during an official meeting. He said,

“We will work closely with the Central Bank to establish a crypto exchange for the qualified investors only.” Crypto assets will be legalized and enabling laws will be created for operations with crypto assets will be brought out of the shadows.”

The Central Bank submitted its formal proposal in March 2025. The project is part of a wider push by Russian authorities to legalize crypto operations for selected users while still enforcing restrictions on public use.

Access Limited to High-Net-Worth Individuals

The crypto exchange is only for ‘super qualified investors’. By the official definition, this category also comprises those who possess at least 100 million rubles ($1.2 million) of financial investments or earn more than 50 million rubles ($600 thousand) annually.

These criteria excludes any frivolous individuals and only allow those with adequate experience and financial resources. The Finance Ministry has said that the requirements are adjustable before the start of the plan. Deputy Minister Ivan Chebeskov also noted that the platform could use the existing infrastructure or newly established licensed companies.

At the same time, the Finance Ministry’s Osman Kabaloev mentioned that discussions on qualification criteria remain open.

“Perhaps it will be in this format, or those indicators will be in some way modified,” he said.

Purpose Behind the Crypto Exchange Launch

Russia’s move comes in response to tightening sanctions and growing restrictions on its access to global financial systems. Officials believe that digital assets can serve as alternative financial tools under international pressure, such as the Donald Trump tariffs seen recently.

Several Russian exchanges have faced international actions in recent months. Garantex, for example, had $28 million frozen by Tether after U.S. sanctions. Deribit also exited the Russian market following similar restrictions.

The launch of a state-backed crypto exchange will allow the government to oversee crypto transactions and enforce compliance within the sandbox environment. However, retail investors will  participate only indirectly through regulated derivatives and not in direct crypto trading.

Legal Framework and Timeline

The Russian crypto exchange will roll out under the country’s ELR, which permits the testing of new tools under strict oversight. The platform may launch within the next six months, though not confirmed.

The government is still formulating the full set of rules and regulations, as well as regulations for issuing licenses and supervision. Regarding using crypto in domestic payments, the Central Bank takes a negative stance and sanctions those who violate such rules.

At the same time, the authorities also discuss the ruble-pegged stablecoin and a crypto investment fund based on the assets seized. These concepts are still pending as the legislature finds ways to address the use of digital assets in the country.

The post Russia to Launch State-Backed Crypto Exchange, Here’s All appeared first on CoinGape.