By Beldex, a privacy-focused blockchain ecosystem, said on Tuesday it had raised $8 million in a new funding round to expand its privacy infrastructure for Web3 applications and artificial intelligence.
The round was led by Sigma Capital, with participation from NTC, Nxgen, Digital Consensus Fund and EAK Ventures, the company said in a statement.
Beldex, which operates a privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain network, said the funds would be directed toward developer tooling, confidential applications, protocol security, AI infrastructure and ecosystem adoption.
“Privacy is becoming an infrastructure requirement, not a feature that can be added at the end,” Afanddy Bin Hushni, Chairman of Beldex, said in the statement. He said the funding would allow the company to “move faster across the layers where sensitive information is created and exchanged,” including transactions, communication, network activity, identity and AI.
Beldex has already built a set of privacy products around its blockchain network, including the Beldex Wallet for private transactions, an encrypted messaging application called BChat, a decentralized private networking tool called BelNet, a private browser, and the Beldex Name Service, which provides human-readable names across wallets and messaging.
The company said the next phase of its development would focus on making those tools easier for outside developers to use. Part of the new capital will fund a Beldex Extension Wallet, software development kits, account-based addresses and other developer tools, it said.
Beldex is also developing confidential digital assets and a sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, aiming to let developers familiar with Ethereum’s tools build privacy-focused applications on its network, according to the statement.
Vineet Budki, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Sigma Capital, said the firm’s decision to lead the round reflected confidence in Beldex’s approach.
“While privacy was often treated as a niche, Beldex spent years building it into the infrastructure itself,” Budki said, adding that both AI agents and Web3 applications now require greater privacy protections.
A central focus of the new funding will be privacy tools for artificial intelligence systems, Beldex said. As autonomous AI agents increasingly handle payments, credentials, communications and personal data, the company said it is examining how its existing privacy technology could protect those interactions.
Beldex said its research priorities include privacy-preserving identities for AI agents through its naming service, encrypted AI communication via BChat, confidential payments and secure execution environments for AI systems.
The company also said it is researching fully homomorphic encryption, a technique that allows computation on encrypted data, and secure memory systems to protect sensitive data during processing.
Beldex said the funding would also support work on connecting its network with other blockchains and strengthening security.
The company’s network currently supports cross-chain connectivity with Binance Smart Chain, and Beldex said it plans to expand ties to additional blockchain ecosystems.
The company is also researching a cross-chain architecture based on threshold signature schemes and distributed key generation, technologies designed to spread signing authority for transactions across multiple participants rather than a single party, it said.
Beldex added that it is continuing separate research into quantum-resistant cryptography for transactions and messaging as part of a longer-term security plan.
Beldex said it would use the new funding to advance several projects from research toward deployment. Near-term priorities include the Extension Wallet, software development kits, a verifiable random function-based consensus mechanism, account-based addresses, confidential assets and a testnet for its Ethereum-compatible sidechain, according to the company.
The company said it would continue research and development in AI privacy infrastructure, fully homomorphic encryption, private smart contracts, blockchain interoperability and quantum-resistant technology alongside those deployments.
Beldex operates using a proof-of-stake masternode network and describes itself as building infrastructure for both Web3 and AI applications. Its product suite includes BChat, BelNet, the Beldex Browser and its naming service, according to the company. The privacy technology sector has drawn increased investment in 2026 as blockchain developers and investors focus on tools that protect user data amid the wider adoption of AI agents capable of autonomous transactions.
