T-Rex Raises $17 Million for Blockchain Rewards on Social Media

T-Rex, a blockchain designed for entertainment, content, and cultural virality, has successfully raised $17 million in funding. This new blockchain aims to revolutionize online content publishing by rewarding consumers for their everyday interactions on popular social media platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). The funding round was supported by strategic investors including Portal Ventures, North Island Ventures, Framework Ventures, Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, ArkStream Capital, Mindfulness Capital, Hypersphere, SNZ, and Arche Fund. T-Rex is developed by EVG, a prominent product builder and publisher in Asia known for driving mass adoption.

T-Rex addresses critical challenges in the blockchain space, such as the "ghost town" and "mercenary users" issues, by leveraging Arbitrum’s Layer-2 scaling solution. This provides ultra-fast, secure, and low-cost transactions essential for consumer-scale adoption. Dan Peng, Partner at Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, highlighted the strategic importance of T-Rex in expanding Web3 beyond DeFi and scaling their footprint in the high-growth Southeast Asian market, projected to reach significant economic value by 2028.

The core innovation of T-Rex is its Proof-of-Engagement (PoE) mechanism, which automatically rewards users for their daily online activities through a privacy-preserving browser extension. This mechanism turns everyday actions like watching videos, liking posts, and sharing memes into tangible, valuable digital ownership and offline perks. Allen Ng, Co-Founder of T-Rex and EVG, emphasized that T-Rex aims to make the blockchain experience seamless and invisible to users, allowing them to effortlessly turn their online fun into meaningful rewards.

At launch, users will simply install T-Rex’s browser extension and continue browsing popular social media platforms. Every interaction is securely recorded via advanced zero-knowledge technology (zkTLS) and seamlessly turned into rewards, with no wallet or tech jargon required. Creators and projects benefit from instant audience discovery and viral distribution, while end users earn rewards that can be redeemed both digitally and offline, such as cash back at favorite restaurants or exclusive local deals.

Evan Fisher, Founder and General Partner of Portal Ventures, praised T-Rex for building a protocol that seamlessly onboards social media users and allows them to monetize their data through network rewards. Travis Scher, Managing Partner and Co-founder of North Island Ventures, noted that T-Rex offers a path to broad adoption by prioritizing culture and abstracting complexity, making it a strong contender to bridge the gap between Web3 infrastructure and consumer momentum.

The $8 million Incubation Fund, backed by EVG with support from Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, will accelerate ecosystem growth by offering comprehensive developer support beyond capital. This includes engineering resources, media partnerships, community activations, premium events, Key Opinion Leader (KOL) networks, and strategic Intellectual Property (IP) applications. Joyce Yim, Co-founder of T-Rex, emphasized that developers gain immediate user traffic, creators grow loyal audiences effortlessly, and users become stakeholders in the success of viral content.

Set to launch in Summer 2025, T-Rex’s distribution layer and browser extension will create the railroads linking popular online consumer applications such as gaming, music, interactive media, and Web3. From creators rewarding top users with digital assets to new projects gaining instant discovery, to active users earning a stake, T-Rex’s ecosystem is designed for intuitive use, cultural resonance, and economic empowerment at scale.

T-Rex is a new blockchain ecosystem purpose-built for consumer-facing applications, designed to transform the Web3 attention layer through its innovative Proof of Engagement (PoE) mechanism. Developed by EVG and backed by leading investors, T-Rex offers creators and developers a UX-first infrastructure with built-in discovery, rewards, and distribution, enabling the next billion users to engage, earn, and build on-chain.