NFTgators

Quick take:

Some of the companies involved in the designing and development stage of the blockchain include Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Lead Bank, Mercury, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, and Visa.

Others that joined since the announcement in September include Brex, Coastal, Cross River, Deel, Faire, Figure, Gusto, Kalshi, Klarna, Mastercard, Payoneer, Persona, Ramp, and UBS.

Tempo offers a dedicated payment lane, guaranteeing blockspace for payments at the protocol level.

Tempo, a stablecoin-native blockchain launched by the Web3 venture firm Paradigm and digital payments company, Stripe, has announced the launch of its public testnet. 

Announced first in September, the payments-first blockchain is now a functioning network being tested by many of the world’s leading companies. During the development stage, Tempo partnered with the likes of Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Lead Bank, Mercury, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, and Visa.

Since its announcement in September, the payments-first blockchain has also teamed up with Brex, Coastal, Cross River, Deel, Faire, Figure, Gusto, Kalshi, Klarna, Mastercard, Payoneer, Persona, Ramp, and UBS as design partners.

Tempo’s layer-1 blockchain provides a dedicated layer for payments, guaranteeing blockspace at the protocol level.

“Payments have guaranteed blockspace reserved at the protocol level. They don’t compete with other traffic like NFT mints, liquidations, or high-frequency contract calls. Fees stay low and stable even when other network activity spikes, with a target of one-tenth of a cent per payment transaction. For payment processors, that means no “downtime” from congestion, and predictable economics for high-volume flows,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

Transaction fees can be paid using USD-pegged stablecoins, regardless of the type of asset being transferred, thus removing the need to hold a balance of new cryptoassets.

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The post Stablecoin Blockchain Tempo Goes Live on Public Testnet with Multiple Partners appeared first on NFTgators.

Quick take:

The fundraising also attracted participation from Solana Labs, Nascent, and Gemini.

Pye Finance said the platform targets Solana’s $75 billion worth of staked SOL pool.

The company aims to give validators and stakers more flexibility over terms and reward flows.

Pye Finance has announced a $5 million seed round led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures. The fundraising also attracted participation from Solana Labs, Nascent, and Gemini, the company said in a press release on Monday.

Pye plans to use the capital to accelerate the development of its platform, which lets users trade locked Solana staking positions on-chain. According to the announcement, Pye is targeting Solana’s $75 billion worth of staked SOL pool, giving validators and stakers more flexibility over terms and reward flows.

According to information on the Pye website, the platform is currently averaging 5.5% APY for staked SOL locked in for six months, while a 12-month lock-in is averaging 6.5% and the 24-month equivalent 7.5%.

Commenting about giving stakers of the $75 billion locked SOL more flexibility, Pye said, “These positions typically can’t be customized or traded once locked, limiting how validators compete for stake and how stakers manage liquidity.”

“Validators have become the underbanked layer of Web3,” said Erik Ashdown, co-founder of Pye, in the release. “We’re building the financial infrastructure that lets them operate like asset managers — offering structured products, predictable returns, and better transparency for stakers.”

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Quick take:

MoneyGram claims that more than 50 million people rely on its services each year to move money across borders quickly, affordably, and securely.

To meet the needs of so many people, the company navigates complex regulatory requirements in every market.

Fireblocks’ secure crypto infrastructure facilitates more than $5 trillion in annual digital asset transfers.

MoneyGram, the global payment network, has announced a partnership with the crypto payments infrastructure provider, Fireblocks, to accelerate global payments. 

According to the press release seen by NFTgators, the collaboration will also advance MoneyGram’s stablecoin-based settlement and multi-asset treasury operations across its retail and digital footprint, enabling faster, lower-cost payments and real-time treasury operations throughout its network.

MoneyGram’s network connects over 200 countries and territories and is available in nearly half a million retail locations and billions of digital endpoints. The company also claims that more than 50 million people rely on its services each year to move money across borders.

Fireblocks has established itself as a leading crypto payments infrastructure provider, collaborating with some of the biggest banks and crypto companies to secure digital asset transfers. The company claims to facilitate more than $5 trillion in annual digital asset transfers.

With MoneyGram’s compliant payments network and Fireblock’s secure infrastructure, the two companies’ goal is to provide a secure, stablecoin infrastructure and a programmable settlement layer that enhances global payment flows.

“We are leading the next era of money movement by enabling money to move instantly across any channel – fiat or stablecoin,” said Anthony Soohoo, Chairman and CEO of MoneyGram. “Fireblocks accelerates this vision by giving us the secure, programmable infrastructure to transform global payments at scale.”

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Quick take:

Upon completion, the deal will transform Solmate from a passive digital asset treasury into an integrated infrastructure, liquidity, and asset management business.

The deal will see Solmate purchase all of the equity of RockawayX in an all-stock transaction.

The combined company will continue to trade under the ticker name SLMT on the Nasdaq, with RockawayX’s infrastructure, liquidity, and asset management units folded into Solmate.

Solmate, the Abu Dhabi, UAE-based Solana infrastructure company, has announced the acquisition of Web3-focused venture capital firm RockawayX. The two companies said Thursday that they have signed a non-binding term sheet for a business combination, which would form a $2 billion institutional group focused on the Solana ecosystem.

According to the press release seen by NFTgators, the combination will transform Solmate from a passive digital asset treasury into an integrated infrastructure, liquidity, and asset management business.

The deal is structured as an all-equity transaction with RockawayX’s infrastructure, liquidity, and asset management units folded into Solmate. The combined company will continue to trade under the ticker name SLMT on the Nasdaq.

As part of the deal, Marco Santori continues as Solmate CEO, overseeing the unified infrastructure and treasury strategy, while Viktor Fischer continues as CEO of the RockawayX subsidiary, before becoming Executive Chairman of Solmate upon closing, in the first half of 2026.

Jakub Havrlant, the CEO and founder of Rockaway Capital, is also set to join Solmate’s board, the companies said.

“RockawayX’s business lines would grow Solmate’s treasury and Solmate’s treasury would grow RockawayX’s business lines,” said Marco Santori, Solmate CEO. “The new Solmate is going to tackle a global blockchain infrastructure market that topped $20 billion in 2024. It could grow to over $390 billion by 2032.”

Viktor Fischer, CEO of RockawayX, added: “We designed our firm based on what blockchain projects need to scale and grow: capital, infrastructure, and liquidity. Alongside Marco and Solmate, we will leverage this expertise to power the Internet Capital Markets thesis and make the UAE the global hub of on-chain finance.”

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Quick take:

Axis says it deployed $100 million in capital from existing limited capital during the protocol’s closed beta testing. 

It claims that its stress-testing market-neutral strategies have already achieved a Sharpe ratio of 4.9.

The company currently supports yield-generation across USD, Bitcoin, and Gold.

Axis, the on-chain yield protocol that uses quantitative strategies to generate yield, has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Galaxy Ventures. The fundraising also attracted participation from FalconX, OKX Ventures, CMT Digital, Maven 11, GSR, CMS Holdings, and Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative, among others.

According to the press release seen by NFTgators, Axis deployed $100 million in capital from existing limited investors during its closed beta testing. The company, which supports yield generation across USD, Bitcoin, and Gold, claims that its stress-testing market-neutral strategies have already achieved a Sharpe ratio of 4.9.

Axis’s goal is to provide a product that offers reliable, transparent ways to earn yield that work for both institutions and everyday users.

“Most existing products rely on speculative activity or opaque strategies, making returns unpredictable and hard to verify. Axis solves this by bringing market-neutral, institutional-grade strategies fully on-chain, so performance is measurable, consistent, and built for scale, the company wrote in a statement.

Dubbed a “multi-asset yield hub,” Axis says its platform is designed to provide uncorrelated, verifiable returns across the world’s primary stores of value: USD, Bitcoin, and gold.

The platform will initially support USDx, a digital dollar that retains its value while generating yield through Axis’s arbitrage engine, when it launches on Ethereum and Plasma. Bitcoin and gold-based products are slated for addition thereafter.

“We started Axis to offer a competitive yield with the transparency needed for real institutional adoption,” said Chris Kim, Co-Founder of Axis. “What began as an idea has grown into a world-class team from quantitative trading, DeFi, and traditional finance. With Galaxy’s backing, we’re raising the standard for yield protocols and building transparent financial services at scale.”

Will Nuelle, General Partner at Galaxy Ventures, commented: “Axis brings the precision and transparency of institutional trading to decentralized markets. Their delta-neutral framework represents a risk-managed yield infrastructure built by a team with a strong track record, designed to support real adoption.”

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Quick take:

The latest funding brings the total raised to $28 million, with the blockchain-based derivatives platform having previously raised $8 million.

Ostium’s decentralised perpetual future trading platform allows users to trade real-world assets like stocks, metals, oil, and some cryptocurrencies.

Co-founder and CEO Kaledora Kiernan-Linn said his platform is more comparable to the likes of eToro, Robinhood, and IG than it is to Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster.

Ostium, a decentralised crypto exchange platform co-founded by Harvard graduates, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst and Jump Trading. The fundraising also attracted participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, and GSR.

The latest funding brings the total raised to $28 million, following the perpetual futures trading platform’s previous total raise of $8 million. The round was executed at a valuation of $250 million, according to a report by Fortune.

Ostium offers decentralized perpetual futures trading for a variety of real-world assets, including stocks, metals, and oil, as well as some cryptocurrencies. 

According to the company co-founder and CEO CEO Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, Ostium does not see decentralised perpetual futures trading platforms Hyperiquid, Lighter, and Aster as its main rivals. Instead, the team’s vision is closer to traditional derivatives platforms like eToro, Robinhood, and IG.

Founded in 2022 by Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium is targeting the offshore broker market, as it seeks to give non-U.S. investors access to U.S. markets. Kiernan-Linn believes Ostium can disrupt the slow and opaque brokerage technology currently available for such traders.

“There’s really very, very few people building in the space at all, or certainly not talking about it in crypto,” she said. “And it is a textbook use case for blockchain,” she said.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Marc Bhargava, managing director at General Catalyst, told Fortune: “We live in a world where traditional financial institutions and financial products still have a lot of relevance, but at the same time, there’s this growing group of consumers and this growing asset class in crypto.”

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The post General Catalyst and Jump Trading Co-Lead $20M Raise for Decentralized Perp Platform Ostium appeared first on NFTgators.

Quick take:

The latest funding brings the total raised to $28 million, with the blockchain-based derivatives platform having previously raised $8 million.

Ostium’s decentralised perpetual future trading platform allows users to trade real-world assets like stocks, metals, oil, and some cryptocurrencies.

Co-founder and CEO Kaledora Kiernan-Linn said his platform is more comparable to the likes of eToro, Robinhood, and IG than it is to Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster.

Ostium, a decentralised crypto exchange platform co-founded by Harvard graduates, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst and Jump Trading. The fundraising also attracted participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, and GSR.

The latest funding brings the total raised to $28 million, following the perpetual futures trading platform’s previous total raise of $8 million. The round was executed at a valuation of $250 million, according to a report by Fortune.

Ostium offers decentralized perpetual futures trading for a variety of real-world assets, including stocks, metals, and oil, as well as some cryptocurrencies. 

According to the company co-founder and CEO CEO Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, Ostium does not see decentralised perpetual futures trading platforms Hyperiquid, Lighter, and Aster as its main rivals. Instead, the team’s vision is closer to traditional derivatives platforms like eToro, Robinhood, and IG.

Founded in 2022 by Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium is targeting the offshore broker market, as it seeks to give non-U.S. investors access to U.S. markets. Kiernan-Linn believes Ostium can disrupt the slow and opaque brokerage technology currently available for such traders.

“There’s really very, very few people building in the space at all, or certainly not talking about it in crypto,” she said. “And it is a textbook use case for blockchain,” she said.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Marc Bhargava, managing director at General Catalyst, told Fortune: “We live in a world where traditional financial institutions and financial products still have a lot of relevance, but at the same time, there’s this growing group of consumers and this growing asset class in crypto.”

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Quick take:

The crypto exchange company previously partnered with Backed to launch the tokenized stocks product, xStocks, in May 2025.

The xStocks product was later adopted by other crypto exchanges, including Bybit and Bitrue, to support tokenized stocks on their platforms.

Backed Finance’s real-world asset tokenization service gained popularity earlier this year amid the buzz around tokenizing publicly listed stocks.

Karken has announced the acquisition of the real-world asset tokenization platform Backed Finance. The crypto exchange company said on Tuesday that the acquisition allows it to integrate Backed’s digital tokens representing stocks and ETF shares more deeply into its platform.

The acquisition follows Kraken’s and Backed Finance’s partnership to launch xStocks in May 2025, which allowed the exchange to offer tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on its platform in qualifying jurisdictions.

The xStocks product was later adopted by various crypto exchanges, including Bybit and Bitrue, to support tokenized stock trading on their platforms.

Backed Finance’s real-world asset tokenization service, along with Dinari, which is US-regulated, gained popularity earlier this year amid the buzz around tokenizing publicly listed stocks.

Although the number of tokenized stocks and ETFs has peaked since August, the volume still remains low, failing to break the highs of about $770 million recorded in January 2025, according to data by real-world asset tokenization tracking platform, RWA.xyz.

However, this did not deter Kraken from pressing on with the idea, with its acquisition of Backed Finance, potentially displaying a power move in the segment against other crypto exchanges. 

Commenting on the acquisition, Kraken Co-Chief Executive Officer Arjun Sethi, said in a statement: “While everyone is talking about tokenized equities, we are just doing it,” said Kraken Co-Chief Executive Officer Arjun Sethi. “We are focused on long-term investment, not hype.”

Kraken, which recently closed a $500 million funding round at $15 billion valuation, did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition.

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Quick take:

The SPAC merger is the latest in a long list as more crypto companies seek public listing amid a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment in the U.S.

Techterix, which operates the stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD), has sued First Digital, alleging that reserves were improperly transferred to illiquid assets.

TrueUSD has depegged from the $1 peg multiple times, notably in June 2023, and again in 2024.

First Digital Group, the stablecoin firm behind the FDUSD stablecoin, is reportedly planning to go public via a merger with a special public acquisition company (SPAC). According to the report by Bloomberg, First Digital is merging with CSLM Digital Asset Acquisition Corp III, a SPAC listed in New York. 

The report comes amid a growing list of crypto companies that are seeking to go public due to the perceived friendlier regulatory environment in the U.S.

First Digital is renowned for being the issuer of the FDUSD stablecoin. The firm also manages reserves for TrueUSD, a fiat-backed stablecoin issued by Techteryx.

FDUSD depegged in April this year, before returning to its peg a few hours later, after the Tron Founder and crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun raised questions about the liquidity of the reserves backing the stablecoin. 

TrueUSD has also depegged several times, notably in June 2023 and again in 2024. Techteryx is currently locked in a legal battle with First Digital, alleging that reserves were improperly transferred to illiquid assets.

The stablecoins market has been one of the best performers in crypto this year, with the signing into law of the GENIUS Act in July further propelling the industry. Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, the world’s second biggest stablecoin by market cap, behind Tether’s USDT, went public in one of the biggest crypto IPOs in history.

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Quick take:

The fund is tokenized in collaboration with the European asset servicing, custody, depositary, and fund administrator, CASEIS.

The fund features a hybrid structure as it remains accessible in the traditional way and via the tokenized share AMUNDI FUNDS CASH EUR – J28 EUR DLT C. 

Amundi Investment Solutions said the fund registered its first transaction on November 4.

Amundi Investment Solutions, a leading European asset manager, has announced the launch of its first tokenized fund. The company said Friday that AMUNDI FUNDS CASH EUR money market fund is a hybrid fund that also allows accessibility traditionally via the tokenized share AMUNDI FUNDS CASH EUR – J28 EUR DLT C.

The asset manager reported €2.3 trillion in assets under management as of September 30.

According to the announcement on the Amundi website, the company collaborated with European asset servicing, custody, depositary, and fund administrator, CASEIS, to tokenize the fund. 

The fund, which is tokenized on the public blockchain, Ethereum, to ensure transparent record-keeping of fund units and traceability of transactions, registered its first transaction on November 4.

Commenting on the announcement, Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Head of Institutional and Corporate Clients, and ESG at Amundi, said: “The tokenization of assets is a transformation set to accelerate in the coming years around the world. This first initiative on a money market fund demonstrates our expertise and the robustness of our methodology in covering concrete use cases. Amundi will continue and expand its tokenization initiatives to benefit its clients in France and internationally.”

The company believes that leveraging blockchain technology brings notable benefits to investors and fund unit distributors, including instant order execution, expanded distribution to new generations of investors, and 24/7 operability.

Jean-Pierre Michalowski, Chief Executive Officer at CACEIS, commented: “With the new hybrid Transfer Agent service, our clients can quickly and easily benefit from a new distribution channel via blockchain to their investors. This is a decisive step towards achieving our goal of offering 24/7 subscription and redemption services for investment fund units payable in stablecoins (EMT) or central bank digital currency when it becomes available.”

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Quick take:

Upbit tried to mitigate the breach by halting deposit and withdrawal services and moving assets to cold storage.

Oh Kyung-seok, the CEO of Dunamu, the parent organisation of Upbit, said the exchange will fully reimburse customers.

The company said it has started a comprehensive review of the stability and security of its entire digital asset deposit and withdrawal system.

Upbit said on Thursday it halted exchange services after discovering unauthorized withdrawals from its Solana hot wallet. The crypto exchange company confirmed in a notice that some Solana network assets (worth approximately 44.5 billion won, about $36 million) were transferred to an unspecified wallet address on Thursday morning.

According to the notice, multiple tokens were transferred, including Double Zero (2Z), Access Protocol (ACS), Bonk (BONK), Doodles (DOOD), DRIFT (DRIFT), Huma Finance (HUMA), Ionet (IO), Zito (JTO), Jupiter (JUP), Solaire (LAYER), Magic Eden (ME), Cat in a Dog World (MEW), MOODENG, ORCA, Fudge Penguin (PENGU), Peace Network (PYTH), Radium (RAY), Render Token (RENDER), Solana (SOL), SonicSVM (SONIC), SOON, Official Trump (TRUMP), USD Coin (USDC), and Wormhole (W).

Commenting on the incident, Oh Kyung-seok, the CEO of Dunamu, the parent organisation of Upbit, said the exchange will fully reimburse customers.

“First, we deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused to our members due to the urgent digital asset deposit/withdrawal service inspection and the abnormal withdrawal situation today,” said Kyung-seok. “We immediately identified the extent of the digital asset outflow caused by the abnormal withdrawals and will cover the entire amount with Upbit assets to ensure that no damage is incurred to your assets.”

The company said it has started a comprehensive review of the stability and security of its entire digital asset deposit and withdrawal system. To prevent further unauthorized transfers, Upbit moved all the remaining assets to cold storage.

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The post Korea’s Biggest Crypto Exchange Upbit Reports $36M Drained in Hot Wallet Exploit appeared first on NFTgators.

Quick take:

The company said it believes RWA perpetuals offer a structurally faster and more flexible path than tokenization to real-world assets exposure.

Coinbase Ventures is also targeting alternative Prop AMMs, an emerging model on Solana that protects LPs from predatory flows by only allowing liquidity to be executed through aggregators.

Another area of focus is prediction markets, which were among the best-performing segments in crypto this year. Coinbase believes prediction market aggregators could transform that sector.

Coinbase Ventures, the venture arm of the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange company Coinbase Global (COIN), has revealed its investment plans for 2026. According to a blog post on the Coinbase website, the venture arm is actively looking to back teams building around asset tokenization, specialized exchanges and trading terminals, next-gen DeFi, and AI and robotics.

Expanding further on its key target verticals for 2026, the company said it believes RWA perpetuals offer a structurally faster and more flexible path than tokenization to real-world assets exposure. 

“Enabled by recent improvements in perpetual DEX infrastructure, RWA perpetuals create synthetic exposure to off-chain assets through perpetual futures contracts,” Coinbase wrote. 

The firm is also targeting proprietary automated market makers (Prop AMMs), highlighting an emerging model on Solana, which it says protects LPs from predatory flows by only allowing liquidity to be executed through aggregators.

Coinbase is also looking to back projects looking to disrupt the prediction markets space. The company believes that, like DeFi before, the current state of prediction markets is fragmented, which it believes could be an obstacle to achieving its potential.

The firm sees an answer in aggregation. The company expects prediction market aggregators to emerge as “the dominant interface layer, consolidating $600M+ in fragmented liquidity and providing a unified view of real-time event odds across venues.”

Another vertical that Coinbase Ventures will be keeping an eye on is the perpetual futures markets, with the company expecting protocols to expand utility features by enabling traders to simultaneously hedge, earn, and leverage without sacrificing liquidity.

While there has been talk of an AI bubble, Coinbase seems to be more optimistic about the space, as it expects growth to continue, driven by segments like robotics and humanoid data collections, proof of humanity (digital IDs), and AI for on-chain development and security.

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Quick take:

Fordefi is renowned for its multi-party computation (MPC) wallet architecture, policy engine, and deep decentralized finance integrations.

Fordefi will continue operating its product independently, and customers can continue using the product as usual.

Paxos plans to integrate Fordefi’s technology and operations into its infrastructure over time.

Paxos, the stablecoin infrastructure platform renowned for issuing multiple stablecoins, including PayPal’s Pay USD (PYUSD), Pax Dollar (USDP), and Global Dollar (USDG), and the gold-backed digital asset Pax Gold (PAXG), has announced the acquisition of custodial and Multi-party computation wallet infrastructure company Fordefi.

The deal was reportedly worth more than $100 million, according to a report by Fortune. The details of the deal were not disclosed in the official announcement.

According to a press statement on its website, Paxos said the deal allows clients to issue stablecoins, tokenize assets, and build complex payment flows while maintaining the highest standards for security and compliance.

Renowned for its institutional-grade multi-party computation (MPC) wallet platform, Fordefi will continue operating its product independently, and customers can continue using the product as usual.

Paxos plans to integrate Fordefi’s technology and operations into its infrastructure over time.

Commenting on the announcement, Charles Cascarilla, CEO and co-founder of Paxos, said in a statement: “We’ve built Paxos as a neutral, enterprise-grade platform that ushers the world’s leading enterprises into the digital asset economy. Fordefi has built an impressive stack and customer base founded on easy-to-use APIs and seamless web3 connectivity. Market participants require a regulated platform partner that meets their range of complex custody needs.”

Josh Schwartz, CEO of Fordefi, commented: “Joining Paxos allows us to bring our technology to an even broader audience while maintaining our focus on security, usability, and innovation. Together, we will offer enterprises the unified custody and stablecoin infrastructure they need to deploy real-world digital asset use cases at scale.”

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Quick take:

The CFTC has issued an Amended Order of Designation, permitting Polymarket to operate an intermediated trading platform.

The platform will be required to comply with the full set of requirements applicable to federally regulated U.S. exchanges.

As part of the amended order, Polymarket has developed enhanced surveillance systems, market supervision policies, clearing procedures, and regulatory reporting capabilities.

Polymarket, the prediction market platform, recently valued at about $8 billion, has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to return to the U.S. market under a fully regulated exchange structure.

According to the press release seen by NFTgators on Tuesday, the CFTC has issued an Amended Order of Designation, permitting Polymarket to operate an intermediated trading platform. The platform will be required to comply with the full set of requirements applicable to federally regulated U.S. exchanges.

As part of the amended order, Polymarket has developed enhanced surveillance systems, market supervision policies, clearing procedures, and regulatory reporting capabilities.

Commenting on the announcement, Shayne Coplan, Founder and CEO of Polymarket, said in a statement: “People rely on Polymarket because we provide clarity where there is confusion and accountability where there is ambiguity.”

“This approval allows us to operate in a way that reflects the maturity and transparency that the U.S. regulatory framework demands. We’re grateful for the constructive engagement with the CFTC and look forward to continuing to demonstrate leadership as a regulated U.S. exchange.”

The announcement follows the NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange’s $2 billion investment in Polymarket last month, which granted it approximately a 25% stake, based on the reported valuation of $8 billion.

Earlier in 2025, Polymarket also acquired the U.S.-licensed exchange and clearing house, QCEX, for $112 million.

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Quick take:

The $175 million purchase is comprised of cash on hand and financing from Galaxy Digital secured using Exodus’s Bitcoin holdings.

The acquisition allows Exoducs to issue crypto payment cards through the likes of Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.

Baanx and Monovate have already been working with the three card service providers that develop crypto cards.

Bitcoin and crypto wallet service provider, Exodus Movement (NYSEAmerica: EXOD), announced the acquisition of W3C for $175 million, the parent organization of the crypto card and payments companies Baanx and Monovate.

According to the announcement, the acquisition is comprised of cash on hand and financing from Galaxy Digital secured using Exodus’s Bitcoin holdings.

With Baanx and Monovate already collaborating with Visa, Mastercard, and Discover to develop crypto cards, the acquisition positions Exodus well to begin offering card-based crypto payments.

The acquisition also allows Exodus to expand its geographic footprint, supporting the development of new products and partnerships across the U.S., UK, and the EU, the company said on Monday.

Commenting on the announcement, Exodus CEO JP Richardson said in a statement: “Today’s announcement is a major step in our mission to make self-custody and crypto payments practical for everyday life. People already trust Exodus to hold their dollar stablecoins and crypto. By bringing card and payments infrastructure in-house, we are closing the gap between holding and spending, and positioning Exodus as the only platform you need for your money.”

The acquisition follows shortly following the purchase of the LATAM-based stablecoin payments infrastructure provider, Grateful, enabling Exodus to support stablecoin payments in the region.

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Quick take:

In October, Kalshi raised $300 million at $5 billion valuation in a round backed by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Paradigm, CapitalG, and Coinbase Ventures.

The company also raised $185 million at $2 billion valuation in a round led by Paradigm in June.

The funding is yet to be publicly confirmed by the company, which would bring the total raised in a space of less than six months to nearly $1.5 billion.

Kalshi, the US-based prediction market platform regulated by the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has raised $1 billion, according to a report by TechCrunch. The fundraising reportedly values the company at a whopping $11 billion, more than double its previous valuation of $5 billion in October.

The round comes on the heels of Kalshi’s $300 million raise announced last month and backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Paradigm, CapitalG, and Coinbase Ventures.

According to the report, returning investors Sequoia Capital and CapitalG are leading the latest round. The company also raised $185 million at $2 billion valuation in a round led by Paradigm in June. 

The $1 billion funding is yet to be publicly confirmed by the company, which would bring the total raised in a space of less than six months to $1.485 billion.

Kalshi’s prediction markets platform allows people from over 140 countries to bet on various future events, including sporting competitions, political events, film ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and who is likely to win various awards like Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

The company has experienced rapid growth this year, after reaching $50 billion in annualized transaction volume in October. That is more than a thousandfold growth from its $300 million volume posted last year.

The prediction markets space is becoming one of the hottest prospects in the crypto industry, as Kalshi and Polymarket, the latter last valued $8 billion, are going head-to-head. However, a new startup, Clearing Co., which raised $15 million seed round, is looking to take on the top two.

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Quick take:

The $500 million valuation is 5x the company’s last valuation of $100 million in 2023.

Numerai said its assets under management over the past three years grew from about $60 million to $550 million. 

The company plans to use the fresh capital to “move Numerai to the next phase.”

Decentralised finance (DeFi) and AI-focused hedge fund, Numerai, has raised $30 million in a Series C funding round led by university endowments. The fundraising also attracted participation from existing investors, including Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, and Paul Tudor Jones.

The funding was executed at a valuation of $500 million, which is five times Numerai’s last valuation in 2023, according to a blog post on the company’s website. It follows a rapid growth that has seen Numerai assets under management grow from about $60 million to $550 million in three years. 

The company said it will use the fresh capital, together with the continued support from investors, to move Numerai to the next phase. Numerai’s next target is to drive its AI-driven strategies toward nearly $1 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Commenting on university endowments’ leading role in the round, Numerai wrote: “We are excited to have university endowments leading this round. These are the smartest, most long-term allocators in the world.”

The announcement comes amid the rapid growth of the AI sector, which has seen Nvidia become the biggest company by market capitalization.

Nvidia is also ranked among the best AI stocks to buy in 2025, according to Capital.com, as demand for its GPUs grows, driven by the need for more computing power for developing and training AI agents.

Numerai said it also plans to move into a larger headquarters in San Francisco ahead of opening a new office in New York City.

Some of the capital will also go towards the company’s research and engineering teams. “We are looking for people who want to build the last hedge fund—one powered by AI and built by the world’s best data scientists,” the company said.

Commenting on the announcement, Richard Craib, Founder and CEO of Numerai, said: “This round brings together exactly the type of investors we want behind Numerai — long-term, deeply informed, and willing to back a very different model of asset management built for the 21st century. With this capital, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s capacity commitment, we can push harder on our mission of building the world’s last hedge fund — powered by AI built by top competitive data scientists around the world.”

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Quick take:

Kraken raised $600 million in September, announced as a $500 million funding and a $100 million raise.

The latest fundraising values Kraken at $20 billion, up from $15 billion in September.

The company also announced on Wednesday that it has privately filed for an IPO. 

Crypto exchange company, Kraken, has received $200 million investment from Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel Securities, bringing the total raised in the latest venture round to $800 million. The company said this is the second tranche for the round after announcing $500 million funding and a $100 million raise in September. 

The company said the new funding accelerates its strategy of bringing traditional financial products on-chain. 

The $200 million investment from Citadel was executed at a $20 billion valuation, which is $5 billion more than the $15 billion valuation announced during the fundraising in September. 

Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management, and Tribe Capital were among the leading institutions participating in the overall funding, with a significant commitment from Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi’s family office.

Kraken’s valuation growth isn’t far-fetched, after surpassing the $1.5 billion revenue figure of 2024 within the first three quarters in 2025. Its latest funding also follows its recent acquisition of the CFTC-licensed Designated Contract Market, Small Exchange for $100M, a move that accelerates its strategic entry into the U.S. derivatives markets space.

“This investment represents long-term conviction in Kraken’s mission to build trusted, regulated infrastructure for the open financial system,” said Sethi. “Our focus has always been straightforward: to create a platform where anyone can trade any asset, anytime, anywhere. The caliber of our new investors reflects both the scale of the opportunity ahead and the depth of alignment around how this infrastructure should be built.”

Earlier in the year, the company also announced the $1.5 billion acquisition of the U.S.-regulated Futures trading platform NinjaTrader.

On Wednesday, Kraken also disclosed it had confidentially filed with the SEC for an initial public offering, as initially speculated. It becomes the latest in a long list of crypto companies going public, following in the footsteps of the likes of eToro, Circle Internet, and Gemini, among others.

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Quick take:

Obex is building a Y-Combinator-like incubation program platform for stablecoin projects backed by real-world assets. 

The incubator will run for 12 weeks, offering early-stage founders capital, technical resources, and access to Sky’s infrastructure.

Teams that pass risk and governance reviews may qualify for additional capital from Sky’s $2.5 billion deployment into Obex projects.

Obex has secured $37 million in a funding round led by Framework Ventures, LayerZero, and the Sky ecosystem. The new crypto incubator plans to use the capital to launch an incubation program for stablecoins backed by real-world assets. 

According to the company’s website, Obex incubates, supports, and provides teams with capital to launch innovative yield-seeking stablecoins on the Sky protocol.

The company’s Y-Combinator-like incubation program runs for 12 weeks, offering early-stage founders capital, technical resources, and access to Sky’s infrastructure. Projects that pass the incubation stage may qualify for additional capital from Sky’s $2.5 billion deployment into Obex projects.

According to Obex, each project developed as part of the incubator program will be launched as an independent decentralized project within the broader Sky ecosystem, with the primary targets being projects that require stablecoin or tokenized asset financing. The program is also open to existing stablecoin projects pursuing additional growth or diversification.

“While we see stablecoins going to a trillion [dollar market], I think yield-bearing stablecoins are moving even faster,” Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, told CoinDesk.

The company is targeting early 2026 for the start of the next cohort of the Obex incubator program.

The fundraising comes amid the growing popularity of stablecoins after the signing into law of the GENIUS Act, a bill that provides clarity for regulating digital assets pegged to fiat currencies and real-world assets.

It also comes amid growing concerns for synthetic stablecoins, which are stablecoins that generate yield from crypto trading strategies deployed behind the scenes. More recently, such stablecoins, including Stream Finance’s USDX and Elixir’s deUSD, depegged following the Balancer exploit.

But Spencer believes Obex has derived a solution to protect projects under its program from the adverse effects of such events. “We cannot have people creating $500 million stablecoins and blowing them up,” he said. “Sky has the infrastructure to scale these safely.”

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Quick take:

Mastercard Crypto Credentials uses the crypto payment API firm Mercuryo to support verified username transfers for self-custody wallets. 

The Polygon blockchain ties issued aliases to users’ on-chain identities.

Mastercard said it chose Polygon because the network can handle a high throughput capable of supporting real-world payments at scale.

Mastercard has chosen Polygon as the blockchain to power Mastercard Crypto Credentials, a new system that brings verified usernames to self-custody wallets. According to the announcement on Tuesday, the system allows users to crypto to verified usernames instead of long wallet addresses.

The new system will leverage Mercuryo’s crypto payments API infrastructure to support verified username transfers for self-custody wallets, while the Polygon blockchain ties issued aliases to users’ on-chain identities.

Mastercard is trying to replicate a concept already tried and proven in traditional banking, where names, phone numbers, or email addresses are used instead of bank details. The blockchain-based system issues users a unique name, which they can connect to their wallets. 

Users can also request a token on Polygon that shows their wallet supports verified transfers and helps apps route credential-based transactions, CoinDesk reported.

Commenting on the announcement, Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President of Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, said: “By streamlining wallet addresses and adding meaningful verification, Mastercard Crypto Credential is building trust in digital token transfers.”

“Bringing Mercuryo and Polygon’s capabilities together with our infrastructure makes digital assets more accessible and reinforces Mastercard’s commitment to delivering secure, intuitive, and scalable blockchain experiences for consumers worldwide.”

Mastercard said it chose Polygon because the network can handle a high throughput capable of supporting real-world payments at scale.

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