Cryptocurrency Investing

Portal Ventures closes a second crypto fund at $75 million #Portal Ventures, a pre-seed #VC based in New York City, has successfully closed its second crypto-focused fund, securing $75 million. Led by Evan Fisher and Catrina Wang, the firm is known for its unique strategy of backing just one founder per category within the crypto space, making it an exclusive early-stage supporter for top projects. This round attracted a powerful group of Limited Partners, including notable family offices like those of Henry Kravis and Marc Andreessen, alongside leading institutional backers such as Accolade, Theta Capital, and CrossLayer Capital. Portal Ventures has a proven track record of identifying blue-chip projects early on, often making the first investment before major players join. They have supported projects like Arch, Blueprint, Plume, and Rome, with later stages backed by prominent funds like Multicoin, Polychain, and Haun Ventures. Both Fisher and Wang bring impressive experience to the firm; Fisher previously invested $600M+ globally across sectors at Insight Partners, while Wang’s background includes significant roles at Protocol Labs and Hivemind Capital. With this new fund, Portal Ventures reinforces its commitment to the emerging #crypto market, focusing on pioneering projects that define the future of decentralized finance and blockchain technology. The article on #VCwiretech in the first comment.

Tether Makes $100M Strategic Investment in Anchorage Digital Tether has made a $100 million strategic equity investment in Anchorage Digital, the federally chartered crypto bank. The deal strengthens Anchorage’s balance sheet while deepening ties between stablecoin issuers and regulated digital asset infrastructure. For Tether, the investment reinforces its push toward institutional credibility and compliant custody solutions. Anchorage benefits from additional capital as demand for secure crypto custody grows among banks and asset managers. The move highlights a broader trend of consolidation between stablecoin providers and regulated financial institutions. It also signals that crypto infrastructure—not speculative trading—is increasingly where strategic capital is being deployed. Overall, the investment underscores crypto’s gradual alignment with traditional financial frameworks. #fintech #crypto #funding

MomentumX Global Q1 Investment + M&A Recap 💸 Key numbers for Q1 2026:  -> Average VC deal size up 76.4% vs Q1 2025  -> $6.81B raised across 222 rounds (VC + M&A)  -> Most active investor: Coinbase Ventures (12 deals)  -> Leading sectors: Payment (35%) and Prediction Markets (25%) -> Top 3 deals: Mastercard / BVNK Acqusition $1.8B, Kalshi $1.0B, Polymarket $600M Other top deals ($70M+): -> Digital asset security company BitGo raised $212.80M in a IPO -> Creator commerce marketplace Whop received $200M in a funding from Tether -> Digital asset platform Anchorage Digital raised $100M in a Strategic funding from Tether -> Regulated crypto investment manager 3iQ has been acquired by Coincheck for $111.84M -> Cryptocurrency accounting and taxation reporting platform TRES Finance has been acquired by Fireblocks for $130M -> Tokenized credit card receivables platform BlackOpal raised $200M in a funding round from Mars Capital Advisors -> Web3 card and payment platform Rain raised $250M in a Series C funding round led by ICONIQ Capital -> API platform for stock, options and crypto Alpaca raised $150M in a Series D funding round led by Drive Capital -> Global cross-asset marketplace for FX and digital assets LMAX Group raised $150M in a funding round from Ripple -> Crypto payment network Mesh (ex Front Finance) raised $75M in a Series C funding round led by Dragonfly Capital -> Decentralized social media platform Bluesky Social raised $100M in a Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto -> Stablecoin-powered crypto card KAST raised $80M in a Series A funding round led by QED Investors, Left Lane Capital -> Blockchain intelligence & compliance platform TRM Labs raised $70M in a Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital -> Asset management firm Superstate raised $82.50M in a Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto, Distributed Global -> FX payments infrastructure network OpenFX raised $94M in a funding round from Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, Pantera Capital -> Stablecoin financial applicationor for Latin America ARQ (ex DolarApp) raised $70M in a funding round from Sequoia Capital, Founders fund, Kaszek Ventures ~~ A new financial system is being built in real time. Capital is moving, infrastructure is advancing, and institutions are no longer watching from the sidelines. They’re building alongside. Which one of these deals stand out the most for you?

This week in #FinTech deal activity: 61 financings and 19 M&A transactions   👉 #Crypto / #Blockchain companies made up half of the top ten largest capital raises this week including a $58 million Series B for stablecoin-backed cards and payments platform Rain and a $50 million financing round for custody-less cross-chain trading infrastructure Portal to Bitcoin among others. The Crypto / Blockchain sector has been the most active so far this year accounting for nearly 25% of all FinTech financing deals.   Further, another digital asset treasury focused SPAC merger was announced – the seventh so far this year – with the proposed business combination involving Trump Media & Technology Group, Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp. with the combined entity planning to have a treasury of $1 billion in Cronos (CRO).   📊 For professional / institutional investors only, view the infographic below or here: https://lnkd.in/e5Nr7mK4   💰 Other Large / Notable Deals This Week: • India-based small business lender Vistaar Finance raises ~$156 million in financing • Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd. secures ~$114 million in financing • Blockchain-native AI economy infrastructure developer Splendor Labs raises $50 million in Seed financing from White Rock Group • Stablecoin infrastructure platform M0 raises $40 million in Series B financing co-led by Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital • Embedded investing platform Atomic Invest raises $30 million in financing co-led by Aquiline and Brewer Lane Ventures • The Carlyle Group acquires WealthTech platform for financial advisors in the UK intelliflo from Invesco Ltd. for $200 million TransBnk - Transaction Banking Platform, Holo, aPriori ⌘, Entercard Group AB, Swedbank, LayerZero Labs, Gusto, Guideline, Wealthsimple

Early Riders | Open Range Weekly | 8.17.25 Block introduced the Proto Rig (air-cooled efficiency as low as 14.1 J/TH; rack density up to 9.4 kW/ft²) with swappable hashboards and on-rack service. Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund grew their Bitcoin exposure, as Brevan Howard almost doubled its $2.3B IBIT position at Q2 end. On the public markets front, Bullish listed on the NYSE, over $1B while Coinbase completed their $2.9B acquisition of Deribit, and Nakamoto completed their merger with KindlyMD. On the policy front, Treasury kept the door open to acquiring Bitcoin, while the Federal Reserve limited ended its review of digital asset related banking activities. Industry & Institutional Updates - Block unveiled Proto Rig, targeting as low as 14.1 J/TH (air-cooled) and up to 9.4 kW/ft rack density, with swappable hashboards and on-rack service. Proto Fleet is free to use; with plans to open source the code. - Luxor announced a strategic $131.4 million agreement with MicroBT ensures U.S.-based production of next-gen WhatsMiner ASICs, enhancing procurement flexibility and mitigating tariff impacts for North American miners. - Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, disclosed in an SEC filing that it owns 8,726,972 shares of IBIT and Al Warda, with the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund behind the entity, owns 2,411,034 shares of IBIT as of June 30. - Brevan Howard held roughly $2.3B worth of IBIT at the end of Q2, almost double its position the prior quarter, as of June 30. - TeraWulf, a mining and high performance compute (HPC) infrastructure company, signed a 10-year, 200+ MW AI-hosting agreements with Fluidstack, with Google taking an 8% stake in the company. - Coinbase has completed its $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, the world's leading crypto options exchange, combining $700 million in cash with 11 million shares of Coinbase Class A common stock to enhance its position as the global leader in crypto derivatives by open interest and options volume. - KindlyMD has completed its merger with Nakamoto Holdings to form a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company led by David Bailey. - Bullish, the institutional cryptocurrency exchange and owner of CoinDesk, more than doubled its IPO price on its NYSE debut, raising $1.11 billion at a valuation of over $10B, showing the continued strength for digital assets in the public markets. Make sure to keep up with all our research at earlyriders.com/research.

𝗢𝗻𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗶 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟴 $101.7M+ Across 11 transactions+ Dragonfly Fund IV ($650M) — Led by Novig ($75M), Kresus ($13M), and Rhythmic ($4M). Deals of the week (2/16 – 2/22, 2026): 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 • Novig: $75M (Series B) — Trader-first sports prediction exchange scaling toward national market structure. • Rhythmic: $4M (Seed) — Payments / stablecoin infrastructure (“pipes” for settlement + liquidity movement). • Unicity Labs: $3M (Seed) — Agentic marketplaces infrastructure for autonomous discovery + settlement. • PlutonAI: $2.7M (Seed + Private) — DeFAI agent-driven onchain tooling for execution + workflows. • PRED: $2.5M (Seed) — Exchange-grade sports prediction venue on Base. • Fireplace: $1.5M (Pre-Seed) — Institutional prediction-market trading terminal. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 • KresusLabs: $13M (Strategic / Growth) — Enterprise wallets + RWA workflows; “seedless” institutional UX. • MYX: Strategic (Undisclosed) — Omnichain derivatives market infrastructure ahead of V2. • Ubyx Inc.: Strategic (Undisclosed) — Clearing & acceptance network for regulated stablecoins / tokenized deposits. 𝗠&𝗔 • Kraken (Payward) + Magna: Acquisition (Undisclosed) — Token lifecycle tooling (issuance ops, vesting, distribution/compliance). • Polymarket + Dome (YC F25): Acquisition (Undisclosed) — Developer API layer tightening distribution to integrators. 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱 • Dragonfly: $650M (Fund IV Close) — Fresh deployable capital across infra, DeFi, stablecoins, RWAs. The team at Global Venturing Labs analyzes the highest-impact developments and transactions shaping the onchain finance transition. Full analysis: https://lnkd.in/ezWbaa3E