Funding Weekly Report | Crypto.com Secures a $400 Million Investment, and CeFi and the Stablecoin Track Continue to Attract Capital

Key highlights

According to Tiger Research and RootData statistics, crypto market capital inflows in the first half of 2026 reached $13.3 billion, of which there were only 435 financing rounds—down 78% from the peak of 1,978 rounds in 2022—showing that market funds are accelerating into a concentrated pool of a small number of large deals.

Meanwhile, last week, primary-market funds continued to concentrate toward centralized finance, stablecoins, and trading infrastructure. Crypto.com received $400 million in investment from Citadel Securities, with its valuation rising to $20 billion, becoming the largest crypto financing of the week.

The AI and robotics sector performed even more strongly: Fireworks raised $1.5 billion; Walden Robotics and 逐际动力 (respectively) completed $300 million and nearly $200 million in financing, as capital continues to bet on the commercialization of AI compute, programming platforms, and embodied intelligence.

Last week’s crypto primary market heated up significantly. According to incomplete statistics by PANews, in the week of 7.13-7.19, there were 17 blockchain investment and financing events globally, with total funding exceeding $812 million. Disclosed funding rounds and total financing amounts both doubled. An overview is as follows:

• The DeFi track announced 2 investment and financing events, including crypto trading platform Quote Trade completing a $4 million round;
• In infrastructure & tools, 7 investment and financing events were announced, including Cyclops, a payment infrastructure startup headquartered in Miami, completing a $20 million Series A round;
• In the centralized finance sector, 5 investment and financing events were announced, including Alpaca completing a $135 million round, with Peak XV leading;
• The Web3 + AI track announced 1 investment and financing event: DGrid AI completed a $5 million seed round, with Waterdrip Capital and others participating
• In prediction markets, 1 investment and financing event was announced: prediction market platform Pascal announced completion of a $9 million Series A round, led by Union Square Ventures (USV)

Crypto financing

DeFi

Crypto trading platform Quote Trade completes $4 million financing

Dubai AI-native decentralized exchange Quote Trade completed $4 million in financing. The funds will be used to expand support for more blockchains and digital assets, strengthen liquidity partnership relationships, hire engineering and trading personnel, and continue building infrastructure aimed at supporting AI autonomous trading agents operating in coordination with human traders.

Multicoin Capital invests $1.75 million in Hyperliquid ecosystem trading platform Trasia

Trasia Labs, a liquidity provider focused on Asian stocks Perp, announced it has raised $35 million, including a $1.75 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital. The funds will be used to launch web and mobile applications, grow users, and kick off the first HIP-3 markets focused on Asian securities assets. Trasia’s web trading interface has officially launched, with initial support for both Chinese and English; the mobile app is expected to be released this summer.

Trasia Labs is the development team behind Trasia, an Asia-first, non-custodial trading platform built on Hyperliquid. In the initial stage, the platform will offer Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 native markets, and plans to start rolling out HIP-3 proprietary markets later this year, launching cash-settled reference price contracts for Asian listed assets.

Infrastructure & tools

ADI Chain announces completion of $50 million financing

ADI Chain announced the completion of $50 million financing. The project’s main businesses include stablecoin settlement and financial infrastructure development. Ecosystem partnerships cover areas such as compliant stablecoins, tokenized securities, institutional payments, Chainlink, ZKsync, and major crypto wallets, among others.

Cyclops completes $20 million Series A financing, driving stablecoin payment settlement

Cyclops, a Miami-headquartered payment infrastructure startup, completed a $20 million Series A financing round, aiming to help payment companies use stablecoins to speed up fund settlement. By optimizing cross-border and traditional payment flows with stablecoins, the company improves settlement efficiency, reduces costs, and promotes stablecoin adoption in enterprise payments and financial infrastructure.

Pact Labs completes a $7 million Series A round led by Tether

Tether announced it is leading a $7 million Series A round for infrastructure provider Pact Labs, with Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna participating. The funds will be used to expand USDT usage across scenarios such as payroll, salary advances, credit, and everyday payments. Tether plans to embed USD-denominated stablecoin USA₮ (US dollar) that meets U.S. regulatory requirements into U.S. enterprise payroll and payments systems via Pact Labs, enabling real-time payroll distribution, embedding into digital wallets, and avoiding the time delays of traditional batch processing payments.

Crypto clearing institution Glacis Labs completes $6.8 million seed financing, led by Lightspeed Faction

Glacis Labs, the startup behind crypto clearing platform ZeroDelta, completed $6.8 million in seed financing, led by Lightspeed Faction, with Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, A.GAIN, Protein Capital, and Techni Ventures participating. The financing structure is equity plus token warrants, and the valuation was not disclosed.

Glacis was founded in January 2024 and has developed ZeroDelta’s multi-chain clearing platform, reducing counterparty risk by matching, netting, and settling cross-chain digital asset transfers. ZeroDelta currently supports USDC, USDT, and USDe, and plans to expand into tokenized securities, RWA, and foreign exchange. Glacis generates revenue by charging fees based on clearing transaction volume; it has processed over $1 billion in transaction volume, with an annualized run rate of $1.5 billion. The team currently has 10 people and plans to expand engineering, compliance, and market teams.

AI-driven Meme infrastructure project 2U2.ai completes $3 million strategic financing, led by Vega Venture

2U2.ai announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, totaling $3 million, valuing the project at $100 million. The round is led by Vega Venture, with Archer Capital, UZ Capital, and Infinite Alliance participating. The funds will be used to further refine 2U2.ai’s MemeLayer infrastructure, continue expanding ecosystem partnerships, and push large-scale applications of AI Memes in content creation, community distribution, and attention allocation scenarios.

2U2.ai is building an AI-driven MemeLayer for Web3, using Meme generation, Remix, distribution, and incentive mechanisms to create a Meme content network connecting creators, communities, and project teams. Currently, the platform has launched the Meme Arms Race points system; users can earn points by creating, sharing, and distributing Meme content, and participate in the platform’s subsequent ecosystem incentives.

PayFi AI-native L1 project AXON Finance completes $2 million strategic financing

PayFi AI-native Layer 1 project AXON Finance completed $2 million in strategic financing. Investors include InfiniteAll AI, UZ Capital, and BMF. The round will be used to launch its first open-ecosystem product—an U.S. stock follow-trading engine—supported by AXON’s L1 settlement and account abstraction, and in collaboration with prediction platforms and pre–Silicon Valley quantitative trading teams.

L1 blockchain ILITY completes $1 million institutional round, with Archer Capital and TBV participating

L1 blockchain ILITY received a $1 million investment from Archer Capital and TBV, accelerating its Agent ecosystem rollout. It is understood that ILITY’s AI agent (Agent) economic ecosystem is about to go live; this round of funding will mainly be used to deepen this emerging segment.

ILITY Network is infrastructure for the AI agent economy, providing verifiable on-chain identities for autonomous AI agents, real-time M2M (machine-to-machine) payment settlement between agents, and a reputation system that is based on real on-chain fulfillment records and can be carried across services; its native token $ILY is the Gas and settlement currency for this ecosystem. Previously, the project’s prior funding round was supported by institutions including Animoca Brands, DuckDAO, UZ Capital, and Vega Ventures.

Centralized finance

Crypto.com gets $400 million investment from Citadel Securities, valuation $20 billion

Crypto exchange Crypto.com announced it has received a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities, with a valuation of $20 billion. This is the company’s first institutional financing round since its founding over the past decade. The funds will be used to accelerate Crypto.com’s expansion to all asset classes, including tokenized securities and derivatives, and to drive integration between digital assets and traditional markets.

Alpaca completes $135 million financing, led by Peak XV

For developers—stock, options, and crypto-coin API brokerage—Alpaca announced it has completed $135 million in financing, led by Peak XV, with Elefund as a follower. Other new and existing investors include Opera Tech Ventures and Unbound, risk investment institutions under the French bank BNP Paribas group. The new funding will be used to expand agent-first brokerage infrastructure for tokenized markets and AI-native financial services. Alpaca’s total financing amount reaches $435 million, including debt financing mainly from Payward, the parent company of the global digital asset platform Kraken, and BMO.

Stablecoin-based cross-border banking platform Flex raises $70 million, led by Halo Fund

Flex, a fintech company headquartered in California, raised $70 million in a B1 round led by Halo Fund, aiming to further expand its business. Flex Global is its stablecoin-based cross-border banking platform, providing multi-currency accounts covering 32 currencies across 170 countries/regions. Flex’s core customers have annual revenue ranging from $3 million to $200 million, mainly concentrated in the construction, wholesale, and import/export industries.

London payments company Velocity completes $38 million Series A financing, led by crypto VC Dragonfly

London payments startup Velocity completed a $38 million Series A financing round, led by crypto VC Dragonfly, with Coinbase, Capital One Ventures, and market maker Wintermute participating. Velocity was founded in 2025 and serves global merchants, payment providers, fintech companies, and financial institutions, offering stablecoin-based cross-border settlement and cash management solutions; its main competitors are traditional banks and forex institutions. The company currently operates in the U.S., parts of Europe, and Australia. The new funding will be used to apply for licenses related to Africa and Latin America, strengthen asset custody infrastructure, and develop yield-generating stablecoin products to meet the more complex financial and cross-border settlement needs of large enterprises.

Tether invests $20 million in Argentina digital bank Ualá, expanding into Latin America

Tether invested $20 million into Argentina digital bank Ualá as part of Ualá’s $197 million financing round announced in March. Ualá plans to use the funds to accelerate expansion in Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. Ualá founder and CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri said that due to the regulatory environment in Argentina and Mexico, USDT stablecoin will not be integrated into the platform in the short term; Tether will only participate as a financial investor. Ualá has 11 million customers; after this round, its valuation will be $3.2 billion, and it plans to accelerate expansion in Mexico.

Prediction markets

Prediction market platform Pascal completes $9 million Series A financing, led by Union Square Ventures

Prediction market platform Pascal announced it has completed $9 million in Series A financing, led by Union Square Ventures (USV). This financing further expands on last year’s August $6 million seed round. Early investors include Wintermute Ventures and DBA. Pascal plans to build a next-generation prediction market platform for professional traders and institutional users. By offering a trading model closer to perpetual futures, it aims to provide users with lower fees, higher liquidity, and more specialized trading tools.

Crypto treasury

ORANGE JUICE completes $40 million financing to build a permanent capital holding company backed by Bitcoin reserves

ORANGE JUICE announced it has completed $40 million in financing to establish a permanent capital holding company backed by Bitcoin reserves. The company was co-founded by Jeff Booth of Bitcoin VC ego death capital, Lyn Alden, Nico Lechuga, Andi Pitt, and others, with Ricardo Salinas, founder of Grupo Salinas in Mexico, participating as an anchor investor.

ORANGE JUICE is not constrained by fund cycles or resale pressure, allowing it to focus on the long-term development of invested companies, and plans to seek a public listing in the future. The company will first acquire stable cash-generating businesses with annual cash flow of $1 million to $10 million; the acquired parties will retain their brand identity, and founders can choose to retire, continue in their roles, or transition gradually. The cash generated by the business will be reinvested into acquisitions or Bitcoin reserves.

AI + Web3

DGrid AI completes $5 million seed financing, with Waterdrip Capital and others participating

Decentralized AI intelligent network DGrid AI released the latest data: cumulative revenue in the first half of 2026 surpassed $23 million, and paid subscription users exceeded 15,000.

DGrid also disclosed it completed a $5 million seed round, with investors including Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, Paramita VC, Zenith Capital, and other institutions. DGrid aggregates 200+ major models such as Claude, GPT, Gemini, and MiniMax through a unified AI Gateway, and uses its proprietary Proof of Quality (PoQ) mechanism to ensure service quality and pricing transparency, continuing to build open and verifiable decentralized AI infrastructure.

Acquisitions

Keyrock completes acquisition of BlockFills’ institutional trading and brokerage business

Crypto infrastructure and capital markets company Keyrock has completed the acquisition of BlockFills’ institutional trading and brokerage business. The deal brings Keyrock BlockFills’ trading technology, relationships with institutional clients, and a seasoned team of derivatives traders. The announcement states that this acquisition also expands Keyrock’s regulatory footprint: it will have a CIMA-registered entity in the Cayman Islands and plans to obtain FCA authorization in the United Kingdom.

Keyrock’s announcement did not disclose the acquisition price. Based on prior court filings and reports, Keyrock was selected in BlockFills’ bankruptcy reorganization process at a price of $3.25 million. BlockFills, headquartered in Chicago, filed for bankruptcy protection after suffering substantial losses in early 2026 due to the crypto market crash in February.

SBI Holdings acquires Singapore crypto exchange Coinhako

Japanese financial group SBI Holdings obtained the necessary approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and completed the acquisition of the Singapore licensed crypto exchange and digital wallet Coinhako. Coinhako is regulated in Singapore and provides digital asset trading and custody services.

MoonPay acquires Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Glide

MoonPay has completed its acquisition of crypto deposit startup Glide, which is the company’s sixth acquisition announced in 2026. The transaction is an all-equity deal, and Glide’s four-person team will join MoonPay. Glide was founded by Soni and Qinyu Tong in 2023; they previously worked together in Robinhood’s crypto wallet development team. MoonPay said Glide received support from Y Combinator, Titan Fund, and other investors. Glide’s technology enables applications to accept crypto deposits without users needing to manually bridge across blockchains or swap assets, helping reduce user onboarding friction.

AI & robotics financing highlights

AI

Nvidia-backed AI cloud service Fireworks completes $1.5 billion financing, valuation $17.5 billion

Nvidia-backed AI cloud service startup Fireworks completed $1.5 billion in financing, valuing it at $17.5 billion. The round is led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, with investors such as Nvidia, Evantic, and Lightspeed Venture Partners participating. Fireworks mainly provides hosting and running of open-source AI models for developers; its annualized revenue is currently already over $1 billion, five times that of the same period last year. Fireworks currently processes 40 trillion AI Tokens per day, and has begun providing GPUs for training AI models.

India AI programming platform Emergent raises $130 million Series C, valuation $1.5 billion

Indian AI programming startup Emergent completed a $130 million Series C round, with post-money valuation of about $1.5 billion, up about 5x from this year’s January valuation of $300 million. The round is led by private institution Creaegis, with participation from MNI Ventures-Claypond, Sentinel Global, as well as Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, Y Combinator, and others, bringing cumulative funding to $230 million. Emergent focuses on an “engineering team as a service” AI programming platform for SMBs and entrepreneurs; its annualized revenue is currently about $120 million. Over the past four months, it grew by about 70%, with paid users exceeding 200k. Its customers span industries such as logistics, manufacturing, construction, and property management.

AI compliance infrastructure company Hadrius completes $27 million financing, led by CRV, with Y Combinator and others participating

AI compliance infrastructure company Hadrius announced it completed $27 million in seed and Series A financing. The Series A is led by CRV, with participation from Y Combinator, Pathlight Ventures, and angel investors including Altruist and Jump AI founders. Hadrius was founded by a team that previously operated SEC-registered investment advisers. It provides an AI-driven integrated compliance platform for regulated financial institutions, covering core areas through six agent modules, including personnel, trading, marketing, communications, branch implementation, and compliance handbook implementation.

a16z invests in AI agent security company Runta

a16z announced it is investing in AI agent security startup Runta. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed. The company aims to help enterprises manage and constrain AI agents “like raising children.” It is currently developing an “AI agent nanny” infrastructure to help companies manage AI Agent permissions, security risks, and behavioral boundaries, preventing autonomous AI systems from causing data leaks, erroneous operations, or financial losses while executing tasks.

Runta founder Guanlan Dai previously worked at Cloudflare’s technical team and served as founding engineer for API connectivity startup Kong. He said AI agents share similarities with growing children: they have the ability to execute tasks autonomously, but they also need boundaries, supervision, and permission management. Industry observers believe that as AI Agents evolve from simple assistants into autonomous entities that can operate enterprise systems, handle transactions, and execute complex tasks, the infrastructure market for Agent security, governance, and compliance may see rapid growth.

Robotics

Toyota spin-off humanoid robotics startup Walden Robotics completes $300 million seed round

Walden Robotics, a humanoid robotics startup spun out of Toyota’s robotics research laboratory, completed approximately $300 million in a seed round, valuing it at $1.1 billion. The round is co-led by Deviation Capital and Toyota Motor, with Toyota strategic investment and early venture capital departments participating, and investors such as Nvidia, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and CoreWeave Ventures participating.

Walden is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It produces its own hardware, software, and AI models, focusing on deploying general-purpose robots in manufacturing and logistics facilities to handle tasks that workers consider burdensome. Co-founder Russ Tedrake said it has started selling humanoid robots to customers across multiple industries, including a pilot project at a Toyota factory in North America. The robots perform repetitive tasks such as loading/unloading automobile parts and cleaning equipment. Tedrake previously served as an executive at Toyota Research Institute and taught robotics courses at MIT.

Humanoid robotics company 逐际动力 completes nearly $200 million Pre-IPO financing

Shenzhen humanoid robotics company 逐际动力 completed nearly $200 million (about RMB 400k) in Pre-IPO financing. The post-money valuation reached RMB 15 billion, and its cumulative financing over the past six months totaled $400 million. Investors in this round include IDG Capital, Lanson Technology (Apple supply chain), European GGG Group and Redstone VC, Huashan Capital, Hefei Binhu Industrial Development Group, and others. In addition, UAE’s Stone Venture has made consecutive follow-on investments; multiple existing shareholders such as Oasis Capital, Jicheng Capital, Nanshan Zhanxin Investment, Shangqi Capital, and NIO Capital also added on top of their allocations. Overseas capital accounts for nearly 70%. The company will increase investment in core technology R&D, advance the scaled rollout of LimX Luna, and expand into overseas markets. It has already completed a shareholding restructuring and is steadily moving forward with an IPO.

Sam Altman-backed drone company Brinc raises $125 million, with Index Ventures and others participating

Brinc, a drone company supported by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, announced it has completed $125 million in financing, led by existing investor Motorola Solutions, with participation from Index Ventures and earlier investors including Dylan Field. The company, it is understood, focuses on applying AI-based drone technologies to the public safety sector, including replacing some high-risk human-response tasks.