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Kalshi raises $200M in an extended Series F round
Kalshi raised an additional $200M from two new investors, Baillie Gifford and Layer Global, extending a Series F round that had already closed $1B, bringing the total raised in the round to $1.2B.
Both firms are joining Kalshi's cap table for the first time, adding institutional weight to a round already led by Coatue Management at a $22 billion valuation.
Google I/O 2026: Gemini 3.5, Agentic Platforms & End of Traditional Search
Google I/O 2026 marked a major shift toward agent-driven computing. The company introduced Gemini 3.5 Flash, a model designed for high-speed reasoning, reportedly outperforming Gemini 3.1 Pro across benchmarks while running significantly faster. Google positioned it as the core engine for real-time agentic workflows.
The biggest infrastructure push came with the new Antigravity ecosystem. It includes a desktop app, CLI, and SDK that let developers orchestrate multiple AI agents, run parallel tasks, and deploy workflows across Google AI Studio, Android, Firebase, and Cloud. Google also introduced Managed Agents in the Gemini API, allowing developers to spin up fully functional agents with a single call.
Cycles Raises $6.4M to Build Open Onchain Clearing Protocol
Cycles, founded by Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman, has raised $6.4M in a new funding round led by Blockchange Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Compound VC, Primitive Ventures, and other investors. The raise brings Cycles’ total funding to $8.7M after a $2.3M pre-seed round earlier in 2025.
Cycles is building an “open clearing protocol” designed to improve multilateral netting between counterparties, reducing the capital required to settle complex webs of transactions. Instead of settling each obligation individually, the system offsets liabilities across participants to minimize total movement of funds.
Foundation Raises $6.4M to Expand From Bitcoin Hardware Wallets Into AI Agent Authorization
Foundation raised $6.4M in a round led by Fulgur Ventures, with participation from Arche Capital, to accelerate its expansion beyond Bitcoin self-custody. The raise brings the company’s total funding to $16.5M, though valuation and round structure weren’t disclosed.
Alongside the funding, Foundation announced general availability of Passport Prime, its flagship device that combines a Bitcoin hardware wallet with FIDO security keys, 2FA storage, a secrets vault, and 50GB encrypted storage. The company positions it as “Human Authority Hardware,” designed to require explicit user approval for sensitive actions.
Web3 Projects That Raised $10M+ Seed in the Last Year
From AI infrastructure and DePIN to compliance tools and liquid staking, 28 Web3 projects secured $10M+ seed rounds in the past year. The full class of 2025–2026, in one place.
Deloitte Acquires Blocknative to Deepen Web3 Client Services
Blocknative specializes in real-time mempool monitoring, gas fee prediction, and transaction management; its Gas Network served as a decentralized oracle for real-time gas pricing data used by wallets, protocols & institutions.
With the acquisition complete, Blocknative's website confirms the firm is ceasing operations, with its API and Gas Network services winding down by June 19.
Syndicate Labs Winds Down After Five Years Building Onchain Infra
Syndicate Labs, a five-year-old developer infrastructure company focused on EVM rollup tooling, has announced it is winding down, citing a fundamental shift in the rollup market that made continuing operations unsustainable.
Two entities: Syndicate Labs (winding down) vs. Syndicate Network Collective / DUNA (independent, not immediately affected). SYND holders: governance not immediately affected, successor could preserve the network.
Plume Secures Bermuda License for Onchain Vault Manager
Plume secures a Bermuda Class M license for its subsidiary Kimber Digital Assets Bermuda, becoming what it calls the first regulated onchain vault manager.
The license under the Bermuda Monetary Authority’s Digital Asset Business Act 2018 brings full prudential oversight, including liquidity risk, capital requirements, and wind-down planning.
Plume’s vault system mirrors an ETF structure — users deposit assets, receive tokenized shares, and earn yield, but everything is executed via immutable smart contracts with onchain verification and no traditional custodial control.
Circle Cofounder’s Catena Labs Raises $30M to Build an AI-Native Bank
Catena Labs has raised a $30M Series A co-led by a16z Crypto and Acrew Capital to build an “AI-native bank” for autonomous AI agents.
The startup was founded by Circle cofounder Sean Neville and is developing infrastructure that allows AI agents to safely manage identities, accounts, payments, stablecoins, fiat rails, and yield strategies, while giving humans full oversight and control.
Biggest NFT Collections by Market Capitalization
NFTs had their moment and the blue chips never fully disappeared. Collections like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins survived the hype cycle and are still here, still trading, still holding value. Whether this is the floor or the setup for the next wave is the real question.
Checker has closed an $8M Seed funding round
Checker, a stablecoin infrastructure startup, provides a single API that allows banks, fintechs, and payment providers to launch and scale stablecoin products, covering FX, payments, trading, and credit, without integrating multiple providers.
Over the past year, Checker scaled from zero to $3B in total processing volume across more than 30 regulated financial institutions in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, representing approximately 1% of annual global B2B stablecoin payments volume.
Wintermute Launches Armitage, an Institutional Vault Curation for DeFi
Armitage is a dedicated vault curation arm that brings institutional-grade risk management and liquidity infrastructure directly to onchain DeFi yields. Two USDC vaults are live on Morpho at launch, Prime and Select, each targeting a different risk-return profile.
Wintermute USDC Select targets 5–8% APY by expanding beyond Prime's foundation into vetted higher-yield markets, including cbBTC/USDC, wstETH/USDC, wBTC/USDC, stUSDS/USDC, and v-wmtUSDC/USDC, while maintaining the same institutional risk framework.
Kraken Expands Into Ukraine as xStocks, Ink & Krak Power A New Financial Ecosystem
Kraken’s Chief Growth & Marketing Officer highlighted the official launch in Ukraine as a major milestone for both the company and the local Web3 ecosystem, despite hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian users already being active on the platform organically for years.
Ukraine ranks among the top global crypto adoption markets (#8 worldwide, #1 in Eastern Europe), with strong real-world usage driven by financial instability and cross-border payment needs. Kraken now aims to formalize its presence with localized infrastructure, fiat on/off-ramps, and a full product suite tailored to regional demand.
Dropee Confirms May 27 TGE As ChainGPT Public Sale Goes Live
Dropee confirmed its TGE for May 27, while launching the subscription period of its Public Sale on ChainGPT Pad.
The commitment window runs from May 18, 12:00 UTC to May 25, 12:00 UTC, with USDC as the accepted currency. Allocations are calculated after the window closes, and a 1-hour refund window is available for participants.
Top Spot DEXs by 30-day Trading Volume growth
Among the top performers are Rise rich, the first floor-backed token launchpad on Solana, Kumbaya, a decentralized exchange on MegaETH, and Fluxion, a RWA-optimized Native DEX on Mantle.
Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines
Institutional activity picked up across several fronts this week: corporate Bitcoin accumulation, blockchain infrastructure acquisitions, and funding rounds targeting AI banking rails & onchain liquidity.
🔎 Recent Updates & Developments
– SpaceX disclosed a $1.45B Bitcoin treasury in IPO filings, joining the largest corporate BTC holders
– Tether acquired SoftBank’s stake in Twenty One Capital, increasing control over 43,514 BTC
– Deloitte acquired Blocknative, adding gas prediction and mempool monitoring to its blockchain stack
– Blockchain.com confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, joining the wave of crypto companies going public
– Variational raised $50M from Dragonfly, Bain Capital to bring TradFi liquidity onchain
– Polymarket partnered with Nasdaq Private Market to launch prediction markets for SpaceX, OpenAI and other private firms
– Catena Labs raised $30M from a16z Crypto to build banking infrastructure for AI agents
GitHub Confirms Internal Repo Breach After Malicious VS Code Extension Attack
GitHub has confirmed unauthorized access to its internal repositories following a compromise of an employee device infected via a poisoned VS Code extension.
The company said it immediately removed the malicious extension, isolated the endpoint, and activated incident response procedures.
According to GitHub, the attacker exfiltrated data only from internal repositories, with no evidence so far of impact on customer or public repositories. Claims of access to ~3,800 repositories are described as “directionally consistent” with ongoing investigations.
Hyperliquid Breaks $60 as ETF Demand Outpaces Supply Mechanics
HYPE extended its rally, surging ~30% during last few days to $61.60 as momentum continues to build across Hyperliquid-linked markets. The token pushed into new local highs after breaking above the $60 level, with intraday strength confirming sustained bullish pressure.
The move comes amid accelerating ETF inflows and rising institutional demand, which have already surpassed early launch totals in just a single trading session. Trading volume also expanded sharply, reinforcing the strength behind the breakout.
Blockchain com Moves Toward IPO After Confidential SEC Submission
Blockchain com has confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC for a potential IPO, becoming the latest crypto firm preparing to go public amid renewed institutional interest in digital assets.
The company reportedly expects to go public later this year and says it has been profitable on an adjusted basis for the past 3 years.
Flipcash launches USDF stablecoin on Solana
Flipcash has become the first live customer of Coinbase's Custom Stablecoin platform, launching USDF, a dollar-pegged token on Solana backed 1:1 by USDC, designed for cash-like payments within the Flipcash app.
Coinbase launched its white-label stablecoin issuance service in December 2025, allowing businesses to issue branded digital dollar products without managing their own reserve, custody, or settlement infrastructure.
HyperLend Launches Aviya, Institutional Credit on Hyperliquid
Aviya is a private, compliance-gated credit venue built, designed to give institutional participants access to structured, bilateral fixed-rate financing onchain. Unlike fully permissionless lending protocols, Aviya operates as a controlled credit environment.
At launch, Aviya supports fixed-rate credit against HYPE collateral, with a roadmap to expand into additional asset classes including tokenized equities, commodities, fixed-income instruments, and pre-IPO companies.
SpaceX IPO Filing Reveals $1.45B Bitcoin Treasury
SpaceX filed its Form S-1 with the SEC, confirming plans for a Nasdaq IPO expected next month that could be the largest in history. At current prices, the holdings are worth $1.45B, placing SpaceX among the world's largest corporate BTC holders, ahead of Coinbase.
SpaceX is reportedly targeting a valuation of more than $1.5 trillion, which would place it among the 10 most valuable publicly traded companies globally.
Tether Takes Over SoftBank Stake in Twenty One Capital
Tether has acquired SoftBank Group’s stake in Twenty One Capital, further increasing its control over the Bitcoin-focused treasury company. The deal follows SoftBank’s exit from the board in line with the shareholder agreement.
Following the news, Twenty One Capital shares rose around 5.6% in pre-market trading to $8.05, reflecting renewed market attention on Bitcoin treasury plays despite recent volatility across the sector.
Variational Raises $50M Series A To Bring TradFi Liquidity On-Chain
Variational has raised a $50M Series A to build decentralized derivatives infrastructure that pulls liquidity from traditional finance dealers instead of relying only on native crypto order books.
The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures. Bain previously led Variational’s $10.3M seed (closed in 2021, announced in 2024).
Zama (ZAMA) Acquires TokenOps to Encrypt Token Distributions
TokenOps is a platform that provides confidential token distribution services for crypto companies and foundations, handling encrypted vesting schedules, airdrops, and token allocations.
Zama had already been using TokenOps for its own ZAMA token distribution programs, making the acquisition a formalization of an existing dependency into a core product.
Nexus (NEX) will hold its TGE today on multiple exchanges
Binance Alpha, Bitget and KuCoin have already announced the listing. NEX trading will commence at 15:00 UTC under NEX/USDT trading pair.
Nexus is a Layer 1 purpose-built for high-performance financial apps and verifiable finance, featuring a native DEX with up to 50x perpetual futures, a dual-core parallel execution architecture, and zkVM 3.0 running on every node for cryptographic proof of correctness.
Polymarket partners with Nasdaq Private Market to Launch Private Company Prediction Markets
Polymarket launched its first prediction markets tied to private company performance through an exclusive partnership with Nasdaq Private Market, giving retail traders exposure to milestones of companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Anduril.
The new markets cover three categories of events: valuation milestones, IPO timing, and secondary market activity. For example, whether OpenAI will surpass a $1 trillion valuation in 2026, or whether Anthropic reaches a $500B valuation in 2026.
Bubblemaps Uncovers Suspected Insider Trading Ring on Polymarket
Blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps revealed a new investigation tied to Polymarket, uncovering 9 connected accounts that allegedly generated over $2.4M in profit with a 98% win rate by betting on US military-related events involving Iran.
According to Bubblemaps, the accounts placed more than 80 highly accurate bets, often days before major geopolitical developments, including US military strikes, the reported elimination of Ayatollah Khamenei, and the US–Iran ceasefire agreement.
The investigation began with a bubble map tied to the Feb. 28 US strike market, where analysts identified a previously unnoticed cluster of wallets. Bubblemaps later linked 4 accounts to 5 additional wallets using timing and size analysis, with funds reportedly routed through centralized exchanges into shared wallet networks.
Mapping TVL Flows. Winners & Losers in the last 30 days
Tracking TVL changes helps identify where liquidity is consolidating and where it is leaving the market. While some protocols attract inflows, DeFi overall has lost $9.81B in TVL in the last 30 days.
Revolut Launches its First Physical Crypto Card
The card supports 200+ cryptos and integrates with Apple Pay and Google Pay, with a £100,000 per-transaction limit and a cap of 100 exchanges within a 24-hour window. It will be a Dogecoin-themed and feature an LED light-up display.
The card will be usable anywhere Visa and Mastercard are accepted, and will first roll out firm in the UK and European Economic Area, excluding Hungary, Switzerland, and Portugal.