Crypto Venture Weekly: December 1-5, 2025

Introduction

This week, 42 projects raised $165 million, led by Digital Asset ($50M), Ostium ($20M), and Fin ($17M), while Strategy and Lion Group added a combined $21.7 million in Bitcoin to their corporate treasuries. Kraken, Galaxy, and Solmate each announced strategic acquisitions spanning tokenized equities, liquid staking, and Solana infrastructure, and Further and 3iQ launched a new $100 million market-neutral digital asset fund. On Crypto Twitter, Haseeb Qureshi and Santiago Santos sparred over L1 valuations, Jason Choi warned that gambling-driven usage limits major L1 rerating potential, Jake Chervinsky detailed political blockers to the Senate’s market structure bill, and Evan Fisher argued that latent capital markets stand to benefit most from tokenization.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Digital Asset ($50M), Ostium ($20M), Fin ($17M), Bitstack ($15M), Zoo Finance ($8M), Axis ($5M), AIAV ($4M), TrueNorth ($3M), DeepNode AI ($3M), and Haiku ($1M).
• Digital Asset Treasuries: Strategy ($11.7M for BTC) and Lion Group Holding Ltd. ($10M for BTC).
• M&A Activity: Kraken acquired Backed Finance, Galaxy acquired Alluvial Finance, and Solmate acquired RockawayX.
• New Funds: Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital Fund ($100M) launched.
• VC CT: Haseeb Qureshi and Santiago R Santos debated whether L1s are inflated or structurally undervalued, Jason Choi cautioned that gambling-driven usage limits major L1 rerating potential, Jake Chervinsky outlined political roadblocks facing the Senate’s market structure bill, and Evan Fisher argued that atent capital markets stand to gain most from tokenization.

Notable Deals

42 projects collectively raised $165 million this week. Here are the ten that stood out:

Digital Asset

• The Pitch: Developer of Canton Network, an L1 blockchain purpose-built for institutional finance
• Round: $50 million Strategic
• Investors: BNY, Nasdaq Ventures, S&P Global, and iCapital

Ostium

• The Pitch: DEX on Arbitrum, enabling non-custodial perpetuals exposure to RWAs
• Round: $20 million Series A at a $250 million valuation
• Investors: Led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, GSR, Wintermute, and more

Fin

• The Pitch: Stablecoin-powered payments app for enterprises and users
• Round: $17 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Pantera Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital, Samsung Next, Mert Mumtaz, and more

Bitstack

• The Pitch: France-based Bitcoin savings app
• Round: $15 million Series A
• Investors: Led by 13books Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Plug and Play Tech Center, Stillmark, and more

Zoo Finance

• The Pitch: Omnichain vesting token market
• Round: $8 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Bitrise Capital with participation from Signum Capital, Cryptogram Venture, Cryptomeria Capital, and more

Axis

• The Pitch: Quant yield protocol bringing institutional trading strategies onchain
• Round: $5 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Galaxy Ventures with participation from OKX Ventures, GSR, CMS Holdings, CMT Digital, and more

AIAV

• The Pitch: An AI avatar platform that lets users train AI models and earn rewards for their interactions
• Round: $4 million Seed at a $30 million valuation
• Investors: Led by Animoca Brands, DuckDAO, Castrum Capital, Gemhead Capital, Alpha Capital, VistaLabs, Notch Ventures, and more

TrueNorth

• The Pitch: Building domain-specific AI for finance and crypto
• Round: $3 million Pre-seed
• Investors: Led by cyber.Fund with participation from GSR, SNZ Holding, Delphi Labs, and more

DeepNode AI

• The Pitch: Decentralized AI network aiming to democratize AI development
• Round: $3 million Strategic at a $75 million valuation
• Investors: Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, IOBC Capital, TBV, FOMO Ventures, and more

Haiku

• The Pitch: Execution engine that turns complex DeFi strategies into a single onchain transaction
• Round: $1 million Pre-seed
• Investors: Led by Big Brain Holdings with participation from Daedalus Angel Syndicate, Auros Global, and more

Digital Asset Treasuries

Strategy

• The Pitch: Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) added 130 BTC for ~$11.7M (avg. $89,960/BTC), lifting total holdings to 650,000 BTC, and simultaneously established a $1.44B USD reserve to help fund preferred dividends and debt interest.
• Round: $11.7 million BTC purchase
• Investors: Public market investors

Lion Group Holding Ltd.

• The Pitch: Lion Group Holding Ltd. (Nasdaq: LGHL) announced a $10 million private placement, with $8 million of net proceeds earmarked to buy Bitcoin for its corporate treasury.
• Round: $10 million PIPE
• Investors: Undisclosed

M&A Activity

Kraken acquired Backed

Kraken will acquire Backed Finance, the issuer of xStocks, to unify tokenized equity issuance, trading, and settlement within its infrastructure. Backed will integrate into Kraken as xStocks continues to scale past $10 billion in cumulative volume. The deal enhances Kraken’s compliance and issuance capabilities, deepens product integrations, including with its global money app, and expands support for more than 60 tokenized equities and ETFs across multiple chains. It also broadens distribution and multichain liquidity as Kraken accelerates its strategy for onchain real-world assets, building on prior acquisitions of Breakout, Small Exchange, and NinjaTrader.

Galaxy acquired Alluvial

Galaxy acquired Alluvial Finance, the former development organization behind Liquid Collective, becoming the protocol’s new Development Company and expanding its institutional liquid staking capabilities. The deal brings Liquid Collective’s engineering talent, staking management system, and integration tooling into Galaxy’s platform. Liquid Collective has grown to about $1 billion in staked assets in 2025, reflecting rising institutional demand for compliant liquid staking. With full responsibility for protocol development, Galaxy aims to broaden validator participation and global institutional access, while Liquid Collective continues operating independently under The Liquid Foundation.

Solmate acquired RockawayX

Solmate signed a non-binding term sheet to acquire RockawayX in an all-stock transaction that would create an institutional crypto platform with more than $2 billion in combined AUM and third-party stake. The combined entity would continue trading under the SLMT ticker, with Solmate CEO Marco Santori leading the unified business and RockawayX CEO Viktor Fischer becoming Executive Chairman. The acquisition integrates Solana-focused infrastructure, onchain liquidity services, and asset management under one platform, combining RockawayX’s validator network, solver operations, and credit capabilities with Solmate’s expanding UAE-based staking and transaction-ordering footprint.

Newly Launched Funds

Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital Fund – $100M

Further and 3iQ launched the Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital Fund, a $100 million market-neutral, multi-strategy vehicle offering institutionally risk-managed exposure to liquid digital assets. The fund targets double-digit returns and includes a Bitcoin share class that enables subscription and compounding in BTC while maintaining full long exposure. Seeded by institutional, family office, and sovereign capital, the fund is designed to meet rigorous institutional standards and expand sovereign-backed participation in digital assets. The partnership combines Further’s institutional investment platform with 3iQ’s experience in regulated digital-asset products to provide a scalable, risk-managed entry point for sophisticated allocators.

VC CT: What VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly) | Santiago R Santos (Inversion)

• Had a debate over whether L1s are overvalued on current revenue or undervalued as exponential infrastructure, with Santiago urging app-level fundamentals and Haseeb defending long-term network effects. Jason Choi (Tangent) warned that gambling-heavy usage, combined with limited talent and mainstream buy-in, makes outsized L1 re-rating scenarios less likely.

Jake Chervinsky (Variant Fund)

• Detailed three disputes stalling the Senate's market structure bill: banks' push to ban stablecoin yields, Democrats' demands for presidential family conflict rules, and TradFi's bid to regulate DeFi developers as intermediaries.

Evan Fisher (Portal Ventures)

• Argued that latent capital markets (markets with existing unmet demand but unserved by traditional infrastructure) stand to benefit most from tokenization's promise of cheaper, faster, more accessible real-world asset products.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 42
• Total Raised: $165M
• Digital Asset Treasuries: $21.7M
• Acquisitions: 5
• Newly Launched Funds: $100M

That’s a wrap for this week’s Crypto Venture Weekly. Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week!

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