Crypto Venture Weekly: June 2-8, 2025

Introduction

32 projects raised $1.2B last week, led by Circle’s $1.1B IPO and IOST’s $21M strategic round, while Robinhood, Consensys, and Mask Network made notable acquisitions. VC activity was driven by structural critiques of foundation-led governance, renewed focus on fixed income in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem, and a new thesis on monetizing decentralized wireless bandwidth. Here’s your breakdown of the week’s top deals and insights.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Circle ($1.1B), IOST ($21M), Rails ($14M), Avantis ($8M), 3Jane ($5.2M), Launcher Capital ($4M), Hashpower ($4M), and Elsa ($3M).
• M&A Activity: Robinhood acquired Bitstamp, Consensys acquired Web3Auth, Mask Network acquired Orb, Blockchain Venture Capital acquired LuminusFX, Hilbert Group acquired Nordark, and Zebec acquired Gatenox.
• VC CT: Miles Jennings critiqued foundation-led governance as a regulatory risk and advocates for onchain legal tooling; Mason Nystrom explored Solana’s fixed income potential through maturing DeFi and yield primitives; and Salvador Gala introduced the Value-Added Bandwidth thesis as a new framework for monetizing decentralized wireless infrastructure.

Notable Deals

32 projects collectively raised $1.2 billion last week. Here are eight that stood out:

Circle

• The Pitch: A global fintech company that developed USDC, a dollar-backed stablecoin with a market cap of $61 billion
• Round: $1.1 billion IPO at a $8.1 billion valuation
• Investors: BlackRock, ARK Invest, Accel, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Fidelity, and more

IOST

• The Pitch: A multichain ecosystem focused on RWA infrastructure
• Round: $21 million Strategic
• Investors: DWF Labs, Presto Labs, Rollman Management Digital, and more

Rails

• The Pitch: A perpetual trading platform that integrates centralized order processing with onchain custody
• Round: $14 million Private Token Sale
• Investors: Kraken Ventures, Slow Ventures, Quantstamp, CMCC Global, and more

Avantis

• The Pitch: The largest derivatives DEX on Base with $7.5 billion in total volume across 60,000 users
• Round: $8 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Pantera Capital and Founders Fund, with participation from Symbolic Capital, Flowdesk, SALT Fund, Good Morning Holdings

3Jane

• The Pitch: A credit-based money market on Ethereum that provides 0% collateral loans based on users’ creditworthiness
• Round: $5.2 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Paradigm with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, Robot Ventures, Breed VC, and more

Launcher Capital

• The Pitch: An AI-powered game platform enabling onchain IP creation, permissionless licensing, and multiplayer storytelling
• Round: $4 million Seed
• Investors: Led by a16z crypto CSX

Hashpower

• The Pitch: An onchain staking and yield protocol
• Round: $4 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Hashkey Capital with participation from FBG Capital, DePIN X, and Hailstone Labs

Elsa

• The Pitch: Composable layer for crypto AI agents
• Round: $3 million funding
• Investors: Led by M31 Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures, MH Ventures, Base Ecosystem Fund, Absoluta Digital, and more

M&A Activity

Robinhood acquired Bitstamp

Robinhood acquired Bitstamp in a deal that brings the globally regulated crypto exchange and its retail and institutional customer base across the E.U., U.K., U.S., and Asia into Robinhood’s ecosystem. The acquisition marks Robinhood’s official entry into institutional crypto, expanding its product suite with Bitstamp’s spot exchange, crypto-as-a-service, and institutional offerings.

Consensys acquired Web3Auth

Consensys acquired Web3Auth, integrating the wallet infrastructure provider’s social login and MPC-based security stack into MetaMask and MetaMask for developers. The deal brings Web3Auth’s 50 million users and more than 8,200 dApps under the Consensys umbrella, accelerating its push toward intuitive, secure onboarding for mainstream users.

Mask acquired Orb

Mask Network acquired Orb, a mobile social app built on Lens Chain, bringing its over 50,000 monthly active user community and creator-focused features into the MaskDAO ecosystem. The acquisition expands Mask’s decentralized social stack with Orb’s collectible posts, onchain clubs, and mobile-first experience, aligning with Mask’s vision to build a more expressive, user-owned internet.

Other M&A deals include Blockchain Venture Capital acquiring LuminusFX, Hilbert Group acquiring Nordark, and Zebec acquiring Gatenox.

VC CT: What the VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

Miles Jennings (a16z crypto)

• Critiqued foundation-led governance, arguing it has become a structural liability under evolving regulatory pressures. Jennings advocated for developer-led networks and onchain legal tooling as scalable, incentive-aligned alternatives.

Mason Nystrom (Pantera Capital)

• Highlighted Solana’s fixed income potential, pointing to the rise of yield-bearing stablecoins, DeFi maturity, and SOL’s changing inflation as drivers of Pendle-style protocols and RWA-based fixed yield products.

Salvador Gala (Escape Velocity)

• Introduced the Value-Added Bandwidth (VAB) thesis, envisioning a new decentralized wireless (DeWi) layer where decentralized networks monetize bandwidth by layering services like scraping, indexing, and private routing to unlock new margins and use cases in AI, DePIN, and content delivery.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 32
• Total Raised: $1.2B
• Acquisitions: 6

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

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