Crypto Venture Weekly: June 23-27, 2025

Introduction

28 projects raised $588 million this week, led by Kalshi ($185M) and Digital Asset ($135M), while Chainalysis acquired Nash to boost its AI capabilities. Galaxy Ventures closed a $175 million fund, Frachtis debuted with a $20 million seed-stage vehicle, and Novora launched as a new crypto-native proprietary investment firm. David Grider positioned Wall Street’s embrace of crypto as an inflection point, Kyle Samani spotlighted the emergence of user-driven token issuance, and Jake Chervinsky examined how shifting regulation enables a clearer split between token and equity value capture. Here’s the breakdown of this week’s top deals and insights.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Kalshi ($185M), Digital Asset ($135M), World Liberty Financial ($100M), Zama ($57M), Veda ($18M), GTE ($15M), Blueprint Finance ($9.5M), Yield.xyz ($5M), Spekter Games ($5M), dKloud ($3.15M), Inference Labs ($3M), and Sphinx ($2M).
• M&A Activity: Chainalysis acquired Nash.
• New Funds: Galaxy Ventures Fund I ($175M), Frachtis Fund I ($20M), and Novora launched.
• VC CT: David Grider sees Wall Street’s crypto adoption as a historic shift echoing the internet boom; Kyle Samani highlights the rise of user-driven token issuance through frictionless platforms; and Jake Chervinsky argues that regulatory clarity creates an opportunity to realign token and equity value capture.

Notable Deals

28 projects collectively raised $588 million last week. Here are the twelve that stood out:

Kalshi

• The Pitch: A regulated exchange and prediction market
• Round: $185 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation
• Investors: Led by Paradigm with participation from Multicoin Capital, Sequoia Capital, Bond Capital, and more

Digital Asset

• The Pitch: Developer of Canton Network, an L1 blockchain purpose-built for institutional finance
• Round: $135 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb, with participation from Polychain Capital, Circle Ventures, Republic, Goldman Sachs, Paxos, Citadel Securities, and more

World Liberty Financial

• The Pitch: Trump-backed DeFi platform
• Round: $100 million Private Token Sale
• Investor: Aqua1

Zama

• The Pitch: An open-source cryptography company enabling developers to launch confidential smart contracts on any blockchain
• Round: $57 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation
• Investors: Led by Pantera Capital and Blockchange Ventures

Veda

• The Pitch: DeFi vault infrastructure for institutions to launch and manage onchain financial products
• Round: $18 million funding
• Investors: Led by CoinFund with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, GSR, Maelstrom, and more

GTE

• The Pitch: A decentralized exchange built on MegaETH featuring a native launchpad, AMM, CLOB, and price aggregator
• Round: $15 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Paradigm

Blueprint Finance

• The Pitch: The core contributor behind Concrete (DeFi liquidity layer on Ethereum) and Glow Finance (Liquidity hub on Solana)
• Round: $9.5 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Polychain Capital with participation from YZi Labs, Selini Capital, Presto Labs, Gate Ventures, Halo Capital, Portal Ventures, VanEck, and more

Yield.xyz

• The Pitch: A platform that aggregates staking and DeFi yields into one set of APIs
• Round: $5 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Multicoin Capital and Lightspeed Ventures

Spekter Games

• The Pitch: A next-gen game publisher focused on high-quality rogue-lite mobile games with integrated Web3 incentives
• Round: $5 million
• Investors: a16z speedrun, Alumni Ventures Group, LVP, BRV Capital Management, Accelerator Ventures, and more

dKloud

• The Pitch: Decentralized cloud infrastructure platform for enterprises
• Round: $3.15 million funding
• Investors: Animoca Brands, GBV Capital, Blizzard Fund, Brinc, Maven Capital, Avalaunch, Baboon VC, and more

Inference Labs

• The Pitch: Building a decentralized trust layer for AI agents and off-chain computation
• Round: $3 million
• Investors: Big Brain Holdings, Delphi Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Santiago R Santos, Momentum 6, Bitscale Capital, and more

Sphinx

• The Pitch: Building an institutional-grade commodity derivatives exchange on a permissioned L1 for modern energy trading
• Round: $2 million Pre-Seed
• Investors: Led by Eckhardt Capital with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Blockchain Founders Fund, Blizzard Fund, and more

M&A Activity

Chainalysis acquired Nash

Chainalysis acquired Nash, an AI-powered discovery platform built by the team behind the Once Upon block explorer, to strengthen its intelligence and search capabilities. Nash’s founders will lead a new AI platform team, integrating natural-language tools that unify onchain, filesystem, and application data. The acquisition enhances Chainalysis’ existing AI efforts, including Alterya and Rapid, by improving data accessibility for investigations and compliance workflows.

Funds

Galaxy Venture Fund – $175M

Galaxy Ventures closed its oversubscribed $175 million Fund I, backed by global institutional and strategic investors. The fund targets early-stage startups developing infrastructure and applications for the onchain economy, with a focus on stablecoins, payments, tokenization, and supporting software. Led by Will Nuelle and Mike Giampapa, the team blends deep crypto market expertise with hands-on support via Galaxy’s platform and business lines. To date, Galaxy Ventures Fund I has invested in companies such as 1Money, Arch Lending, Ethena, Monad, and Yellow Card.

Frachtis Fund I – $20M

Frachtis closed its inaugural $20 million Fund I. LPs include Chorus One, Rockaway X, Theta Invest, and cyber.Fund. The vehicle will deploy pre-seed and seed capital to technical founders building decentralized infrastructure, crypto-AI middleware, and consumer-facing apps. Led by former Chorus One CIO Xavier Meegan, the investment committee combines validator-grade technical expertise with hands-on support in go-to-market, investor access, and early customer acquisition. So far, the fund has invested in eight projects: Turtle Club, Hyve, Oya Chat, LYS Labs, Infinity G AI, Aizel Network, Enclave, and Blockless, and it plans to back roughly 24 additional startups over the next two years.

Novora

Novora was launched as a crypto-native proprietary investment firm founded by Connor King, with backing from several industry veterans. It invests across public and private markets, combining capital with operational involvement. Novora applies a principal-driven, activist approach, focusing on teams building in open capital markets and infrastructure. Connor brings nearly a decade of experience from roles at MoonPay, Arca, Social Capital, and Irys.

VC CT: What the VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

David Grider (Finality Capital)

• Frames Wall Street’s growing embrace of digital assets, through IPOs, ETFs, and public crypto-financing vehicles, as a turning point that mirrors the early internet boom.

Kyle Samani (Multicoin Capital)

• Highlighted how new platforms and trading interfaces are lowering barriers for asset issuance and participation, driving a wave of user-generated tokens outside traditional financial systems.

Jake Chervinsky (Variant Fund)

• Outlined that tokens should capture onchain value while equity should capture offchain value, and argued that evolving regulation creates an opportunity for founders to realign these models.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 28
• Total Raised: $588M
• Acquisitions: 2
• Newly Launched Funds: Galaxy Venture Fund – $175M, Frachtis Fund I – $20M, and Novora

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

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