23 projects raised $245 million last week, led by Hypernative’s $40 million and Yupp’s $33 million rounds, while Stripe acquired Privy, Humanity Protocol acquired Moongate, and Zelgor acquired Mixie. No Limit Holdings and ClearVue Partners closed their oversubscribed $115 million CVP NoLimit Fund II to back frontier blockchain sectors. a16z crypto outlined 11 emerging crypto-AI use cases; Shawn Ding highlighted Binance Alpha’s superior launch-peak upside; and Lex Sokolin cautioned that fintech IPOs often follow a hype-to-fair-value pattern. Here’s the breakdown of last week’s top deals and insights.
StripeacquiredPrivy, a wallet infrastructure provider powering over 75 million accounts across more than 1,000 developer teams, to bolster its crypto capabilities and improve crypto-fiat interoperability. Privy will continue operating independently, offering its developer-focused API for seamless wallet creation, transaction signing, and asset interaction. The acquisition positions Stripe to better support onchain applications like Farcaster, Hyperliquid, and Toku, while reinforcing its strategy to make digital ownership more accessible by integrating crypto-native experiences into mainstream fintech workflows.
Zelgor, a Netcapital portfolio company, acquiredMixie, a blockchain-native platform for Web3 gaming, creator media, and decentralized engagement. Mixie’s ecosystem includes an AI-powered no-code game engine, a media network with over 100 million monthly impressions, and an accelerator for early-stage crypto projects. The acquisition enhances Zelgor’s ability to create transformative gaming experiences and scale across Web2 and Web3.
Outlined 11 emerging use cases at the intersection of crypto and AI that explore decentralized identity, infrastructure, economic models, and user ownership of AI interactions.
Analyzed token performance across Binance's listing venues (Alpha, IDO, Futures, Spot) and subsequent CEX listings, finding that most tokens peak at launch, with Alpha showing the highest upside potential but greater variance.
Warned that despite Circle's recent 3x surge, fintech IPOs often follow a pattern of initial hype and FOMO, followed by a return to fair value, citing examples of Robinhood, Marqeta, and SoFi.
Quick Recap
Total Deals: 23
Total Raised: $245M
Acquisitions: 3
New Funds: CVP NoLimit Fund II – $115M
That’s a wrap for this week’s Crypto Venture Weekly. Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week!
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Jake is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Research team. He previously worked as an Investment Analyst at an AI-driven crypto research platform and as a Venture Analyst at a digital assets venture fund. He advised multiple RWA tokenization projects on tokenomics. Jake graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied Philosophy and Finance.
Jake is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Research team. He previously worked as an Investment Analyst at an AI-driven crypto research platform and as a Venture Analyst at a digital assets venture fund. He advised multiple RWA tokenization projects on tokenomics. Jake graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied Philosophy and Finance.