Crypto Venture Weekly: May 26-31, 2025

Introduction

25 projects raised $109M last week, led by Conduit ($36M), Beam ($7M), and Donut ($7M), while Blockchain Builders and Metalayer each launched early-stage funds focused on the intersection of crypto and AI, and on financial infrastructure. Orange Cap Games acquired Moonbirds from Yuga Labs to expand its Web3 gaming IP portfolio. Rob Hadick spotlighted stablecoins’ B2B adoption surge, Wei Dai introduced a design constraint framework for onchain privacy, and Simon Kim cautioned against frothy NAV premiums in crypto treasury stocks. Here’s your breakdown of the week’s top deals and insights.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Conduit ($36M), Beam ($7M), Donut ($7M), Rumi ($4.7M), Oncade ($4M), Asigna ($3M), Assisterr ($2.8M), and Dexari ($2.3M).
• M&A Activity: Orange Cap Games acquired Moonbirds.
• Funds: Blockchain Builders Fund I ($28M) and Metalayer Fund I ($25M) launched.
• VC CT: Rob Hadick spotlights stablecoins’ growing B2B utility; Wei Dai presents the Onchain Privacy Trilemma as a core design constraint in DeFi; and Simon Kim warns of collapsing NAV premiums in crypto treasury stocks amid rising ETF access.

Notable Deals

25 projects collectively raised $109 million last week. Here are eight that stood out:

Conduit

• The Pitch: A unified, onchain payments layer that makes cross-border business payments in stablecoins or local currencies nearly instant
• Round: $36 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Dragonfly and Altos Ventures, with participation from Digital Currency Group, Circle Ventures, Sound Ventures, and more

Beam

• The Pitch: A stablecoin-based payment service provider built to deliver faster, cheaper, and smarter global money movement
• Round: $7 million funding
• Investors: Led by Castle Island Ventures with participation from Arca, Bankless Ventures, Archetype, and more

Donut

• The Pitch: An agentic browser built for crypto
• Round: $7 million Pre-Seed
• Investors: Led by Hack VC, Bitkraft Ventures, and HongShan, with participation from Sky9 Capital, Makers Fund, Vessel Capital, and more

Rumi

• The Pitch: Building decentralized AI infrastructure for media
• Round: $4.7 million Pre-Seed
• Investors: Led by a16z CSX and Escape Velocity, with participation from NxGen, Contango Digital Assets, Monke Ventures, and more

Oncade

• The Pitch: Community-driven game store with direct distribution and player monetization
• Round: $4 million Seed
• Investors: Led by a16z CSX with participation from founders and industry leaders

Asigna

• The Pitch: Multisignature wallet provider for the Bitcoin ecosystem with more than $1.1 billion in TVL
• Round: $3 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Hivemind Capital Partners and Tykhe Block Ventures, with participation from Portal Ventures, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Sats Ventures, and more

Assisterr

• The Pitch: A network of specialized small language models built on Solana
• Round: $2.8 million funding at a $75 million valuation
• Investors: Outlier Ventures, Web3.com Ventures, Google for Startups Accelerator, and more

Dexari

• The Pitch: A mobile trading platform powered by Hyperliquid
• Round: $2.3 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Lemniscap and Prelude, with participation from Kiln, Binance.US, Will Price, and more

M&A Activity

Orange Cap Games acquired Moonbirds

Orange Cap Games (OCG) acquired Moonbirds in a deal that transfers ownership of the Moonbirds, Mythics, and Oddities NFT collections from Yuga Labs, marking a strategic expansion of OCG’s Web3-native gaming universe. The acquisition brings Moonbirds under the umbrella of the Vibes trading card game creator, with plans to develop new products, integrate the IP into the metaverse platform Otherside, and commit to ApeChain for any future Layer-2 deployments.

Funds

Blockchain Builders Fund I – $28M

Blockchain Builders closed a $28 million debut venture fund, targeting pre-seed and seed-stage crypto startups emerging from Stanford and peer academic institutions. Backed by founders with roots in Stanford’s blockchain research, the fund has already deployed over $16 million into ventures including modular AI layer 0G, privacy-focused compute startup Nexus Labs, and decentralized AI cloud Hyperbolic. With a focus on the intersection of AI and blockchain, Blockchain Builders plans to allocate the remaining capital by year-end and is exploring a second fund to expand its university-linked deal sourcing to schools like Carnegie Mellon and Princeton.

Metalayer Fund I – $25M

Metalayer launched its $25 million venture fund to back early-stage crypto startups modernizing global financial infrastructure. Led by alumni of Two Sigma, Metalayer Fund I applies a data-driven approach to long-term venture investing, with a focus on blockchain applications in financial services, particularly stablecoin payments, trading infrastructure, and private credit. Metalayer is building infrastructure to enhance its investment process and is backed by a range of institutions, family offices, and industry executives.

VC CT: What the VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

Rob Hadick (Dragonfly)

• Shared key takeaways from Artemis’ report on stablecoin payments usage, noting that B2B transactions now dominate the landscape with over $36B in annualized volume as of February 2025, surpassing P2P use cases.

Wei Dai (1kx)

• Published a thesis arguing that the Onchain Privacy Trilemma is an unavoidable constraint on DeFi design, where systems must trade off between maximal utility, self-sovereign privacy, and threat resistance, achieving only two at a time. The framework illustrates that fully private and maximally useful systems cannot be made traceable, and that pragmatic solutions like Privacy Pools offer the most workable path forward under current social and technical realities.

Simon Kim (Hashed)

• Analyzed the crypto treasury stocks, highlighting how extreme NAV premiums, driven by scarcity, ecosystem revenue models, and regulatory shifts, are poised to collapse as ETF accessibility improves and investor leverage unwinds.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 25
• Total Raised: $109M
• Acquisitions: 1
• New Funds: Blockchain Builders Fund I – $28M and Metalayer Fund I – $25M

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

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