12 projects raised $136 million this week, led by Lighter ($68M) and LISA ($12M), while Strive, VCI Global, Cypherpunk, Upexi, and Strategy collectively deployed over $412 million into digital asset treasury positions. Public, Rain, Exodus, and RISE announced acquisitions across crypto-IRA infrastructure, loyalty and payments, Latin American merchant services, and onchain orderbooks, alongside Dromos Labs’ consolidation of Aerodrome and Velodrome into a unified DEX. Nick Matthew examined the rise of stablecoin-first neobanks, Scott Duke Kominers detailed how arcade tokens can anchor onchain marketplace design, and Karthik Senthil outlined a crypto-coordinated crowdsourced training stack for AI. Here’s the breakdown of this week’s top deals and insights.
M&A Activity: Public acquired Alto’s crypto IRA business, Rain acquired Uptop, Aerodrome merged with Velodrome, Exodus acquired Grateful, and RISE acquired BSX Labs.
VC CT: Nick Matthewexamined the emergence of stablecoin-first neobanks and their revenue potential; Scott Duke Kominersoutlined how arcade tokens can underpin onchain marketplace economies; and Karthik Senthildetailed how crypto-coordinated networks could enable a crowdsourced AI training stack.
Notable Deals
12 projects collectively raised $136 million this week. Here are the eight that stood out:
The Pitch: VCI Global (Nasdaq: VCIG) acquired $100 million in OOB tokens and was appointed Treasury Manager of the OOB Foundation, partnering with OOBIT, where Tether is the largest shareholder.
Round: $50 million Zcash private placement purchase
Investors: Led by Winklevoss Capital, with participation from private investors
Upexi
The Pitch: Upexi (Nasdaq: UPXI), a Solana-focused DAT and consumer brands company, authorized a $50 million share repurchase program to buy back its outstanding common stock.
Round: $50 million share repurchase program
Investors: Public market investors
Strategy
The Pitch: Strategy Inc (Nasdaq: MSTR) acquired 487 BTC (~$49.9 million) at an average price of $102,557 per Bitcoin, bringing total holdings to 641,692 BTC (~$67.8 billion).
Round: $49.9 million Bitcoin purchase via at-the-market offering
Investors: Public market investors
M&A Activity
Public acquired Alto
PublicacquiredAlto’s crypto IRA business for $65 million in cash and stock, adding roughly $600 million in retirement-focused digital asset accounts to its platform as it expands toward older, upmarket investors. The deal brings one of the few crypto IRA providers directly into a retail brokerage environment, reflecting growing demand for tax-advantaged long-term crypto exposure. Public plans to integrate Alto’s crypto accounts in 2026, with Alto remaining a service provider while continuing to operate its non-crypto alternative asset business independently.
Rain acquired Uptop
RainacquiredUptop, an onchain rewards platform that converts everyday card purchases into loyalty across categories such as retail, entertainment, travel, and dining. The acquisition expands Rain’s enterprise-grade stablecoin payments infrastructure by integrating rewards into its full-stack offering, which includes on-ramps, wallets, Visa-enabled cards, off-ramps, and payouts. By incorporating Uptop’s Avalanche-based technology and card-linked rewards system, Rain enables partners to launch branded cards and wallets with built-in loyalty programs. Uptop will continue to operate as an independent brand under Rain.
Aerodrome merged with Velodrome
Dromos Labsannounced that Aerodrome on Base and Velodrome on Optimism will merge into Aero, a unified DEX architecture designed to consolidate liquidity and standardize its trading infrastructure across chains. Aerodrome, currently Base’s leading exchange by volume and fees, will serve as the central hub, while Aero extends execution and liquidity to Ethereum mainnet and Circle’sArc beginning in Q2 2026. The overhaul introduces METADEX03, a dual-engine system that reduces value leakage and routes all protocol revenue to users, including Slipstream V3, which internalizes MEV through an embedded auction mechanism. Under the token migration plan, Aerodrome holders will receive 94.5% of the new AERO token supply and Velodrome holders 5.55%.
Exodus acquired Grateful
ExodusacquiredGrateful, a Uruguay-based stablecoin payments orchestrator, to expand its merchant services footprint across Latin America and strengthen its stablecoin-based payments infrastructure. Grateful provides a blockchain-native payments stack for small businesses and independent workers, offering merchant dashboards, wallet-to-wallet payments, QR-based point-of-sale tools, ecommerce integrations, and instant settlement with lower fees and yield-bearing balances.
RISE acquired BSX Labs
RISEacquiredBSX Labs, developer of the BSX perpetuals exchange on Base, to accelerate its roadmap for fully onchain, synchronously composable orderbook infrastructure. BSX processed more than $15 billion in cumulative trading volume, and its hybrid orderbook architecture will help RISE build high-performance EVM-based primitives. As part of the deal, 1.5% of RISE’s forthcoming token supply will be allocated to BSX token holders through an airdrop. BSX’s exchange will wind down, while the team transitions to RISE to develop native orderbook products.
Explored the rise of stablecoin-first neobanks, arguing that as stablecoin supply scales toward $1 trillion, crypto-native financial platforms will capture billions in revenue by serving underbanked users.
Explained arcade tokens, non-speculative digital currencies for applications, arguing they can power loyalty systems, manage internal economies, and drive network effects as a foundational primitive for onchain marketplaces.
Introduced the crowdsourced training stack, where crypto-coordinated networks replace capital-intensive AI labs for scaling and fine-tuning models.
Quick Recap
Total Deals: 12
Total Raised: $136M
Digital Asset Treasuries: $412M
Acquisitions: 7
Newly Launched Funds: 0
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.
Alice is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Services team. She previously worked as a Research Analyst at The Block and was an Investment Intern at Variant Fund. Alice graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied Economics.
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.
Alice is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Services team. She previously worked as a Research Analyst at The Block and was an Investment Intern at Variant Fund. Alice graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied Economics.
