Crypto Venture Weekly: October 20-24, 2025

Introduction

31 projects raised $197 million this week, led by Pave Bank ($39M) and Sign ($25.5M), while Greenlane Holdings allocated $110 million to Berachain in digital asset treasuries. Coinbase, FalconX, Modern Treasury, and Aave led a wave of nine acquisitions, marking one of the most active M&A weeks of the year. On Crypto Twitter, Chris Dixon highlighted crypto’s institutional and regulatory maturation in a16z’s State of Crypto report, Kyle Samani outlined Multicoin’s thesis on fully homomorphic encryption as the key to private DeFi, and Sunny Shi urged optimism amid industry pessimism, drawing parallels between crypto’s evolution and the early internet. Here’s the breakdown of this week’s top deals and insights.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Pave Bank ($39M), Sign ($25.5M), Limitless Labs ($10M), BitcoinOS ($10M), Natural ($9.8M), pieverse ($7M), Turtle Club ($5.5M), TBook ($5M), Open Campus ($5M), and Printr ($2M).
• Digital Asset Treasuries: Greenlane Holdings ($110M for BERA).
• M&A Activity: Coinbase acquired Echo, FalconX acquired 21shares, and Modern Treasury acquired Beam, Aave acquired Stable Finance, Pump.fun acquired Padre, Farcaster acquired clanker, Fireblocks acquired Dynamic, Pier Two acquired Blockport, and Blockstream acquired Berglinde.
• VC CT: Chris Dixon highlighted crypto’s maturation across infrastructure, adoption, and regulation in a16z’s 2025 State of Crypto report; Kyle Samani outlined Multicoin’s thesis that fully homomorphic encryption is the most scalable path to private DeFi; and Sunny Shi argued against rising industry pessimism, comparing crypto’s evolution to the early internet’s trajectory.

Notable Deals

31 projects collectively raised $197 million this week. Here are the ten that stood out:

Pave Bank

• The Pitch: Georgia-based bank offering programmable banking services across both fiat and digital assets
• Round: $39 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Accel with participation from Wintermute, Tether, Quona Capital, Helios Digital Ventures, and more

Sign

• The Pitch: Building blockchain-based systems for money, identity, and verifiable credentials
• Round: $25.5 million Strategic
• Investor: YZi Labs

Limitless Labs

• The Pitch: Prediction market platform built on Base
• Round: $10 million Seed
• Investors: Led by 1confirmation with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Arrington XRP Capital, and more

BitcoinOS

• The Pitch: BTCFi protocol aiming to transform Bitcoin into a programmable base layer for digital economies
• Round: $10 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Greenfield Capital with participation from Paul Taylor, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, FalconX, and more

Natural

• The Pitch: Payments ecosystem for AI agents
• Round: $9.8 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Abstract Ventures and Human Capital, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Immad Akhund, Guillermo Rauch, and more

pieverse

• The Pitch: Payment and compliance infrastructure offering onchain verifiable invoices, receipts, and checks
• Round: $7 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Animoca Brands and UOB Venture Management, with participation from Morningstar Ventures, Signum Capital, and more

Turtle Club

• The Pitch: Onchain liquidity distribution protocol
• Round: $5.5 million funding
• Investors: GSR Investments, SNZ Holding, Amber Group, Bitscale Capital, Flowdesk, FalconX, and more

TBook

• The Pitch: Building infrastructure to power stablecoin payouts and RWA distribution
• Round: $5 million Strategic
• Investors: Led by Sui Foundation with participation from KuCoin Ventures, Bonfire Union, VistaLabs, and more

Open Campus

• The Pitch: Financial and reputation layer for education
• Round: $5 million Strategic
• Investors: Animoca Brands, YZi Labs, Shima Capital, Polygon, Kingsway Capital, Caladan, and more

Printr

• The Pitch: Chain-abstracted token launchpad
• Round: $2 million Extended Seed
• Investors: Mirana Ventures, Sfermion, Mantle Network, Flowdesk, L1D, and more

Digital Asset Treasuries

In recent months, digital asset treasury activity has accelerated, with corporate and structured vehicles increasingly accumulating tokens at scale. Here are notable examples from the past week:

Greenlane Holdings

• The Pitch: Greenlane Holdings (Nasdaq: GNLN) raised $110 million through a private placement to initiate its Berachain (BERA) cryptocurrency treasury strategy, becoming one of the largest publicly traded BERA holders.
• Round: $110 million private placement
• Investors: Led by Polychain Capital with participation from Blockchain.com, Kraken, North Rock Digital, CitizenX, dao5, and others.

M&A Activity

Coinbase acquired Echo

Coinbase acquired Echo, an onchain capital formation platform founded by Cobie, for $375 million to expand its role in powering decentralized fundraising. Echo enables projects to raise directly from their communities through private sales or self-hosted public token offerings via its Sonar product, having facilitated over $200 million across 300 deals to date. The acquisition complements Coinbase’s earlier purchase of LiquiFi, extending its stack from token creation and cap table management to fundraising and secondary trading. Together, these integrations position Coinbase to offer a full lifecycle platform for crypto issuers and investors.

FalconX acquired 21shares

FalconX acquired 21shares, an issuer of cryptocurrency ETPs managing over $11 billion in assets, to expand its institutional prime brokerage platform. The acquisition combines FalconX’s global trading, credit, and infrastructure capabilities with 21shares’ expertise in ETP product development and distribution. 21shares will continue operating independently under FalconX, maintaining its existing products and leadership team while advancing a shared goal of bridging traditional finance and digital assets.

Modern Treasury acquired Beam

Modern Treasury acquired Beam, a payments platform specializing in instant fiat and stablecoin transfers, to unify traditional and blockchain-based payment rails within a single infrastructure. The acquisition expands Modern Treasury’s capabilities beyond ACH, wires, and RTP to include stablecoin, Push-to-Card, and FedNow payments through one API, while handling KYC, KYB, and AML compliance natively. Beam’s founder, Dan Mottice, will join as Head of Beam, as the company integrates Beam’s orchestration technology to enable instant payouts, improved FX efficiency, and next-generation liquidity management for global enterprises.

Aave acquired Stable Finance

Aave acquired Stable Finance, a fintech company specializing in consumer-focused stablecoin savings applications, to accelerate its expansion into mainstream onchain finance. The acquisition brings Stable’s engineering team and founder, Mario Baxter Cabrera, who joins as Aave Labs’ Director of Product, to advance the firm’s roadmap for accessible DeFi products. Stable’s technology, which streamlines stablecoin savings via bank and card integrations, will be integrated into Aave’s upcoming consumer offerings, complementing institutional products like Horizon.

Pump.fun acquired Padre

Pump.fun acquired Padre, a professional trading terminal serving Solana, BNB Chain, Base, and Ethereum, to strengthen its product offering for traders and liquidity providers. Padre provides a high-speed trading interface with advanced analytics, competitive fees, cashback rewards, and dedicated user support. The acquisition supports Pump.fun’s goal of expanding access to tokenized opportunities by integrating professional trading tools within its launchpad ecosystem. Padre will continue operating independently while receiving upgrades in user experience, data, and performance, particularly for tokens launched on Pump.fun. The PADRE token will no longer have utility on the platform.

Other acquisitions include Farcaster acquiring clanker, Fireblocks acquiring Dynamic, Pier Two acquiring Blockport, and Blockstream acquiring Berglinde.

VC CT: What VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

Chris Dixon (a16z crypto)

• Released a16z’s 2025 State of Crypto report highlighting the industry’s maturation through institutional adoption, stablecoin growth, improved infrastructure, new consumer applications, and advancing regulatory clarity.

Kyle Samani (Multicoin Capital)

• Outlined Multicoin’s thesis on onchain privacy, arguing that fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) offers the most scalable path to private DeFi compared to TEEs and ZKPs, and highlighted Zama’s progress toward launching its FHE-based mainnet.

Sunny Shi (Syncracy Capital)

• Published an article rejecting growing pessimism within the crypto industry, arguing that market frustration has overshadowed genuine technological progress and drawing parallels between crypto’s current stage and the early internet’s long path to mainstream success.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 31
• Total Raised: $197M
• Digital Asset Treasuries: $110M
• Acquisitions: 9
• 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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