Crypto Venture Weekly: September 22-26, 2025

Introduction

24 projects raised $912 million this week, led by Kraken ($500M) and Fnality ($136M), while Strive and ETHZilla announced over $1.03 billion in digital asset treasury allocations. Naver acquired Upbit, Strive acquired Semler Scientific, and Honeycomb Protocol acquired GameShift. Archetype also launched its $100 million third fund. Jon Charbonneau proposed cutting HYPE’s supply by 45% to improve valuation metrics, Ryan Watkins argued digital asset treasuries are evolving into long-term economic engines, and Tushar Jain assessed Tether’s $500B valuation, highlighting both risks and enduring brand loyalty. Here’s the breakdown of this week’s top deals and insights.

Key Highlights

• Notable Deals: Kraken ($500M), Fnality ($136M), zerohash ($104M), RedotPay ($47M), Bastion ($14.6M), BULK ($8M), Cloudburst ($7M), Divine ($6M), Belfort ($6M), Shield ($5M), Coop Records ($4.5M), Melee Markets ($3.5M), and RockSolid ($2.8M).
• Digital Asset Treasuries: Strive ($675M for BTC) and ETHZilla ($350M for ETH).
• M&A Activity: Naver acquired Upbit, Strive acquired Semler Scientific, and Honeycomb Protocol acquired GameShift.
• New Funds: Archetype III ($100M) launched.
• VC CT: Jon Charbonneau proposed cutting HYPE’s supply by 45% to improve valuation metrics; Ryan Watkins argued digital asset treasuries are evolving into long-term economic engines; and Tushar Jain assessed Tether’s $500B valuation, noting earnings risks but strong brand loyalty.

Notable Deals

24 projects collectively raised $912 million this week. Here are the 13 that stood out:

Kraken

• The Pitch: Centralized crypto exchange preparing to IPO in 2026
• Round: $500 million funding at a $15 billion valuation
• Investors: Tribe Capital, Arjun Sethi, and more

Fnality

• The Pitch: Network of decentralized wholesale payment systems regulated by central banks
• Round: $136 million Series C
• Investors: Led by Citi, Temasek, WisdomTree, Tradeweb, Bank of America, and KBC Bank, with participation from Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq Ventures, and more

zerohash

• The Pitch: Regulatory-compliant infrastructure and APIs that let platforms embed trading, payments, and tokenization services
• Round: $104 million Extended Series D
• Investors: Led by Interactive Brokers with participation from Jump Crypto, Liberty City Ventures, Nyca Partners, IMC Trading, Morgan Stanley, and more

RedotPay

• The Pitch: Hong Kong-based crypto payment platform offering physical Visa cards
• Round: $47 million Strategic
• Investors: Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, and Vertex Ventures

Bastion

• The Pitch: Regulated stablecoin issuance platform for institutions and enterprises
• Round: $14.6 million funding
• Investors: Led by Coinbase Ventures with participation from a16z crypto, HASHED, Sony Innovation Fund, and Samsung Next

BULK

• The Pitch: Decentralized perpetuals exchange built on Solana
• Round: $8 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Robot Ventures and 6th Man Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Mirana Ventures, Wintermute, and more

Cloudburst

• The Pitch: Offchain crypto intelligence platform
• Round: $7 million Series A
• Investors: Led by Borderless Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Bloccelerate VC, and more

Divine

• The Pitch: Building Credit, an automated, undercollateralized lending system built on stablecoins
• Round: $6 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Paradigm with participation from Nascent, Tarun Chitra, Hart Lambur, and more

Belfort

• The Pitch: Develops hardware and software for encrypted computation
• Round: $6 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Vsquared Ventures with participation from Anagram Crypto, Credibly Neutral, Inovia Capital, and more

Shield

• The Pitch: Stablecoin neobank designed specifically for global trade businesses
• Round: $5 million Seed
• Investors: Led by Giant Ventures with participation from a16z crypto, Factor Capital, First Check Ventures, and more

Coop Records

• The Pitch: Music launchpad built on Base
• Round: $4.5 million Seed
• Investors: Led by 1kx and Nascent, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Mask Network, Variant, 1confirmation, and more

Melee Markets

• The Pitch: Permissionless prediction platform allowing anyone to make a market about anything
• Round: $3.5 million Pre-Seed
• Investors: Led by Variant and DBA, with participation from a strategic group of angel investors

RockSolid

• The Pitch: DeFi platform offering white-label vaults for protocols to launch structured products onchain
• Round: $2.8 million Pre-Seed
• Investors: Led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from GSR, IDEO Colab Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Blockchain Builders Fund, 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:

Strive

• The Pitch: Strive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASST) added 5,816 BTC to its corporate treasury at an average price of $116,047 per Bitcoin, for a total of $675 million. The purchase brings Strive’s total Bitcoin holdings to 5,886 BTC.
• Round: $675 million Bitcoin purchase
• Investors: N/A

ETHZilla

• The Pitch: ETHZilla Corporation (Nasdaq: ETHZ) announced a $350 million add-on convertible debenture investment from an institutional investment partner. The company amended the terms of its existing $156.5 million debenture (reduced interest rate from 4% to 2%) and raised additional capital, bringing the total convertible debentures to approximately $500 million. ETHZilla aims to deploy ETH into Layer-2 protocols and tokenized real-world assets, leveraging Ethereum’s yield opportunities.
• Round: $350 million add-on convertible debenture
• Investors: Undisclosed

M&A Activity

Naver acquired Upbit

Naver, South Korea’s dominant internet platform, acquired leading crypto exchange Upbit via a comprehensive stock swap through its fintech arm, NAVER Financial. With 25 million daily users and recent acquisitions in unlisted stocks and OTC licenses, Naver now consolidates crypto, stock trading, and payments under one roof. Upbit, which commands around 69% of Korea’s crypto market, adds 16 million crypto traders to Naver’s ecosystem.

Strive acquired Semler Scientific

Strive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASST) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Semler Scientific (Nasdaq: SMLR) in an all-stock transaction, valuing Semler at a 210% premium. As two pioneering Bitcoin treasury companies, the merger creates a scaled platform positioned to rapidly grow BTC holdings and strengthen capital efficiency. Each Semler share will be exchanged for 21.05 Strive Class A shares. Semler’s Executive Chairman, Eric Semler, will join Strive’s Board of Directors.

Honeycomb Protocol acquired GameShift

Honeycomb Protocol acquired GameShift from Solana Labs to launch the first consumer-ready Web3 gaming platform on Solana. The acquisition combines Honeycomb’s modular onchain systems, like player profiles and mission frameworks, with GameShift’s gasless wallets, fiat payments, and embedded marketplaces, aiming to eliminate technical friction for both developers and players. GameShift will now serve as the consumer portal within Honeycomb’s unified platform to drive seamless onboarding and cross-game identity.

Newly Launched Funds

Archetype III – $100M

Archetype closed its $100 million third fund to back early-stage blockchain startups, with support from pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors including Accolade Partners, TrueBridge Capital, and Sapphire Ventures. Led by founder and general partner Ash Egan, the firm positions the current market as “post-AOL, pre-Uber” for crypto adoption and will continue focusing on seed-stage investments in infrastructure, consumer applications, and onchain financial primitives. Archetype has already begun deploying Fund III into stealth startups, adding to a portfolio that includes Privy (acquired by Stripe), Monad, Farcaster, Ritual, and Hut 8.

VC CT: What VCs are saying on Crypto Twitter

Jon Charbonneau (DBA)

• Proposed reducing HYPE’s total supply by over 45% through burning reserves and revoking unissued allocations, framing the change as improved accounting that better aligns valuation metrics with protocol economics.

Ryan Watkins (Syncrancy Capital)

• Argued that digital asset treasuries are evolving from speculative vehicles into long-term economic engines, using programmability to manage balance sheets and compete as institutional-scale capital allocators.

Tushar Jain (Multicoin Capital)

• Commented on Tether’s reported $20B raise at a $500B valuation, noting earnings risks from falling rates, rising stablecoin competition, and pressure to share yield, while highlighting its strong brand loyalty in developing markets.

Quick Recap

• Total Deals: 24
• Total Raised: $912M
• Digital Asset Treasuries: $1.03B
• Acquisitions: 3
• Newly Launched Funds: Archetype III ($100M)

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

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