venture

Circle stated on the X platform that Circle Ventures is purchasing AAVE tokens because strong DeFi infrastructure does not build itself.Aave is helping to shape the future of on-chain finance, and Circle is supporting this ecosystem and the entire community built around it.

The Block announced the appointment of senior media and technology executive Steve Chung as CEO to drive the company's institutional expansion. At the same time, Foresight Ventures committed to an additional $10 million investment to support its next phase of development.Former CEO Larry Cermak will continue to serve as president, focusing on research and product operations. Steve Chung's career began at Goldman Sachs, where he served as Chief Growth Officer at Fox Corporation, Chief Digital Officer at Fox Television, CEO of CJ ENM America, and Chief Operating Officer at Azuki. He stated that he will leverage AI to enhance the depth, speed, and practicality of insights, transforming The Block into a global platform for digital asset investors and decision-makers.Foresight Ventures partner Zac Tsui stated that Steve's background in capital markets, media, and the crypto industry makes him the ideal leader to guide the company in becoming a global institutional platform.

According to official news, Four Pillars announced that it has obtained Series A financing from Pantera Capital and Further Ventures, with the specific amount undisclosed.It will transition from a previous research institution to a blockchain research and infrastructure provider aimed at institutional users. It is reported that in the three years since its establishment, Four Pillars has collaborated with over 100 protocols and companies, releasing more than 600 research reports. In the future, it will focus on three main directions: FP Research (divided into five specialized departments: crypto, investment, institutions, Asia, and technology), FP Validated (institutional-level validator infrastructure providing staking services), and FP Institution (a newly established institutional department offering seminars and consulting services).

AI digital asset trading agency platform Fere AI announced the completion of a $1.3 million financing round, led by Ethereal Ventures, with participation from Galaxy Vision Hill and Kosmos Ventures.The platform supports cross-chain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Base, allowing users to describe trading objectives in natural language, with AI agents handling trade execution. The new funds will be used to accelerate platform feature development and optimize trading execution strategies.

According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency venture capital firm Blockchain Capital is simultaneously raising two new funds, with a total target size of $700 million, namely its seventh early-stage fund and its second growth fund.Insiders revealed that the firm has begun deploying some of the newly raised capital, and the entire financing round is expected to be completed within five to six months.

According to The New York Times, Robinhood Ventures invested $75 million in OpenAI.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, as the situation in the Middle East has temporarily eased and energy prices have fallen, global risk appetite has marginally improved, stock indices have reached new highs, and both the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields have declined. However, gold remains strong, indicating that while the market is flowing back into risk assets, the demand for safe-haven assets has not completely faded. Against this backdrop, the cryptocurrency market has seen a slight rebound overall, with BTC and ETH rising 4.3% and 3.3% respectively. ETF funds continue to see net inflows, but market sentiment remains cautious. Mainstream assets have performed relatively steadily with institutional support, while the recovery in the altcoin market remains limited.At the industry level, regulatory advancements and infrastructure development continue to deepen. France supports promoting the euro stablecoin plan under the MiCA framework to enhance the competitiveness of the local currency system; Circle has launched USDC Bridge to further improve the cross-chain liquidity structure of stablecoins; the X platform has introduced the Cashtags feature to accelerate the integration of trading and social scenarios. In terms of investment and financing, a total of 12 financing deals were disclosed this week, with a total amount of $41.8 million, among which Paxos Labs completed a $12 million financing focused on compliant DeFi infrastructure development, reflecting that capital is still continuously laying out around compliance and underlying capability upgrades.

According to Bloomberg, Dutch market maker Optiver has made an equity investment in the crypto and AI venture capital fund Eden Block to gain exposure to early-stage AI and digital asset companies.Optiver is currently not active in the crypto market but has previously made a strategic investment in the blockchain technology company Digital Asset Holdings. Optiver executives stated that digital assets are a direction the company is closely monitoring, and the intersection of AI and digital assets is particularly noteworthy. The founder of Eden Block stated that crypto and AI are two of the most transformative technologies in today's world, and their integration will impact the market at an unprecedented speed.

According to Bloomberg, Dutch market maker Optiver Holding BV has made an equity investment in the venture capital firm Eden Block, which focuses on cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.Michael Lepa, Head of Technology Ecosystem and Innovation at Optiver, stated that this investment aims to gain exposure to early-stage AI and digital asset companies, believing that both technologies are expected to reshape the underlying infrastructure of trading and capital markets.

South Korean crypto venture capital firm Hashed Ventures announced that it has secured an investment of 3 billion KRW (2.2 million USD), with participation from Hecto Innovation and Hecto Financial under the Hecto Group. The new funds will be injected into Hashed Ventures' "Hashed Venture Investment Fund No. 3," focusing on supporting new businesses such as digital asset wallets and stablecoin payment settlements.

According to The Block, the startup Brix, which is dedicated to tokenizing assets in emerging markets, announced the completion of a $5.5 million financing round, with participation from the venture capital arm of Yapi Kredi, FRWRD, Is Asset Management, as well as crypto investment firms Circle Ventures, ConsenSys, and Borderless Capital.Brix plans to launch on the MegaETH network, aiming to bring trading strategies traditionally dominated by large financial institutions on-chain.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, the temporary easing of macro risks has driven a market rebound, with the S&P 500 rising 3.48% last week, the Nasdaq rising 4.12%, and WTI crude oil falling over 14% in a week. The cryptocurrency market also saw a recovery, with BTC rising 2.5% and ETH rising 3.9%, accompanied by net inflows into spot ETFs, with BTC around $786 million and ETH around $187 million. However, market sentiment remains in the "extreme fear" zone, and the pace of capital inflow is relatively cautious.In terms of asset and industry dynamics, structural opportunities continue to emerge. Thanks to improvements in fundamentals brought about by network performance upgrades, TON rose 15.9%. At the same time, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the first batch of stablecoin licenses to Anchorpoint and HSBC, marking the official implementation of a compliant digital currency framework.On the financing front, activity remains relatively active, with a total of 11 transactions completed last week, disclosing a total financing amount of approximately $73.7 million, a significant rebound compared to the previous week, with funds mainly flowing into infrastructure and early-stage innovation sectors. Overall, while the market has shown signs of temporary recovery, structural differentiation continues, with capital and narratives gradually concentrating towards those with fundamental and compliance support.

Y Combinator has completed its first investment entirely in stablecoins, paying $500,000 USDC to the prediction market startup Totalis, completed through three transactions on the Solana blockchain: a $1 test payment, $124,999, and $375,000. The funds are held by the financial operations platform Ramp.Y Combinator President Garry Tan stated on X that YC will offer stablecoin payment options for any startup it invests in, not limited to crypto-related companies, and noted that the new track of financial revolution will not be built on ACH or wire transfers. YC crypto sector access partner Nemil Dalal had previously stated that stablecoin transfer costs are typically less than 1 cent, settling in less than 1 second, far superior to traditional cross-border wire transfers.

Varys Capital's head of venture capital, Tom Dunleavy, posted on X that the financing environment in the cryptocurrency market has changed dramatically over the past six months. Previously, VCs had to constantly network, write content, appear on podcasts, participate in Spaces, promote their investment logic, and make countless calls every week to invest in good projects... But now, as long as there is money to spend, that's enough. Current projects are being "pushed in front of VCs," without VCs having to actively dig for them; as long as others know you have funds, projects will come knocking.Most VC firms are now in one of the following three states: they are out of money, they are shifting to later stages (Series A and beyond), or they are fundraising (but not smoothly). Fundraising that used to take 2-3 weeks now often drags on for 2-3 months. Projects with questionable business models or those that simply replicate the latest hot narratives can no longer secure new funding or follow-on investments (which is a good thing).Currently, there may be fewer than 20 firms that are still making pre-seed/seed investments. VCs can basically choose the projects they want to invest in at their leisure and have more time to conduct due diligence. The investment cycle in 2025 and 2026 is likely to become a historically significant "golden opportunity," but the premise is that VCs can hold on.

According to GlobeNewswire, the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform Libeara announced the completion of a new round of financing, with the venture capital firm AlloyX Ventures under the Nasdaq-listed company SOLOWIN HOLDINGS participating. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed, and the new funds will be used to advance the construction of compliant digital infrastructure.

According to CoinDesk, OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital have invested in the Vietnamese cryptocurrency exchange CAEX (Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Exchange) and become its strategic partners.This financing raises CAEX's capital scale to approximately $380 million, reaching the entry threshold of the Vietnamese government's pilot program. This program is launched based on Resolution 05/2025, aiming to provide compliance licenses for local cryptocurrency trading platforms and guide trading activities back to the domestic market.It is reported that OKX and HashKey will provide CAEX with infrastructure, security, compliance, and liquidity support. Vietnam has previously officially recognized cryptocurrency assets and established a regulatory framework through the Digital Technology Industry Law, while strengthening anti-money laundering requirements to promote the compliant development of the industry.

DeFi solution provider Enhanced Labs announced the completion of a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Maximum Frequency Ventures, with participation from GSR, Selini, Flowdesk, and a group of angel investors. The new funds are expected to support product development and operations, while also promoting the expansion of options-based yield strategies to a broader range of on-chain assets, including tokenized real-world assets.

The new DeSci project NanoVita announced today that it has completed its Pre-A round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of 20 million USD, co-invested by K24 Ventures, LandScape Capital, and WestLabs.It is reported that NanoVita is a decentralized science (DeSci) protocol that deeply integrates nanotechnology, AI biological intelligence, and real-world health data, aiming to build an open on-chain health research infrastructure that allows everyone to participate in and benefit from the next generation of personalized health research and data sovereignty revolution.After this round of financing is completed, NanoVita will accelerate the advancement of the TGE (Token Generation Event), which is scheduled to officially launch on the BNB Chain (BSC) at the end of April.