ventures

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 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.

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.

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.

According to The Block, stablecoin payment card infrastructure service provider Kulipa announced the completion of a $6.2 million seed round financing, led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, with participation from White Star Capital and Fabric Ventures. The company helps fintech companies issue white-label stablecoin payment cards without having to manage card operations themselves.According to Kulipa founder and CEO Axel Cateland, this round of financing was actually completed last December, using a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) financing model, but he declined to disclose details such as when the financing process began, the structure of the financing tranches, the company's valuation, and the allocation of board seats.

Digital asset service provider Keyrock has completed a Series C financing round, led by SC Ventures, the venture capital arm of Standard Chartered Bank, with existing investor Ripple participating. After the financing, the valuation reached $1.1 billion. This round of financing is still open, with a total scale of up to $100 million. Keyrock stated that the funds raised will be used to strengthen the balance sheet, expand the service matrix, and promote mergers and acquisitions.The company was founded in 2017 and currently provides services such as market making, asset management, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, and options, covering more than 80 centralized and decentralized trading venues, with over 200 employees globally. In terms of business expansion, Keyrock acquired Turing Capital, an alternative investment fund management company registered in Luxembourg, last September, and established an asset and wealth management department to focus on serving institutional clients and private investors.CEO Kevin de Patoul stated that by 2026, the company will continue to drive growth in services, customer base, and geographic coverage to expand market share and strengthen its industry position.

According to Fortune, Valinor, a blockchain private credit startup co-founded by former Blackstone employees, announced the completion of a $25 million seed round financing. This round was led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from the crypto division of Susquehanna, Maven11, and the founder of TeraWulf, a Bitcoin mining company transitioning to artificial intelligence.Valinor's core business is to put the private credit process on-chain. Traditional private credit institutions rely on manual verification and spreadsheet collaboration when handling revolving credit lines and other businesses. Valinor plans to replace these processes with smart contracts to achieve automated routing of funds and condition-triggered execution.Both co-founders have traditional finance backgrounds, having worked in banks and the private credit division of Blackstone before transitioning to the crypto industry in 2022. Initially, Valinor focuses on providing loans to crypto companies, and later plans to introduce blockchain technology into the loan process to enhance efficiency. Currently, the company has completed lending for several fintech and crypto companies through blockchain technology.The funds raised in this round will be used to expand the loan scale, broaden the customer base, and increase team personnel, with the current number of employees at 6.

According to The Street, Goliath Ventures, a cryptocurrency company based in Florida, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the Southern District of Florida.The company is alleged to be linked to a $328 million Ponzi scheme, with over 2,000 victim investors, including Gregory Wilson, who lost approximately $8.74 million, and John Euliano, who lost about $1.28 million. Additionally, plaintiffs have filed a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase early next month, accusing it of turning a blind eye to suspicious transactions involving Goliath Ventures.Previously, Goliath Ventures' former CEO Christopher Alexander Delgado was arrested for allegedly being involved in the $328 million Ponzi scheme and faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Delgado lured victims under the guise of investing in cryptocurrency liquidity pools and promising monthly returns, but the funds were used to pay returns to earlier investors, purchase luxury homes, and finance extravagant activities.

According to market news, the on-chain platform for real-time social entertainment experiences, Watch.fun, has completed a $8.6 million financing round, led by Crypto.com Capital and Solana Ventures, with participation from Spartan Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Griffin Gaming Partners, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, OrangeDAO, and others. The funds will be used to accelerate product development, expand the curated product catalog, deepen strategic partnerships, and grow the team size.

Foreign exchange trading startup XFX, which supports stablecoin trading, has completed a $17 million financing round, led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Haun Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.Santiago Alvarado, co-founder and CEO of XFX, declined to disclose the valuation of the company in this financing round. It is reported that XFX currently allows customers to exchange between stablecoins and also permits the exchange of three fiat currencies: US dollars, Mexican pesos, and Colombian pesos.