News linked to this event type.
: "White-Haired Stock God" Serenity posted on platform X, stating that based on the capital flow direction in China's private VC market, institutions are currently pouring into fields related to Physical AI and World Models on a large scale.Data shows the approximate capital distribution as follows: Large Models/LLMs at about $23.56 billion, AI Infrastructure and Technology Layer at about $15.74 billion, Embodied Intelligence/Physical AI at about $13.36 billion, AIGC Applications at about $8.79 billion, and Autonomous Driving plus other top 20 sub-sectors totaling about $3.82 billion (note: metrics may not be directly comparable).Serenity pointed out that early-stage pure foundational model financing is largely closed, with capital more concentrated in existing leading companies and the World Model direction. He expects this trend to also appear in the US, potentially concentrating further towards leading companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Regarding AIGC applications, Serenity believes this track's commercialization is already relatively mature, but an absolute winner has yet to emerge, exhibiting a fragmented competitive landscape in both China and the US markets.Overall, Serenity concluded that current AI investments continue to flow into infrastructure and the semiconductor supply chain. Meanwhile, capital is rapidly rotating towards Physical AI and Embodied Intelligence, but the World Model track still lacks direct investment targets.
Odaily Odaily News, Galaxy Research Head Alex Thorn stated that the capital management reforms recently launched by Michael Saylor's Strategy (MSTR) have effectively eased market concerns over its liquidity and preferred stock system pressure in the short term. However, he noted these measures are more about "buying time" rather than fundamentally resolving structural issues.Over the past few weeks, Strategy has faced pressure on its "Digital Credit" preferred stock system. Its STRC ("Stretch" preferred shares) fell below par value, hitting a low of approximately $71.25, raising market concerns about Bitcoin price declines, shrinking dollar reserves, and the company's ability to pay preferred stock dividends. Subsequently, market discussions focused on three stress scenarios: selling Bitcoin, issuing additional MSTR shares (diluting existing shareholders), or cutting/suspending preferred stock dividends.In response, Strategy announced a comprehensive capital management restructuring on Monday, introducing a "Digital Credit Capital Framework." This includes five key tools: a board-approved dollar reserve policy, an adjustment to the STRC dividend mechanism, a $1 billion preferred stock buyback authorization, a $1 billion MSTR common stock buyback authorization, and a Bitcoin monetization mechanism. Concurrently, the company increased the annualized dividend rate on STRC from 11.5% to 12%.The market reacted positively, with both MSTR and STRC seeing significant gains that day, and Bitcoin also rebounded alongside.Alex Thorn pointed out that this adjustment has improved market sentiment in the short term, extending Strategy's cash coverage cycle to approximately 17 months and enhancing its capital buffer through new financing. However, the company still faces approximately $6.7 billion in convertible bond maturities during 2027-2028, meaning long-term structural risks persist. The core issue is not whether Strategy holds enough Bitcoin (approximately 847,000 BTC), but rather that its dollar liquidity is insufficient to cover preferred stock and capital structure obligations without harming the interests of any party, leading to a squeeze between different classes of shareholders.Nonetheless, the key significance of this adjustment lies in enhancing the "optionality" of the company's capital tools. It shifts Strategy from a single-direction Bitcoin accumulation strategy towards a more proactive asset-liability management model, thereby preventing short-term liquidity issues from evolving into a systemic crisis. Although the current Bitcoin market environment is relatively weak and may not have bottomed out yet, Strategy's new framework has, to some extent, bought the company a window of time to wait for more favorable market conditions.
Odaily, Tobias Adrian, Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stated that as assets migrate to shared digital ledgers, policy choices regarding the monetary system, market infrastructure, and legal frameworks will determine whether tokenization strengthens the integration of the financial system or leads to further fragmentation.The tokenized economy is forming three types of settlement assets: tokenized bank deposits, stablecoins, and tokenized central bank reserves. Tokenization is not just about faster payments or programmable assets; it involves migrating financial assets and liabilities to a unified ledger, compressing execution, clearing, and settlement into a synchronized process driven by software. This shift may also transfer risks from the balance sheets of traditional intermediaries to platforms, code, and infrastructure providers. (The Block)
Serenity has released an exclusive analysis of the AI ASIC market on the X platform, presenting the core thesis that "NVIDIA is the kingmaker of the ASIC market." It proposes a set of industry reasoning logic, arguing that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is not pleased with Broadcom monopolizing the custom ASIC track. With implicit support from the NVIDIA ecosystem, companies such as Marvell, MediaTek, AlChip, and GUC are steadily capturing market share originally held by Broadcom, taking on more custom chip projects for hyperscale cloud vendors. This landscape is comparable to the rise of emerging cloud service providers last year, serving as an important means for NVIDIA to hedge against the moat created by leading cloud vendors developing their own ASICs.Serenity suggests this could represent a two-year trading opportunity but does not constitute investment advice. It also predicts that after 2030, major companies like Google will internalize a significant amount of chip design work. It added that NVIDIA has the ability to reshape the valuation of the industry chain, and there have already been market expectations that Marvell could potentially reach a trillion-dollar market cap.
According to ChosSun, New York AI investment research platform LinqAlpha announced the completion of a $22 million Series A financing round, led by AVP, Atinum Investment, and GFT Ventures, with participation from multiple financial and venture capital institutions from Asia, Europe, and the United States, including Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Hana Ventures, and Shinhan Venture Investment, bringing its total funding to $28.6 million to date. The company provides an AI market intelligence platform for institutional investors, helping investment teams process complex market information through dedicated AI agents. The new funds will be used to strengthen market data integration and expand application scenarios such as equity, macro, credit, and multi-asset investment strategies.
According to Axios, crypto payment and settlement company Mesh is raising a new round of financing led by Binance, with the company's valuation expected to reach up to $2 billion after the financing is completed.
According to Crypto Briefing, predictive behavior AI network company THEA announced it has completed an $8 million funding round, co-led by Maven11 Capital, Spartan Group, Manifold Trading, HackVC, and Fisher8 Capital.
According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan released a research report stating that the financing model reform of Michael Saylor's Strategy Inc. has changed Bitcoin market dynamics—the company selectively sells Bitcoin to pay preferred stock dividends and manage its balance sheet, transforming it from one of the largest buyers in the Bitcoin market to a potential seller, introducing "avoidable" two-way flow risk to the market. JPMorgan believes that Strategy needs to hold liquidity reserves sufficient to cover dividend payments for the next two to three years to eliminate market concerns about the forced liquidation of its Bitcoin holdings.
According to a post on the official blog of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Tobias Adrian, Director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, wrote that asset tokenization is not merely a technical upgrade but will fundamentally alter the structure of the global financial system. When financial assets are transferred to shared digital ledgers, the three major processes of execution, clearing, and settlement can be completed simultaneously, and risks will shift centrally from the balance sheets of institutions such as banks to platforms and smart contracts. The article also warns that while tokenization eliminates friction, it also removes buffer mechanisms, leading to real-time liquidity demands and accelerated risk transmission. For emerging market countries, the risks of rapid cross-border capital flows and erosion of monetary sovereignty are particularly prominent. The IMF emphasized that current policy choices will determine whether tokenized finance strengthens or fragments the global financial system, and countries need to establish coordination mechanisms as soon as possible on core issues such as the roles of public and private money, interoperability, legal frameworks, and liquidity support.
on-chain perpetual futures exchange Extended has completed a $12.5 million strategic funding round, led by eToro, with participation from Jump Crypto.The project primarily operates an on-chain perpetual futures exchange built on StarkWare's StarkEx scaling engine. Founded by former Revolut employees, Extended opened for trading at the end of 2024. (financefeeds)
According to The Block, trading platform eToro announced on July 2 local time that it led a $12.5 million strategic financing round for the on-chain perpetual futures exchange Extended, with Jump Crypto also participating in this investment. This financing is closely tied to a strategic partnership with Zengo, eToro's self-custody wallet. Both parties will jointly explore the integration of traditional financial assets and decentralized trading environments, expanding on-chain access channels to global financial markets. Extended was founded by former Revolut employees, launched trading at the end of 2024, and is built on StarkWare's on-chain scaling engine StarkEx.
: Bitget US stock options trading is now officially live, with the initial launch offering over 540 popular trading targets. These cover core indices such as the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones 30, as well as major ETFs, with plans to progressively expand to cover the full range of stocks and ETFs. To enhance user experience and lower the barrier to entry, all users will enjoy zero commissions when trading US stock options on Bitget.The newly launched options trading adopts a T+1 settlement cycle, consistent with US spot stocks. The trading session runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time. It only supports cash transactions (margin purchases are not supported), and the margin rate for Long Calls/Puts is 100%. The system also provides profit/loss estimation assistance for orders, supporting order modification, cancellation, and record inquiries, ensuring users achieve more transparent asset allocation.Additionally, Bitget has launched a special incentive campaign. During the campaign, eligible users who complete registration and execute their first US stock options trade will receive Nvidia (NVDA) stock worth $15. Users can update the Bitget App to version 2.87.0 to experience the feature.
According to Bloomberg, Erebor Bank, a crypto-friendly bank backed by Peter Thiel, is negotiating a new round of financing with potential investors at a valuation of at least $8 billion, nearly double its valuation of $4.35 billion at the end of 2025. The report stated that just five months after obtaining its banking license, the bank's deposits have nearly quadrupled in the past three months.
Silicon Valley AI startup Higgsfield AI is in talks for a new funding round, planning to raise between $300 million and $500 million, with a target pre-money valuation of $5 billion. If completed at the target valuation, this would represent a more than fourfold increase from the company's approximately $1.3 billion valuation in January 2026. Higgsfield’s total funding to date has reached $138 million, with investors including Accel, Menlo Ventures, and other institutions. It is reported that the scale of this latest funding round will be approximately three times larger than the company's total previous fundraising amount. (Cryptobriefing)
global private market investment management giant Hamilton Lane has announced that its direct equity strategy fund, Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Fund VI (EO VI), has completed a $3.8 billion fundraise. This amount exceeds the $2.1 billion raised for the previous fund. Participating investors include a diverse range of institutions such as public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, union pensions, endowments, foundations, and family offices. The fund will provide investors with diversified investment exposure.Hamilton Lane already has a presence in the crypto space. In March of this year, it made a strategic investment in the on-chain investment platform Republic. Additionally, its senior credit opportunity securitization fund, HLSCOPE, has approximately $9 million in total asset value on the Polygon network, primarily investing in senior secured private credit and senior secured loans in North America and Europe. (Bloomberg)
According to Bitcoin News, Bitcoin mining company Ionic Digital disclosed that it has completed a $400 million private placement financing. Financial data shows that the company achieved revenue of $51.4 million in the first quarter of this year, of which the digital infrastructure leasing (AI/HPC) business contributed $44 million, surpassing Bitcoin mining business revenue for the first time.
According to Bloomberg, private market investment management giant Hamilton Lane is preparing its first RMB-denominated fund, targeting to raise approximately 1 billion to 1.5 billion RMB (approximately $150 million to $220 million), with plans to complete by the end of this year; insiders revealed that the fund will raise capital from investors within China. Hamilton Lane previously raised USD funds through the Qualified Foreign Limited Partnership (QFLP) mechanism and converted them into RMB capital to invest in assets within China; its direct equity strategy fund Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Fund VI (EO VI) has completed fundraising of $3.8 billion. Hamilton Lane has already established a presence in the crypto sector, strategically investing in the on-chain investment platform Republic this March; its tokenized credit fund is already custodied on-chain, and the Senior Credit Opportunities Securitization Fund HLSCOPE has a total asset value of approximately $9 million on the Polygon network, primarily investing in senior secured private credit and senior secured loans in North America and Europe.
According to Reuters, AI chip startup Oxmiq announced the completion of a new $35 million funding round, led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Fudomo, with participation from Taiwan's MediaTek and Pegatron Venture Capital, bringing the company's total funding to $60 million. Oxmiq was founded by former Intel Chief Architect Raja Koduri and is headquartered in Campbell, California. The company plans to integrate GPU, CPU, and tensor engine components into a single IP module for licensing, and develop an integrated computing architecture including Chiplets and memory, while positioning itself in the custom chip market to compete with Broadcom, Marvell, and MediaTek. Koduri stated that Oxmiq's goal is to become the "ARM of the next era." The funds will be used to complete the development of the first batch of IPs and bring them to market, while expanding the engineering team.
According to Bloomberg, data center operator Switch has officially launched a $2 billion private financing round led by a16z. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Switch's enterprise valuation (including debt) following this financing could approach $50 billion, with an equity value of approximately $19 billion (excluding new investment). a16z is set to invest approximately $400 million. Additionally, Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase are assisting in facilitating this financing round, which may prepare Switch for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as next year. Relevant negotiations are currently ongoing, and the financing size, valuation, and timing remain subject to adjustment. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Switch was founded in 2000 and currently operates data centers in Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Texas. Its majority equity is held by DigitalBridge, which previously privatized Switch in a transaction valued at approximately $11 billion (including debt) in 2022 alongside investors such as IFM Investors.
According to TechFlow Research, Morgan Stanley released an Internet Tracking Report, noting that Google and Meta's nominal EV/EBITDA multiples appear inexpensive (GOOGL 16.1x, META 8.9x), but after adjusting for stock-based compensation accounting treatment, the true multiple rises from 16.3x to 31.1x (+91%), still lower than the five-year average of 31.6x, implying that the true valuation of internet giants is undervalued by the market by more than 30%.