News linked to this event type.
Odaily reports, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated at the Consensus conference that cryptocurrency market structure legislation will not receive a floor vote unless it includes an ethics clause. Gillibrand pointed out that it is necessary to prohibit members of Congress, senior government officials, and the President and Vice President from using their insider positions to profit in the crypto industry. Currently, multiple Democratic senators have expressed concerns about President Trump and his family's crypto connections. Bloomberg estimates that Trump has already profited at least $1.4 billion through crypto ventures. The bill had previously stalled in the Senate over issues related to stablecoin reward handling. While a compromise has now been reached, the ethics clause has become a new obstacle. Gillibrand stated that she is working with the White House and both parties to ensure the clause is included, and is also pushing for the addition of consumer protection and anti-terrorism financing provisions. The bill is expected to pass before the August recess.
London-based AI recruitment platform Ethos has raised $22.75 million in Series A funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from General Catalyst. Ethos uses AI-powered interviews and assessments of professional artifacts—including essays, code, and more—to build detailed skill profiles of candidates and match them to paid opportunities such as expert consulting, market research, AI data labeling, advisory roles, and full-time positions. Founded in 2023 by James Lo and Daniel J. Mankowitz—former employees of Google DeepMind, McKinsey & Company, and SoftBank—the company aims to address the growing challenge of identifying genuine candidate capabilities amid rising numbers of fabricated or AI-generated resumes. The new capital will be used to scale its AI agents, expand its global network of experts, and deepen collaborations with AI labs and enterprise clients.
OpenTrade has announced the completion of a $17 million strategic funding round, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, CMCC Global, and others. The project primarily provides institutional-grade on-chain and real-world asset-backed lending and stablecoin yield products. OpenTrade plans to use the funds to expand its permissioned and permissionless infrastructure, including the Curation+ vault curation framework, and to grow its asset management, trading, and engineering teams. OpenTrade processed over $250 million in transaction volume in 2025 and currently has a total value locked exceeding $200 million.
According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 released its financial results for the first quarter of 2026, reporting $1.68 billion in revenue from leases for its two hyperscale AI campuses. While advancing its AI data center business, its Bitcoin-related operations remain one of its core revenue sources: total Q1 revenue amounted to $71 million, of which approximately $66 million came from ASIC computing power, AI cloud, and traditional cloud services—primarily driven by Bitcoin mining and related computational services. Additionally, Hut 8 completed a refinancing of its Bitcoin-backed loans, unlocking approximately 3,300 BTC (valued at roughly $260 million) to enhance liquidity and support business expansion. As of the end of March, Hut 8 held cash and Bitcoin with a combined value of approximately $1.3 billion. However, due to digital asset price volatility, the company reported a net loss of $253 million for the quarter—including approximately $296 million in unrealized digital asset losses.
according to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, the global market performance is generally stable, but inflationary pressures and policy divergences are rising simultaneously. The S&P 500 topped the 7,200 mark for the first time. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged but showed major internal divisions. Compounded by volatile oil prices due to supply shocks in the Strait of Hormuz, market expectations of "stagflation" have intensified. Against this backdrop, the crypto market remains in a consolidation pattern, with BTC largely flat and ETH experiencing a slight pullback. ETF fund flows are diverging, and market sentiment remains cautious.At the industry level, the CLARITY Act has clarified the boundaries for stablecoin yields, further promoting a clearer regulatory framework. EURC is seeing rapid growth in Spanish retail payment scenarios, indicating that localized stablecoin applications are coming to market. The Solana ecosystem is advancing its post-quantum signature scheme, Falcon, reflecting the industry's forward-looking layout for long-term security. In terms of investment and financing, 15 deals were completed this week, with a total volume of $167 million, representing a 205% increase week-over-week. The infrastructure track continues to dominate. Among these, Four Pillars completed a Series A funding round to strengthen institutional-grade research and infrastructure capabilities. Belo secured $14 million in a funding round led by Tether, accelerating the expansion of its stablecoin payment network in Latin America. Overall, capital continues to concentrate towards infrastructure and cross-asset platforms, driving the industry's accelerated evolution towards institutionalization and multi-asset integration.
According to official announcements, Stockcoin.ai—an AI-powered stock and cryptocurrency futures trading platform—has completed its seed funding round, led by Amber Group, with participation from angel investors in both the crypto and traditional finance sectors. The platform focuses on bridging on-chain data with the stock market. As disclosed, Stockcoin.ai will subsequently launch Hong Kong IPO subscription and U.S. pre-IPO functionalities.
According to LatePost, Kimi, a product of Moonshot AI, is about to complete a new round of financing worth $2 billion, pushing its post-money valuation beyond $20 billion. This round is led by Meituan Longzhu, with participation from China Mobile and CPE Capital; Meituan Longzhu’s investment exceeds $200 million. The report notes that, including three financing rounds already completed in January and February this year, Kimi has raised over $3.9 billion in less than six months—more than RMB 3.76 billion in total—making it one of the most well-funded large-model startups. The article also mentions that in April, Kimi released and open-sourced its new model K2.6, enhancing its programming and Agent cluster capabilities.
According to a Reuters report citing the Financial Times, China’s largest state-backed semiconductor investment fund—the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (“Big Fund”)—is negotiating to lead DeepSeek’s Series A financing round, which could value the cutting-edge AI lab at approximately $45 billion. Citing four people familiar with the matter, the report states that negotiations are still ongoing.
According to CoinDesk, K Wave Media (KWM), a South Korean media company listed on Nasdaq, disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it would redirect its $485 million financing facility—originally earmarked for Bitcoin purchases—toward investments in AI infrastructure, including data centers, GPU compute operations, and related acquisitions. The funding stems from a revised agreement with Anson Funds, a structured equity financing firm. The company had originally established a $500 million financing facility in June 2025, exclusively for Bitcoin purchases. Less than one year later, it announced abandoning this strategy in favor of betting on the AI sector and plans to rename itself “Talivar Technologies,” pending approval at its shareholders’ meeting scheduled for early July. Following the announcement, KWM’s stock closed down 24% on Monday and fell another 4% pre-market on Tuesday.
The immediate trigger for this regulatory tightening was Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Manus—a China-founded AI agent company—after which relevant authorities ordered the deal’s reversal and launched a systematic review of the “domestically operated, offshore-registered” corporate model. Dismantling a red-chip structure is procedurally complex, typically taking six months to one year and involving multiple steps—including repurchasing offshore equity, establishing a joint venture, and having investors re-invest. Moreover, shares of such joint ventures listed in Hong Kong are subject to a 12-month lock-up period—twice as long as that for ordinary red-chip stocks. Analysts note that if red-chip structures face comprehensive restrictions, Chinese startups’ ability to raise U.S. dollar funding from overseas will be significantly weakened.
At the Q1 2026 earnings call, Michael Saylor stated that the company may sell some of its Bitcoin in the future to fulfill dividend payment obligations. Currently, Strategy’s annual dividend and debt interest obligations total approximately $1.5 billion; based on its current U.S. dollar reserves, this amount is estimated to cover roughly the next 18 months. Saylor summarized this model as: “Buy Bitcoin using credit financing, wait for its appreciation, then sell a portion of the Bitcoin to pay dividends.”
Coinbase announced a “seven-figure” strategic investment in Centrifuge and selected it as the primary asset tokenization partner for its public blockchain, Base. Under the partnership, Centrifuge will serve as the core infrastructure for issuing tokenized assets on Base, enabling the onchain issuance and trading of real-world assets (RWAs), including ETFs, credit funds, and structured products. The two parties have previously collaborated—for instance, launching the first compliant onchain S&P 500 index fund on Base.
Securitize announced partnerships with Jump Trading and Jupiter Exchange to launch a fully on-chain, compliant tokenized stock trading service on Solana. The solution integrates regulatory compliance infrastructure, liquidity support, and distribution channels to build an integrated on-chain securities trading system, accelerating the migration of traditional financial assets onto blockchain.
OnRe Finance has completed a $5 million funding round, co-led by Forward (Solana's largest treasury management firm) and Rockaway. The capital will be used to accelerate the development of on-chain reinsurance business on Solana. Forward plans to deploy up to $25 million into OnRe's ONyc token to gain exposure to tokenized reinsurance yields.
According to The Block, a16z crypto—the cryptocurrency division of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—has completed fundraising for its fifth fund at $2.2 billion. This fund is smaller than its record-breaking fourth fund, which raised $4.5 billion in 2022. Paul Cafiero, Communications Partner at a16z crypto, stated that the firm intentionally returned to a smaller fund size because “a shorter fundraising cycle enables us to keep pace with the rapidly evolving crypto landscape.” Prior a16z crypto funds included: the $2.2 billion third fund in 2021, the $515 million second fund in 2020, and the $350 million first fund in 2018.
According to Forbes, SBF’s early investment portfolio is undergoing renewed market scrutiny; had he not been imprisoned due to the FTX collapse, his venture capital returns could theoretically have generated wealth growth reaching approximately $100 billion. Prior to FTX’s collapse, SBF had built an investment portfolio spanning several high-profile companies—including Anthropic, SpaceX, Robinhood, and Cursor—with Cursor valued at $60 billion and Anthropic nearing a $90 billion valuation. Rory O’Driscoll, Partner at Scale Venture Partners, noted that SBF had backed multiple pivotal AI companies even before the ChatGPT era, demonstrating an exceptionally rare investment acumen.
According to Chosun, Korean-listed IT service provider ITCEN Global announced raising KRW 40 billion (approximately USD 3 million) through the issuance of convertible bonds. The funding round was fully subscribed by ITC Holdings, which is wholly owned by the KCGI Innovation Growth ESG Fund. The proceeds will be used to expand new businesses, including Web3 and security token offerings (STOs). The company stated that if South Korea’s digital asset regulatory framework is finalized in the second half of the year, these initiatives are expected to accelerate.
SC Ventures, the venture capital arm of Standard Chartered, has invested in GSR, a crypto trading and market-making firm, valuing it at over $1 billion in this round. Founded in 2013 by former Goldman Sachs traders, GSR is currently in talks with strategic investors for further financing, potentially raising up to $150 million to expand its business operations.This investment marks SC Ventures' first time becoming an external shareholder of GSR. The two parties plan to collaborate on integrating traditional finance with the crypto market and enhancing the accessibility of tokenized products. GSR's business encompasses crypto trading, market making, advisory services, asset management, and venture capital. (Bloomberg)
According to Businesswire, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Quantum Leap announced the completion of its $200 million initial public offering (IPO), trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “QLEPU.” Proceeds from the IPO will be used to support its pursuit of acquisition or merger transactions in areas including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain.
According to CNBC, James Dyett, OpenAI’s head of sales, announced his departure on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. Dyett joined OpenAI in 2023 and oversaw both enterprise sales and API sales during his tenure. His LinkedIn profile lists his title as “Head of Sales,” while OpenAI refers to him as “Senior Head of Sales.” OpenAI is currently valued by private investors at over $850 billion.