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Alliance General Partner Imran recently posted on X, sharing his views on a16z crypto's shift toward frontier technology sectors. He noted that a16z provided early endorsement for the crypto industry when Chris Dixon led Coinbase's investment in 2013; Marc Andreessen's 2014 New York Times op-ed "Why Bitcoin Matters" was a key factor that prompted him to transition into the Bitcoin industry. At the time, very few institutions and funds were willing to publicly support crypto, and a16z and USV were the two that took on brand risk.Imran believes that the current development of AI infrastructure has benefited considerably from Bitcoin mining infrastructure and talent flowing from crypto to AI. Shifting toward frontier tech such as robotics, biology, AI, energy, and compute means that the talent and capabilities accumulated in the crypto industry over the past decade can be used to build the entire frontier tech sector. Citing data centers as an example, he noted that public and government resistance to data centers is growing, much like earlier resistance to crypto—yet today nearly all traditional financial institutions have embraced crypto to some extent.
According to Crypto Briefing, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated that it has not yet received any formal applications for spot cryptocurrency ETFs, though multiple asset management firms have already submitted inquiries regarding spot Bitcoin and Ethereum products. The regulator declined to disclose potential issuers or establish a listing timeline, noting that it cannot confirm whether the inaugural Thai crypto ETFs will launch in 2026. On October 8, Thailand's SEC finalized 11 related notices, establishing a new regulatory framework that took effect on October 16. Under the rules, licensed asset management firms may create passive ETFs tracking a single eligible asset—currently restricted to Bitcoin and Ethereum—maintaining an annual average net exposure of no less than 80%. These products may only be listed and traded on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and must utilize SEC-approved digital asset custodians. Investors are required to complete risk education and formally acknowledge associated risks prior to purchase, while brokerages are barred from offering margin trading or securities lending for these funds. Thai mutual funds and private funds may allocate to domestic crypto ETFs within their existing investment limits. Previously, access to such exposure was only possible through overseas ETFs and was strictly limited to institutional and ultra-high-net-worth investors.
SK Hyper, the data center subsidiary of South Korea's SK Group, has announced the launch of a new funding round and is currently in talks with major tech companies and financial investors. The new capital will be used for a data center construction project expected to involve $350 billion in investment, with total capacity set to reach 15 gigawatts. The first round of external financing is planned for completion in late 2026 or early 2027, with additional fundraising to continue over the following three to four years. (Bloomberg)
According to BeInCrypto, Grayscale released a crypto asset valuation ranking evaluated based on two metrics: "Token Holder Yield" and "Adjusted Earnings Yield". HYPE topped holder yields at 8.0%, with Lighter (LIT) following closely at 7.9%, and PancakeSwap (CAKE) ranking third at 2.6%, followed sequentially by AERO, UNI, RAY, PENDLE, AAVE, JUP, and CRV. In terms of adjusted earnings yield, CAKE led at 14.4%, with LIT at 14.1% and HYPE at 9.8%, followed sequentially by RAY, AAVE, JUP, SKY, UNI, AERO, and PENDLE. The report showed that five assets on the list had negative holder yields, including AAVE, JUP, and CRV, with CRV at -5.5% and JUP at -2.6%. Grayscale calculates holder yield as staking rewards plus buybacks minus new token issuance, so holders face dilution when new issuance exceeds total yields. While JUP's adjusted earnings yield stands at 3.5%, its holder yield remains negative.
According to an official press release from FORT Robotics, physical AI security platform FORT Robotics announced on October 22 that it secured approximately $20 million in new investment commitments from existing investors. Tiger Global led approximately $10 million of the financing round, with Mark Cuban Companies participating, and the closing is expected to take place within this week. Tiger Global also committed an additional $10 million to the PIPE (private investment in public equity) transaction scheduled to close concurrently with the merger. Including previously announced PIPE commitments, the total committed capital for FORT’s proposed business combination with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: NTWO) has exceeded $50 million. Following the completion of the merger, the company will be renamed FORT Robotics Holdings, Inc., and plans to list on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “FROB,” pending regulatory approval.
According to Yonhap News Agency, SoftBank Group-affiliated data center developer SB Energy is considering delaying its U.S. listing to December or next year, shifting from its originally scheduled date of September this year. SB Energy is the driving force behind OpenAI's Ohio data center project. The report noted that recent heightened market volatility and rising interest rates have cooled investor sentiment toward AI-dedicated data center (Neocloud) companies. SB Energy plans to list at a valuation of approximately $60 billion, aiming to raise between $5 billion and $7 billion. However, the company currently has no operational data centers, and its valuation is based solely on expected future profits, which has led to a lukewarm response from investors. According to sources familiar with the matter, SB Energy's management is closely monitoring Anthropic's anticipated IPO, expected before the Thanksgiving holiday in November. If Anthropic's stock performance remains strong following its listing, SB Energy could proceed with its own offering in December.
Odaily Report: Fidelity Digital Assets research analyst Zack Wainwright noted in an analysis published on October 20 that preferred stock financing oriented toward Bitcoin could attract capital from the approximately $15 trillion global fixed income market. Fidelity estimates that the size of this type of preferred stock is approximately $12 billion.As of October 5, preferred stock financing has supported the purchase of 135,979 BTC, of which more than 95,000 were purchased between March and May. Fidelity estimates that nearly 96% of Bitcoin's maximum supply has been issued, and the next halving is expected in less than two years.Bitcoin treasury company Strive Inc. completed a 15% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock offering on October 20, selling 7 million shares at $90 per share for total proceeds of $630 million; the dividend rate is calculated on a $100 par value and is 15% annualized.Bitcoin treasury company Strategy Inc. disclosed that it holds 848,517 BTC and purchased 267 BTC the previous week for $22.1 million, using proceeds from common stock issuance and cash. Fidelity noted that the performance of related instruments is affected by both Bitcoin and the issuing company. (Bitcoin.com News)
According to TechCrunch, US AI wearable device startup Nirva announced on October 22 the completion of a $25 million Pre-A funding round, bringing its cumulative funding to $33 million. Specific investor details were not disclosed. Founded in 2025, Nirva was co-founded by former Meta Reality Labs employees Wei Lyu, Jason Chen, and Hanying Hu, focusing on an AI pendant that can continuously listen to the wearer's conversations. The device uses sound samples collected during a setup phase to identify the wearer and filter out voices from other speakers nearby. The company states that audio and transcribed text are automatically deleted after processing, but it remains unclear whether voice processing is performed locally or in the cloud.
According to CNBC, OpenAI is nearing the completion of a financing round of up to $30 billion, with a pre-money valuation of $1.25 trillion, excluding funds raised in this round. Insiders said this round is led by investors from the UAE and Coatue, and has been positioned as an "opportunistic" transitional financing ahead of an IPO. On Thursday, OpenAI told investors that it aims to secure executed documents before next weekend, although the final financing amount is still being finalized. Meanwhile, OpenAI is negotiating a commercial agreement to obtain more compute capacity from the UAE. In February, the company told investors that its goal is to invest approximately $600 billion cumulatively in compute infrastructure by 2030. OpenAI filed a draft prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a confidential basis in June, but has not yet disclosed a listing date. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar stated in August that the company "will become a publicly traded company in 2027," while CEO Sam Altman remarked in September that it would not be wise to go public at this time.
Strive announced the completion of a $630 million financing through the issuance of preferred stock. The newly issued SATS shares are priced at $90 with a par value of $100, carrying an annualized dividend yield of 15%, translating to an actual yield of nearly 16.7%; daily cash dividend payments are scheduled to begin on November 9, subject to board approval. Between October 12 and 16, Strive also purchased 4,045 BTC, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 36,818 BTC. ASST closed up over 13% on Wednesday at $30.75, marking its third consecutive trading day of gains.
Odaily reports: S&P Global Ratings released a report on Thursday, assigning UK digital bank Revolut a BBB+ investment-grade rating for the first time, and expects the company to issue senior unsecured bonds in 2027 to build a debt buffer capable of absorbing potential losses and meeting regulatory requirements. The report noted that Revolut's balance sheet has exceeded £40 billion (approximately $53.5 billion); should the bank fail, the Bank of England could push for a restructuring in which investors would bear corresponding losses.S&P expects that as Revolut expands its unsecured retail lending business and launches mortgage products, its loan portfolio will double in 2027 and double again in 2028. S&P believes that Revolut has a strong consumer brand, a scalable technology platform, and increasingly diversified products, but its share of primary banking relationships remains lower than that of traditional banks, and rapid global expansion could also exacerbate operational complexity and compliance risks. BBB+ is among the lower tiers of S&P's investment-grade ratings. (Bloomberg)
Odaily reports: Israeli cybersecurity startup Mave has announced the completion of a $34 million funding round, including $28 million from a Series A led by Red Dot Capital Partners with participation from Lumir Growth Partners, following a previous $6 million seed round. Mave primarily develops AI agents for cybersecurity operations.Mave's AI agents can integrate information from enterprises' existing security systems, investigate alerts, filter out false positives, and execute actions approved by human teams. The company states that its agents record every step across thousands of workflows, providing security personnel with visibility into the agents' reasoning and actions.Mave was co-founded by Raziel Oren and Guy Eshel in 2025 and currently has 30 employees. The company plans to use the new funding to double its team size, with new positions mainly focused on market expansion and AI research. The company charges a fixed fee based on client size and requirements. (Business Insider)
According to Axios, Visa is in acquisition talks with Fireblocks, a crypto asset custody infrastructure company, at a valuation of approximately $2.5 billion. If the deal is finalized, it will further expand Visa's presence in digital asset custody and blockchain payment infrastructure. The news remains unconfirmed at this stage, with specific terms and progress of the acquisition negotiations yet to be disclosed.
Odaily reports: X Pay, a payment infrastructure provider for AI agents and APIs, has announced the completion of a $1 million financing round. Investors include DCI, Credit Scend, Skyland Ventures, Zerra Ventures, and 9 institutions in total. The funds from this round will be used to expand supported blockchain networks, conduct independent security audits, launch an API marketplace, and prepare for EU compliance requirements (including MiCA). (financewire)
AI infrastructure startup Fireworks AI is in preliminary talks for a new funding round, targeting a valuation of $30 billion to $40 billion, a potential increase of up to 10x from its $4 billion Series C valuation in October 2025. The negotiations are still at an early stage, and the target valuation may change. The company declined to comment, and the report did not disclose the size of the round.Fireworks AI was founded in 2022 by engineers from Meta's open-source AI framework PyTorch team, and provides enterprises with services to customize and deploy open-source models based on their own data. In July 2026, the company announced the completion of a $1.505 billion Series D at a valuation of $17.5 billion, saying its annualized revenue had surpassed $1 billion and its daily token processing volume had grown from 15 trillion at the time of its previous funding round to more than 40 trillion. If the proposed valuation reaches $40 billion, it would be equivalent to roughly 40 times its previously disclosed annualized revenue. (Business Insider)
According to TheEnergyMag, AI cloud service provider Nebius Group has secured a $3.5 billion senior secured financing facility from Citibank to support the expansion of its global AI cloud compute infrastructure.
According to Forbes, US satellite startup Xona Space Systems has completed a $250 million Series D funding round, valuing the company at $2.45 billion. The round was led by Future Ventures, co-founded by SpaceX early investor and former board member Steve Jurvetson, which invested $78.5 million in this round.
QCP released a macro market analysis stating that negotiations at the Strait of Hormuz have stalled, with attacks between Saudi Arabia and Houthi forces expanding the scope of the conflict. Although Automatic Identification System (AIS) data shows that physical shipments near the strait have nearly halted, shadow fleet estimates indicate that daily oil transit through the strait remains between 3.7 million and 13 million barrels. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has dropped to 283 million barrels, representing a year-over-year decline of 30.5%.
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Goldman Sachs concludes that the funding gap can be covered by debt financing, customer advance payments, and operating cash flow.