News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, Squads, a multi-signature protocol in the Solana ecosystem, has announced the completion of an $18 million strategic funding round led by Solana Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, L1D, and others. This round is an equity financing, bringing Squads’ total funding to $42.9 million. Squads will use the funds from this round to expand its stablecoin-based corporate finance platform, Altitude.
Fu Peng, Chief Economist of Xinhuo Group, posted on X stating that commodity ETFs are essentially regulatory-compliant products packaging the business model of “holding commodities long-term and generating rental income continuously.” Fund companies focus not on the commodity market’s outlook but rather on the asset’s ability to generate “rent” consistently. Since BitMEX launched the world’s first BTC perpetual contract and introduced the funding rate mechanism on May 13, 2016, long-term BTC holders have been able to earn rental income through hedging operations—transforming BTC from a pure faith-based speculative asset into a “rental asset” with stable positive cash flow logic. The costs paid by retail participants when trading derivatives constitute the foundation for large-position holders’ risk-free hedging rental income. This income is then packaged into ETF-like products sold to liquidity providers (LPs), whose raised capital is subsequently used to purchase Bitcoin—creating a virtuous cycle that reduces volatility and reinforces BTC’s income-generating attributes.
Odaily News: According to sources, UK-based digital bank Revolut plans to seek a valuation between $150 billion and $200 billion in its future IPO, a significant increase from its previous $75 billion valuation. The company's CEO, Nik Storonsky, also revealed that Revolut is preparing for a new round of secondary share sale in the second half of 2026, with a potential valuation exceeding $100 billion. (Financial Times)Previously, Nik Storonsky stated that the company's listing timeline is at least two years away, potentially delayed until 2028 at the earliest, with no immediate IPO plans. He pointed out that Revolut is currently focusing on expanding its presence in the US market, including applying for a banking license to gain access to the Federal Reserve's payment system and expand its lending and credit card businesses. Meanwhile, the company has already obtained a full banking license in the UK.
The UK-based Bitcoin treasury company The Smarter Web Company announced the completion of a private placement of 4,286,410 ordinary shares pursuant to a previously signed subscription agreement. The total gross proceeds raised from this placement amount to approximately £1.5374 million (about $2 million, before deducting expenses), at a price of approximately £0.36 per share. The company expects to retain approximately 98.25% of the net proceeds. As of now, the remaining balance of ordinary shares yet to be placed under the current subscription agreement stands at 52,377,540 shares.
According to CoinDesk, KAIO, a regulated tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has announced the completion of an $8 million strategic funding round, with investors including Tether. Combined with its prior funding, KAIO’s total capital raised now stands at $19 million. KAIO primarily provides infrastructure for asset management firms to distribute funds on-chain, enabling products from institutions such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane to be integrated into blockchain systems. KAIO stated it plans to expand into credit, structured investment products, and ETFs, and intends to launch on-chain funds in partnership with Mubadala Capital. The company reported currently managing approximately $100 million in assets and having processed over $500 million in cumulative transactions.
According to The Block, the cryptocurrency venture capital sector is undergoing a structural shift. Investors now broadly require startups to demonstrate real users and revenue before committing capital—marking the end of the era when early-stage fundraising was easy. Token-based exit strategies have become significantly less reliable; low-liquidity, high-valuation token launches continue to underperform the broader market, prompting investors to revert to traditional equity-oriented thinking. Meanwhile, the rise of the AI sector has siphoned off substantial LP capital and entrepreneurial talent, further intensifying fundraising challenges for crypto VCs. Nonetheless, several investors note that reduced competition, more rational valuations, and an improving regulatory environment point to 2026–2027 as the strongest investment years since 2018. Future capital will focus on areas with clear business models—including stablecoins, payments, tokenization, real-world assets (RWAs), and financial infrastructure—while the boundaries between crypto VCs and traditional VCs accelerate toward convergence.
According to LedgerInsight, bond tokenization platform BlockInvest has announced the completion of a €4 million strategic funding round, with Italy’s UniCredit Bank participating and acquiring a 16% equity stake in the company. BlockInvest is set to assist UniCredit in issuing Italy’s first natively digital mini-bond, as well as the first blockchain-based tokenized structured note for wealth management clients, while building a solution that combines the programmability of digital ledgers with financial…
According to official announcements, Pumpcade—a live-stream prediction market and meme coin issuance platform—has secured $5 million in seed funding. Investors include Jump Crypto and Foundation Capital. Pumpcade is a Solana-based platform for instant meme coin creation and trading, integrated into the Pump.fun chat system and enabling one-click prediction market creation during live streams. Earlier, on April 2, Pump.fun led a $1 million pre-seed round for Pumpcade.
Odaily News According to CoinGlass data, index-based contracts have been generally active over the past 4 hours. Among them, the HK50 contract on the Gate platform saw a position increase of up to 2647.1%, ranking first across the entire market.Gate pioneered the global index perpetual contract, using mainstream global indices and volatility indices as underlying assets, introducing market sentiment indicators into the crypto derivatives trading system. While maintaining the advantages of USDT settlement and 7×24 hour trading, it provides users with trading choices that are closer to the global macro market. Simultaneously, Gate has fully deployed a traditional finance trading zone covering stocks, metals, foreign exchange, indices, and commodities, continuously building a multi-asset contract system covering mainstream TradFi assets, and creating the industry's most comprehensive index and traditional financial asset contract trading zone.
According to Crunchbase, financial compliance startup Spektr has announced a $20 million Series A funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Northzone, Seedcamp, and PSV Tech. To date, the company has raised a total of $26 million. Spektr primarily provides AI Agent–based compliance services—including risk assessment and sanctions list monitoring—to cryptocurrency wallet service providers such as Phantom, as well as traditional financial institutions.
According to Polymarket’s prediction market page, the current probability of SpaceX’s IPO closing market capitalization exceeding $2 trillion stands at approximately 47%, making it the highest-probability option. The next most likely ranges are $1.8–2 trillion (18%), $1.6–1.8 trillion (13.7%), and $1.4–1.6 trillion (7.8%). Bitget launched its U.S. stock IPO subscription service, IPO Prime, on April 10, with initial support for stablecoin-based subscriptions for SpaceX, referencing an estimated valuation of approximately $1.5 trillion. Additionally, Bitget will distribute two rounds of preSPAX airdrops to VIP users: the first round of 760 preSPAX tokens will be distributed tomorrow, and the second round of 190 preSPAX tokens will be distributed on April 20.
According to Decrypt, Enhanced Labs Inc., an on-chain structured yield protocol, has announced the completion of a $1 million strategic pre-seed funding round, led by Maximum Frequency Ventures, with participation from GSR, Selini, Flowdesk, and several angel investors. The funds raised will be used for product development and operational infrastructure. Enhanced’s product strategy centers on three key directions: optimizing auction mechanisms to enhance yield competitiveness; extending options-based yield strategies to a broader range of on-chain assets—including tokenized real-world assets (RWAs); and simplifying complex strategies into goal-oriented user experiences that allow users to directly define desired outcomes such as yield targets, hedging objectives, or structured exposures. Enhanced positions itself at the intersection of the on-chain yield and options narratives—a sector currently experiencing an unusually active cycle in DeFi options since 2024.