News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Fortune, New York-based payments company Fin.com has announced the closing of a $20 million seed round, completed in August and led by Expa and Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Tenet Fund, the founder of Figure, Mesh founder Bam Azizi, Second Sight Ventures, and Gulf and African sovereign and royal family offices. Founded by Bangladeshi founder Nabeel Alamgir and Pakistani founder Mustafa Dar, Fin.com aims to solve the "last mile" challenge of converting stablecoins into local bank accounts or digital wallets, providing white-label payment infrastructure to financial institutions, consumer platforms, and prediction markets. Its client platforms collectively serve over 800 million users. The company focuses on the South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern markets, and currently maintains offices in New York, Las Vegas, Dubai, Dhaka, Bangalore, and Lahore.
Odaily News — Crypto market data provider Kaiko has secured a new round of investment led by S&P Global, bringing the latest funding round's total size to $110 million. DRW Holdings, Susquehanna, Royal Bank of Canada, Nasdaq, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Stellar also participated. Previously, crypto market data provider Kaiko completed a $53 million Series B funding round in June 2022, led by Eight Roads (a venture capital firm backed by Fidelity), with participation from French venture capital firm Revaia and existing investors Alven, Point Nine, Anthemis, and Underscore. (Bloomberg)
According to Fortune, stablecoin payment infrastructure company Latitude, founded by former employees of Stripe, Uber, Coinbase, and Meta, has announced the completion of a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. Latitude aims to address the "last mile" challenge following cross-border stablecoin payments by providing enterprises with infrastructure that converts stablecoins into local currencies and facilitates fund disbursement through local payment methods such as bank accounts and mobile wallets. Its current clients span digital banks, payroll platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, and financial institutions. The company previously closed an $8 million seed round. The new capital will be used to scale its compliance, engineering, legal, and sales teams, while accelerating efforts to secure regulatory licenses in markets including Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Odaily News: Blockchain-native fintech startup OpenReserve received preliminary conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on September 2 to establish a full-service national bank in Salt Lake City, Utah. The approval process took less than five months, with OpenReserve submitting its application on April 13.OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital within 12 months and maintain a minimum Tier 1 leverage ratio of 12% for three years after opening. It must also commence operations within 18 months, or the approval will lapse. The relevant deadlines are September 2027 and March 2028, respectively.OpenReserve plans to offer tokenized deposits, treasury management, foreign correspondent banking, and Banking-as-a-Service for institutional clients. The full-service national bank charter, upon final approval, would allow it to accept deposits and conduct lending activities.OpenReserve previously completed a $25 million seed funding round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, and Wintermute Ventures, among others. The company plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary to issue and redeem dollar-denominated, reserve-backed stablecoins, but that subsidiary has not yet filed an application with the OCC. (Decrypt)
: AI anti-fraud company Socure announced the completion of a $156 million strategic growth funding round, valuing the company at $5.2 billion. The round was led by Summit Partners, with participation from Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs Alternatives (under Goldman Sachs), DocuSign, and others. In addition, the company also announced the acquisition of AI startup Fravity, aiming to leverage AI agents for fraud, risk, and compliance investigations. The specific acquisition amount has not been disclosed yet. Its anti-fraud services are currently applied to companies including crypto exchange Coinbase, stablecoin issuer Circle, digital bank Revolut, and Robinhood. (Crunchbase)
Odaily News Crypto exchange Coinbase and digital mortgage company Better Mortgage have announced the full rollout of token-backed conforming mortgages for Coinbase One members, allowing eligible borrowers to use crypto assets as collateral in the home buying process.The product became available to Coinbase One members on August 12. The two companies first announced their partnership in March of this year, with the first mortgage loan under this program designed within the framework of a Fannie Mae-compliant conforming mortgage. According to the announcement, Coinbase One members who qualify for Better's mortgage products can receive a lender credit equal to 1% of the loan amount, up to a maximum of $10,000. This credit can be applied toward mortgage closing costs and is available for standard mortgages, home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), and refinancing products. (The Block)
: Base announced the launch of the Batches 004 accelerator program, which will select 10 startups over an 8-week program, with each receiving $100,000 in investment funded by the Base Ecosystem Fund. Applications close on September 9, and the program will hold Demo Day in New York in November. This round is aimed at pre-seed startups focused on trading, payments, funding, and AI agents, covering products that use stablecoins to support agent shopping, trading, and payments, as well as lending, e-commerce, and decentralized AI infrastructure. Teams may support multiple blockchains but must have Base as their primary network. Selected teams will receive dedicated advisors, weekly support, and exposure assistance within the Base ecosystem, and will present their projects to investors at Demo Day. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets on Base in February and Coinbase for Agents in June, which respectively enable AI agents to hold USDC and pay via the x402 protocol, and to directly connect to user accounts. (Decrypt)
Odaily News – Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings disclosed in its latest quarterly SEC filing that it has pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral for two Bitcoin-backed loans, totaling $750 million in principal.Among these, financing provided by Coinbase Credit includes a refinancing of the original $150 million credit facility plus an additional $300 million in new funds; Two Prime Lending separately provided a $300 million loan. Both loans have been fully drawn, with a combined financing cost of approximately 7.56%, primarily maturing in August 2028.The pledged 18,750 BTC were valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of the transaction. If a decline in Bitcoin's price pushes the collateral ratio below the agreed level, MARA could face margin call requirements; otherwise, the related BTC may be subject to liquidation risk.The new funds will mainly be used for general corporate purposes and to support MARA's acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power. The transaction has an enterprise value of approximately $1.5 billion. Long Ridge owns a natural gas power plant in Ohio, USA, with an expected installed capacity of 505 MW, along with over 1,600 acres of industrial land. MARA plans to further develop the site into a base for Bitcoin mining, AI, and high-performance computing infrastructure. (Crowdfund Insider)
Odaily News: Connecticut Federal District Court Judge Vernon D. Oliver denied Kalshi's motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that its sports event contracts do not constitute swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC therefore does not hold exclusive jurisdiction. The ruling noted that sports event contracts account for 80% to 90% of Kalshi's listed contracts and revenue, and the CFTC has never reviewed any of these contracts under relevant special rules. Oliver held that event outcomes fall under the category of event results, not separate events. Coinbase Financial Markets suffered a similar defeat on the same grounds, having offered Kalshi contracts through its platform since January as a futures commission merchant rather than a designated contract market, and Connecticut had not previously issued a cease-and-desist order against it. Kalshi was valued at approximately $11 billion at the time of its February hearing, with around 24,000 users in the state. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily News: Prediction market platform Polymarket is undergoing an organizational upgrade in preparation for the upcoming fall trading peak, bringing in several new executives, restructuring its marketing system, and strengthening its compliance team in preparation for U.S. market expansion. Polymarket recently hired Travis VanderZanden, founder of shared e-scooter company Bird and former Uber and Lyft executive, as Chief Growth Officer, responsible for the company's growth strategy and marketing system development. VanderZanden stated that the prediction market is at a critical stage of rapid development, and the company needs to further improve its management team to support long-term growth.This adjustment comes as Polymarket faces regulatory scrutiny. Previously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had launched an investigation into its business model, related to the platform's marketing activities and promotional partnership policies. Sources say Polymarket has restructured its marketing department, updated rules for promotional partners, and provided relevant training to employees, while also hiring consulting firm AlixPartners to oversee whether content published by partners complies with the new standards.Meanwhile, Polymarket continues to strengthen its compliance and risk management capabilities for its U.S. operations. The company's U.S. trading platform has added several new executives in regulatory and risk roles, including former Robinhood executive Megan McGrath as Chief Compliance Officer for the U.S. platform, former Coinbase executive Natalie Oblazny overseeing U.S. regulatory affairs, former FBI and Coinbase employee Shana Bautista as Head of Global Investigations and Intelligence, and former Nasdaq executive Paul Jordan as Chief Risk Officer for the U.S. platform.Polymarket's U.S. trading platform went live in May this year and operates independently from its international business. With the NFL new season kicking off in September and the U.S. midterm elections approaching in November, the market expects a new wave of growth in prediction market trading activity.Previously, Polymarket had already become one of the representative platforms in the prediction market space and continues to seek expanded fundraising. According to reports, the company is currently seeking a new funding round at a valuation exceeding $20 billion. As institutional investors and professional traders gradually enter the prediction market, Polymarket is attempting to transform from a retail-facing, betting-style prediction platform into a more mature financial market infrastructure. (CNBC)
Odaily News – River Markets, a startup building trading infrastructure for prediction markets, has announced the completion of an $8.5 million seed funding round, led by Haun Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, and Qube Research Technologies, among others. The new capital will primarily be used to expand the engineering team, enhance trading system speed and security, and grow institutional clientele, while also developing new tools to support large-scale capital management and cross-platform trading.In recent years, prediction markets have drawn attention from institutional investors. Data from industry platforms shows that institutional trading demand is growing rapidly. For example, prediction market platform Kalshi previously stated that its institutional trading volume increased by approximately 800% within six months. Meanwhile, market participants have begun using prediction markets for risk hedging, including building trading positions around real-world economic variables such as carbon emission allowances and GPU rental prices. (Fortune)
Odaily News The inside story behind stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK's acquisition by Mastercard for $1.8 billion has recently come to light. According to Concentric, an early investor in BVNK, during the bidding process, US crypto exchange Coinbase once held an advantageous position and reportedly submitted a bid as high as $2.5 billion, but ultimately withdrew from the competition due to insufficient strategic and cultural alignment between the two parties.Kjartan Rist, founding partner of Concentric, stated that BVNK's founding team did not focus solely on the offer price when selecting an acquirer, but placed greater emphasis on long-term partnership and corporate culture fit. "Coinbase may have offered a higher price, but the chemistry between the two sides was not ideal." In contrast, Mastercard, as a traditional financial services company, is more likely to create synergies with BVNK in payment infrastructure and stablecoin applications.It is understood that Mastercard participated in acquisition discussions with BVNK at an early stage, and after Coinbase failed to advance the deal, Mastercard re-emerged as the primary buyer, ultimately completing the acquisition for $1.8 billion.Visa also participated in the competition. Having previously invested in BVNK and holding a board observer seat, Visa once had an advantage. However, Visa ultimately chose not to pursue a direct acquisition, instead adopting an open strategy of partnering with multiple stablecoin companies.Founded in 2018, BVNK provides enterprises with stablecoin payment, cross-border settlement, and treasury management infrastructure. Its early investor Concentric invested in the company at a valuation of $4 million in 2019, and this transaction has generated substantial returns.The acquisition also reflects a new round of competition between traditional payment giants and crypto companies over stablecoin infrastructure. Previously, Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion, prompting payment giants such as Visa and Mastercard to accelerate their expansion into the stablecoin sector.Currently, the global stablecoin market size has approached $300 billion. As enterprise payments, cross-border settlements, and treasury management use cases grow rapidly, stablecoin infrastructure is becoming a critical gateway for traditional financial institutions to capture. (CoinDesk)
: Bitcoin mining company MARA completed two loans on August 4, pledging 18,750 BTC to secure $600 million in new debt for expanding its power generation and AI infrastructure business. The collateralized assets were valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of the transaction. The combined principal of the two loans totals $750 million, with Coinbase Credit providing $450 million, including a refinancing of the existing $150 million credit facility and an additional $300 million; Two Prime Lending separately provided $300 million. Both loans have been fully drawn. The Coinbase loan carries an interest rate of the midpoint of the Federal Reserve's target rate range plus 3.875 percentage points, with a maturity date of August 4, 2028; the Two Prime loan carries a fixed interest rate of 7.65%, with a maturity date of August 3, 2028. Assuming the principal remains unchanged, the annual interest expense on the two loans is approximately $56.7 million. MARA stated that the loan proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including part of the cash consideration for the acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power LLC. The transaction has an enterprise value of approximately $1.5 billion. Long Ridge owns a 505-megawatt gas-fired power plant and more than 1,600 acres of industrial land, which MARA plans to use for power generation, Bitcoin mining, and potential AI and high-performance computing campuses.
POAP co-founder isabel (@izonline) posted on the X platform, announcing the official closure of the on-chain souvenir protocol POAP. POAP has operated since 2021, cumulatively minting millions of on-chain collectibles for hundreds of communities. It partnered with world-class institutions such as Coinbase, American Express (Amex), Warner Music Group (WMG), and Bayer, and completed the minting of over 8,000 collectibles during Devcon. The founder stated that the funding cycles and traffic distribution mechanisms in the crypto industry made it difficult for POAP to achieve commercial sustainability without compromising the project's original vision. Coupled with the dual pressure of rapid tech stack iteration and market hype cycles, this ultimately led to the project's shutdown. The founder also summarized three core lessons: customer communities are a company's most underestimated asset; "sense of connection" is the essential value of a product; and long-term brand trust is the only moat in the current market.
Odaily News - After Coinbase's Q2 results fell short of market expectations, the stock briefly dropped to a roughly two-and-a-half-year low on Friday morning before paring losses to around $150. Over the past year, the stock is still down approximately 57%.Wall Street generally believes Coinbase underperformed this quarter, but opinions differ on the cause: some analysts attribute it mainly to a weak crypto market environment, while others have begun to question whether the company's growth strategy beyond its trading business can deliver.JPMorgan stated that Coinbase's results reflect a "challenging crypto environment," with new products contributing limited value to the income statement. The bank lowered its December 2026 price target for Coinbase from $196 to $148, while maintaining an "Overweight" rating. JPMorgan believes the company faces pressure across multiple business lines, with weak trading volumes dragging down transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue also under strain.Bernstein, on the other hand, believes Coinbase's long-term strategy remains attractive, but investors want to see more compelling execution, particularly in new business areas such as prediction markets and tokenized stocks.Mizuho warned that Robinhood is emerging as the mainstream alternative for retail crypto trading. Overall, Coinbase is still viewed as an important representative of U.S. crypto compliance infrastructure, but its valuation recovery increasingly depends on proving it is more than just a crypto exchange reliant on trading cycles.
Grayscale stated HYPE's forward P/E ratio is approximately 15 to 18 times. Hyperliquid possesses real cash flow and can therefore be valued like a stock, but the valuation is based on earnings per token rather than earnings per share. Based on this, compared with fintech peers such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle, HYPE still appears inexpensive. Market data shows that HYPE is currently trading at $55.32, down 1.5% in the past 24 hours.
Coinbase Institutional and Glassnode have jointly released a market report, maintaining a neutral outlook on the cryptocurrency market for the third quarter of 2026. In the second quarter, the total market capitalization of the crypto market (excluding stablecoins) declined by approximately 12%, while stablecoin supply reached an all-time high. On-chain data suggests that Bitcoin may be transitioning from a correction phase to an accumulation phase, characterized by compressed valuations, near-multi-year lows in recent active supply, and the proportion of supply in profit breaking below historical statistical lower bounds—historically corresponding to accumulation rather than distribution zones. However, the macro liquidity environment remains tight, with the Federal Reserve maintaining a hawkish stance under Kevin Warsh's leadership, a strong U.S. dollar, coupled with geopolitical risks, selling pressure from digital asset treasuries, and net outflows from spot BTC and ETH ETFs in the first half of the year (though the pace of outflows has begun to slow), thus overall caution is advised.
TownSquare, an institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage service infrastructure, announced the official launch of its ICO public sale. This public sale is technically supported by the Echo Sonar platform from the Coinbase ecosystem. The valuation is divided into two tiers: a $150 million valuation based on a 6-month lock-up, and a $200 million valuation with no lock-up and full release at TGE, with a fundraising cap of $1 million. Currently, 30 minutes into the public sale, over $200,000 has been raised. According to data, most users chose the second tier with the $200 million valuation. This public sale is the first project based on the Monad ecosystem on Sonar, supporting USDC and USDT0 tokens on Monad. Previously, TownSquare completed a total of 3 rounds of financing totaling $16.25 million, with participation from World Liberty Financial, Auros Ventures, Amber Group, Animoca Ventures, OKX Ventures, as well as angel investors and institutions from ecosystems such as Monad, a16z, etc. It is projected that the previous valuation is comparable to this ICO valuation. TownSquare Sonar Public Sale Registration: townsq.xyz/sale
According to The Block, crypto liquidation platform Glacis Labs announced the completion of a $6.8 million seed funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, A.GAIN (formerly IDC Ventures), Protein Capital, and Techni Ventures. The financing was completed in the form of equity with token warrants.
Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates, stated that his early decision not to invest in Coinbase was due to his judgment that widespread retail crypto adoption would still take a considerable amount of time, rather than a lack of belief in Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong.Tim Draper revealed that at the time, he had already invested in the early Bitcoin company Coinlab, which is why he initially did not invest in Coinbase. His son, Adam Draper, disagreed with this assessment and wrote the first check to Brian Armstrong. Tim Draper subsequently participated in Coinbase's next funding round. Coinbase was later founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam and grew into a crypto platform, listing on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol COIN.Tim Draper stated that Coinbase has become one of the representative investments of Draper Associates Fund V, with the returns from Coinbase alone nearly doubling the overall size of the fund.