venture

According to market news, New York-based crypto investment firm DBA has raised $68 million for its second venture capital fund.Previously, the company raised $50 million for its first fund in 2023. DBA was co-founded by former Galaxy Digital co-head of investments Michael Jordan and well-known Ethereum commentator Jon Charbonneau, and has invested in protocols such as DoubleZero and Monad, stablecoin application Payy, ICO financing platform MetaDAO, and Bitcoin scaling solutions.

Crypto KOL @thedefiedge posted on platform X, stating that 85% of the tokens issued in 2025 have a trading price lower than their issuance price. Venture capital funding has fallen to a five-year low, and the establishment of new funds has also hit rock bottom.

Battery Ventures' representative portfolio includes Coinbase, Databricks, Affirm, Shopify, and Wayfair.

According to Fortune magazine, amid the backdrop of "mass extinction" facing blockchain venture capital firms, crypto VC Dragonfly has successfully completed the fundraising for its fourth fund, totaling $650 million.Dragonfly stated that the current blockchain venture capital industry is undergoing a "mass clearing," but institutions remain optimistic about the trend of crypto financialization, focusing on areas such as stablecoins, on-chain financial infrastructure, and tokenization of real assets.

According to Cointelegraph, venture capitalist Nic Carter stated in a podcast that the long-term inaction of Bitcoin developers regarding the potential threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin may lead to dissatisfaction among large institutions holding significant amounts of Bitcoin (such as BlackRock), ultimately triggering an "institutional takeover."Nic Carter warned that institutions will not tolerate the core security issues of Bitcoin being ignored for an extended period. "If developers continue to be inactive, institutions will lose patience and will fire the current developers, replacing them with new ones."

Transform Ventures CEO Michael Terpin stated at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong that Bitcoin may need to return to the $50,000 or even $40,000 range to form a true bottom and begin a lasting recovery.Terpin believes that the current crypto market is developing according to historical patterns, and he is skeptical of recent bullish predictions, stating that Bitcoin typically reaches a bull market peak in the fourth quarter after halving, followed by a correction, which is consistent with previous cycles. He pointed out that in past cycles, it often took about a year for the bubble to burst and hit the bottom, and the current market environment is fragile, which may lead to another pain point. Terpin emphasized that Bitcoin's halving mechanism, which reduces miner rewards approximately every four years, creates supply shocks and enhances scarcity, and this design has historically been a key factor in driving bull markets.

OKX Ventures makes a strategic investment in the stablecoin and yield infrastructure provider STBL. STBL stated that it plans to develop a stablecoin backed by real-world assets (RWA) on the OKX Ethereum-compatible layer two blockchain X Layer.

Stablecoin infrastructure startup Levl announced the completion of a $7 million seed funding round, led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from Protagonist, Deus X, Blockchain Builders Fund, and others.The company is dedicated to providing stablecoin payment infrastructure for digital wallets and fintech companies, having served over 20 clients with an annual transaction volume exceeding $1 billion. The founder stated that its platform can help clients achieve cross-border instant payments at a lower cost without the need to build complex systems. Levl plans to double its team size and focus on expanding into the Latin American and African markets.

Circle Ventures announced a strategic investment in the decentralized trading platform edgeX, with specific amounts and valuation details not disclosed. Circle also plans to introduce its stablecoin USDC and cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) to edgeX's blockchain, EDGE Chain.It is reported that the two companies began discussions at the end of 2025 and ultimately completed the investment transaction last month, with Circle Ventures being the sole investor in this round of financing.

AI regulatory compliance startup Bretton AI announced the completion of a $75 million Series B funding round, led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Greylock, Thomson Reuters Ventures, and Citi Ventures.The company was founded by Will Lawrence, a former employee of the compliance team at stablecoin infrastructure company Paxos. Its clients are primarily focused on fintech service companies, including fintech startups such as Mercury, Ramp, Robinhood, and Coinbase, as well as some community regional banks, helping them achieve anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance operations.

Gate Ventures held a high-end networking dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong during Consensus, with Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han attending and delivering the opening speech, sharing deep insights on the structural evolution of the financial industry and the trend of technological integration.Dr. Han pointed out from the perspective of the collaborative development of traditional finance, Web3, and AI that diverse systems are gradually converging, and technology and institutions are jointly reshaping value flow and trust mechanisms. He stated that the industry is shifting from single paradigm competition to multi-system collaboration, entering a new stage oriented towards long-term value and sustainable development.The event was conducted in a targeted networking format, combining keynote speeches and roundtable discussions, providing a high-quality dialogue space for participants from different fields, further promoting cross-domain understanding and collaboration.

According to PR Newswire, the privacy stablecoin project Zoth announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with the specific amount not disclosed. Taisu Ventures led the round, with participation from Luca Netz, CEO and owner of the NFT project "Fat Penguin" Pudgy Penguins, and JLabs Digital.The new funding will support its development of stablecoin infrastructure based on a "privacy-first" framework.

According to official social media news, HTX Ventures will be featured at the 2026 Hong Kong Consensus Conference from February 10 to 12. During this period, TRON founder and Huobi HTX Global Advisor Justin Sun will attend and deliver a keynote speech titled "Building Resilient Blockchain Infrastructure for a Rapidly Changing World." An interactive session will also be set up at the conference, where participants can find the Huobi HTX mascot "Huo Bao" in designated areas to unlock mysterious New Year rewards.In addition to the Consensus Conference, HTX Ventures and HTX DAO will also attend the Alpha Night event on February 9 as official partners of MyToken. HTX DAO ambassador Molly will be present and give a keynote speech, sharing the latest developments of HTX DAO in decentralized governance and ecosystem co-construction. On February 10, HTX DAO will also appear at the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum co-hosted by ChainCatcher, RootData, and Alibaba Cloud, focusing on discussions and exchanges regarding the scaling development and infrastructure construction of Web3 projects.After successfully landing in Asia and establishing itself in Hong Kong for the first time in 2025, the Consensus Conference returns to Hong Kong in 2026 and has now developed into one of the most influential annual events in the blockchain industry in Asia and even globally.

According to a report by Cointelegraph Research, the total amount of venture capital in the cryptocurrency sector will reach $34 billion in 2025, doubling from $17 billion in 2024. Among them, the tokenization of real-world assets has become the dominant narrative, with financing in this sector exceeding $2.5 billion.The investment logic has undergone a significant shift: institutions prefer projects with sustainable revenue models and clear market fit, leading to a delay in the financing stage, with seed round financing down by 18% and Series B financing up by 90%. The total market value of tokenized RWA has surpassed $38 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in crypto, but there is still significant room for growth compared to the traditional market, which is worth trillions of dollars globally.Meanwhile, the financing enthusiasm for Ethereum Layer 2 and modular infrastructure has sharply declined, with financing in 2025 amounting to only $162 million, a 72% decrease from 2024. The report suggests that this is due to the L2 ecosystem becoming saturated, with investment demand having been fully released.

According to the latest crypto weekly report released by Gate Ventures, the overall crypto market faced pressure and retraced in the past week, with BTC down 8.7% and ETH's decline widening to 19.4%. ETF fund flows significantly weakened, with BTC and ETH ETFs recording net outflows of approximately $1.49 billion and $327 million, respectively, while the total market capitalization of crypto assets declined by 11.3% over the week. The ETH/BTC exchange rate fell below the critical level of 0.03, further deteriorating market sentiment and entering the "extreme fear" zone, with increased volatility revealing gradual leverage and position pressure.In terms of on-chain and industry activities, despite market pressure, venture capital and innovation dynamics continue to drive progress. Several developments are focused on payment infrastructure, compliant on-chain services, and adaptive DeFi architectures. In terms of investment and financing, a total of 11 financing transactions were completed last week, with a disclosed total financing amount of approximately $188.5 million, an increase of about 52% compared to the previous week, with funds mainly concentrated in DeFi and infrastructure-related areas. These dynamics indicate that, in a context of cautious sentiment, capital allocation remains structurally selective and continues to support developments related to long-term on-chain utility.

According to official news, the cross-chain liquidity unified layer Euclid Protocol has announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round and seed round extension financing, with participation from KuCoin Ventures, Gate Ventures, 0G Labs, ATOM Accelerator, and Kahuna.It is reported that the protocol aims to build a unified global liquidity layer, allowing multiple applications and networks to share liquidity sources across ecosystems.

According to Fortune, the venture capital firm Escape Velocity has completed its second round of fundraising, raising a total of $62 million, primarily to support DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) and broader projects in the cryptocurrency space.The fund attracted notable investors, including Marc Andreessen and Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, with the largest contributor, Cendana, contributing $15 million. Escape Velocity co-founder Mahesh Ramakrishnan stated that although the DePIN sector is currently facing a market downturn, he believes that decentralized physical infrastructure will see breakthroughs. The company has previously invested in DePIN projects such as Daylight and Glow in the solar energy sector and plans to continue seeking high-quality projects that go beyond market hype.

According to CoinDesk, asset tokenization startup Tenbin Labs has completed a $7 million seed round financing, led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, GSR, FalconX, and others.Tenbin plans to launch its first tokenized gold product earlier this year, followed by high-yield forex tokens pegged to emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso, targeting DeFi users seeking alternatives to dollar stablecoins.