News linked to both this project and an event.
Jeeves has announced the completion of a $110 million equity financing round. The round was led by CoinFund, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, AllianceBernstein, the Singapore Government Investment Corporation (GIC), and Y Combinator.
Odaily News: Jeeves Inc. has announced the completion of a $110 million Series C funding round, led by CoinFund, with participation from AllianceBernstein, Coinbase Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), among others. The company is a fintech firm and plans to use the funds to launch a stablecoin wallet and AI agents, as well as to provide instant payment services in more countries.
Odaily News: Trading firm Raven has announced the completion of a strategic funding round at a $90 million pre-money valuation, with Coinbase Ventures and CMCC Global participating. Founded in 2023, Raven initially provided liquidity for crypto trading and expanded into prediction markets in the second quarter of 2025.
Odaily reports: Aave founder and CEO Stani posted on X platform that his way of measuring Aave's potential market size is "addressable collateral" — the broader the range of assets that can serve as collateral, the greater the lending market space becomes.Stani stated that Aave initially started with crypto assets, then expanded into securities through Coinbase Tokenized Stocks and Horizon RWA, and in the future will also cover assets such as solar energy, batteries, GPUs, robots, and space infrastructure. He expressed his belief that this transformation will continue through 2050, and that Aave's goal is to accelerate this process by approximately 10 years by providing financing for the assets that will drive the "Age of Abundance."
Odaily reports: Prediction market and derivatives platform OG.com Markets has submitted a rule filing to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) seeking to launch cash-settled perpetual futures on individual stocks with no expiration date, tradable 5 days a week, 24 hours a day.OG.com recently spun off from cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com to become an independent platform valued at $5 billion. Coinbase, Payward's Bitnomial exchange, and Kalshi have also applied to offer U.S. single-stock perpetual futures. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: AI agent startup Ema has completed a $77 million Series B funding round led by Creaegis, with existing investors Accel, Section 32, and Prosus also participating. To date, the company's total funding has reached $140 million, with its valuation more than tripling compared to its previous funding round in 2024. Ema was founded in 2023 by former Google and Coinbase executive Surojit Chatterjee and former Okta executive Souvik Sen. The company deploys technology called "AI employees," which are systems capable of coordinating multiple AI agents to help enterprises execute multi-step business processes within existing applications, rather than handling only a single task at a time. It is reported that most of the new funding will be used to expand market operations, as the company previously focused primarily on product development. (TechCrunch)
stablecoin infrastructure company Bastion has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to apply to establish a national trust bank. Founded in 2023 by two former a16z crypto executives, Bastion provides white-label stablecoin issuance, reserve custody, customer wallets, and payment infrastructure for enterprises; its investors include Coinbase Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Samsung Next, and its latest funding round last year raised $14.6 million.
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.