News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Tech Funding News, US AI fintech company Valon has closed a $150 million Series D funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $2.3 billion, doubling its valuation from the previous round. The round was backed by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with Ribbit Capital participating as a new investor.
Atkins stated that the custody provisions of the current Investment Advisers Act and Investment Company Act predate the birth of the internet, and custody capabilities often lag by months after new assets are listed. The SEC's custody rule proposal aims to fill this gap. Atkins also outlined the current SEC's crypto regulatory initiatives, including ending "regulation by enforcement," arrangements related to tokenized securities, the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets issuance framework, and an "innovation exemption," noting that more regulatory proposals are already in the pipeline.
According to official disclosures from Spacecoin, Space Network has formally signed a $50 million binding booking agreement with Philippine infrastructure company HQ Company International Holdings to provide decentralized satellite communication services to the Philippines via the Freeport Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network. Yongsoo Samuel Cho, CEO of HQ Company, is the grandson-in-law of former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, bringing extensive local resources and cross-border investment experience. Under the agreement, Space Network will be responsible for providing network access, hardware, and software technical support, while HQ Company will handle local commercial operations, spectrum licensing, and customer acquisition.
Bitcoin Treasuries posted on X that The Smarter Web Company has launched the inaugural offering of its Bitcoin-backed preferred shares MORE to institutional and retail investors, with an expected listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on October 14. The initial offering price is £90, approximately $119, with an annual dividend yield of 12%, paid weekly.
Odaily News: UK-based Bitcoin treasury company The Smarter Web Company has received shareholder approval to launch MORE, the UK's first Bitcoin-backed preferred stock. In addition, the company expects to raise $20 million to $33 million through an IPO to purchase more Bitcoin and fund cash-flow-generating operating businesses. (Bitcoin Treasuries)
Odaily News: BitcoinTreasuries.NET posted on X that after The Smarter Web Company announced plans to launch the UK's first Bitcoin-backed preferred stock, its shares TSWCF rose more than 36% over the past week.
Odaily News: Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI) announced that it purchased approximately $25 million in preferred shares in AI infrastructure company Crusoe's $3.9 billion Series F funding round. The round valued Crusoe at $30.9 billion, and the related transaction was completed on August 31.Sarah Pinto, President of Robinhood Ventures Fund I, stated that Crusoe is building vertically integrated AI infrastructure, supporting AI computing through energy, AI data centers, and cloud platforms.
AI compute infrastructure startup Crusoe has completed a $3.9 billion Series F funding round, with a post-investment valuation of approximately $30.9 billion. The round was co-led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Mubadala Investment Company, with participation from Founders Fund, TPG, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), among others.Founded in 2018, Crusoe initially provided services to cryptocurrency miners before pivoting to AI compute infrastructure. The company previously spent two years building a large-scale AI data center in Abilene, Texas, to provide compute power for OpenAI and Microsoft. The company is now shifting toward producing a compact data center called "Spark," which involves loading prefabricated facilities onto trucks and deploying them to locations with idle power capacity to more quickly meet AI inference compute demand. (WSJ)
Odaily reports: The company plans to issue perpetual preferred shares under the ticker MORE, with a fundraising target of £15 million to £25 million and a minimum raise of £10 million. Listing admission requires support from three market makers. Holders will receive cumulative weekly dividends and liquidation preference but will not have voting rights, and the company may redeem the shares. As of mid-2026, SWC held 2,878 Bitcoins; following High Court approval of its capital reduction, the company has £132.5 million in distributable reserves available for payment.
According to TechCrunch, AI infrastructure company Cornelis announced the completion of a $205 million funding round led by IAG Capital Partners. The company also launched Active Compute Fabric networking technology, designed to improve communication efficiency between AI chips and reduce GPU idle time caused by waiting for data transmission.
OpenAI has acquired smartphone camera technology company Glass Imaging for more than $300 million. The company was founded in 2019 and had previously raised approximately $30 million in cumulative funding.Glass Imaging was founded by former Apple engineers Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, who had previously led Apple's Portrait Mode development team. Glass Imaging primarily uses neural networks to optimize camera systems for different smartphones, directly enhancing image quality during the shooting process to overcome the physical size limitations of phone cameras.As of the time of publication, OpenAI has not responded to requests for comment. Multiple market reports indicate that OpenAI is developing its own hardware products, including smartphones, earphones, and AI companion devices. (TechCrunch)
Odaily News: The Smarter Web Company has announced plans to launch the UK's first Bitcoin-backed preferred shares, subject to shareholder approval. The company expects to raise $20 million to $34 million through a potential IPO, to be used for increasing its Bitcoin holdings and acquiring cash-flow-generating operating businesses.
According to Bloomberg, insiders said Nasdaq will invest $100 million into Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, through its venture capital arm to continue building infrastructure that supports tokenized stock trading. The investment values Payward at $21 billion and further expands the partnership announced by both companies in March this year.
According to Bloomberg, Jon Cunliffe, former Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, and Jochen Metzger, former Director of Payment and Settlement Systems at the Deutsche Bundesbank, have joined blockchain payment company Fnality. Cunliffe will serve as chairman of the board of directors for Fnality's UK entity, while Metzger has been appointed to the supervisory board of Fnality Europe and is expected to assume the role of chair. Fnality is backed by several major global banks, as financial institutions accelerate efforts to connect mainstream assets to new digital networks.
Zora's incoming CEO, D. Goens (@dg_goens), announced that Zora has implemented several major adjustments this summer: On the product side, the platform has expanded beyond Base to support Robinhood, Solana, and BNB Chain, launching a custom pair creation feature with over 4,000 trading pairs established to support stocks, meme coins, and mainstream assets. On the team side, the company has completed layoffs, shrinking its workforce to fewer than 10 employees, and has deeply integrated AI technology to improve operational efficiency. In terms of leadership, co-founder Jacob stepped down as CEO, succeeded by fellow co-founder D. Goens. The incoming CEO stated that future priorities will include advancing the $ZORA token buyback and holder reward mechanisms, resuming community incentive distributions, accelerating mobile product iterations, and committing to greater transparency in community communications.
According to Fortune, long-standing Ethereum infrastructure company Consensys announced it will spin off its flagship wallet product MetaMask into an independent company focused on consumer platform business; the remaining protocol and institutional software business will continue to operate independently under the "Consensys" brand. Company founder Joe Lubin will serve as CEO of the independent MetaMask entity, while also concurrently taking on the role of Executive Chairman of the new Consensys, and veteran executive Mike Kriak will lead the institutional business segment. Lubin stated that MetaMask's rate of value accumulation has significantly outpaced that of the other businesses, serving as the core driver behind this split. MetaMask recently launched its "Primary Account" feature, which allows users to hold both cryptocurrency and fiat assets within a single account and spend them via a Mastercard debit card, while also encompassing diversified revenue streams such as perpetual contracts and prediction markets. The company had previously planned to go public earlier this year, but the initiative was put on hold due to a significant downturn in the crypto market. Analysts believe that the now-independent MetaMask could seek an IPO as early as early 2027.
According to WealthManagement, AI wealth management firm Savvy Wealth has announced the closing of a $100 million Series C funding round, bringing its valuation to $600 million. Led by Halo Fund, the round included participation from existing investors such as Thrive Capital, Industry Ventures, and Index Ventures. To date, the company's total funding has exceeded $200 million. Savvy Intelligence, Savvy Wealth’s AI-powered wealth management platform, utilizes large language models from OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI agents that support the integration of investment, tax, and financial planning data, streamlining wealth management processes through AI. The newly raised funds will be primarily directed toward expanding the development of software products tailored for wealth advisors.
According to France's Le Monde, the UAE will invest $1 billion through Marlan Space, a subsidiary of International Holding Company (IHC), into the French-American joint space AI startup Loft Orbital to build an observation satellite constellation consisting of 50 AI-enabled satellites. Unlike traditional satellites that transmit data back to Earth for analysis, the company plans to use AI to directly process images, videos, and measurement data collected by the satellites in space, with AI agents identifying anomalies and issuing alerts within seconds.
According to Reuters, AI data center optical interconnect company iPronics announced the completion of a $125 million Series B financing round, co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, Triatomic Capital, Bosch Ventures, Catalight Capital, the European Innovation Council Fund, and others, bringing the company's total funding to $177 million. iPronics primarily provides rack-mounted optical switching equipment for AI infrastructure. Through its programmable optical layer, it enables AI clusters to dynamically adjust network connections in real time according to training and inference workloads. The new capital will be used to scale operations and accelerate commercial deployment.
Binance Futures announces the listing of multiple USDT-M perpetual contracts for traditional financial assets on September 7, 2026. The BYDUSDT contract will list at 10:00 (UTC+8) on that day, with BYD Company Limited H-shares as the underlying asset. The HK0992USDT Quanto perpetual contract will list at 10:05 (UTC+8), with Lenovo Group Limited as the underlying asset.