Follow the Money: Over $200 Million in Venture Investments, $400 Million Purchase, and Weak Activity from Corporate Investors

From September 1 to 12, 2026, the Incrypted editorial team tracked 19 investment deals. In 13 cases, companies disclosed amounts, totaling over $804 million. Among the recorded deals are venture rounds, M&A transactions, and other capital-raising formats. Details are in the weekly digest. Incrypted Infographic.

Classic Venture

During this period, 11 projects received funding from venture investors totaling approximately $204 million. In particular:

• $100 million - Payward. Nasdaq invested in the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, valuing it at $21 billion. The investment expands the partnership between the parties regarding the development of infrastructure for trading tokenized stocks. Kraken plans to offer tokenized stocks from Nasdaq on its platform while preserving voting rights for holders, as provided for ordinary shares.

• $35 million - Latitude. The Texas startup raised capital in a Series A funding round. The main investor was the venture fund Oak HC/FT, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. The company is building a global payment system that allows businesses to transfer money using stablecoins.

• $25 million - OpenReserve. The fintech startup closed a funding round led by a16z crypto with participation from Jump Crypto, Acrew, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, Clocktower, Quona, AAF Management, and Zero Knowledge Ventures. The company is developing a 24/7 national bank with blockchain infrastructure that will combine banking services, payments, lending, digital asset custody, and tokenized deposits. Concurrently, OpenReserve received preliminary conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a full-fledged national bank. Before commencing operations, the company must meet regulatory requirements, including securing at least $210 million in initial capital and obtaining additional approvals. OpenReserve also plans to launch a separate subsidiary for issuing and servicing dollar-backed stablecoins.

• $10 million - Diameter Pay. The company closed a Series A round co-led by CMT Digital and Lightspeed Faction. The startup is developing a payment infrastructure for institutional clients that combines traditional dollar accounts and payment channels with stablecoins. Diameter Pay provides institutional clients with U.S. dollar accounts and the ability to deposit and withdraw funds in stablecoins through traditional payment channels. Since the beginning of 2026, the platform has processed over $10 billion in payments.

• $8 million - Firelight. The decentralized capital protection protocol in DeFi closed a seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital with participation from Maven 11, Metalayer, Joint Effects, and Tribe Capital. Firelight is developing on-chain infrastructure to protect funds from protocol exploits, smart contract errors, and economic risks. The funds will be directed towards further development of the protocol, expanding capital protection offerings, and building partnerships within the ecosystem. Currently, Firelight uses XRP as the underlying asset for collateral and plans to add Bitcoin and XLM. Initial integrations of the protocol are expected to launch in September.

• $8 million - MemeBitcoin. The project closed a strategic round with participation from Gemhead Capital, Archer Capital, M2M Capital, and Mayer Venture. The team is turning the search for access to Satoshi's wallet into a collective activity, where users generate and verify potential private keys. The funds will be directed towards launching early access to MBTC, opening the full version of the website, forum, and wallet connections, as well as activating the Proof of Viral mechanics. After that, the team plans to conduct a global campaign with opinion leaders, a full public launch, and preparation for MBTC listings on centralized exchanges.

• $7 million --- Antarctic Exchange. The Singapore-based decentralized perpetual contracts exchange closed a round at a company valuation of $70 million. Participants included Valisa Capital Markets, Lucidity Capital, Republic Crypto, and a consortium of prop traders specializing in options, futures, and structured products. The company will direct funds towards developing a DEX for retail traders with trading experiences similar to centralized exchanges. The platform combines self-custody of assets and DEX transparency with the speed, leverage, and tools of CEX.

• $7 million --- Antarctic Exchange. The Singapore-based decentralized perpetual contracts exchange closed a round at a company valuation of $70 million. Participants included Valisa Capital Markets, Lucidity Capital, Republic Crypto, and a consortium of prop traders specializing in options, futures, and structured products. The company will direct funds towards developing a DEX for retail traders with trading experiences similar to centralized exchanges. The platform combines self-custody of assets and DEX transparency with the speed, leverage, and tools of CEX.

• $6 million --- RealGo. UZ Capital made a strategic investment in a project developing Meme 3.0 infrastructure for the global meme ecosystem. RealGo combines AR, AI, geolocation services, and on-chain assets to transform meme intellectual property from speculative tokens into digital assets that can be collected, utilized, and traded.

• $3 million --- Plenti. The Colombian fintech company closed a seed round led by Tether with participation from Verda Ventures. The platform specializes in multi-currency accounts, international transfers, and investment products, boasting over 150,000 active users and more than $3.1 billion in annual transaction volume. Funds will be directed towards strengthening operations in Colombia and expanding into the markets of Peru and Bolivia. Plenti also offers yields of up to 8% per annum on balances and fractional investing in U.S. stocks, ETFs, and crypto assets.

• $1.25 million --- ParlayX. The platform for team trading in prediction markets completed a pre-seed round led by Dreamcraft Ventures. The company is developing infrastructure for institutional participants that allows multiple traders to work collaboratively on prediction markets, unlike the traditional model of <<one person --- one account>>.

• $1 million --- Polaris. The on-chain yield protocol completed a funding round with participation from the Ethereum Foundation, Fusion managed by IPOR, Altitude, Liquity, and LI.FI. The round also included over 30 founders and investors, including The Daily Gwei founder Anthony Sassano.

Additionally, the venture arm of GMO Internet Group, GMO VenturePartners, conducted a first close of its eighth fund since 2005, raising approximately ¥10 billion ($65 million). Among the investors are Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, companies from the GMO Internet Group, other financial and corporate entities, as well as several startups from the GMO-VP portfolio. The fund has a cap of ¥12 billion and continues to raise capital until the final close.

GFF8 will focus on <> --- specifically on stablecoins, tokenized deposits, AI-based credit underwriting, and next-generation financial infrastructure.

Tether and Fasanara Capital also launched a $400 million private credit fund to finance small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers through fintech platforms in over 60 countries. Fasanara Capital will manage the fund and direct capital into asset-backed short-term loans, while Tether will be responsible for sourcing financing opportunities and settlement infrastructure through USDT. The companies plan to attract up to $3 billion in additional institutional capital.

Another project received funding but did not disclose the investment amount.

TRM Labs, a company developing tools for investigating financial crimes using AI, has expanded its Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital. Following the deal, TRM Labs is valued at $2 billion, which is double the figure from the previous round in February 2026.

Token Sales

This week, there was no activity in the token sales sector. Infographic by Incrypted.

Current data on ongoing and upcoming token sales is available in a special section of our website, where users can find information about active and planned token sale campaigns. Additionally, our team regularly updates the dedicated Telegram channel, promptly covering key events.

Corporate Placements and Deals

From September 1 to 11, several corporate deals were recorded, including:

$200 million --- Félix Pago. The fintech platform for money transfers closed a funding round consisting of $87 million in equity financing led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $113 million credit line from the Customer Value Fund of General Catalyst. The equity round also included participation from QED Investors, Castle Island Ventures, Switch Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, and Endeavor Catalyst.

The company uses WhatsApp and stablecoins for cross-border transfers. Félix Pago has already processed over $8 billion in transactions and plans to expand its product line beyond transfers by adding lending and savings for Latin American immigrants in the U.S.

Funds will also be directed towards AI development, engineering teams, and financial infrastructure. The company plans to create an AI assistant for everyday financial decisions and has already launched the ability to top up mobile services for users' family members in Latin American countries.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Several mergers and acquisitions took place during the week.

$400 million --- Tazapay. Circle has agreed to acquire the Singapore-based B2B platform for cross-border payments, Tazapay. The deal involves a payment of approximately $400 million in Circle shares, with the final amount potentially adjusted for Tazapay's debt, cash, and transaction costs.

Tazapay has over 60 banking and fintech partners and a payment infrastructure in more than 100 countries and markets. The platform processes over $25 billion in annual payment volume, about 60% of which already involves stablecoin transactions. The acquisition is expected to expand Circle's global payment infrastructure and accelerate the adoption of USDC in cross-border settlements.

Sei Labs acquired the blockchain data indexing and analysis platform Bilinear Labs, and its team will join the development of Sei Network and Sei Giga. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bilinear Labs will cease operations on September 14. The platform, built on Rust, indexed hundreds of billions of on-chain events and developed the Bring Your Own ABI (BYOABI) technology.

Oddpool, a platform for forecasting market data analytics, has joined Kalshi. The company was founded by Y Combinator graduates Avi Aror and Ritesh Malpani, and its team developed infrastructure for working with forecasting market data for institutions, economists, politicians, and businesses.

Robinhood announced a strategic partnership with Crypto.com and OG.com to expand its forecasting markets segment. As part of the agreement, the platform began directing some event contracts related to American football through the regulated U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) exchange and clearing infrastructure of Crypto.com.

Uniswap Labs acquired PONS tokens, the native asset of the eponymous launchpad on Robinhood Chain, as part of deepening its partnership.

Accelerators, Grants, and DAO Funding

This week, ecosystems and DAOs did not allocate funds to support projects.

Top Investors

The most active investors during the period from September 1 to 12, 2026, included companies such as Robinhood, a16z crypto, and Coinbase Ventures. Infographic by Incrypted.

What Are Investors Focusing On?

During the analyzed period, investors focused primarily on the development of blockchain infrastructure and services, as well as the DeFi sector. Infographic by Incrypted.

Stay tuned to Incrypted for updates on new investments in the development of the digital world.