PANews said 61 crypto financing deals were publicly disclosed in September 2026, down 1.6% from the prior month and 35.1% from a year earlier. Total funding came to about $1.269 billion, up 71.1% month over month but down 79.2% year over year.
Disclosed crypto financings and strategic investments during the period were still concentrated in financial services, covering perpetual futures trading, institutional trading, stablecoin payments, prediction markets, enterprise finance, and DePIN. Based on PANews’ incomplete tally, the global blockchain industry recorded 10 financing events in the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, with total capital exceeding $159 million.
September funding snapshot and key deals from last week
The main deals disclosed last week included PERPTools, which revealed two token financing rounds totaling $8 million; fintech company Jeeves, which raised $110 million in a Series C led by CoinFund with participation from a16z, Coinbase Ventures and others; crypto business banking platform Limited, which closed an $18.5 million seed round with DCG among the backers; and Raven, which secured strategic financing from Coinbase Ventures and CMCC Global at a $90 million pre-money valuation.
On the AI side, capital continued to cluster around model companies and infrastructure providers. SoftBank completed a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, Helix Digital Infrastructure received a $1 billion investment from Samsung Group, and AI-native cloud platform GMI Cloud raised $668 million.
The report also noted that China logged 1,255 AI-related financing events in the first half of 2026, totaling about RMB 250.14 billion, equal to 78.0% and 182.0% of the full-year 2025 figures, respectively.
Crypto funding: DeFi
PERPTools discloses $8 million across two rounds, TGE planned for Q4
PERPTools, an AI perpetual trading platform built by the developers of DEXTools, said it has raised a combined $8 million through two token financing rounds, including a $3 million pre-seed and a $5 million seed round. Investors included BigBrain Holdings, NEAR, Animoca Brands, Sfermion, and Shima Capital. The platform plans to hold its token generation event in the fourth quarter of 2026.
HyperLink raises $2.5 million
HyperLink, the prime brokerage protocol on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, announced a $2.5 million financing round with participation from Alliance, North Island Ventures, Reverie, Node Capital, Breed, and smartestmoney.hl.
HyperLink said it aims to give users lower fees, private order flow, and better execution by aggregating trading volume and unlocking VIP fee tiers through staking. Data cited in the report showed the platform routed $254 million in trading volume last month, equal to 0.1% of Hyperliquid’s total volume. The protocol is currently invite-only and accounts for 1% of builder volume on Hyperliquid.
Crypto funding: Stablecoin payments
Jeeves raises $110 million in Series C
Miami-based fintech company Jeeves completed a $110 million Series C led by CoinFund, with a16z, Coinbase Ventures, AllianceBernstein and others also participating. The company said the proceeds will be used to build stablecoin wallet infrastructure, automate workflows with AI agents, and expand instant payment services to more than 25 countries.
Jeeves said about 50% to 60% of its international payments are already settled in stablecoins including USDC and EURC.
Walapay closes $4.6 million seed round
Payments infrastructure company Walapay announced a $4.6 million seed round led by Gen Venture Capital. Other investors included Commerce Ventures, Polygon, AAF Management, Verda Ventures, NGC Ventures, FGV Capital, JSquare, Reflexive, and Big Brain VC. Walapay said the funding will go toward securing more licenses, expanding banking partnerships, and growing its team.
Crypto funding: Prediction markets
Raven secures strategic financing at a $90 million pre-money valuation
Raven completed a strategic financing round with participation from Coinbase Ventures and CMCC Global at a pre-money valuation of $90 million. The amount raised was not disclosed.
Founded in 2023, Raven started as a crypto high-frequency market maker. In the second quarter of 2025, it expanded into prediction markets, providing institutional market-making services for Kalshi, Polymarket, and other non-U.S. compliant or on-chain platforms. Raven has supplied liquidity for more than 3,000 contracts across sports, crypto, macroeconomics, and entertainment. CMCC co-founder Charlie Morris will join Raven’s board to help expand its institutional client base.
Crypto funding: Centralized finance
Limited raises $18.5 million in seed funding
Crypto business banking platform Limited announced an $18.5 million seed round led by Third Prime, North Island Ventures, The House Fund, and Collab+Currency. Other participants included ParaFi Capital, Pharsalus Capital, Digital Currency Group, 1982 Ventures, and Onigiri Capital.
According to the report, Limited is a global financial platform for multinational businesses that combines local business accounts, Visa cards, payments, treasury and expense management, and crypto infrastructure. Businesses can send and receive funds through local rails including ACH, SEPA, Pix, and SWIFT, and can also transact in crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDC.
NG.CASH raises $15 million in strategic financing
Brazilian fintech company NG.CASH completed a $15 million strategic financing led by Blockchain Capital. Since its founding in 2021, the company has raised more than $65 million in total.
NG.CASH holds two licenses from Brazil’s central bank, one for direct lending companies and one for payment institutions, and is applying for a virtual asset service provider license. Since 2021, the company has opened more than 10 million accounts and processed transaction volume worth billions of dollars.
DTCC makes strategic investment in iCapital
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, or DTCC, and iCapital announced a strategic partnership, with DTCC also making a strategic investment in iCapital. The two companies plan to combine DTCC’s market infrastructure, processing capabilities, and network with iCapital’s technology platform and investment workflow to connect data, operations, and market participants across the private investment lifecycle and reduce operational friction.
As an initial area of cooperation, the companies plan to deepen the integration of DTCC’s Alternative Investment Product, or AIP, with iCapital’s alternatives platform, and explore the use of blockchain distributed ledger technology and tokenization in private markets. Talia Klein, head of wealth and investment solutions at DTCC, will join iCapital’s board as an observer.
Crypto funding: DePIN and SocialFi
Multicoin Capital announces investment in Grass
Multicoin Capital general partner Shayon Sengupta said in a post that the firm’s hedge fund and venture fund have invested in DePIN project Grass. Grass uses crypto incentives to recruit contributors around the world to share idle bandwidth and build a decentralized network that supplies pre-training data to frontier AI labs.
Over the past 18 months, Grass has served multiple labs, according to the disclosure. The project generated $17 million in revenue in 2025 and another $17 million in the first half of 2026, and expects full-year revenue from training-data business alone to reach $75 million. The business is already profitable. More than 6 million contributors have received rewards denominated in U.S. dollars.
KIVO receives $5 million in early funding from BitBT Ventures
BitBT Ventures said in a post on X that it has provided $5 million in early funding to social finance platform KIVO. KIVO is building a social finance ecosystem through a single consumer-facing app that connects social interaction, trading, payments, digital assets, and emerging financial products.
BitBT Ventures said it is backing KIVO’s effort to build a social layer and full-stack SocialFi infrastructure for the next generation of users. The disclosure came from the firm’s social media account and mentioned KIVO’s account, KivoSocialLayer.
Selected AI financings: Models and infrastructure
SoftBank completes third $10 billion investment in OpenAI
According to Cailian Press, SoftBank completed a third $10 billion investment in OpenAI.
Helix Digital Infrastructure receives $1 billion from Samsung Group
U.S.-based AI infrastructure company Helix Digital Infrastructure announced a $1 billion investment from Samsung Group, with participation from Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, Samsung SDI, and other Samsung affiliates.
Helix was established in June this year by KKR together with the Kuwait Investment Authority, NVIDIA, and U.S. power producer Vistra. Former Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is overseeing operations. The company’s business spans semiconductors, data centers, cloud computing, and finance. The investment gives Samsung Group a larger position in the AI infrastructure market.
GMI Cloud raises $668 million with NVIDIA participating
AI-native cloud platform GMI Cloud announced $668 million in financing, made up of a $223 million Series B equity round and $445 million in credit financing. Investment firm ARCHIV led the round, and NVIDIA participated.
The company said its inference platform processes about 4 trillion tokens per week. Customers include Fireworks, Nous Research, OpenRouter, and Trend Micro.
Selected AI financings: Applications and agents
Instinct raises $1 billion in Series C at a $10 billion valuation
AI assistant startup Instinct completed a $1 billion Series C with backing from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, reaching a $10 billion valuation. The round came just one month after the company announced another financing at a $2.5 billion valuation.
Instinct is described as a new type of consumer AI agent. It can answer questions and hold conversations, but it can also carry out tasks such as booking travel and restaurants, shopping, paying bills, canceling subscriptions, conducting research, and ordering groceries. The company communicates with users through text messages, has no mobile app, and has not disclosed user numbers or growth metrics.
Reco adds $55 million, bringing total funding to $140 million
AI agent security company Reco announced a new $55 million financing round with participation from AT&T’s investment arm, Forestay, and Quadrille Capital, among others. Including the $30 million Series B it raised in February this year, Reco’s total funding now stands at $140 million.
Reco said its platform uses a contextual graph to connect enterprise AI agents, applications, accounts, and permissions, helping security teams identify unapproved agents and restrict their access to data. The company said it has more than 100 customers and integrates with more than 280 applications. Its annual recurring revenue is in the tens of millions of dollars, and financial services clients account for about 40% of the business. The new funding will be used for hiring, sales, partnerships, and customer support.
Selected AI financings: Physical AI and investment firms
SiMa.ai raises $150 million in Series C, valuation reaches $1.45 billion
Physical AI chip company SiMa.ai announced a $150 million Series C led jointly by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify. Other investors included Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Maverick Capital, Point72, and StepStone Group. The company has now raised $500 million in total, and its valuation has increased to $1.45 billion.
SiMa.ai said the proceeds will be used to scale its physical AI platform, Palette Neat, and develop a next-generation dedicated physical AI chip planned for the first half of 2028, with computing power of up to 1,000 TOPS.
DIG Ventures closes $120 million for Fund III
Venture capital firm DIG Ventures said it has raised $120 million for its third fund. Limited partners include Horsley Bridge, Sofina, Granite, and an endowment from a top U.S. university.
The fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups building AI-native enterprise software and cloud infrastructure, with an emphasis on data, identity, compliance, orchestration, and other infrastructure that supports AI-native software. DIG Ventures said it plans to lead most of the rounds it joins, and deployment has already started.