OpenReserve2026-09-04 05:43:12OpenReserve wins preliminary OCC approval to form a national bankOpenReserve, a blockchain-focused bank based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has received preliminary and conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national bank, according to a Sept. 3 letter cited by CoinDesk. The company still needs final OCC approval before it can receive a full banking charter. OpenReserve says it is built for institutional clients. Its business lines include treasury management, stablecoin issuance and tokenized deposits, and it says it operates under the U.S. stablecoin framework set by the GENIUS Act. OCC documents also referenced stablecoin risk management, tokenized deposits and onchain settlement as part of the proposed operation. The company has been described as a 24/7 blockchain bank. Bloomberg said the startup is backed by several crypto venture investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital and Coinbase Ventures. It had previously closed a $25 million seed round led by a16z crypto. The report also noted that more firms have recently been pursuing bank or trust charters through the OCC path.640
Ethena2026-08-28 05:34:00ENA rebounds as Ethena Foundation moves on unlocks, buybacks and value rightsENA climbed to $0.189 on Aug. 28, up sharply from around $0.08 just 10 days earlier, with the market reaction tied less to a broad crypto recovery than to a sweeping set of changes announced by the Ethena Foundation on Aug. 27. The measures target the issues that had weighed on the token for much of the past two years: recurring investor unlock pressure, weak value accrual for token holders, and a split between protocol economics and corporate equity interests. The foundation said it had bought locked ENA from some major seed investors and reached agreements to eliminate future monthly VC unlock pressure. It also put forward a governance proposal that would direct 95% of protocol net revenue to programmatic ENA buybacks in the secondary market once USDe supply reaches set thresholds. In parallel, Ethena said protocol intellectual property and value attribution would sit exclusively with the foundation, while equity investors in Ethena Labs would no longer receive residual cash flows. Still, the bullish repricing comes with an open question. USDe supply has fallen from about $15 billion at its October 2025 peak to roughly $4 billion now, which leaves the durability of protocol revenue under scrutiny.930
River Markets2026-08-11 13:41:14River Markets Raises $8.5M Seed Round for Institutional Prediction Market ToolsAccording to Fortune, River Markets announced Tuesday that it completed an $8.5 million seed round in July to build prediction market trading tools for institutions. Haun Ventures led the round, with Y Combinator and Coinbase Ventures participating. Other investors include Qube Research Technologies, along with angel investors from Google, Nvidia, Novig, JPMorgan and Citadel. The founder declined to disclose the company's valuation at the time of the round. The founder said that serving institutional demand for prediction markets at scale requires technology that allows institutions to trade across platforms and handle larger order sizes. Since launching in May, River Markets has provided institutions with software, data connections and risk management tools. Its algorithms aim to reduce the market impact of large trades. The company expects the platform's annualized trading volume to exceed several hundred million dollars by the end of the year.1870
crypto ventur2026-07-31 03:49:55Only 153 VC Firms Joined July Crypto Deals as the Investor Base Keeps ShrinkingCrypto venture activity kept running in 2026, but the list of firms still writing checks grew markedly shorter. Data tracked by CryptoRank through July 31 shows that 153 distinct venture firms took part in disclosed crypto financings in July, the lowest monthly count since November 2020. That figure refers to de-duplicated investors that appeared in at least one disclosed round during the month, not the total number of firms that exist in the market. The drop is steep against prior highs. The monthly peak reached 1,177 in 2022, and the second quarter of 2026 saw 651 firms participate in crypto financings versus 2,564 in the same quarter of 2022. At the same time, global venture capital has not dried up. KPMG and other data cited in the report show large pools of capital are still being raised, but much of that money is concentrating in AI and more mature companies with proven business models. Within crypto, the first seven months of 2026 produced 481 funding rounds worth about $11.778 billion, with May alone contributing $3.889 billion. Funding also clustered in a few segments. Exchanges, prediction markets, and payments drew a combined $6.247 billion, or 53% of the total. Late-stage and strategic rounds accounted for an outsized share of dollars, while seed and early-stage deal counts remained comparatively active but smaller in size.590
Coinbase Vent2026-07-23 04:20:15Coinbase Ventures Made 14 Q1 2026 Deals, With Mesh Taking the Largest RoundCoinbase Ventures completed 14 crypto investments in Q1 2026. Mesh led the group with $75 million, followed by Midas at $50 million and Tazapay at $36 million, spanning payments, RWA, DeFi infrastructure, and dApps.390
Cyclops2026-07-16 12:20:07Cyclops closes $20 million Series A after March seed round, drawing backing from Coinbase Ventures and CircleStablecoin payments infrastructure startup Cyclops said on July 15, 2026 that it had raised a $20 million Series A led by Nava Ventures, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures and Global PayTech Ventures. The round came roughly four months after an $8 million seed financing in March, bringing the company’s total funding to $28 million in less than half a year, all in equity. Headquartered in Miami with an office in Vienna, Cyclops sells stablecoin infrastructure to payment service providers, acquirers and payment processors. The company says its platform has processed more than $2 billion in total volume, operates across 150 countries, holds more than 100 related compliance licenses globally, supports a merchant network of 300,000 and recently posted 350% month-over-month transaction growth. Cyclops was founded by former The Giving Block executives who later ran crypto and stablecoin operations inside Shift4 Payments after that company acquired The Giving Block in 2022. The startup says it is trying to solve the fragmented process payment companies face when adding stablecoin capabilities, offering a single API, low-code integration, compliance tooling and settlement infrastructure built around payment workflows rather than retail crypto use cases.650
Glacis Labs2026-07-15 17:09:00Glacis Labs raises $6.8 million seed round for ZeroDelta expansionCrypto settlement startup Glacis Labs has raised $6.8 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, A.GAIN, Protein Capital, and Techni Ventures. The financing used an equity-plus-token-warrant structure. The company said the capital will be used primarily to expand its core product, the ZeroDelta platform, and to grow its engineering, compliance, and go-to-market teams. Glacis Labs describes ZeroDelta as a multichain settlement platform that supports matching, net settlement, and final settlement for digital assets across blockchains. The platform is currently focused on stablecoins and has processed more than $1 billion in transaction volume to date.1390
Cyclops2026-07-15 13:05:27Cyclops raises $20 million in Series A led by Nava VenturesPayment infrastructure startup Cyclops has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Nava Ventures, according to BlockBeats. The round also included Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures, and GPT Ventures. Cyclops provides integrated cryptocurrency and stablecoin infrastructure for payment companies, aiming to help them speed up settlement and handle cross-border transfers without building those tools in-house. The company said it is focused on improving the efficiency of fund movement through stablecoin infrastructure. The new round comes not long after Cyclops completed an $8 million seed round in March this year. Cyclops already counts Shift4 Payments and Mastercard among its existing customers. The financing adds to investor interest in companies building backend payment rails tied to crypto and stablecoins, especially those serving businesses that want blockchain-based settlement without developing their own systems.1170
