VC Roundup: Bitcoin DeFi surges, but tokenization and stablecoins gain steam
As Cointelegraph reported, the emerging Bitcoin DeFi sector attracted $175 million across 32 VC deals in the first half of the year. At the same time, Bitcoin treasury companies are injecting billions into the market by acquiring BTC for long-term strategic reserves.
Beyond Bitcoin, several recurring VC themes remained prominent in July. Investors continued to back startups in tokenization, stablecoin infrastructure and settlement technology.
This edition of VC Roundup looks beyond Bitcoin to explore the broader trends shaping crypto venture capital in July. Inveniam partners with Mantra to drive institutional RWA adoption in the UAE and US
Decentralized data infrastructure provider Inveniam Capital has invested $20 million in layer-1 blockchain Mantra to bring institutional-grade real-world assets (RWAs) to the blockchain, complete with asset reporting and surveillance.
The companies say the partnership could significantly boost total value locked (TVL) on Mantra Chain and promote compliant tokenization at a time when RWA adoption is expanding rapidly.
As part of the deal, Inveniam will integrate data sovereignty and asset surveillance capabilities into the Mantra blockchain, enabling more advanced DeFi applications and regulatory-grade transparency.
The partnership aims to expand institutional access to RWA ecosystems in both the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Inveniam cited industry research projecting the RWA market could reach a $18.9 trillion valuation within a decade, according to Boston Consulting Group. Other estimates suggest the opportunity could be as high as $30 trillion as more traditional financial institutions enter the space. Tether-focused Stable blockchain raises $28 million to drive USDt adoption
Stable, a layer-1 blockchain network built around Tether's USDt, has raised $28 million in a seed funding round to expand its infrastructure and accelerate global USDt adoption. The raise comes amid growing regulatory clarity for dollar-backed stablecoins.
The round attracted backing from a range of prominent investors, including Bitfinex, Hack VC, Franklin Templeton, Castle Island Ventures, Susquehanna Crypto, KuCoin Ventures and several angel investors.
Billed as a 'stablechain,' Stable is designed to prioritize payment simplicity and instant transactions. The project cited the recent passage of the US GENIUS Act as a key regulatory milestone supporting stablecoin growth, particularly in payments infrastructure. Spiko raises $22 million to expand access to tokenized assets
French fintech Spiko, known for offering tokenized US and EU T-Bill Money Market Funds to European investors, has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from White Star Capital, Blockwall and others.
The fresh capital will support Spiko's mission to broaden access to tokenized money markets and help close the gap between Europe and the US in digital asset adoption. To date, Spiko has processed over $900 million in working capital, with assets under management expected to surpass $1 billion by year-end.
Stablecoin banking startup closes $12.5 million Series A
Dakota, a business banking platform built on stablecoin infrastructure, has raised $12.5 million in a Series A round led by CoinFund, with additional backing from 6th Man Ventures and Triton Ventures.
Founded by former Coinbase Custody CEO Ryan Bozarth, Dakota aims to deliver global banking services powered by digital dollars, promising faster payments and more efficient cross-border transactions. The platform has already onboarded over 500 businesses leveraging stablecoin technology behind the scenes.
The raise comes as global stablecoin market capitalization hits $268 billion, with expectations for accelerated growth driven by the recently passed GENIUS bill.
Breyer Capital leads $5 million Jarsy raise
Digital investment platform Jarsy has raised $5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Breyer Capital, with participation from Mysten Labs, Eigenlayer, MoonPay, Anchorage Digital and other venture capital backers.
Jarsy offers retail investors access to pre-IPO private equity markets through tokenized shares, with a low minimum investment starting at just $10. These tokenized equity opportunities are fully backed by real shares held in custody. Users can fund their investments using stablecoins such as USDC.
The funding will be used to scale Jarsy's product offering, focusing on enhancing global compliance and expanding its curated selection of private equity opportunities. BridgePort secures $3.2 million in funding to expand settlement network
Off-exchange settlement layer BridgePort has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Further Ventures, with participation from Virtu, XBTO, Blockchain Founders, Humla Ventures and Fun Fair Ventures.
BridgePort provides middleware that connects crypto exchanges, trading firms, and custodians to improve capital allocation and settlement efficiency. The platform is now live on Amazon Web Services and is actively onboarding exchanges and custodians to expand its settlement network.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/july-vc-roundup-bitcoin-tokenization-stablecoins
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Rethinking innovation to cross the ‘valley of death' in the tech sector
Innovation doesn't fail for lack of good ideas. It fails because good ideas are often stranded - too real for research, too early for procurement. In technology circles, we call this stretch the 'valley of death.' That's why specialist 'technology transfer' organizations exist - to bridge that gap. Their role is to take promising solutions and carry them from concept to deployment. Globally, the commitment to innovation is undeniable. In 2023, the top 2,000 corporate R&D investors spent €1.26 trillion (Dh5.4 trillion) - 85 percent of all business-funded research. Yet despite this enormous spend, returns are flattening. Analysts now speak of a 'diminishing return on R&D' as more organizations struggle to turn prototypes into products. One reason is that many firms still treat innovation as a procurement issue. They wait for technology to appear on the shelf and hope it fits the problem. But technology isn't furniture. It doesn't arrive pre-assembled and ready to use. A procurement mind-set may feel safe, but it often delivers average outcomes. That's fine - until the problem you're trying to solve involves emissions, patient safety, or food supply. At that point, average won't cut it. Technology transfer works when you work with industry partners to flip the equation. Instead of asking what's available, you ask: what's possible? Research is shaped around real problems. And success is measured by traction, not by novelty. Done well, this approach should follow a four-part model: 1. Anchor-client value. What's the upside of solving this problem - faster inspections, lower emissions, safer operations? If the impact isn't meaningful, question whether the project is necessary. 2. Global relevance. Can the solution scale beyond one client or country? If yes, it becomes not just a fix, but a potential export. 3. Three-legged execution. Teams blend commercial strategy, technical depth and stakeholder engagement. Dealmakers, analysts and engineers work as one. 4. Performance tracking. Both tangible and intangible outcomes – whether its cost savings, increased revenues, sustainability improvements, trust gains, safety and security enhancements - are measured and reported. This model is being applied in the UAE today. Take quantum sensing. What began as an exploration of emerging technology evolved into a deeply practical solution for the energy sector. Working closely with ADNOC, researchers at TII developed systems that dramatically improve the predictability of the lifespan of energy storage systems. In the quest for decarbonisation, this presents a paradigm shift in the electrification of assets that are run today on fossil fuels . Keeping product-market fit in our minds, even through the early stages of R&D has massive benefits. How will the end user use the technology and extract value from it? Consider drone-based emergency response. What started as a safety-driven request to improve response times in hazardous zones, evolved into a full-scale programme combining autonomy, communication infrastructure, and integration with live operations. These drones can now reach and assess dangerous environments before people ever need to, reducing exposure and speeding up critical decisions. And the technology is already finding broader applications - in industrial inspection, urban logistics and environmental monitoring. Dedicated air corridors, integrated safety protocols, and regulatory co-creation are all being fast-tracked to ensure the UAE is not just participating in advanced air mobility but setting the global pace, proving that regulation and innovation can travel together. These are real outcomes grounded in structured roadmaps, commercial logic and shared accountability. Each began not with a product pitch, but with a strategic question: what are the challenges of tomorrow that we need to be solving for today? The so-called valley of death isn't inevitable. It is one that can be overcome with the right coordination and partnerships. That's why institutions like ASPIRE matter. With a mandate to help convert strategic problems into co-developed solutions, linking researchers with engineers, regulators with innovators, and pilots with commercial off-take commitments based on assumed success; they shorten the distance between potential and progress. So, here's a suggestion for industry leaders: before launching your next RFP for a 'band aid' solution, ask a sharper question. What are you really trying to solve? What would solving it unlock - for your company, and for the wider market? The future isn't short on ideas. The real question is whether we have the courage - and the coordination - to carry them through.
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Gold seems to find floor around $3,400 level on safe haven demand
Gold appears to be stabilising around the $3,400 per troy ounce mark, retreating slightly from recent peaks above $3,410. Market analysts suggest that the US government's decision to impose duties on one-kilo and 100-ounce gold bars is lending support to the metal's price. Overnight, gold futures traded on New York's Comex exchange surged relative to the London spot rate, following a Financial Times report indicating that Washington would unexpectedly begin taxing imports of 1 kg and 100 oz bars. The move is seen as another setback for Switzerland, the global leader in gold refining. One-kilo bars are the standard unit for trading and storage within Comex-monitored vaults. Switzerland frequently serves as the intermediary between London's bullion market — where 400-ounce bars (roughly 12.44 kg) are the norm — and the smaller formats preferred in the US. 'The US futures market is a key liquidity source for bullion banks worldwide, offering round-the-clock hedging for physical gold transactions. That's why we're seeing the exchange-for-physical (EFP) spread widen dramatically again — short positions originally meant for hedging are unraveling. In the near term, short-covering is the primary catalyst, and once that subsides, the premium could normalise,' said Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank. Similar market distortions were observed during the Covid-19 crisis, when transatlantic gold shipments were briefly disrupted, and again earlier this year amid speculation that Trump's tariff policies might extend to precious metals. 'It's worth monitoring whether another 'TACO moment' will materialise. If not, the spread may need to recalibrate to reflect the new tariff regime,' Hansen added. In a broader context, these developments — echoing recent turbulence in the New York copper market — are prompting scrutiny of the Comex exchange's reliability as a venue for transparent price discovery. Analysts warn that the platform is increasingly susceptible to political interference, particularly from Trump's evolving trade strategies. The December Comex contract (GCZ5), the most actively traded, hit a new all-time high of $3,534 overnight. The premium over London spot widened to more than $100, up from around $40 just a week ago. 'All of this reinforces the London spot price as the most accurate reflection of gold's true value. Ignore technical breakouts in the futures market for now — the EFP distortions are skewing the picture. What matters is the spot price, which has been range-bound since April. A breakout above $3,450 would be needed to shift that,' Hansen noted. Silver and platinum also found support earlier this month, buoyed by a spike in high-grade copper prices in New York, which hit a record $5.8955/lb on July 8. The rally followed Trump's unexpected proposal to double tariffs on copper imports to 50 per cent — far above market expectations. The announcement drove the premium over London Metal Exchange copper to a historic 34 per cent, triggering a rush to move copper into the US before the new rules took effect. That trade quickly unraveled last week when Trump reversed course, declaring that refined copper traded on futures exchanges would be exempt from tariffs until at least January 2027. 'The New York premium collapsed almost instantly, leaving traders with losses and US warehouses overflowing with copper — now at their highest inventory levels in 21 years. With imports drying up, domestic prices may fall below global benchmarks to clear the surplus,' Hansen said.
Crypto Insight
3 hours ago
- Crypto Insight
Institutions dominating mainstream crypto narratives — fintech exec
Traditional financial institutions are increasingly shaping the narratives in the crypto sector, and are poised to benefit the most from the current trends, according to Arthur Azizov, founder of B2 Ventures, a private 'alliance' of crypto services and financial tech companies. Azizov told Cointelegraph that this market cycle has been dominated by institutional investors, investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds (ETFs), governments, and stablecoin issuers. He also said that big banks will accelerate this trend in the near future, once they have regulatory clarity to interact with crypto, saying it will only be a 'matter of months' between the time these banks receive regulatory clarity and the time it takes them to launch a stablecoin. Azizov added: 'Banks have a substantial user base. They already have their own clients. Those clients are loyal to those banks. And for them to implement crypto into their operations will be relatively easy.' These institutions have already changed the landscape. In the future, it's going to change even more, and I would say it's not good for small startups,' he continued. The increasing presence of institutional investors, banks, and companies in crypto has created tension between these traditional financial institutions and the cypherpunks that started the crypto movement, who advocate for the complete decentralization of the financial system The government is also driving the institutionalization of crypto Governments also have economic incentives to regulate crypto and bring it under the purview of the traditional financial system. 'The narrative is to regulate crypto, not only because it is mainstream, but in order to attract technology companies, attract young talent, and fintech startups, Azizov told Cointelegraph. This increased regulation means a greater focus on anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, he added. AML and KYC are already required for retail crypto consumer applications throughout much of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and Europe, and Azizov said he expects this trend to also take shape in the US. The emphasis on consumer surveillance and officially registered accounts runs contrary to the value proposition of decentralized finance (DeFi), which promises permissionless access to a censorship-resistant financial system. Source:
