Latest news with #CeFi
Int'l Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Founders of LayerZero, SEI, Selini Capital, and Plume back hyper-personalized AI crypto discovery engine
Chainwire Singapore, Singapore, June 9th, 2025, Chainwire TrueNorth, led by a former chief of hybrid CeFi/DeFi exchange WOO and AI experts, raises a strategic angel round to pioneer the agentic economy. The founders of LayerZero, SEI, Selini Capital, Virtuals, Plume, and Presto Labs have collectively backed an AI platform that uses autonomous agents and real-time data to uncover crypto opportunities. AI-focused firm TrueNorth, co-founded by former WOO COO Willy Chuang and ex-Temasek AI tech investor Alex Lee, has raised $1 million in funding to develop Crypto's first AI-powered engine. An engine symbiotic to the users' discovery journey from intent straight to the outcome. TrueNorth's agentic technology continuously scans across chains, socials, and macro and project data to surface timely, high-signal insights for every user personalized to their portfolio, trading style, and past behavior. 'We see true AI agents becoming the foundation for how people invest in crypto for the future,' said Willy Chuang and Alex Lee, co-founders of TrueNorth. 'The market is only getting more complex, and our goal is to cut through the noise with a hyper-personalized engine powered by a generative user interface (known as Gen UI) that adapts to each user's style and behavior in real-time. We're building a system where the agnetic flow and expert distilled reinforcement learning models work quietly in the background, driving the user's intent infinitely closer to the outcome. Willy Chuang, who previously led operations at the CeFi/DeFi exchange WOO, emphasized the real-world need for tools that reduce cognitive overload in fast-moving markets. "Having led crypto exchanges and worked closely with a broad range of traders and investors, I've seen how fragmented data and constant noise creates friction in decision-making,' said Chuang. 'TrueNorth is built to simplify this, delivering personalized insights that evolve with each user so they can move faster with more confidence.' For his part, Alex Lee, a PhD in AI, highlighted the platform's AI-driven approach and ongoing development phase. 'AI has reached a point where it can do more than just process data; it can understand context, adapt to users, and continuously improve decision-making,' said Lee. 'That's the foundation we're building on: agentic intelligence that works behind the scenes to surface what matters most. We're currently in closed beta, working closely with early users to refine a system that feels intuitive but is powered by serious intelligence.' TrueNorth's backers, Bryan Pellegrino of LayerZero, Jeff Feng of SEI, Jordi Alexander of Selini Capital, and Yongjin of Presto Labs, as well as Will Wang of Generative Ventures, share a strong belief in AI's transformative power in crypto trading. Their interests span key themes such as interoperability, data-driven AI models, algorithmic market strategies, and innovative infrastructure development. Together, these interests reflect not only a shared belief in AI's potential but also the same principles driving TrueNorth's mission to simplify and personalize decision-making in decentralized markets. TrueNorth, a platform under Singapore-registered Advent AI, is working closely with its first 500 early users, the Truthsayers, to refine agentic workflows for AI-native investing in closed beta. In the coming weeks, the team will unveil key details of its advanced architecture and agentic frameworks as it gears up for a public launch aimed at delivering smarter, hyper-personalized crypto discovery tools to a wider audience. To learn more about TrueNorth, users can visit Contact: media@ About TrueNorth TrueNorth is the crypto industry's first autonomous, AI-powered discovery engine, designed to be symbiotic with the user journey, bringing intent straight to an outcome. Combining on-chain, social, and macro data, TrueNorth uses advanced agentic infrastructure to deliver real-time, tailored insights that evolve with each user's investment journey. Founded by DeFi/CeFi and AI experts, TrueNorth aims to democratize decentralized finance by making complex crypto information accessible and actionable for investors at all levels. TrueNorth is part of Delphi Labs' dAGI accelerator, a protocol R&D lab focused on incubating and accelerating new Web3 primitives. Contact PR team media@ © Copyright Chainwire. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Leverage Reconfigures in Q1: DeFi Recovers, CeFi Quietly Expands, Treasury Debt Mounts
Leverage across the crypto economy is evolving, not evaporating. Total crypto-collateralized lending fell 4.9% quarter-over-quarter to $39.07 billion, the first decline since late 2023, Galaxy Research's Q1 2025 report shows. But while the headline figure contracted, underlying dynamics suggest leverage is shifting form, not fading. Lending in decentralized finance (DeFi) lending took a hit early in the quarter, sliding as much as 21%, before rebounding sharply in April and May. The turnaround was driven largely by Aave's integration of Pendle tokens, whose yield-bearing structure and high loan-to-value ratios (up to 90%) sparked a wave of fresh borrowing. By late May, DeFi borrowing had surged more than 30% off the lows, with Ethereum leading the recovery. Centralized finance (CeFi) lending climbed 9.24% to $13.51 billion, led by Tether, Ledn, and Two Prime. Still, Galaxy notes that a narrow set of public disclosures limits visibility into the true scope of centralized lending. Private desks, OTC platforms, and offshore credit providers likely push the actual total far higher. perhaps by 50% or more. Meanwhile, bitcoin BTC treasury companies are quietly becoming a new systemic leverage node. Firms like Strategy (MSTR) have issued billions in convertible debt to fund BTC purchases. As of May, total outstanding debt across treasury firms stood at $12.7 billion, much of it set to mature between 2027 and 2028. In derivatives, CME's rising open interest especially in ether ETH futures signals accelerating institutional participation. At the same time, upstart exchange Hyperliquid has carved out a growing share of the perpetual futures market, underscoring the continued strength of retail-driven leverage. The report points to an increasingly interconnected market structure, one where stress in a single venue or instrument could reverberate quickly across the ecosystem. Leverage, in crypto's current cycle, may be more fragmented than before — but it's no less potent. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
True Markets Raises $11 Million and Launches Stablecoin-Native DeFi Trading App
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--True Markets today announced that it has raised $11 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $20 million. The round was co-led by Accomplice and RRE Ventures, with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Variant, and PayPal Ventures. Paxos Ventures and the Solana Foundation, seed investors, continue to support the company. Alongside the raise, the company officially launched the True Markets app, a mobile-first, stablecoin-native DeFi trading experience now available on the Apple App Store. True Markets is launching exclusively on Solana and combines institutional-grade tools with an intuitive experience designed for retail users. The app enables faster, safer and seamless on-chain token trading by embedding stablecoin settlement at its core and separating execution from custody. As a non-custodial platform, True Markets never holds client assets directly, eliminating a key risk vector and ensuring users retain full control of their funds at all times. At launch, True Markets supports top Solana-native assets, offering low-cost, high-speed access to one of crypto's most vibrant ecosystems. Over time, True Markets will add 24/7 global access to both CeFi and DeFi markets, with settlement available across a range of regulated stablecoins and ecosystems. True Markets was founded by Vishal Gupta and Patrick McCreary, veterans of Coinbase, Goldman Sachs, and Circle, who have helped develop some of the most trusted trading infrastructure in crypto. At Circle, Gupta led the launch and growth of USDC. At Coinbase, he served as Head of Exchange, where he expanded asset coverage and launched two derivatives exchanges. McCreary, a senior engineering leader at Coinbase, played a key role in architecting Coinbase's International Exchange. They are joined by a hand-picked team of Coinbase and MoneyLion alumni, combining deep expertise in exchange architecture, stablecoin infrastructure, and user-first product design. 'We built True Markets to evolve beyond the current state of both traditional and crypto finance,' said Vishal Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of True Markets. 'Retail traders have been stuck with clunky workflows, unclear pricing, and fragmented liquidity. Our goal is to deliver a fairer and more transparent experience that makes asset discovery simple, shows real-time market momentum, and feels as intuitive as the best apps on your phone. Stablecoin-native settlement gives users more choice in how they onramp and trade, while our non-custodial design ensures True Markets never takes possession of user assets, creating a safer, more trustworthy system. It's about giving users more control, more access, and less risk.' True Markets is becoming the best way to discover and trade top cryptocurrencies, launching with a focus on superior execution, transparent pricing, and secure access: Real-time Market Sparklines: Real-time visualization of market momentum, volatility, and price behavior, giving users an immediate sense of how assets are moving without needing to interpret a full chart. Seamless Custody: Fund and trade immediately with ready-to-use hosted wallets. Partner Turnkey provides battle-tested secure key management enabling transaction signing and automated on-chain actions without the need to manage private keys. These wallets are embedded in a non-custodial framework—True Markets facilitates execution but never controls the underlying funds. Enhanced Execution: Powered by Definitive to provide superior price execution through automatic routing across leading decentralized venues, eliminating the need for manual trade management. Combined with gasless trading, the platform provides a seamless, fee-free experience in a streamlined mobile app. 'Security and simplicity are often at odds in crypto, but True Markets bridges that gap elegantly,' said Bryce Ferguson of Turnkey. 'By integrating Turnkey's secure key infrastructure, they've created a platform where users can trade confidently, without ever compromising on control or convenience. We're proud to support a team that's pushing the boundaries of what's possible in decentralized finance.' 'Retail traders deserve the same quality of execution as the pros,' said Jai Prasad of Definitive. 'By powering True Markets, we're enabling smart order routing that delivers the best possible prices to everyday users, automatically and without hassle. It's a major step forward in making DeFi truly accessible, intuitive, and competitive for all.' Over the coming months, True Markets will expand its platform to support a broader range of assets across both CeFi and DeFi ecosystems. It also plans to integrate TrueX, its own high-performance, institutional-grade centralized exchange, offering deeper liquidity, regulatory-grade compliance, and the safety of qualified custody, all within a seamless mobile experience. About True Markets True Markets is a non-custodial, stablecoin-native DeFi trading mobile app available on Apple's App Store. True Markets seeks to redefine the retail trading experience in DeFi by offering markets and liquidity as a service globally through reliable, innovative, and institutional-grade trading technology. True Markets was founded in 2024 by Vishal Gupta and Patrick McCreary, formerly of Coinbase, Circle, and Goldman Sachs, and key architects of the Coinbase International Exchange business. To learn more, please visit
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BounceBit Pilots Bitcoin Trading Strategy Using BlackRock's BUIDL as Collateral
BounceBit, a crypto infrastructure provider using features from both centralized (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), has executed a bitcoin (BTC) derivatives trading strategy using BlackRock's yield-generating tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, to enhance returns. The strategy, to be rolled out to institutions and retail users, consisted of two main components: a bitcoin basis trade, involving a long position in the spot market while shorting futures, and a short position in BTC put options, both collateralized by BUIDL tokens. The basis trade, also known as cash and carry arbitrage, alone generated an annualized yield of 4.7%, with put option writing contributing an additional 15%. Combined with the 4.25% return from BUIDL used as collateral, the total yield exceeded 24%. Integrating BUIDL as collateral helped generate a higher return than strategies collateralized by stablecoins, which do not generate any return. "This strategy allows investors to capture both Treasury Bill yields and funding rate arbitrage returns," Jack Lu, founder and CEO of BounceBit said in a press release exclusively shared with CoinDesk. "BounceBit bridges the gap between Western real-world asset issuers and Asian crypto trading infrastructure, providing new options for yield generation," Lu said. BounceBit is the native BTC restaking chain secured by staking both bitcoin and BounceBit tokens. The network allows BTC holders to earn yields through native validator staking, DeFi ecosystem and a CeFi-like mechanism powered by Ceffu and Mainnet Digital. As of writing, cryptocurrencies worth over $500 million were locked on BounceBit. BounceBit plans to roll out the BUIDL-collateralised strategy to institutional and retail users soon. "The successful pilot is a proof of concept to our new product line BB Prime, which will be available to both retail and institutional users," BounceBit's spokesperson told CoinDesk. "This strategy underpins BB Prime as a new class of CeDeFi applications built on top of RWAs which are traditionally troubled by a lack of utilities beyond just holding for t-bill yield, hindering mass adoption," the spokesperson added. BUIDL, launched in March 2024 by Securitize and BlackRock, is a tokenized investment fund operating on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Aptos and Polygon. The token, currently boasting a market cap of $2.88 billion, is backed by short-term U.S. government bonds, boasting a stable value pegged at one dollar per token. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GSR's Josh Riezman on Regulation, Risk, and Readying Crypto for the Next Phase
Crypto market maker GSR has long positioned itself as a leader in market structure, compliance, and global liquidity. With operations spanning centralized and decentralized platforms, the firm is actively shaping how capital flows through the digital asset ecosystem. Part of the company's success can be attributed to Josh Riezman, a veteran at GSR and now its Chief Strategy Officer, U.S. and Global Deputy General Counsel. He previously served more than a year as Managing Director. Riezman joined GSR after working at USDC issuer Circle. Before that, he spent six years at Société Générale and nearly three years at Deutsche Bank. Recently, GSR became the first crypto liquidity provider to secure authorization from both the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and Singapore's Monetary Authority — a milestone that reflects its proactive approach to compliance in some of the world's most closely watched jurisdictions. Riezman expects regulatory alignment to become a cornerstone of sustainable crypto market growth. In April, GSR led a $100 million private placement into Apex (UPXI), a consumer-goods company that's now pivoting to a crypto-based treasury strategy. Ahead of Consensus 2025, CoinDesk spoke with Riezman about what these regulatory wins mean, how GSR sees the future of DeFi and CeFi integration, and what the firm is doing to support the next generation of crypto projects through its full-stack services. CoinDesk: GSR has recently achieved some very significant regulatory approvals, including in the U.K. How do these milestones influence its operations and its strategic direction? Riezman: It's a great question. GSR has prided itself on being at the forefront of thinking about what the right regulation is for this space and how that applies to us. We've been proactive in working with regulators around the world to level up as the global regulatory regime emerges and evolves. We were early adopters in Singapore and the UK — through the MPI and the MLR — to show our commitment to best standards in the regulatory space, especially among trading firms. We see this as just the beginning of the journey, as regulation continues to materialize. We're always thinking ahead about how we need to be prepared to serve our clients in each jurisdiction. Given the extensive experience that GSR has with the cryptocurrency space and with compliance, what are the primary regulatory challenges you see in the near future for market makers? This is becoming something of a trope now, but regulatory certainty is still a major issue in the crypto space, particularly in the United States. We're in a period of dramatic change following the election of Donald Trump. But we're seeing positive signs, both from regulatory agencies and from the legislative side. As more clarity comes, it will unlock greater investment — just like in traditional economic planning, clarity and certainty are key. When that clarity arrives, firms like GSR will be able to invest in the appropriate structures and strategies to comply. For us, it's about ensuring we can keep delivering the robust liquidity we're known for. We're seeing very promising signs in Singapore and Europe, where the frameworks are clearer, and we're hoping to see similar developments in the U.S. How does GSR approach the integration with emerging technologies, including decentralized finance, into its existing offerings? This is an area where we've, at some level, been on the cutting edge. We're always looking for new venues. When it comes to DeFi, we're integrated with all the leading AMMs and key platforms. We're also focused on expanding our on-chain capabilities, especially as these hybrid CeFi/DeFi models emerge. Something like Hyperliquid is a good example. We see our strength in CeFi and on-chain liquidity coming together in a really meaningful way, and it's a space where we're proactively engaging and building. In light of the current market dynamics, what strategies is GSR employing to ensure liquidity and stability across its operations? We've been around for a long time — GSR is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, market makers in the space. The way we've managed to stay here through all the volatility is our deep commitment to risk management. Our risk framework has carried us through turbulent markets, and it continues to do so. It's business as usual for us — we're used to volatility and, to some extent, we embrace it as part of the industry that we love and are here to support. Beyond risk management, we're focused on how to support clients who are looking for full lifecycle support through what are really choppy markets. We're providing more advisory services now, sharing expertise and connections to the market with our clients and friends. Looking ahead, what are GSR's key priorities and initiatives in the cryptocurrency ecosystem? A few things. First, we're really focused on being a true lifecycle partner for crypto entrepreneurs — especially the most innovative and creative protocol companies. We want to support them from idea to launch and beyond, through our venture investments, advisory, market making, and OTC services. We're pulling that all together into a one-stop shop for market participants. At the same time, we're focused on the renewed interest in the U.S. market. There are so many projects looking to enter the U.S. and integrate with its ecosystem, and we're well positioned to help — we're connected to every major exchange both internationally and in the U.S. Lastly, we're continuing to lean into regulatory advocacy and helping shape effective, pro-innovation market structures that enable both development and in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
