NFTgators

Quick take:

Flacon is advancing technical integrations focusing on shared liquidity provisioning, multi-chain compatibility, and smart contract modules.

The integrations will enable seamless conversions between USDf and USD1.

The USDf stablecoin has recently surpassed $1 billion in circulating supply, following its public launch.

Flacon Finance, a universal collateralisation infrastructure provider for on-chain liquidity and yield, has received a $10 million investment from the Trump-family-linked World Libert Financial.

The company plans to use the capital to accelerate technical integrations, focusing on shared liquidity provisioning, multi-chain compatibility, and smart contract modules for seamless conversions between USDf and USD1.

The announcement comes following Falcon’s recent announcement that the USDf stablecoin surpassed $1 billion in circulating supply. 

“We are excited to collaborate with WLFI to redefine digital dollar solutions,” said Andrei Grachev, Managing Partner of Falcon Finance. “This investment validates our approach to creating more efficient on-chain dollar instruments for institutional users, and WLFI’s distribution network will help accelerate adoption of our technology.”

The integration of both protocols will see USD1 complement USDf with a digital asset pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and reserves containing money market funds, USD deposits, and other equivalents. USD1 is already being used as collateral on Falcon.

Zak Folkman, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, said: “By combining Falcon’s innovative collateralization model with our fiat-backed approach, we are creating a more robust and flexible digital dollar infrastructure that will meet the diverse needs of both retail and institutional users across the global market.”

The USDf stablecoin has recently been under pressure after depegging earlier this month, amid concerns about the collateralization of the product.

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Quick take:

Investors in the PIPE will be granted registration rights as part of the transaction.

180 Life Sciences plans to rebrand to ETHZilla Corporation following the close of the transaction. 

The company plans to use the proceeds to adopt a crypto treasury policy with ETH as the principal treasury reserve.

180 Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: ANTF) has announced plans to raise $425 million in gross proceeds via a private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering. The company is planning a sale and purchase of shares of its common stock at about $2.65 per share, as it plans to adopt a crypto treasury policy with ETH as the principal treasury reserve.

As part of the new strategy, 180 Life Sciences will rebrand to ETHZilla Corporation following the close of the transaction. Investors in the PIPE will be granted registration rights as part of the transaction, according to a press release seen by NFTgators.

The PIPE transaction is expected to close on or around August 1, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The company also has the approval to sell an additional $150 million in debt securities, with the offering planned after the closing of the PIPE transaction.

Over 60 institutional and crypto native investors participated in the PIPE, including Harbour Island, Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, GSR, and Omicron Technologies, among others.

Commenting on the announcement, McAndrew Rudisill, who is expected to become chairman of the board of directors of the Company at closing, said: “Our strategy at closing aims to allow investors to access exposure to a strong-yield potential ecosystem at the heart of the stablecoin and tokenized asset markets. At closing, we expect to assemble an incredible team of well-regarded veterans across traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) to help guide this new chapter in the Company’s journey.”

Electric Capital will serve as the external asset manager for the new Company and will go on to implement a differentiated, on-chain yield generation program.

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Blackhole, a new decentralized exchange (DEX) on Avalanche (AVAX), has quickly become the network’s largest trading hub. Its total value locked (TVL) surged 55% over the past week to cross the $250 million mark on Monday, July 28, peaking at $255 million.

The DEX went live in early July, experiencing exponential growth in liquidity.

The three most deposited tokens in its pools are AVAX-based USDC, Wrapped AVAX (WAVAX), and USDT, which together account for over 75% of the total deposits.

The largest pools are USDT/USDC, SUPER/USDC, and BTC.b (Bitcoin bridged to Avalanche)/WAVAX.

Trading activity on Blackhole has been gaining traction since its recent launch. On Monday, the volume figure hit a record $250 million, overcoming DEXs like HyperSwap, Bluefin, Pump, and Balancer.

Thanks to its rapid growth, Blackhole has become the third-largest dApp on Avalanche and the largest DEX on the network.

As for Avalanche, its TVL crossed the $2 billion mark on Sunday, reaching the highest level in over two years.

Despite superior performance and promising technology, Avalanche has been dormant since its 2021 peak, lagging behind Layer 1 chains like Solana, BSC, and Sui, all of which have managed to build vast DeFi ecosystems and challenge Ethereum’s dominance.

Avalanche is currently bouncing back from previous lows amid positive sentiment in the broader crypto market and increasing demand for high-performance chains. Blackhole’s rapid increase reflects the network’s positive momentum.

Blackhole designed its DEX platform to become a Unified Liquidity Hub for all blockchain projects on Avalanche, including its SuperVerse ecosystem that includes Web3 games and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In mid-July, it launched its native token, BLACK, which peaked at $1.52 on July 18, before correcting to the current level at $1.11.

Blackhole is currently the 13th largest DEX platform, closely following Sushi and VVS Finance.  

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Quick take:

The fundraising was in the form of ETH, with 6,900 raised via private sale and 1,242 ETH secured via a public sale.

An additional 4,200 ETH was raised via Puttable warrants, according to the company’s post on X.

ETH Strategy is a treasury accumulation protocol providing leveraged exposure to Ethereum.

ETH Strategy, the treasury accumulation protocol that provides leveraged exposure to Ethereum, has raised $46.5 million in pre-launch funding, according to an X platform post seen by NFTgators. 

According to the announcement, the capital was raised across three distinct formations, all in ETH. The company secured 6,900 ETH via a private sale and a further 1,242 ETH via a public sale. An additional 4,200 ETH was raised via Puttable warrants.

The private and public sales offered 10,000 STRAT tokens per ETH with a lock-up period of four months, and a 2-month linear unlock from the token generation event. The Puttable warrant raise offered 8,333 STRAT tokens per ETH, with a four-month lock-up period and 2-month linear unlock from TGE.

ETH Strategy plans to deploy 11,817 ETH into ETH staking and protocol liquidity, with the remaining 525 ETH allocated for protocol growth and development, including retroactive and ongoing operational expenses, audits, contributor compensation, and community initiatives.

“This concludes our prelaunch raise and marks the beginning of our phased rollout for the protocol,” the company wrote in the X post.

STRAT token went live on Tuesday at 9:00 AM ET, while liquidity will be “launched on Uniswap v4 as a single-sided pool with an ATM mechanism to drive EPS soon,” according to a separate X post.

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Quick take:

The announcement comes despite a declining tokenised stock trading activity, according to Dune.

eToro’s tokenised stocks and ETFs will be available to trade 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.

The company has also expanded its Futures offering to include spot-quoted futures, making it “one of the first platforms” to provide the service.

eToro Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: ETOR) is advancing its long-term strategy of moving towards a tokenised future after announcing the introduction of tokenised stocks and ETFs on its platform. 

The company plans to list tokenised versions of 100 of the U.S.’s most popular stocks and ETFs, to be available for trading 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.

eToro has also expanded its Futures offering to include spot-quoted futures, making it “one of the first platforms” to provide the service.

The announcement comes amid a fading interest in tokenised stocks, according to a Dune dashboard for xStocks prepared by Sealaunch. xStocks is the tokenised stocks product by Backed Finance, used by leading exchanges, which offers tokenised stocks listed on Kraken, Bitrue, Bybit, and others.

At the start of July, xStocks averaged a daily transaction volume of about 2.9 million. That figure has now fallen to about 2.2 million. 

But could eToro re-ignite the interest in tokenised stocks? The platform boasts over 3.5 million funded accounts, according to its pre-IPO financials. The company also believes that the future of financial markets is tokenised, which is why it is expanding to tokenised stocks.

Commenting on his company’s latest product launches, eToro Co-founder and CEO, Yoni Assia, said: “We’ve been long-term believers in a tokenized future. Blockchain technology will facilitate the greatest ever transfer of wealth, as traditional assets are tokenized and moved onto the blockchain.”

According to Assia, one of the biggest hurdles that hinder the mass adoption of tokenised assets is vested interests, but key milestones are being made with recent announcements.

“New regulations, such as MiCA in Europe and the passing of the Genius Act in the US, makes the tokenization of real-world assets a new opportunity to create digital assets that are legally backed and regulated,” said Assia. 

“The benefits of tokenization, in particular 24/7 transferability, have been clearly demonstrated by stablecoins and these opportunities are now expanding to more asset classes.”

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Quick take:

The company plans to use the capital to enhance its institutional-grade stablecoin payments infrastructure.

The announcement comes just over a week after President Trump signed into law the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act on July 18.

With this funding, Standard Chartered’s stake in Zodia markets falls to 60%, down from 84%, according to the Bloomberg report.

Zodia Markets, the digital asset trading and brokerage services arm of Standard Chartered, has raised $18.25 million in a Series A round led by Pharsalus Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, The Operating Group, XVC Tech, Token Bay Capital, and Human Capital, among others.

With this funding, Standard Chartered’s stake in Zodia markets falls to 60%, down from 84%, according to the Bloomberg report.

The company plans to use the fresh capital for global expansion to advance its stablecoin payments service. Zodia Markets is joining a growing list of both mainstream and crypto companies that are revamping or entering the stablecoins payments business following the signing into law of the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act on July 18.

The company plans to launch new stablecoin solutions for institutional capital, having already enabled minting and burning of USDC and EURC, in partnership with Circle.

The company has been one of the leading providers of stablecoin-focused foreign exchange (FX) markets, offering non-USD stablecoin pairs including those pegged to EUR, GBP, JPY, SGD, TRY, and more.

Commenting on the announcement, Zodia Markets CEO Usman Ahmad said, “Institutional capital shouldn’t have to wait for banking hours or be held back by manual workarounds. Our heritage means we’re in a unique position to reengineer traditional foreign exchange capital flows with real-time stablecoin settlement across borders. ”

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Quick take:

The oversubscribed token sale was completed in just 10 days and values Plasma at $500 million.

The company plans to use some of the capital to implement free USDT transfer services.

Plasma sold 1% of its 1 billion XPL token supply as part of the raise, according to the announcement on Monday.

Plasma, the bitcoin-based layer-1 blockchain that focuses on stablecoins, has raised $373 million in a token round conducted over 10 days. The fundraising values the company at $500 million and features a 1% sale of Plasma’s 1 billion XPL token supply to early participants.

Some of the capital will go towards implementing the company’s mission of free USDT transfers.

The round was massively oversubscribed, coming in seven times the initial $50 million that the company sought to raise. According to the announcement, about 3,000 unique wallets participated, contributing an average commitment of $83,629 per address.

“The success of the XPL public sale proves that people want what Plasma is building: a low-cost, fast, programmable blockchain that helps people send and receive stablecoins globally,” Paul Faecks, founder of Plasma, said in a statement. “At a time when global regulators are focused on digital assets, and specifically stablecoins, Plasma is delivering critical infrastructure that will spur institutional adoption, potentially bringing trillions of dollars on-chain.”

The fundraising comes timely following the signing into law of the GENIUS Act on July 18. The GENIUS Act provides a framework for running digital assets businesses in fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies. 

The company also secured a $24 million Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Bitfinex and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Plasma also raised $500 million in a token sale announced in June.

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The post Stablecoin-Focused Layer-1 Blockchain, Plamsa, Bags $373M Token Sale appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

Windtree plans to use 99% of the proceeds from the equity line of credit and the private placement to acquire more BNB cryptocurrency.

The equity line of credit is subject to approval from stakeholders to increase authorized shares of common stock.

The $20 million stock placement purchase agreement is backed by Build and Build Corp.

Windtree Therapeutics, Inc. (NasdaqCM: WINT) has raised $520 million to buy more BNB tokens. The Warrington, Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company is investing in digital assets as part of its long-term plan to diversify its portfolio through strategic initiatives.

According to the press release on Thursday, Windtree has entered into a Common Stock Purchase Agreement for up to $500 million to establish an equity line of credit (“ELOC”). He company is also raising an additional $20 million stock purchase agreement with Build and Build Corp.

Windtree said it plans to use 99% of the funds raised from both the ELOC offering and the Build and Build Corp agreement to acquire more BNB. The equity line of credit is subject to approval from stakeholders to increase authorized shares of common stock.

“We are excited to incorporate these new facilities to enable our future BNB acquisitions as part of our BNB treasury strategy,” stated Jed Latkin, CEO of Windtree. “Pending stockholder approval, the opportunity to secure additional funds for purchasing more BNB cryptocurrency is essential to our strategy.”

Patrick Horsman, CFA, Director of Build and Build Corp, commented: “Windtree’s strategy to integrate BNB into its treasury reflects a forward-thinking approach to value creation. The ELOC provides the flexibility and scale needed to execute on this digital asset treasury vision.”

The announcement comes as more mainstream companies continue to explore digital asset alternatives as a means to hedge their balance sheets against economic fluctuations and foreign currency exchange shocks.

Windtree said it has committed up to $700 million to BNB acquisitions to reinforce its innovative crypto treasury strategy.

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Quick take: 

Bitzero did not provide a list of investors involved in the round.

The company also plans to use some of the capital to expand its high-performance computing (HPC) operations amid shifts toward diversification and environmental sustainability.

Industry peers like Hive Digital Technologies are also diversifying into HPC, with Hive expecting to generate up to $100 million in HPC annual revenue by 2026.

Bitzero, a crypto mining company backed by Kevin O’Leary, has raised $25 million to expand its Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC) operations. The company did not disclose the names or type of investors who participated in the round. 

According to the announcement on Thursday, Bitzero plans to use some of the capital to purchase 2,900 Bitmain S21 Pro Miners.

Bitzero has recently shifted toward HPC miners, amid its bid to become a carbon-zero crypto miner. The company has sealed multiple partnerships in Norway for zero-carbon mining operations.  Bitzero has focused on zero-carbon operations since 2022, a new approach that positions well in the market as regulators and investors demand stricter environmental standards.

Industry peers like Hive Digital Technologies are also diversifying into HPC, with Hive expecting to generate up to $100 million in HPC annual revenue by 2026. The company reported $20 million in annual HPC revenue in 2025.

“Deployment of this high-efficiency hardware will be completed within four to six months, generating an estimated $10 million in additional annual revenue and driving Bitzero’s market-leading breakeven point even lower,” the company said.

Commenting on the fresh funding, Mohammed Bakhashwain, president and CEO of Bitzero, said in a statement: “This new funding allows us to build on our success, accelerate deployment of best-in-class mining technology, and extend our leadership in sustainable, profitable data centers.”

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Quick take:

Draper, one of the crypto industry’s Bitcoin OGs, also raised $124 million for the firm’s seventh fund in 2022.

This latest filing comes on the heels of the signing into law of the stablecoin-focused bill, the GENIUS Act.

Draper Associates focuses on the digital asset sector and boasts over $2 billion in assets under management, according to the firm’s website.

Draper Associates, the digital asset-focused investment firm based in San Mateo, California, has raised $200 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company’s website appears to hint at a new fund launch, as reported by Fortune, which would make it Draper Associates’ eighth fund.

Tim Draper, who is regarded as one crypto industry’s Bitcoin OGs, also raised $124 million for the firm’s seventh fund in 2022. In 2014, Draper paid $19 million to buy 30,000 of the bitcoins seized in the U.S. government’s takedown of Silk Road. The coins are today valued at about $3.5 billion.

Draper has been one of the staunch Bitcoin bulls over the years, after predicting in 2018 that BTC would hit $250,000 by 2022 and issuing the same prediction again in 2023, with a significa ty shorter time frame of under a year.

Although Bitcoin is yet to hit those levels, the recent bull run, which pushed BTC to a new all-time high of about $123,000, has made Draper’s initial predictions more realistic, especially with the GENIUS Act approval.

The latest filing came hot on the heels of the signing into law of the stablecoin-focused bill,  the GENIUS Act. According to its website, Draper Associates currently boasts over $2 billion in assets under management.

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Quick take:

The GENIUS Act was recently signed into law by President Trump to regulate the issuance of stablecoins.

The launch will be the first to launch on Anchorage Digital’s institutional-grade stablecoin issuance platform.

The USDtb stablecoin, currently issued offshore, will now be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank in the U.S.

Ethena Labs, the issuer of USDe and USDtb, has agreed with Anchorage Digital, a US-regulated crypto bank, to bring the USDtb stablecoin to the U.S. The announcement follows the signing of the GENIUS Act into law by President Trump and puts the USDtb stablecoin on a path to be the first GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin.

Under the agreement, the USDtb stablecoin, currently issued offshore, will now be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank in the U.S., making it the first to launch on Anchorage Digital’s institutional-grade stablecoin issuance platform.

The partnership is seen as a strategic move by Anchorage Digital as it positions itself as a “leading U.S. stablecoin issuer for institutions seeking compliant, programmable, digital dollars aligned with the highest regulatory standards set by the GENIUS Act.”

Commenting on the announcement, Nathan McCauley, CEO and Co-Founder of Anchorage Digital, said in a statement: “The passage of the GENIUS Act provides the regulatory clarity that enables federally regulated institutions like Anchorage Digital Bank to fully participate in the stablecoin ecosystem. We’re proud to support Ethena in bringing their product to the U.S.—helping deliver even greater transparency and confidence to their partners.”

Guy Young, CEO of Ethena Labs, commented: “While we’ve already seen strong demand for USDtb, we expect GENIUS compliance to empower our partners and holders to confidently and significantly expand its use across new products and platforms.”

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Quick take:

The zero-coupon convertible notes are available to institutional investors and will be due in 2032.

The notes will be unsecured senior obligations of MARA, are not expected to bear regular interest, and the principal amount is not expected to accrete.

Mara plans to use $50 million from the raise to repurchase a portion of its existing 1.00% convertible senior notes due 2026.

Mara Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) has announced plans to raise up to $1 billion in a convertible note offering. The digital energy and infrastructure company said in an SEC filing on Wednesday that it is offering legible institutional investors the opportunity to purchase $850 million in zero-coupon convertible notes, due in 2032.

As part of the offering, MARA plans to give the initial purchasers of the notes the option to buy an additional $150 million, within the first 13 days of closing the offer, bringing the total raise to $1 billion.

The notes will be unsecured senior obligations of MARA, are not expected to bear regular interest, and the principal amount is not expected to accrete. The company said it plans to use $50 million from the raise to repurchase a portion of its existing 1.00% convertible senior notes due 2026.

The remaining net proceeds will be used to acquire additional bitcoin and for general corporate purposes, including working capital, strategic acquisitions, expansion of existing assets, and repayment of additional debt and other outstanding obligations.

“Holders of the notes will have the right to require MARA to repurchase for cash all or any portion of their notes on January 4, 2030, if the last reported sale price of MARA’s common stock on the second trading day immediately preceding the repurchase date is less than the conversion price,” the company wrote in the filing.

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Quick take:

Andreessen Horowitz crypto investment arm led the round.

The startup was incubated by Story Protocol, also an A16z crypto portfolio company.

Poseidon has already partnered with an unnamed company described as a top robotics firm and an audio foundation model team sourcing dialect-rich speech data.

Poseidon, a decentralized AI data layer built on Story Protocol, has raised $15 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and A16z. The startup was incubated by Story Protocol, also an A16z crypto portfolio company.

Story Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain designed primarily to secure intellectual property rights. Poseidon’s fundraising comes at a time when generative AI is threatening intellectual property rights.

According to Sandeep Chinchali, Poseidon co-founder and chief AI officer at Story, Poseidon has already partnered with an unnamed company described as a top robotics firm and an audio foundation model team sourcing dialect-rich speech data.

Poseidon “combines auto-labeling with human-in-the-loop refinement to scale data acquisition without sacrificing quality,” Chinchali told Blockworks, adding that the team “prioritizes targeted data collection based on real-world failure modes and validates every dataset using metadata checks and Story’s programmable IP licensing.”

a16z Crypto founder Chris Dixon said in a statement: “AI foundation models have already exhausted the most easily accessible training data. Poseidon’s decentralized data layer seeks to establish a new economic foundation for the internet, rewarding creators and suppliers for providing the diverse inputs that next-gen intelligent systems need.”

Poseidon’s decentralised data layer will enable AI developers to access IP-safe, legally cleared training data using Story’s programmable IP layer and immutable IP registry. Applicable uses include robotics, autonomous vehicles, wearables, and AI agents that require more data than what is available on the internet.

Chinchali said Poseidon is also partnering with universities and Fortune 500 companies, building AI capabilities.

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Quick take:

The fundraising values the crypto messaging startup at $300 million, according to the announcement on Thursday.

As part of Union Square Ventures’ co-leading role in the funding, its CEO, Fred Wilson, joined Ephemera’s board.

The fundraising was structured as equity with token warrants, Ephemera cofounder and CEO Shane Mac told Fortune.

Ephemera, a blockchain-based messaging platform, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Union Square Ventures, A16z Crypto and Lightspeed Faction. The fundraising also attracted participation from Coinbase, Sound Ventures, and the actor Ashton Kutcher.

The fundraising was structured as equity with token warrants, and values the SocialFi platform at $300 million, according to the report by Fortune. As a part of Union Square Ventures’ co-leading role in the funding, its CEO, Fred Wilson, joined Ephemera’s board.

Ephemera is built by the developers behind the protocol XMTP, a decentralised messaging network that leverages IETF-standard Messaging Layer Security, the open-source security foundation that is reportedly also used by the likes of Mozilla, Google, Wire, and Cisco.

“At the core,” Wilson said of XMTP, “it’s just a more open protocol that allows you to prove it’s private and secure, not trust Facebook and Signal to tell you their server is secure.”

According to Wilson, popular messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp are too centralised, adding that Signal, which offers end-to-end encryption, or cryptography that permits only the sender and receiver to read a message, may be the most secure of all popular centralised messaging platforms.

This type of end-to-end encryption ensures big techs like Meta do not snoop on their users, he added. However, Wilson also argues that despite the end-to-end encryption, users do not own those messages, and cannot port their conversations off the platform.

This is where XMTP comes in, according to Wilson, adding that the protocol allows any messaging app built on top of it to port prior conversations from another messaging app to a new one. Like transferring your chat from Signal to WhatsApp.

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Quick take:

Coin Metrics is one of the leading providers of both on-chain and off-chain data.

Talos helps institutional firms, including hedge funds and asset managers, trade digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The acquisition comes at a time of increased consolidation in the digital asset space as companies look to position themselves for mainstream adoption.

Talos, a crypto trading infrastructure provider helping institutional firms like hedge funds and asset managers trade digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana and others, has announced the acquisition of trading data provider Coin Metrics. The deal is valued at more than $100 million, according to the report by Fortune.

Talos cofounder and CEO Anton Katz told Fortune that the acquisition highlights the company’s ambition to become a one-stop shop for institutional players looking to get into digital asset trading and portfolio management.

Coin Metrics is one of the leading providers of both on-chain and off-chain data, which can be a resourceful platform for data-driven investing.

The acquisition comes at a time of increased consolidation in the digital asset space as companies look to position themselves for mainstream adoption.

Talos has been through the ‘thick and thin’ of the digital asset space, surviving industry meltdown triggered by the collapse of the then-leading exchange platform FTX and multiple crypto startups. 

Having raised $40 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) in 2021, Talos continued to attract investor funding in 2022, which it raised $105 million at $1.25 billion valuation. The company also boasts backing from the likes of PayPal, Fidelity, BNY and Citi, among others.

Talos’ sophisticated trading infrastructure leverages centralised exchange platforms like Coinbase and the decentralised exchange platform Uniswap for liquidity.

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Quick take:

The fundraising also attracted participation from Antalpha and Mantle.

The bitcoin-based protocol, formerly known as Ignition, aims to unlock institutional yield opportunities from the largest yet least utilised asset in DeFi.

The announcement comes amid a ramp-up in institutional adoption of BTC through strategic Bitcoin treasuries and spot ETFs.

Function, formerly Ignifition, a decentralised finance protocol on Bitcoin, has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Galaxy Digital, with participation from Antalpha and Mantle.

The company offers fBTC, a yield-generating token that allows institutions and corporate treasuries to deploy bitcoin while maintaining full control of their assets. Function plans to use the capital to scale the institutional adoption of FBTC as it seeks to unlock institutional yield opportunities from the largest yet least utilised digital asset in the market.

And with Mike Novogratz Galaxy not only investing, but also joining as a key contributor, Function plans have gotten up to a good start. The announcement also comes amid a ramp-up in institutional adoption of Bitcoin, through strategic Bitcoin treasuries, inspired by Trump’s call to establish a National Bitcoin Reserve. 

According to the report by CoinDesk, some of the activities that Galaxy will be undertaking include liquidity provisioning, governance and risk framework design, and strategic oversight.

“By 2026, treating bitcoin as a passive treasury asset may no longer be enough. The new standard will be actively earning yield,” Thomas Chen, CEO of Function, said in an email.

“We’re evolving from wrapped assets to functional infrastructure that’s programmable and institutional-grade to transform bitcoin into a productive asset class. Sophisticated allocators will demand their bitcoin work as hard as their cash. Those slow to adapt will underperform; forward-looking firms will win the next era of bitcoin yield.” Chen added.

FBTC is already integrated with over 8 major protocols and over 25 leading decentralised applications (dApps) including Ethereum, Babylon, Aave and Mantle.

Jason Urban, Global Head of Trading at Galaxy, expressed excitement about the partnership, in a statement, saying: “I believe Function represents the next evolution in Bitcoin’s journey toward becoming a productive financial asset. We’re excited to contribute to the infrastructure that Function is building to establish Bitcoin as a capital-efficient reserve asset for global markets.”

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Quick take:

Activity on Sonic Labs has spiked since the beginning of the year, following its mainnet launch in December 2024.

Returning users have more than doubled since January, hitting a record 419K in June – that’s more than 2.5x since the beginning of the year.

The EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain also processed over 104 million transactions in the first half of 2025, with a clear upward trend into May.

Sonic Labs, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer-1 blockchain with transaction speeds of up to 400,000 per second, has experienced an uptick in activity since the beginning of the year.

The protocol processed over 104 million transactions in the first half of 2025, with a clear upward trend into May. Users have also more than doubled since January, hitting a record 419K in June – that’s more than 2.5x since the beginning of the year.

The platform is also experiencing a steady contract activity with 15K–18K returning active contracts each month since March.

Data from Dune So, what is driving activity on Sonic?

The Sonic blockchain is built for decentralised finance apps, which means most of the activity will likely stem from native apps on the platform and their ability to attract users.

One of the leading applications on Sonic is Shadow, a DEX platform that describes itself as a “concentrated liquidity exchange”.

The platform recently crossed the $10 billion transaction volume milestone, according to a post shared on the X platform.

$10B+ volume on @ShadowOnSonic. pic.twitter.com/SRFgZe5EYf

— Sonic Eco (@SonicEcosystem) July 13, 2025

The platform runs on an innovative Fee Monetisation (FeeM) model, which returns 90% of gas fees to developers, as an added incentive to developers who build apps tailored for boosting on-chain traffic.

Sonic is also incentivising developers to build on its ecosystem with a 200 million S token innovation fund, equivalent to about $72 million, at the time of writing, given the prevailing S price of $0.36. According to documentation on its platform. 

The Sonic Innovator Fund is backed by angels from Curve, Aave, Compound Finance, Gauntlet and FRAX, as well as venture partners Hashed, Signum Capital and UOB Venture Management.

Coinciding with the May-June spike in the number of returning users is the company’s first season of its 190 million S token airdrop (approximately $68 million) that ended on June 18. The company has not disclosed how many tokens are being airdropped per season. The second season immediately after the closure of the first season, according to company documentation.

Earlier this month, Sonic also introduced the Sonic Creator program, further incentivising users and social media creators with 100,000 S tokens in monthly rewards to those who post engaging, original videos or clips about Sonic on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

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The post Sonic Labs’ Massive Rise as Native DEX Platform “Shadow” Crosses $10B in Volume appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

Dakota plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its “mission to build the world’s first globally accessible business bank account.”

The stablecoin-powered platform, founded by veterans from Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, wants to change how businesses move and store money across borders.

Dakota allows businesses to hold and transfer funds across USD or stablecoins while accessing familiar payment rails, such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, and SEPA.

Dakota, a stablecoin-enabled modern business banking platform, has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and Triton Ventures, the company said in a press release shared with NFTgators.

According to the announcement, Dakota plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its “mission to build the world’s first globally accessible business bank account,” including expanding its product suite and geographical reach.

Founded by veterans from Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, the platform wants to change how businesses move and store money across borders. Dakota allows companies to hold and transfer funds across USD or stablecoins while accessing familiar payment rails, such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, and SEPA, according to the release.

By leveraging blockchain technology, Dakota enables near-instant, verifiable transfers, keeping customer funds fully reserved and under the client’s control. The company claims to have already attracted over 500 business customers since launching in 2023. Its customer pool ranges from tech startups to international nonprofits, processing billions of dollars in annualised transaction volume, the company said.

“Companies are increasingly default global and they’re being hamstrung by slow wire transfers, limited banking access, and the reality that once money goes into a bank, customers lose control,” said Ryan Bozarth, CEO and co-founder of Dakota. “Our goal with Dakota is to bring banking into the internet age — giving businesses the ability to move money as instantly and freely as information travels, without sacrificing security or compliance.”

The announcement comes amid growing optimism for the legislation of cryptocurrencies tied to fiat currencies in the U.S.

“We believe stablecoins can revolutionise business banking,” said Alex Felix, CIO of CoinFund. “Dakota is unlocking that potential by combining the familiarity of a bank account with the power of crypto rails. They’re not asking mainstream businesses to change how they operate — they’re upgrading the engine under the hood.” 

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Quick take:

The merger resulted in the formation of a new entity called Hyperliquid Strategies, which will focus on establishing a digital asset treasury centred on the HYPE token.

The new entity will hold 12.6 million HYPE tokens (approximately $583 million in value) plus an additional $305 million in gross cash invested.

Atlas Merchant Capital is an affiliate of Paradigm, an investment management firm focused on digital assets.

Sonnet Biotherapeutics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SONN) has announced a merger with Rorschach, a newly formed entity established by an entity affiliated with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC, an affiliate of popular crypto venture firm Paradigm.

The new entity, called Hyperliquid Strategies, Inc., will remain listed on NASDAQ under the symbol (NASDAQ: HSI), and will focus on establishing a digital asset treasury centred on the HYPE token, the native token of the Hyperliquid blockchain.

According to a press release seen by NFTgators, Hyperliquid Strategies will hold 12.6 million HYPE tokens (approximately $583 million in value) plus an additional $305 million in gross cash invested, for a total value of $888 million.

The transaction was backed by prominent investors and crypto VCs, including Paradigm, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, D1 Capital, Republic Digital, and 683 Capital. Hyperliquid Treasuries plans to acquire more HYPE, creating one of the biggest strategic crypto resreves fo the HYPE token.

Upon closing of the transactions, Hyperliquid Strategies plans to name Bob Diamond, Co-founder and CEO of Atlas, as Chairman of the Board, while David Schamis, CIO and Co-founder of Atlas, will become the CEO of HSI.

Commenting on the announcement, Bob Diamond said: “We believe HYPE and the Hyperliquid protocol represent a truly differentiated offering within the digital asset space. We believe Hyperliquid Strategies will be well placed to maximise these opportunities because of our unique team of investors and operators with deep, relevant crypto and financial services experience.”

Matt Huang, Co-founder of Paradigm, added: “Hyperliquid has broken out as a crypto project with real fundamentals: strong core contributors, exacting product quality, and meteoric growth. We hear lots of institutional demand for exposure to Hyperliquid, yet the native token HYPE is difficult to access in the United States.”

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Quick take:

The consumer goods company sold 12,457,186 shares, with investors paying $4.00 per share and $4.94 per share for management’s participation. 

The equity offering is expected to close on July 14, upon satisfying customary closing conditions.

Big Brain Capital led the convertible note sale, with investors paying a fixed conversion rate of $4.25 per share in exchange for locked SOL, and earning 2% quarterly interest.

Upexi, Inc. (NASDAQ: UPXI) has announced a $200 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) offering to fund a digital asset treasury focused on Solana (SOL). The placement is comprised of two vehicles, including the sale and purchase of shares of common stock of the company for $50 million and a convertible note for $150 million.

According to a press release seen by NFTgators on Friday, the consumer goods company sold 12,457,186 shares of common stock, with investors paying $4.00 per share and $4.94 per share for management’s participation, for an aggregate gross proceeds of $50 million, before deducting fees.

The equity offering is expected to close on July 14, upon satisfying customary closing conditions. “The Company expects to use a portion of the proceeds from the Equity Offering to fund the Company’s existing business operations and for working capital and general corporate purposes, and the balance of the net proceeds shall be used to fund the Company’s Solana treasury strategy,” Upexi wrote in the release.

On the other hand, Big Brain Capital led the convertible note sale, with investors paying a fixed conversion rate of $4.25 per share in exchange for locked SOL, earning 2% quarterly interest, and a maturity of 24 months.

The closing of the note offering is expected to close on July 16, upon satisfying customary closing conditions, with SOL underlying the Note Offering immediately becoming part of Upexi’s Solana treasury.

The company expects to hold 1.65 million SOL upon close of the Note Offering, more than doubling the previously disclosed balance of 735,692 SOL.

In April, Upexi raised $100 million in a private placement led by GSR to buy Solana tokens.

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The post Upexi Announces $200M Placement to Invest in Its Solana-Focused Crypto Treasury appeared first on NFTgators .