Funding Roundup: Stripe buys Bridge for $1.1B, Azura bags $6.9M

Plus, MoonWalk Fitness announced a $3.4 million seed round

October 27, 2024 12:00 pm

Sundry Photography/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

The biggest deal this week wasn’t a venture capital raise. Instead, it was the announcement that Stripe is buying stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion.

There’s been a lot written about the deal and what it means, and we wrote about it from numerous angles here at Blockworks focusing on the Solana impact, what it means for crypto and whether or not this could open the door for more merger and acquisition activity.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, in a post earlier this week, said, “Stablecoins are room-temperature superconductors for financial services. Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage and cost improvements in the coming years. Stripe is going to build the world’s best stablecoin infrastructure.”

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

Empire co-host Santiago Santos praised Collison’s words, calling the post “one of the best tweets I’ve ever seen.”

“There’s this whole universe and part of crypto that people outside of crypto don’t appreciate unless you’re using it. But very few people are using it because they’re distracted in this noise that crypto is just a casino,” Santos said, talking about stablecoins and their use cases.

But the Stripe/Bridge deal wasn’t the only piece of M&A activity this week. Crypto custodian Komainu — which is backed by Nomura — also announced that it was acquiring Propine, a rival based in Singapore.

The deal amount was not disclosed.

On the funding front, we saw Azura — a DeFi platform — announce a $6.9 million round alongside its launch.

Loading Tweet..

Notable news:

Shuttle Labs said it raised $6 million to build Genius, a self-custodial crypto exchange. Investors included CMCC, Flow Traders and Anthony Scaramucci’s SALT.
MoonWalk Fitness announced a $3.4 million seed round led by Hack VC. Binance Labs, Flowdesk and Reciprocal Ventures all participated.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

Kinetiq Protocol: From LST Infrastructure to HIP-3 Deployer

Kinetiq has established itself as Hyperliquid's dominant liquid staking protocol, holding 82.5% of LST market share with $610M in TVL. The protocol is now expanding beyond its kHYPE staking core into higher take-rate verticals: iHYPE for institutional custody rails, Launch for HIP-3 capital formation, and Markets for builder-deployed perpetuals. We view Markets, launching Jan. 12, as the highest-potential product line given its mechanically scalable, activity-linked unit economics. Near-term revenue remains anchored by kHYPE's KIP-2 fee schedule (~$1.6M annualized), while Markets provides embedded optionality if HIP-3 economics normalize post-Growth Mode. KNTQ's setup is relatively clean: zero insider unlocks until November 2026, 6.2% buyback yield from staking revenue, and cleared airdrop overhang. Risks center on unproven Markets execution, declining kHYPE TVL despite ongoing incentives, and competition from Hyperliquid's native initiatives.

by Shaunda Devens