Katherine Ross

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Scenius Capital is making some moves.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Ben Jacobs, co-founder and managing partner, told Blockworks exclusively that the firm just closed a “slightly oversubscribed” $20 million fundraise for a fund of emerging crypto VC funds.&nbsp;



“We think we&#8217;ve carved out a unique niche and a very important one in the asset class, where we&#8217;re backing emerging managers exclusively. So [by] investing in small funds…early in their firm history, managers that we think have established a clear edge in a domain, a geography, and ecosystem, and we&#8217;re excited to back them at the earliest stages,” Jacobs told me.



“We think that’s where the best returns will come from,” he added.&nbsp;



As Jacobs noted, it’s been quite a rough year for fundraising. We’ve seen both <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venture-capital-funding-up-in-june">multi-billion dollar months</a>, but then some months — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venture-capital-funding-may-2025">like May for example</a> — fell short of expectations.&nbsp;



“It hasn’t been necessarily the easiest fundraising environment through ‘24 and ‘25, and we do believe that our ability to launch and close even a slightly oversubscribed $20 million dollar vehicle is a huge testament to the value that we’re bringing to the market, and recognition from the market that we are doing things in a high-integrity, high-quality way,” co-founder Greg d’Incelli added.&nbsp;



“Closing the VC fund was a huge accomplishment for us,” he continued. “We think both Scenius and the overall asset class are at an important moment — a pivotal moment — that we&#8217;ve seen sort of with evolving regulation in a positive sense, both in the US through the Trump administration and globally.”&nbsp;



But the $20 million raise isn’t the only thing that Scenius is announcing. Jacobs and d’Incelli also told Blockworks that ParaFi is taking a strategic stake in Scenius.&nbsp;



“Having [ParaFi’s] support, we think, really gives us a partner that has grown into an institutional, broadly trusted firm, and we hope to follow in their footsteps. And we think the launch of this new fund is one of those footsteps, and the development of this token capital markets arm is a second step. So, yeah, it&#8217;s very exciting, and we&#8217;re thrilled for where things go from here,” Jacobs said.



D’Incelli added that Scenius “always wanted to be aligned with people that are long-term thinkers, that keep a long-term horizon, that are strategic.”&nbsp;



“We are thrilled to have acquired a strategic GP stake in Scenius Capital and to be partnering with Ben, Greg and the broader team. Scenius has established itself as a leader in the crypto fund of funds space with deep industry expertise and a reputation for integrity,” ParaFi’s Ben Forman told Blockworks.



“We are excited to provide Scenius with growth capital to enable them to scale their existing business lines and expand into new areas, such as their token capital markets advisory practice. ParaFi believes Scenius is exceptionally well-positioned and we look forward to supporting the firm&#8217;s future success.&#8221;



Jacobs, in an <a href="https://www.hedgeweek.com/providing-curated-access-best-in-class-crypto-blockchain-investment-opportunities/">interview</a> tied to winning a Hedgweek award earlier this year, said that the fund views “bitcoin as a core and important position in the portfolio, and we are allocated to managers who own BTC beta, trade around BTC with various instruments, or denominate their funds in BTC.”



The two told Blockworks that Scenius is also backed by a number of crypto native LPs, though they declined to give specifics.&nbsp;



“A lot of people are declaring crypto venture is dead, or the returns are going to compress, but a lot of people still see a lot of value and opportunity, and they think our expression — by focusing on these smaller, first time or second time managers — is the best route to continue to allocate to crypto venture,” Jacobs said.&nbsp;



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Empire Newsletter

Scenius Capital raises $20M for new fund of emerging crypto VC funds

Macauley Peterson

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Poseidon has raised a $15 million seed round led by a16z crypto to solve one of AI’s bottlenecks: access to high-quality, IP-cleared training data. Incubated by <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/story-protocol-intellectual-property-token">Story Protocol</a>, Poseidon offers a full-stack decentralized data layer tailored for AI systems that operate in the real world.



Meta’s recent <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2025/06/23/meta-invests-14-billion-in-scale-ai-to-strengthen-model-training/">acquisition</a> of Scale AI for $14 billion has left a competitive opening in this arena, according to Sandeep Chinchali, Poseidon co-founder and chief AI officer at Story.



“Major AI labs and enterprises have pulled their contracts,” Chinchali told Blockworks. “But the need for high-quality, rights-cleared data hasn’t gone away. It’s only intensified.”



Chinchali, a Stanford-trained AI researcher, brings over a decade of experience in edge intelligence and robotics. His team’s approach combines auto-labeling with human-in-the-loop refinement to scale data acquisition without sacrificing quality.&nbsp;



“We prioritize targeted data collection based on real-world failure modes,” he explained, “and validate every dataset using metadata checks and Story’s programmable IP licensing.”



Applications include robotics, autonomous vehicles, wearables and embodied agents, for which synthetic training data or sources scraped from the internet are insufficient.



Poseidon addresses this gap by coordinating a global network of data contributors through onchain incentives, real-time USDC payments and Story’s licensing infrastructure. The protocol treats data as composable intellectual property, allowing contributors to receive attribution and royalties — not just for raw data, but for derivative works like annotations or synthetic augmentations.



“Poseidon ensures that all contributors in this chain, from original collectors to labelers, receive onchain attribution and participation in downstream value when the data is used to train AI models,” said Chinchali.



Early customers include a top robotics firm and an audio foundation model team sourcing dialect-rich speech data, although Chinchali declined to name them specifically. Poseidon is also partnering with universities and Fortune 500 companies building AI capabilities, he said.



With the seed funding, Poseidon will roll out contributor modules, SDKs and integrated licensing tools. “We’re validating the thesis that Web3 can unlock large-scale, equitable data collection for the long-tail datasets physical AI depends on,” Chinchali said.



Early access is expected before the end of summer. As Poseidon builds out its infrastructure, the bet is clear: In the race to real-world AI, data — not models — will be the moat.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Story-backed Poseidon raises $15M to build AI’s data layer

Donovan Choy

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The below picture of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was from a recent NATO summit.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcQpDmiCMb16Fq-gF22r9AYwjBxS92otQyClfWO_GXPNYYBPOSK7NZZN2LIIzE6gsMI5wyMUt9RhBPClbUxBOj0vkIXxJ8bRw12VIh1pR-8PNUan6V6uP1GsxfosDheNh9ccGDd3A?key=AnwRqr6vCbGnGEl0xq39XA" alt="" style="width:483px;height:auto"/></figure>



Is that a suit Zelenskyy is wearing?



The <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/25/world-news/volodymyr-zelensky-dons-suit-for-donald-trump-meeting-at-nato-summit/">New York Post</a> called it a suit, <a href="https://www.the-sun.com/news/14560567/zelensky-new-look-suit-trump-nato-summit/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">The Sun</a> called it a “slick black suit”, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/zelenskiy-opts-more-formal-calibrated-wardrobe-ahead-trump-meeting-2025-06-25/">Reuters</a> called it a “suit-style jacket”.



But ChatGPT disagrees:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
Under a narrow, traditional definition (tailored jacket with lapels + matching trousers made of the same suiting fabric), this outfit would not be called a suit. The jacket’s collar, patch pockets, utilitarian cut, and overall “field” or “workwear” styling put it outside classic suiting.
</blockquote>



Anyway, the answer to that incredibly inane question is key — there&#8217;s a <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/will-zelenskyy-wear-a-suit-before-july?tid=1751288477194">Polymarket bet</a> (&#8220;Will Zelenskyy wear a suit before July?&#8221;) with $12 million of open interest riding on it.



Unfortunately for bettors, mainstream media opinion is not the final resort of resolution on Polymarket — that decision lies with UMA token holders.



UMA whales are disputing that Zelenskyy was wearing a suit, so the market has currently cratered to a 3% implied probability of resolving to a “YES” vote now.&nbsp;



That has, hilariously, sparked activist <a href="https://x.com/Addict9Nft/status/1938912728506343441">Twitter</a> pages like “ZELENSKYY WORE A SUIT,” accusations of oracle capture, and what some are calling “Suitgate.”



I’m not here to referee Zelenskyy’s wardrobe debate.



I only wish to point out that newer prediction markets are catching on to this problem and innovating new ways to mitigate this “buy-the-truth” problem that can emerge on UMA.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Inside XO Market</h2>



Take XO Market, an upcoming prediction market built as a sovereign appchain using Celestia for data availability.



To eliminate oracle capture, XO Market’s oracle system is designed to be AI-first. The oracle queries “trusted APIs” and “uses algorithmic data retrieval and machine learning to quickly determine objectively verifiable outcomes,” according to its <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-jVRlM2zNQ8jlwlmX2MW1nORoM0tcpJM/view">whitepaper</a>.



Only in the event of a rare dispute does the resolution kick up to a similar jury system, where staked XO token holders are randomly selected to decide. Quadratic voting mechanisms are also implemented to deter the influence of any single large token holder from dominating a market’s outcome.



Then the market resolves in accordance with majority vote. Minority token holders are slashed.



XO Market also wants to be permissionless, in contrast to Polymarket or Kalshi where markets are subject to approval from central gatekeepers.



Think a marriage between pump[dot]fun and Polymarket, Ali Habbabeh, co-founder of XO Market, tells me.



Any user with a hot take can draft a question, define resolution criteria, choose any collateral, and set a fee to earn on all trades, so good questions become a revenue stream.



Allowing creators to use any token they wish leads to liquidity fragmentation, but it also enables different communities to introduce utility to their own tokens through what Habbabeh likes to think of as “conviction markets.”



To bootstrap liquidity for a long tail of niche markets, XO depends on a kind of adaptive liquidity AMM, or what some may remember as Augur’s Liquidity-Sensitive Logarithmic Market Scoring Rule (LS-LMSR).



The general idea is that creators start by seeding a market for a few dollars, then graduate to deep liquidity over time as trading volume increases.



This design lies in contrast to Polymarket’s liquidity model that relies on professional market-makers. Niche markets are therefore ignored until makers are convinced it is worth their capital.



“LMSR was very compute intensive and that&#8217;s why Augur died,” Habbabeh tells me, “It&#8217;s the best pricing algorithm for prediction markets and nobody&#8217;s using it.”



An orderbook may be eventually used for when adoption scales, he added.



XO Market is launching open alpha this week.



The team recently emerged as one of the winners at Celestia’s Mammothon hackathon and subsequently closed a $500,000 pre-seed round led by Cyber Fund and Delphi Ventures.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">💭 <a href="https://twitter.com/xodotmarket?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xodotmarket</a>: A social media-powered prediction market via <a href="https://twitter.com/privy_io?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@privy_io</a>. <a href="https://t.co/D4QvoPZOh2">pic.twitter.com/D4QvoPZOh2</a>&mdash; Celestia 🦣 (@celestia) <a href="https://twitter.com/celestia/status/1902752214558621865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The prediction markets landscape</h3>



XO Market’s alpha launch comes in the backdrop of both Polymarket and Kalshi achieving unicorn status.



Bloomberg reported last week that Polymarket was <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-24/polymarket-is-set-to-raise-funding-at-1-billion-valuation">raising</a> $200 million at a $1 billion valuation. Kalshi, on the other hand, recently closed a Paradigm-led $185 million round at a $2 billion valuation.



Polymarket’s open interest has held generally steady at the $100 million-$120 million mark in the last several months.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXddJXqCeULzxZ0l7t1L_F-ydx93eJyLVahKtLG9JhViU4ayTdexiSt9wBOPBkKgPSLm-4KQZJYErsARj7ty4nqdgGc2iSpalV4TkijJxE0TZKmSEsItzkmYcIRVLKc0dVS0E-n6ag?key=AnwRqr6vCbGnGEl0xq39XA" alt=""/></figure>



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Permissionless prediction market XO Market raises $500K in pre-seed round

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Ex-Chorus One CIO Xavier Meegan is launching a $20 million crypto native pre-seed fund, we’ve exclusively learned.&nbsp;



At Frachtis, Meegan holds the role of General Partner with four others on an investment and advisory committee, including Chorus One’s Brian Crain and Felix Lutsch. The fund is based in Lisbon, Portugal. 



“There are five of us around the fund right now, and all of us have experience operating crypto-native businesses, which I think is kind of rare. There are only a few funds in the space that do that. Mix that with the fact that we also have experience operating blockchain infrastructure,” Meegan told me.



He said that they’d raised over the past 12 months, and noted that crypto’s currently in the “consumer apps era. The next big winners in crypto will be applications that leverage the infrastructure we already have.”



The infrastructure days, he told me, “are over.” It’s time to focus on building for the future of crypto, instead of launching more L1s and L2s, he added. Instead, he sees the demand focusing on consumer and mobile apps.



Though he’s also interested in the crossover between AI and crypto, adding that he’s closely watching AI agents.



“One big thing there, which we have another thesis around, is that these agents need way faster and more contextualized data, for example. And so, we need to build this infrastructure. Maybe the agents need certain permissions to access certain things; otherwise, there&#8217;s going to be a lot of security risk there,” he said.



“AI personalization, retention, and also loyalty of certain kinds of apps is going to get more and more important as there&#8217;s more and more stuff going live in crypto. I think that&#8217;s going to be a way that some of these teams can win: by using AI to enhance your applications, enhance the usability, enhance the engagement for the users.”



Right now is a “great time” to invest, Meegan told me. It’s been difficult for founders to raise, which has had the unforeseen benefit of forcing founders to strengthen their ideas.&nbsp;



He expects, over the next 12-18 months, to see LPs come back and get a bit more active.&nbsp;



“Everything we&#8217;ve invested in…had a long-term thesis around, and I&#8217;ve spoken with many teams&#8230;I believe [are] going to win long-term. And we have a framework for how we do this, actually, and how we analyze these founders and teams that we&#8217;ve developed over several years,” Meegan added.



Frachtis has invested in eight projects so far, over pre-seed and seed stages — including Turtle Club and Hyve. And they’re just getting started.



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Exclusive: Ex-Chorus One CIO launches $20M crypto fund

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Have you heard about Cove?&nbsp;



Given that the protocol didn’t have a testnet, you might not have, or you might have seen its $3 million pre-seed raise led by Electric Capital, with participation from Accomplice, Daedalus, and Robot Ventures.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We’re thrilled to announce <a href="https://twitter.com/stormlabs_xyz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@stormlabs_xyz</a> has completed a $3MM pre-seed fundraise led by <a href="https://twitter.com/ElectricCapital?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ElectricCapital</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/Accomplices?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Accomplices</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/robotventures?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@robotventures</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/daedalus_angels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@daedalus_angels</a> and more to build <a href="https://twitter.com/cove_fi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cove_fi</a> and the future of onchain portfolio management! Say goodbye to loss-versus-rebalancing (LVR). <a href="https://t.co/TF3Stm72cX">pic.twitter.com/TF3Stm72cX</a>&mdash; Cove (@cove_fi) <a href="https://twitter.com/cove_fi/status/1777723825288831384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Cove is launching its mainnet today, the team exclusively told Blockworks. They’re also launching coveUSD, which lets folks earn yield on Ethereum.&nbsp;



But let’s back up: The Cove protocol aims to deliver “risk-adjusted yield” through curated DeFi vaults. It came about as a solution for Cove founder Sunil Srivatsa.&nbsp;



“I&#8217;m just spending a lot of time onchain, monitoring different returns and trying to earn the most money. And I got sick of it, and I was like, ‘There&#8217;s got to be a better way to do this,’” he said. “This is how I would yield farm if I wasn’t lazy.”



So Srivatsa built the protocol and partnered with Gauntlet so that the two can bring their strengths together.



“[Gauntlet’s] actually done a very comprehensive methodology that&#8217;s kind of underpinning all the strategies that we&#8217;re launching, where they&#8217;re doing all the data and model, the data modeling, offline, off-chain, using their existing systems,” Srivatsa said. Cove has written “Python Silverback bots that are able to basically take [the] off-chain intelligence and use that to run the protocol in the most optimized fashion.”



Right now, Cove is only on Ethereum, but Srivatsa teased that it plans to expand later on. However, the focus is on executing “safely and in a controlled fashion.”



“We&#8217;re working very closely with Gauntlet to make sure that we&#8217;re optimizing and monitoring everything as we roll this out,” he said. Cove is set up to rebalance once a day, which should take roughly 15 minutes. But if it has to retry, then it could take up to 45 minutes.&nbsp;



Srivatsa designed Cove to be noncustodial. Basically, he wants to automate the features for ease of access. That also went into the thought process behind the UX, he said.&nbsp;



To protect both the users and the protocol, Cove’s already undergone three audits with Zellic and Pashov Audit Group. Quantstamp and Trail of Bits are also auditors, <a href="https://www.cove.finance/">per the website</a>.



You could have probably already guessed this, but Cove won’t initially be available in the US. Srivatsa is hoping for a day with more regulatory clarity where they can remove the geoblock, especially since the team is US-based, but we’re just not there yet.&nbsp;



Clearly, this isn’t Srivatsa’s first rodeo. He previously was the CEO of Saddle Finance, which <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/08/08/venture-backed-saddle-finance-proposes-wind-down-dissolution">wound down</a> in 2023. He then founded Storm Labs, which raised the pre-seed round for Cove.



His experience in the space has led him to realize that “DeFi doesn’t really need automated market making. It needs automated investing.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Notably, this has been a concept tried by other projects in the past, such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sommelier">Sommelier</a>.&nbsp;



I asked Srivatsa how he plans to build out the user base since the protocol’s going straight to mainnet. For him, it’s simple: Make DeFi as easy to use as running water. It’s something that comes from his past experience at Uber.&nbsp;



“Anybody should be able — with one click — to access a safe rate and noncustodial[ly],” Srivatsa said. “You shouldn&#8217;t have to deal with banks or wire transfers or any of this stuff; you should have full control over [your] finances.”&nbsp;



As for another venture round, Srivatsa told me to “keep your eyes posted.” He also teased that the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/epic-games-apple-store-app-ruling-games">Apple v. Epic Games ruling</a> from earlier this year may have sparked some interest.



“I think a native mobile application that makes it as simple as you can to go from Apple Pay to earning with coveUSD, and then taking your money out again is something that would be cool. So, [we] might be working on something in that avenue as well,” he said.



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Exclusive: Cove launches mainnet, CoveUSD

Jack Kubinec

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XP, a ticketing resale exchange built with Solana rails, has raised $6.2 million in a seed round led by Blockchange, the platform tells Lightspeed exclusively.



L1D and Reflexive also participated in the round. XP uses Solana rails for discounted ticket sales, but hints at grander ambitions surrounding fan experience down the road.&nbsp;



XP is one of a number of upstart ticketing exchanges seeking to disrupt the popular but widely-disliked incumbents such as TicketMaster and SeatGeek. These ticketing titans caught the ire of the Biden administration, which just had a rule banning hidden so-called junk fees from ticketing platforms go into <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-biden-era-junk-fee-rule-is-now-in-effect-ticketmaster-says-it-will-display-fees-more-clearly">effect</a> on Monday.



XP lists all-in prices by default. Its listed prices for tickets to upcoming New York Mets games roughly track with prices on TickPick, another popular resale ticketing app.



The Solana of it all <a href="https://solana.com/news/case-study-xp">comes</a> from the ticketing codes, which are encrypted as NFTs. You wouldn’t know that from browsing the website, though — the only apparent crypto mention is the option to connect a crypto wallet and pay for tickets in USDC.



“XP has sold millions of dollars in annualized ticket sales to thousands of customers,” XP founder and CEO Mike Saunders said when I asked about the platform’s traction. He did not give a firm answer when I asked if XP would be launching a token.



Saunders has been around the block: His 1990s food ordering and menu website company was acquired by GrubHub in 2011. Saunders went on to found a tech development shop named Blueprint before starting XP, which is his first foray into blockchain.&nbsp;



I actually met Saunders briefly at the Solana Boston conference in October, where I recall him saying he thinks about his startup constantly and obsessively.&nbsp;



But whether all that thinking creates venture-scale returns following this fundraise may depend on XP’s coming expansion. Ticketing marketplaces are a crowded field, and with the Biden junk fees rule in effect, transparent pricing may become a bit less of a selling point.&nbsp;



On its site, XP teases that the platform will soon be about “more” than just tickets. Saunders also added that XP has plans in the works for users to be able to list and resell their own tickets.&nbsp;



“Fandom is deeply personal, and we believe blockchain unlocks a whole slew of opportunities for fans to be recognized, celebrated and rewarded,” Saunders said. “Our goal is to leverage verified fandom to provide access to special rewards, epic experiences and exclusive perks to members of the XP community.”



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Solana ticketing platform XP raises $6.2M

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62a1463432ad3" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Several notable investor participated in Ancient8&#8217;s funding round including Morningstar Ventures and Pantera Capital</li>
 <li>Funding will be used to further develop the company&#8217;s GameFi infrastructure software as well as grow its community, it said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Vietnam-based blockchain firm Ancient8 said it has raised millions in additional funding to further its efforts in developing infrastructure for the GameFi sector in Web3.



In a statement on Wednesday, the company said it has raised $6 million in a funding round led by interactive entertainment venture capital firm Makers Fund and C² Ventures.



Participation from existing and new investors also came via Pantera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Folius Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Th3ia Capital, Sky9 Capital and Play Ventures.



Funding will go toward the firm&#8217;s efforts in building out its software products as well as growing its community and gaming guild, Ancient8 said. The firm has an active user base of around 200,000 members, per the statement.



&#8220;We think Web3 games have brought a paradigm shift in the gaming industry for gamers and game developers,&#8221; Ancient8&#8217;s co-founder Howard Xu told Blockworks in an email. &#8220;Gamers get&nbsp;a new experience where they can earn substantial income by doing the things they love &#8211; playing games.&#8221;



GameFi – a portmanteau of gaming and decentralized finance – is a relatively new concept within the Web3 ecosystem designed to provide players with avenues of earning while they play, offering economic incentives including tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).



Xu said it was thanks to major crypto gaming titles such as Axie Infinity – based out of Ho Chi Minh City – that the domestic sector began picking up steam. GameFi&#8217;s daily unique active wallets surpassed 1 million unique users for the first time last year, mainly driven by Axie Infinity, Xu said.



&#8220;We see thousands of blockchain games being developed&nbsp;since&nbsp;the success of Axie,&#8221; the co-founder said. Axie is the world&#8217;s leading blockchain game by total monthly active users.



Ancient8 is attempting to ride the <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/05/04/axie-infinity-sky-mavis-vietnam-crypto-blockchain-startups/#:~:text=Axie%20Infinity%20inspires%20a%20generation,the%20country%20from%20foreign%20investors." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coattails of that success</a> and has established the &#8220;largest blockchain gaming guild&#8221; in the country. It also said it has partnered with more than 25 leading GameFi projects. Those partnerships include Axie Infinity and Phantom Galaxies – an open-world space simulation game published by Animoca Brands.



In the coming months, Ancient8 is expected to launch a &#8220;GameFi identity product&#8221; along with a pair of tokens designed to engage users via a go-to-market strategy for Web3 gaming. The firm added it would use the products to link up with other top blockchain games.



&#8220;Blockchain is revolutionizing the way games are being made by shifting a lot of the power originally held by game publishers to the hands of the game studio and players,&#8221; Xu said. &#8220;Gamers get&nbsp;a new experience where they can earn substantial income by doing the things they love – playing games.&#8221;



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Ancient8

Vietnam’s Ancient8 Gets $6M To Build Infrastructure Software for GameFi

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62a0c1c2c1d5a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Valkyrie seeks to hire developers and sales and distribution professionals to handle demand for crypto ETFs, trusts</li>
 <li>The company is prepping launches of private funds and separately managed accounts and plans to file for more ETFs</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto-focused asset manager Valkyrie Investments has raised roughly $11 million as part of a strategic round that will help the firm hire more people and add to its product lineup.&nbsp;



Despite crypto companies such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinbase-latest-crypto-firm-to-cut-costs-amid-market-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-joins-growing-list-of-crypto-exchanges-cutting-staff-amid-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> revealing plans to slow hiring or make staffing cuts, Valkyrie continues to make hires on a rolling basis, a spokesperson said.



“We are actively hiring both developers and sales and distribution [professionals], both of which we need in order to handle the significant inbound interest in our ETFs and protocol trusts, our hedge funds and our venture fund,” Valkyrie Chief Investment Officer Steven McClurg told Blockworks.



BNY Mellon, which added Valkyrie to its <a href="https://www.bnymellon.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/company-news/bny-mellon-welcomes-the-accelerator-program-class-of-2022-innovation-through-collaboration.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Accelerator Program</a> in April, participated in the funding round. A spokesperson at the company declined to comment on the investment. 



Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Wedbush Financial Services, Clearsky, Zilliqa Capital, C Squared Ventures, Belvedere Strategic Capital and SenaHill Partners.



Nashville-based Valkyrie will also seek to build out its offerings following the fresh funding. It has three ETFs trading in the US with combined assets under management of roughly $30 million, according to ETF.com.&nbsp;



The Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), which became the US’s second ETF to invest primarily in bitcoin futures contracts when it launched last October, holds about 90% of those managed assets. The firm also has a Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF (VBB) and a Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI), which Valkyrie brought to market in December and February, respectively.&nbsp;



Valkyrie is working to offer another bitcoin futures ETF — this one filed under the Securities Act of 1933 — and plans to file for other crypto ETFs soon, McClurg noted. The firm declined to share specifics on potential future products.



“We have a few additional private funds and [separately managed accounts] set to launch, and we are also building out the proprietary technology needed for larger institutional clients, such as fund administration and reporting,” McClurg added.



Valkyrie unveiled <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/valkyrie-launches-its-first-multi-coin-trust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its first multi-coin trust</a> for accredited investors in April, following up that launch by offering its first <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-asset-manager-valkyrie-launches-avalanche-trust-for-accredited-investors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Avalanche-focused investment vehicle</a>. 



The SEC has rejected the company’s spot bitcoin ETF proposals, but the firm, along with others, continue to engage with the regulator about launching such a fund.



“The race to be first to market will not be for the faint of heart, and we embrace this challenge,” Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald told Blockworks in March.



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BNY Mellon

Valkyrie Raises $11M in Push To Offer More Crypto Funds

<div id="highlights-block_6284fcb366613" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures led the round, banking on DoraHacks&#8217; capacity to facilitate funding in Web3 startups</li>
 <li>Total funding to date for Dora has reached almost $50 million since its inception in late 2020</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto Web3 developer incentive platform DoraHacks has raised tens of millions of dollars in fresh funding from some of the industry&#8217;s largest investment arms.



According to a press release on Wednesday, the platform has picked up $20 million in a Series B1 funding round aiming to accelerate its offerings, including its decentralized autonomous organization, Dora Grant DAO, which launched earlier this year.



The investment, led by FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, will also go toward Dora&#8217;s Infinite Fund which aims to pour money into &#8220;disruptive ideas&#8221; in fintech. The fund is slated for sometime later in the year via a non-fungible token (NFT) drop, Dora said.



Circle Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Sky9 Capital, Crypto.com Capital and Amber Group also participated in the round.



The funding follows on the heels of an $8 million strategic round led by Binance Labs last year. The platform also picked up a further $20 million raise for its DAO-as-a-service incubator. Total funding to date for the budding ecosystem has reached nearly $50 million, per the release.



DoraHacks&#8217; platform supports and curates Web3 startups via hackathons – an event for programmers, designers and others to collaborate on projects. The platform said it has raised $25 million worth of grants for more than 2000 startups since its inception, per the release.



More than 40 Web3 ecosystems including the likes of Solana, Polygon and Avalanche have adopted DoraHacks as a &#8220;core partner&#8221; in hackathons and community grant programs, providing access to the global developer community, Dora said.



“DoraHacks is key to advancing the development of the infrastructure for Web3,&#8221; Liberty City Ventures partner Emil Woods said. &#8220;We expect increased engagement with our portfolio companies as the ecosystem grows.&#8221;



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DoraHacks

Web3 Hackathon Incubator DoraHacks Nabs $20M From FTX, Liberty City

<div id="highlights-block_62583d7c49a9d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The reported raise follows an incentive program aiming to develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche</li>
 <li>Previous investors in the Avalanche ecosystem include Andreessen Horowitz, Three Arrows Capital and Polychain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The lead developer of the Avalanche blockchain is reportedly in the midst of a funding round that puts its valuation at $5.25 billion. 



The latest Ava Labs raise, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-14/crypto-startup-ava-labs-is-said-to-raise-at-5-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Bloomberg News</a>, amounts to $350 million. The news organization cited “people familiar with the discussions.” 



A spokesperson for the company did not immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Founded in 2018, Ava Labs had <a href="https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avalanche-ava-monthly-update-may-2019-7a78657217f4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $6 million</a> in February 2019 from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain.



Avalanche <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-closes-230m-token-sale-backed-by-three-arrows-capital-polychain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed a $230 million token sale</a> led by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain in September. The company said at the time that it would use the proceeds to accelerate the growth of DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other new asset classes on its blockchain. 



The Avalanche Foundation also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-foundations-multiverse-incentive-program-to-invest-up-to-290m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed an incentive program</a> last month that would put up to four million AVAX tokens — currently worth about $312 million — toward a program called Avalanche Multiverse. The initiative aims to grow its “subnet” functionality, which helps develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche.



Currently, Avalanche’s C-chain, which is its Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contract chain, carries the bulk of its transaction volume. 



Along with other layer-1 protocols like Solana, Cardano and Polkadot, Avalanche has sought to solve for scale, speed and cost issues on the Ethereum blockchain. It touts itself as the fastest smart contracts platform, as measured by time-to-finality, and as having the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol.&nbsp;



Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, had a price of about $78 Thursday morning and a market capitalization of roughly $21 billion, according to data compiled by Blockworks.&nbsp;



Ava Labs President John Wu <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/das-2021-ava-labs-wu-says-economies-will-depend-on-next-gen-layer-1s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit</a> last September that the new wave of Ethereum competitors would be the home of economies. He noted at the time that “you don’t have an economy unless transactions are easily done and affordably done.” 



Ethereum is working to merge its mainnet with the Beacon chain proof-of-stake system later this year, in part to increase its energy efficiency. At a market cap of $367 billion and a DeFi total value locked of about $117 billion, it remains considerably larger than all other EVM-compatible smart contract platforms combined.



The report of Ava Labs’ funding round comes as crypto companies have reeled in huge valuations in recent months.&nbsp;



FTX’s company valuation <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-valued-at-32-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rose to $32 billion</a> after its funding round in January.  



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-aims-to-raise-400m-to-bring-valuation-over-7b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> and <a href="https://consensys.net/blog/press-release/consensys-raises-450m-series-d-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConsenSys</a> completed funding rounds in November and March, respectively, valuing the businesses at roughly $7 billion.



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Ava Labs

Ava Labs Reportedly Hits $5.25B Valuation With New Raise

<div id="highlights-block_6230c5dec273b" class="highlights">
 
</div>


<div id="highlights-block_6230c60fc273c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>MetaMask eclipsed 30 million monthly active users in January</li>
 <li>Proceeds from the round, led by ParaFi Capital, will be converted to ether</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



ConsenSys has raised $450 million — valuing the company at $7 billion — as it now looks to onboard more talent and continue accelerating Web3 adoption.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The blockchain infrastructure company’s Series D funding round follows a raise of $200 million in November, which valued ConsenSys at $3.2 billion.



Its main product, Metamask, eclipsed 30 million monthly active users in January — a 42% increase in fourth months.



A major redesign of MetaMask is slated for later this year, according to the company. ConsenSys also plans to roll out a plug-in extensibility system to allow integration with various blockchain protocols and account security schemes.



Johnna Powell, global co-head of ConsenSys NFTs, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/onboarding-the-next-wave-of-metamask-users-through-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Blockworks last month</a> that the company is seeking to bring the next tens of millions of users into Metamask through NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It is also exploring collateralization, fractionalization, swapping, borrowing and lending in the segment.



ParaFi Capital led the latest fundraising effort. Participants of the Series C round that invested in ConsenSys again were Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management and United Talent Agency’s venture fund. New investors included Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures and C Ventures.



“As a long-time power user of ConsenSys’ products and services, ParaFi is thrilled to be an investor and thought partner as the company continues to operate at the forefront of decentralized infrastructure,” ParaFi Capital founder Ben Forman said in a statement.



The proceeds from the round will be converted to ether to rebalance the ratio of ETH to US dollar-equivalents in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy, according to the company.



“Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native to contribute ETH as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift,” ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin said in a statement.



The funding will also go toward hiring more than 600 new employees, the company announced. With nearly 700 full-time employees, <a href="https://consensys.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConsenSys</a> plans to have more than 1,000 by the end of 2022.



A ConsenSys spokesperson noted in February that nearly half of ConsenSys’s 366 hires over the past six months were coming from the Web2 ecosystem, while about one-third joined the company from a different industry.



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Ben Forman

ConsenSys Plans To ‘Redesign’ MetaMask and Hire 600 New Employees

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_622a36a4be63d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“Since StarkNet was launched, interest from devs and investors has gone through the roof,” an anonymous company source told Blockworks</li>
 <li>In an interview with Blockworks in November 2021, one of the four co-founders said that they “didn’t need the money” from its Series C, but the funds helped them grow their operations even faster</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Ethereum layer-2 developer StarkWare is raising at least $100 million, for a valuation of $6 billion, Israeli newspaper Calacalist <a href="https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjm00s7wbq">reported</a>.



StarkWare declined to comment Thursday. However, a company source, who spoke under anonymity to Blockworks, said they couldn’t confirm it, “but it sounds entirely plausible.”



“Since StarkNet was launched, interest from devs and investors has gone through the roof,” the source said.



The new valuation is triple its previous $2 billion valuation from just four months ago, when the company raised <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/starkware-valuation-hits-2b-after-50m-series-c-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It seems to be the idea of letting anyone build Web3 that&#8217;s caught the imagination of venture capital,” the source said. “So, while the numbers cited are high, if I arrive at work and hear it&#8217;s accurate, I won&#8217;t be surprised.”</blockquote>



StarkWare is a four-year-old startup — created by four co-founders Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Uri Kolodny and Michael Riabzev — that offers blockchain scaling services through “STARK” proofs, which are Ethereum-based products using rollups technology invented by Ben-Sasson and Riabzev.



The StarkWare-based solutions include its two products — StarkEx, a permissioned validity rollup, and StarkNet, a permissionless decentralized zero-knowledge rollup  — which aim to increase speed and reduce the cost of Ethereum gas fees.



The largest dApp on StarkEx, by total-value-locked (TVL), is decentralized derivatives exchange <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=dydx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dydx</a>, with roughly $1 billion in TVL, <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/dydx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DeFi Llama</a>.



Two weeks ago, StarkNet began deploying decentralized apps, or dApps, with zero-knowledge rollup technology to help alleviate the blockchain’s scaling problem.&nbsp;



In an interview with Blockworks in November 2021, Kolodny said StarkNet “didn’t need the money” from the Series C, but the funds helped them grow their operations faster.



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Alessandro Chiesa

Ethereum Scaling Startup Reportedly Triples Valuation in 4 Months

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_6228e88a70751" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The launch is one of a growing number from hedge fund managers focused on digital assets looking to increase their exposures to crypto private markets</li>
 <li>The firm invested in Animoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox metaverse, when the company was valued at $1 billion</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A hedge fund firm specializing in DeFi is launching its first venture capital fund on the heels of investor demand following a series of winning private bets.



<a href="https://www.coralcapital.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coral DeFi</a> held a first close of $5 million for its Coral Ventures LP Fund 1 In January, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The vehicle plans to raise about $50 million overall, with a second close penciled in for April or May.



Patrick Horsman, Coral’s managing partner, confirmed the fundraise to Blockworks. The firm has been investing in startups via its flagship hedge fund, Coral DeFi Ltd Fund, typically deploying less than 10% of the vehicle’s capital in side pockets — a type of account hedge funds use to segregate riskier bets from more liquid investments. The fund made about 15 such investments last year, gaining 43.7% in the process, with a net exposure of just 25%.&nbsp;



The firm took a stake in Animoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox metaverse, when the company had a $1 billion valuation. It most recently hit a $5.4 billion valuation after a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-sandbox-parent-animoca-brands-raises-359m-to-build-out-open-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$359 million fundraising haul</a>.



Crypto hedge fund managers — who specialize in trading liquid tokens — have increasingly proven unable to resist soaring valuations in private markets, despite the fact that such investments require a different skill set and vetting prowess. Others, including Travis Kling’s Ikigai Asset Management, have <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-hedge-fund-ikigai-tests-venture-capital-waters-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised venture funds</a> after previous side pocket bets paid off.&nbsp;



Coral has just under $100 million of assets under management overall, predominantly from high-net worth individuals and family offices. The firm, though, is starting to get traction from larger institutions, including <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sovereign-wealth-fund-vet-eyes-150m-for-crypto-fund-of-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fund of funds</a>, which are on the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sources-fidelity-vet-launching-crypto-fund-of-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rise</a> this year.



The venture fund plans to key in on pre-seed, seed and Series A investments, with an emphasis on play-to-earn gaming and infrastructure plays across the DeFi (decentralized finance) space. Horsman is planning to hire a portfolio manager specifically for the vehicle.&nbsp;



“We want to be early, writing smaller checks to a decent amount of deals and getting in on the ground floor,” Horsman said.



Since starting to trade in January, the fund has invested in startups including Atmos, Boto,&nbsp;



DeVol, Flow Carbon, Near, Smart Valor and Tea. The strategy is a “little more focused on the token side,” Horsman said, but still does a “fair amount of equity deals.”



Partly because of the heavy token focus, the fund offers more liquidity than most pure-play venture vehicles. It has a three-year investment period, plus two optional one-year extensions.



In addition to cash, the fund accepts the stablecoin USDC for limited partner contributions, with Horsman saying about one-third of inflows are now in stablecoins.



While most venture funds draw down — or call — investor capital as deals pop up, Coral gives limited partners the option to park their funds in Coral High Yield Ltd Fund, a high-yield, market-neutral stablecoin strategy that targets returns of 15% to 20% a year.



The fund, which offers monthly liquidity, is also being marketed to other crypto venture capital firms looking for yield while they hunt for investments.&nbsp;



Coral also raised a few million dollars in December for a 5% general-partner stake in the firm, Horsman said, which is earmarked to make additional hires and build out internal risk controls.



The firm brought on Chase Mayeux as head operations in January. Horsman, an alternative investing veteran, previously founded Verified Organic, a seed-to-sale, Ethereum-based tracking mechanism for organic food. He has also been a managing partner at Cashmere Capital and Octopus Investments.&nbsp;



Horsman was sued for fraud and misrepresentation stemming from a role at a former company. He calls the legal action “basically a shakedown” that has no merit and has recently counter-sued for defamation, among other allegations.



David Namdar, who co-founded Galaxy Digital, SolidX Partners and NFT.com, is also a general partner at Coral. Thomas McLaughlin, formerly the CEO of crypto miner Blockstake and a veteran of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the firm’s chief investment officer.



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Chase Mayeux

DeFi Hedge Fund, Fresh off Profitable Private Bets, Launches First Venture Vehicle

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_621eabc4c01c6" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures and ParaFi</li>
 <li>Parcl has 15 full-time employees but hopes to expand its staff to 25 by the end of the year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Parcl, a startup that digitizes real estate investments via the Solana blockchain, raised a $4.1 million seed round Tuesday, earmarked for marketing and staffing.



The New York-based company has 15 full-time employees but aims to expand its staff to 25 by year-end, co-founder and CEO Trevor Bacon told Blockworks.



“It&#8217;s a tough hiring environment, but we&#8217;ve managed with our team and vision to have been able to attract some of the best talent,” Bacon said.



Parcl’s mission is to give everyone a chance to invest in real estate, a market which has historically high barriers to entry, but consistent returns.



Parcl’s protocol allows users to invest in a digital square foot of real-live property via its price index, which replicates the price per square foot in various neighborhoods. The platform has transaction fees, but no minimum investment requirement.



“[For example], Tribeca will have a price per square foot of like $2,000, and we&#8217;ll call that a ‘parcl,’” he added. “‘A parcl’ is one square foot of any given neighborhood, and the blockchain is what allows you to create those assets and trade them. It’s basically a way to gain exposure to real estate.”



Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures, ParaFi, Shima Capital, Slow Ventures, Tribe Capital, Not Boring Capital and FJ Labs.



Parcl will launch a testnet, along with the release and sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) collection in the coming weeks. All of the proceeds, Bacon said, will go toward buying someone a house.



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Coinbase Ventures

Blockchain Real Estate Startup Raises Round To Expand Digitized Property Investments

<div id="highlights-block_620e829c7741a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The fifty-year-old company has $80 billion in assets under management</li>
 <li>The firm&#8217;s involvement in crypto started back in 2015 when it began investing in the space through both equity and tokens</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Sequoia Capital is launching a new $500 million to $600 million sub-fund focused primarily on liquid tokens and digital assets, a spokesperson confirmed with Blockworks on Thursday.



The capital plans to complement its other crypto investments in seed, venture, growth and expansion funds. It is also one of the first sub-funds to be launched as part of its new Sequoia Capital Fund, an open-ended liquid portfolio, the company said.



The founders have asked the firm to take a more active role in managing its tokens through staking, providing liquidity, participating in governance and trading through portfolio companies’ platforms. This fund will give it the ability to engage further, the company shared.



“Our goal with this fund is to participate more actively in protocols, better support token-only projects, and learn by doing ourselves,” Sequoia Capital’s Michelle Bailhe, Shaun Maguire and Alfred Lin wrote on the Sequoia <a href="https://sequoia.medium.com/a-block-step-forward-14274f4a0e65" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a>.



The firm&#8217;s involvement in crypto started back in 2015 when it began investing in the space through both equity and tokens. In 2017, Sequoia invested through its main funds, while in 2021, 20% of its new investments throughout the US and Europe were in crypto.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We believe that crypto is more than a sector; it’s a fundamental shift that will impact all sectors,” Sequoia noted.&nbsp;</blockquote>



In general, Sequoia Capital invests in a number of sectors aside from crypto, such as technology, financial services, energy and healthcare. The fifty-year-old company has $80 billion in assets under management, according to PitchBook data.



This scale of investment is not uncommon for the firm. Sequoia Capital’s India branch <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-closes-450m-raise-led-by-sequoia-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">led a $450 million</a> private token sale in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=polygon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a> — a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform — earlier this month. Separately, in January, Sequoia and Paradigm invested <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sequoia-and-paradigm-invest-1-15b-in-citadel-securities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1.15 billion</a> in Citadel Securities.



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