Near-Zero Fees: Why It Matters

USDH: A Stablecoin Decided by Validators

The Contenders: Paxos, Frax, Agora/MoonPay, and Stripe

Community Pushback Against Stripe

Permissionless Token Creation with Staking & Slashing

Market Impact and Ecosystem Metrics

Key Takeaways

Hyperliquid

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Hyperliquid is reshaping DeFi trading with near-zero spot fees, a validator-led stablecoin vote, and permissionless token creation. The protocol’s push positions it closer to centralized exchanges in liquidity and governance scale.

Paxos

Frax

MoonPay

Stripe

Hyperliquid Launch USDH

BankTech Ventures

Connecticut Innovations

SpringTime Ventures

Coinbax

Fordefi

United States of America

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a prominent venture capital firm recognized for its strategic investments in innovative and high-growth technology companies. Founded in 2000 by Chris Schaepe, Barry Eggers, Ravi Mhatre, and Peter Nieh, Lightspeed has played a pivotal role in shaping the success stories of numerous startups across various sectors.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Electric Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on investments in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related projects and companies. Founded by Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer, Electric Capital is known for its active involvement in the cryptocurrency space and its support for innovative blockchain technologies.

Electric Capital

Jump Crypto, a division of the Jump Trading Group, is a global leader in Web3 infrastructure development and investment.

Jump Crypto

Singapore

Defiance Capital is a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) focused cryptoasset fund that combines fundamental research with an activist investment approach.

DeFiance Capital

Nima Capital is a single-family office global approach to identifying first mover companies disrupting large industries around the world.

Nima Capital

Alchemy provides a set of web3 development tools for easily building and scaling a decentralized application.

Alchemy

Hong Kong

Alameda Research is a quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm that provides liquidity in cryptocurrency and digital assets markets.

Alameda Research

Castle Island Ventures is a venture capital firm

Castle Island Ventures

Combine Capital

Framework Ventures is a cutting-edge venture capital firm deeply immersed in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain technology. Founded by Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer, Framework Ventures stands out as a key player in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital assets and blockchain-based financial innovations.

Framework Ventures

Coinbase Ventures is the venture capital arm of Coinbase, one of the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Coinbase Ventures is focused on investing in early-stage companies and projects in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. It provides funding, resources, and support to startups and entrepreneurs working on innovative blockchain and crypto-related technologies and applications.

Coinbase Ventures

Valor is an investment firm that focuses on cross-border financial and investment opportunities. The firm operates across two investment strategies Growth Equity and Venture Capital. It was founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, United States.

Valor Capital Group

Norte Ventures

Edward Wible

Crown

Paradigm is a cryptocurrency-focused investment firm and venture capital company. It was founded by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, both of whom have significant experience in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. Paradigm is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is considered a prominent player in the digital asset and blockchain investment space.

Paradigm

Circle Ventures focuses on proprietary capital investments in the technology sector.

Circle Ventures

Tradeweb

Virtu Financial

DRW Venture Capital, an arm of principal trading firm DRW, invests primarily in financial and enterprise technology. Many of our portfolio companies benefit from our engagement beyond capital: as a client, as a liquidity provider, through our review of new products, and through our deep industry expertise.

As a firm with no outside investors, wehave a flexible mandate to deploy capital and often tap into our core business to help companies grow. We’re powered by the people, technology and ideas of DRW, and those we invest in may leverage it all. DRW has diversified business expertise and deep networks in trading and technology, real estate investment, cryptocurrencies and product development — a unique advantage.

DRW Venture Capital

Citadel Securities

BNP Paribas Private Equity

DTCC

Canton

Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.

Goldman Sachs

IBM is an information technology and consulting firm that provides computer hardware, software, infrastructure, and hosting services.

Salesforce Ventures invests in the next gen of enterprise tech to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways.

Salesforce Ventures

United Kingdom

Mouro Capital

CME Ventures is the strategic investment arm of CME Group focused on managing a portfolio of external minority equity investments

CME Ventures

Accenture Ventures

J.P. Morgan

Deutsche Borse

ABN AMRO

Citi Ventures

ASX Limited

Blackstone

Samsung Ventures

Eldridge

7RIDGE

Nasdaq

iCapital

Accelerate Progress in the world. See what it’s like to be part of our company, culture and to understand the impact we make.

S&P Global

BNY Global

Digital Asset (Canton Network)

Galaxy is a digital asset and blockchain leader helping institutions, startups, and qualified individuals shape a changing economy.

Galaxy

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, specializing in investments in science and technology companies.

Founders Fund

Mirana Ventures is a leading global investment fund that provides long-term capital and strategic partnerships to visionary founders and fund managers in the Web3 space.

Mirana Ventures

We offer investors intelligently designed investment strategies that take advantage of targeted market opportunities.

VanEck

Monerium

LayerZero is an omnichain interoperability protocol that unites decentralized applications across disparate blockchains.

LayerZero Network

Boku

Payoneer

Ubyx

Variant is an early-stage fund investing in web3. They believe the next generation of the internet will transform users into owners. They back mission-aligned founders at the earliest possible stage

Variant

Accomplice is a seed-led venture capital firm that invests in technology startup companies.

Accomplice

PayPal Ventures invests in companies at the forefront of innovation in fintech, payments, commerce enablement, artificial intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrency, and regulatory and cyber technology.

PayPal Ventures

Reciprocal Ventures is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on FinTech.

Reciprocal Ventures

RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers early-stage funding to software, internet, and communications companies

RRE Ventures

Solana Foundation is to build, support, and grow the Solana network and its community while driving mass adoption for blockchain.

Solana Foundation

TrueX

Hack VC is a web3 venture capital firm. Hack VC partners with online and offline hackers who are building the future of the internet.

Hack VC

Aptos

Membrane Finance

ParaFi Capital is an alternative investment firm focused on blockchain and decentralized finance markets.

ParaFi Capital

BlackRock is a global investment company that provides a range of services to institutions, financial intermediaries, foundations, and individual investors.

BlackRock

Circle is a financial technology firm that utilizes stablecoins for payments and e-commerce.

Circle

Hamilton Lane

Securitize

Blockchain Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in investments in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2013 by Bart Stephens and Brad Stephens, and it's headquartered in San Francisco, California. Blockchain Capital is one of the earliest and most well-known venture capital firms dedicated exclusively to the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

Blockchain Capital

Blockchain.com Ventures is a venture fund anchored and supported by Blockchain.com & Lightspeed Venture Partners

Blockchain.com Ventures

China

Fenbushi Capital is the first and most active blockchain-focused venture capital firm in Asia

Fenbushi Capital

Chainfund Capital is a Global FinTech Fund that invests in the next generation of financial technology.

Chainfund Capital

Xpring is a Ripple initiative that builds infrastructure

Xpring

OK Blockchain Capital provides fully-integrated blockchain services for extraordinary projects.

OK Blockchain Capital

Kenetic is a proprietary trading and VC investment firm focused on digital assets and blockchain related companies.

Kenetic Capital

Sony Innovation Fund

Australia

Managing early-stage private equity and digital assets.

FJ Syndicates

Japan

Nomura

MUFG Bank

Santander InnoVentures is Banco Santander's $200m corporate venture arm. We invest in fintech startups, globally, across all stages, and help create meaningful, strategic relationships between our portfolio companies and Santander Group.

Santander InnoVentures

Ripple

Global Brain Corporation is a venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed/early to pre-IPO startups.

Global Brain Corporation

Argentina

NXTP Ventures

Spice VC

Spain

IDC Ventures

Borderless Capital is a Blockchain VC firm and a modern financial institution investing capital and co-building financial products with our portfolio companies that accelerates access, bootstraps adoption, and creates value globally through the Algorand Borderless Economy.

Borderless Capital

AVA is a next-generation blockchain platform with revolutionary scalability, decentralization, security, and flexibility.

Ava Labs

Morgan Stanley Tactical Value

Mantle

ARK Invest pays close attention to thematic investments and invests exclusively in breakthrough innovations.

ARK Invest

Village Global is a network-native, early-stage VC firm with ~$500M AUM, chaired by Reid Hoffman, and backed by tech’s best.

Village Global

Robot Ventures primarily invests in projects and companies related to decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and the broader Web 3.0 ecosystem. They seek to identify promising early-stage projects that are building innovative solutions in these areas.

Robot Ventures

Malaysia

Waikit Lau is the Founder of RemoteHQ. He Founded and grew 2 startups to successful exits, one acquired for $86M. Helped take the company public. 17+ years of experience in Technology and Finance, across product, marketing, and sales functions

Waikit Lau

Ribbit Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies.

Ribbit Capital

Ben Davenport

Charlie Songhurst

Geometry DAO

Ashwin Ramachandran

Axiom

Castle Capital is a research driven advisory venture firm, actively participating in raises and providing support to projects.

Castle Capital

Charles Cascarilla

Stillmark

John Pfeffer

Alpen Labs

Credibly Neutral

Mike Neuder

Rob Hadick

Marat Kichikov

Nathan McCauley is the co-founder and CEO of Anchorage.

Nathan McCauley

Hasu

Cayman Islands

cyber•Fund is committed to partnering with founders at every stage, from inception to growth and beyond. cyber•Fund’s mission is to accelerate the transition to an open cyber economy by supporting entrepreneurs innovating at the intersection of blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, and related technologies.

cyber Fund

DBA is a New York-based crypto investment firm.

			Stage	Investors
Coinbax	$4.20 M	~$42.00 M	Seed Round	+1	--	Blockchain Service	Dec 22, 2025
Fordefi	$100.00 M	~$1.00 B	M&A			Wallet	Nov 25, 2025
Crown	$8.10 M	~$81.00 M	Seed Round	+3		Finance	Oct 14, 2025
CC Canton	$135.00 M	~$1.35 B	Strategic Round	+5		Blockchain	Jun 24, 2025
Digital Asset (Canton Network)	$135.00 M	~$1.35 B	Strategic Round	+5	--	Blockchain Service	Jun 24, 2025
Ubyx	$10.00 M	~$100.00 M	Seed Round	+7		Finance	Jun 17, 2025
PYUSD TrueX	$11.00 M	~$110.00 M	Series A	+4	--	CEX	May 20, 2025
Membrane Finance	--	--	M&A			Finance	Nov 19, 2024
PYUSD TrueX	$9.00 M	~$90.00 M	Seed Round	+4	--	CEX	Sep 18, 2024
Securitize	$47.00 M	~$470.00 M	Strategic Round	+3		Finance	May 1, 2024
Alpen Labs	$10.60 M	~$106.00 M	Seed Round	+11		Infrastructure	Apr 10, 2024
Fordefi	$10.00 M	~$100.00 M	Funding Round			Wallet	Feb 13, 2024
Fin (Prev. TipLink)	$6.00 M	~$60.00 M	Seed Round	+7		Blockchain Service	Feb 2023
Doppel	$5.00 M	~$50.00 M	Seed Round	+11		Blockchain Service	May 2022
APT Aptos	$200.00 M	~$2.00 B	Strategic Round	+9		Blockchain	Mar 15, 2022
ESP Espresso Systems	$32.00 M	~$320.00 M	Seed Round	+10		Infrastructure	Mar 7, 2022

Paxos

About Paxos

Investments Allocation

Fundraising Rounds