Follow the Money: $2.4 Billion in Investments, Major Round for Kalshi, and High Attention to AI — October 2026

In October 2026, the cryptocurrency sector maintained investment activity, with a total capital raised amounting to approximately $2.4 billion, according to Incrypted. The majority of the funding came from venture and corporate deals. At the same time, significant contributions were made to prediction market platforms, companies with Bitcoin reserves, and providers of computing infrastructure.

During the reporting period, the editorial team recorded 59 investment deals, 38 of which disclosed funding amounts. In other cases, financial terms were not disclosed.

The highest activity was observed in the segments of blockchain services, centralized finance (CeFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), and infrastructure solutions. Investors showed particular interest in projects related to artificial intelligence.

Infographic by Incrypted.

The largest deal in October was a $1 billion investment in Kalshi. The prediction market platform raised this amount in a Series G round co-led by Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital. More details about the deal can be found in the investment rounds section of the last week of the month.

In second place is Strive, a company specializing in building corporate reserves in Bitcoin. It raised $630 million through the issuance of Series SATS preferred shares and secured an additional $208 million through the exercise of previously issued warrants. The total funding from the two transactions amounted to $838 million. The placement was organized by Barclays Capital and Cantor Fitzgerald. The company uses Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset and develops investment products based on it. The capital is primarily intended for further accumulation of the asset and general corporate purposes.

In third place is HIVE Digital Technologies, which operates in the fields of Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing. It secured debt financing of $129 million through its subsidiary BUZZ Alpha Cloud. More details about the deal can be read in the same section mentioned above.

Investment Distribution by Categories

In October 2026, venture deals accounted for 57.1% of the total capital raised in the Web3 market, or about $1.37 billion. Corporate financing accounted for 42.7% ($1.02 billion), while the share of over-the-counter transactions did not exceed 1%.

At the same time, the editorial team recorded 11 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals, but their financial terms were not disclosed. This distribution reflects the significant role of corporate mechanisms in raising funds alongside traditional venture rounds.

Against this backdrop, the token sale sector appeared much more modest. Despite over 13 campaigns being conducted, their total result was only about $12 million. This indicates a substantial gap between institutional financing and capital raised through token sales.

Unlike the venture segment, where large rounds supported overall dynamics, the public offering market demonstrated restrained activity.

Token Sales

In October 2026, the token sale sector experienced a lull. During the reporting period, over 13 campaigns took place, through which projects collectively raised over $12 million. At the same time, the majority of funds were concentrated in the two largest placements — predict.fun ($5.8 million) and 1win Token ($3.9 million). Excluding these deals, the total funding for the remaining projects would be around $3 million.

The decline in activity is also indicated by the fact that the top five token sales of the month included placements of $600,000 and $20,000. Thus, despite some successful campaigns, the sector was characterized by low activity and high concentration of raised capital.

Infographic by Incrypted.

Learn about current and upcoming token sales through the relevant section on the website, where all users can access information about active and future asset sale campaigns. Our team also maintains a dedicated Telegram channel and tracks the most relevant events.

Monthly Dynamics

From October 1 to 17, the Incrypted editorial team recorded a total of 34 investment deals, of which details were disclosed for 23. In particular, the total amount of funding raised was $492.5 million. The venture sector dominated, but the advantage was slight. Incrypted Infographic.

From October 17 to 24, the number of deals was 11, with details disclosed for six. The total amount of capital raised reached $691 million. Over 95% of this amount was attributed to corporate financing.

In the last week of the month, from October 24 to 31, we recorded 14 investment deals. The total amount of capital raised for those with disclosed details was $1.21 billion. In particular, these projects include:

• $1 billion --- Kalshi. The prediction market platform closed a Series G funding round co-led by Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital. It also included participation from Baillie Gifford, Stripes, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Layer Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, CapitalG, Hudson River Trading, and Balyasny Asset Management. Following the deal, the company's valuation reached $40 billion. The capital will be directed towards creating new exchange products, expanding available markets, and developing trading infrastructure.

• $40 million --- PhotonPay. The payment company PhotonPay raised funding within a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital. Among the investors were also SBI Group, IDG Capital, GL Ventures, and Lightspeed Faction. The company is developing financial infrastructure based on stablecoins, combining digital assets with traditional payment systems for international settlements. The funds raised will be used to enhance multi-currency wallets, expand the payment card issuance program, develop local settlement systems, and create infrastructure for financial operations involving AI agents.

• $16 million --- Luxor. The company specializing in infrastructure for Bitcoin mining and trading computational power raised strategic investments led by CMT Digital. The deal included equipment manufacturers Canaan and MicroBT, as well as Halo, Steelhead, and private investors. The round included both primary and secondary investments. Luxor provides mining pools, equipment sales services, energy solutions, and tools for trading computational resources. The capital raised will be directed towards developing the Luxor AI direction, expanding cloud infrastructure, and creating financial products for the computational power market.

• $8 million --- Predicate. The developer of regulatory compliance solutions in the field of digital assets completed a Series A funding round led by Blockchain Capital. It was joined by Paxos, 1kx, and Tribe Capital. With the capital raised, total investments in the project reached $15 million. Predicate creates infrastructure that allows issuers of stablecoins and tokenized assets to implement checks for sanctions restrictions, user identification, and other requirements directly in smart contract operations.

• $7.2 million --- Cancore. The trading platform based on the Canton blockchain has raised investments in a seed round. Participants included Paper Ventures, dao5, ArkStream Capital, X Ventures, MH Ventures, and Proof of Talk. There was no formal lead investor, but the largest shares of funding were provided by Paper Ventures and dao5. The deal was conducted through SAFT agreements at a fully diluted valuation of the future token CNRX at $60 million. The project enables trading of tokenized assets between Canton and public blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain. The funds are planned to be directed towards expanding the engineering team, developing security, AI infrastructure, and engaging with institutional clients.

• $5 million --- Spicenet. The project developing brokerage infrastructure for DeFi has secured funding in a Series A round led by dao5. Babylon and Astrarizon also participated. The total amount raised by the company reached $8 million. Spicenet integrates decentralized applications, users, and liquidity from various blockchains, allowing trading operations without manual switching between networks. The investments will be used to launch the Spice Edge trading platform and the SPICE token, as well as to provide initial liquidity for new ecosystem products.

• $4.87 million --- Mochatrade. The trading platform focused on the Indian market closed its seed funding round led by CoinFund. It also included participation from Coinbase Ventures and Zero Knowledge Ventures partner Niki Montana. Previously, the project received pre-seed investments from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund, bringing the total funding amount to $5.56 million. Mochatrade allows users to fund accounts in Indian rupees and trade perpetual futures on shares of American companies, including Nvidia, Tesla, and Apple. The funds are planned to be directed towards improving trading infrastructure, customer acquisition, and expanding the range of available tools.

• $4 million --- Birch Hill. The lending platform using stablecoins conducted a seed funding round led by Multicoin Capital. It was joined by ParaFi Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and Nascent. With this new deal, the total amount raised by the project reached $6.5 million. Birch Hill specializes in combining the traditional U.S. credit market with on-chain liquidity, providing institutional investors access to credit instruments backed by real assets. The company intends to develop infrastructure for financing enterprises in real estate, energy, and agriculture.

Some projects did not disclose the amount of funding, namely:

The on-chain lending platform Ibis completed a pre-seed funding round led by FalconX. Participants include Anchorage Digital, Innovating Capital, and representatives from several cryptocurrency companies. At the same time, the project received a credit line from FalconX for $250 million to finance participants in the digital asset market. Ibis is developing solutions for structuring loans, tokenizing credit instruments, risk management, and servicing institutional borrowers. In the future, the platform intends to expand its activities into segments of computational infrastructure, robotics, and venture capital. The size of the investment in the project’s capital and the specific purpose of the funds from the pre-seed round are not disclosed.

The developer of infrastructure for cryptocurrency payments, Fun, received investments from IOSG Ventures. The size of the investments, the company's valuation, and the terms of the deal are not disclosed. Fun creates technological solutions for account funding, withdrawals, and payments between fiat currencies and digital assets. Its infrastructure is used by Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave. The platform integrates payment channels, crypto wallets, and blockchain networks through a single application programming interface. The specific purpose of the new capital has not been disclosed.

The perpetual futures trading platform Trade[XYZ] has received strategic investments from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), operator of the New York Stock Exchange. The project offers 24/7 access to derivatives on stocks, indices, commodities, and currencies through the Hyperliquid blockchain. The companies intend to create a regulated U.S. market for perpetual contracts, where ICE will be the exclusive operator, pending necessary approvals. The size of the investment and other financial terms have not been disclosed.

The tokenized financial assets infrastructure operator Marketnode has attracted strategic investments from the Stellar Development Foundation. Supported by Euroclear, HSBC, SGX Group, and Temasek, the company provides institutional clients with solutions for issuing, distributing, and servicing tokenized funds, credit, and structured products. The funds will be directed towards expanding access to such instruments through the Stellar network in the Asia-Pacific region and developing connections between asset managers, issuers, and investors. The amount of the investment has not been disclosed.

In addition to venture rounds last week, we also recorded two deals in the mergers and acquisitions and corporate financing categories.

In particular, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange BTCBOX has come under the control of payment company RedotPay as a result of an acquisition deal. The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. BTCBOX has been operating since 2014 and received registration as a cryptocurrency exchange operator in Japan in 2017. RedotPay intends to use the acquired platform to provide services in the local market in accordance with national regulatory requirements. The buyer also plans to provide the exchange with financial and technological support.

HIVE Digital Technologies, which operates in the fields of bitcoin mining and high-performance computing, has secured debt financing through its subsidiary BUZZ Alpha Cloud for $129 million. The credit line was provided by an unnamed institutional lender at a fixed interest rate of 9% per annum. The funds are intended for the purchase of NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 server systems and related equipment, which will be used to fulfill a three-year contract with AI company Cohere. The deal will enable HIVE to expand its cloud computing infrastructure and increase capacity to serve corporate clients.

What Was on Investors' Radar?

In October 2026, the highest investment activity was observed in the blockchain services segment, which accounted for 17 deals. This was followed by centralized finance (CeFi) with 13 operations and decentralized finance (DeFi) with 12.

Thus, these three areas remained the most sought after among investors. There was less interest in infrastructure projects and companies forming digital asset treasuries, as well as other niche areas of Web3.
Infographic Incrypted.

Top Investors

The list of the most active investors during the reporting period is as follows:
Infographic Incrypted.

Artificial Intelligence

In October 2026, this sector continued to be in demand among investors. The AI boom is just gaining momentum, fueled by expectations of the largest players --- Anthropic and OpenAI --- entering the stock market.
Infographic Incrypted.

Among the largest deals, we can highlight:

• $15.9 billion --- DeepSeek. The Chinese artificial intelligence model developer has closed its second funding round with participation from Tencent, CATL, GigaDevice, Meituan, Geely, Midea, NetEase, Boyu Capital, CPE, Legend Capital, and IDG Capital. In total, over 15 investors joined the deal. The company's valuation exceeded 600 billion yuan. DeepSeek develops large language models, including open-source ones. The capital will enable the expansion of computational infrastructure and continue the training of new models.

• $5 billion --- Waymo. The developer of autonomous vehicles has secured debt financing. The leading creditors included PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street, joined by Capital Group, Loomis Sayles, T. Rowe Price, Apollo, Blue Owl, Diameter Capital Partners, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management & Research Company, HPS Investment Partners, and Oaktree. Goldman Sachs acted as the deal organizer. The company, owned by Alphabet, uses artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicle control and provides self-driving taxi services. The funds will be directed towards strengthening its financial position and expanding its transportation geography.

• $2 billion --- Axiom Solutions International. The Flex division specializing in artificial intelligence infrastructure has agreed to secure strategic investments from General Catalyst, Koch Equity Development, and other participants. The deal involves the sale of convertible preferred shares of Series A at an initial enterprise valuation of $37.5 billion. Axiom develops solutions for power supply and cooling of data centers. The funds are planned to be used for financing the acquisition of EPC Power, repaying interim obligations, and general corporate purposes. Flex intends to spin off the division into an independent public company in the first quarter of 2027.

• $1.5 billion --- Tenstorrent. The developer of processors for artificial intelligence has completed a Series E round led by Trace Capital and Innovation X. Among the investors are ARK Invest, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, Tether Investments, and Sandisk. The company's valuation reached $6.2 billion. Tenstorrent produces AI accelerators and server systems, as well as creates processor architectures based on RISC-V. The funding will be directed towards expanding production, deploying Galaxy servers, and developing licensed technologies.

• $1 billion --- Flapping Airplanes. The research AI startup raised funds in a Series A round co-led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital. Participation also included Sequoia Capital, GV, and Kleiner Perkins. Following the deal, the project's valuation reached $6 billion. Founded in 2025, the company develops more efficient ways to train artificial intelligence models, allowing for reduced data and computational resource costs. The capital is planned to be used for team expansion and further research.

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As of October 2026, the amount of capital raised in the Web3 market, according to Incrypted, was approximately $2.4 billion, an increase compared to September's $1.43 billion. The majority of the funding came from venture deals --- 57.1% ($1.37 billion). Corporate raises accounted for 42.7% ($1.02 billion), while over-the-counter operations made up less than 1% of the total volume. At the same time, the editorial team recorded 11 merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, although their financial terms were not disclosed.

The largest transactions of the month demonstrated investor interest in prediction markets, corporate bitcoin reserves, and computational infrastructure. The Kalshi round of $1 billion, two raises by Strive totaling $838 million, and debt financing for HIVE Digital Technologies of $129 million together accounted for about 82% of all capital recorded by Incrypted for October. Such a concentration of funds indicates a significant impact of individual large deals on the overall investment dynamics of the month.

For more details on the September 2026 digest, see below:

Follow the Money: $1.4 billion, activity in the M&A sector, and billions in AI --- September 2026
01.10.2026
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