📊 Crypto Venture Weekly: September 29–October 3, 2025

$312M was raised across 18 projects this week, led by Flying Tulip’s $200M seed round and xMoney’s $21.5M strategic raise. Meanwhile, AlphaTON Capital, Strategy, and VivoPower International allocated a combined $112M into TON, BTC, and XRP treasuries.

Here’s what the top 8 are building 👇

🖱 Flying Tulip ($200M seed, $1B valuation)
Full-stack onchain exchange combining a hybrid AMM and order book model.

🖱 xMoney ($21.5M, Sui Foundation)
European payments company bridging stablecoins with global commerce.

🖱 Lava ($17.5M, Extended Series A)
Platform for bitcoin-backed loans with participation from top fintech angels.

🖱 Ethena ($14M, MEXC Ventures)
DeFi protocol behind USDe, a crypto-native stablecoin backed by delta-hedged collateral.

🖱 KGeN ($13.5M, Jump Crypto, Accel, Prosus Ventures)
Building a Verified Distribution Network across AI, DeFi, gaming, and consumer apps.

🖱 Talus ($10M, Polychain, Foresight, dao5, Inception, Sui Foundation)
Developing infrastructure for AI agents and “Prediction AI.”

🖱 Mesta ($5.5M, Circle Ventures, Paxos, Village Global)
Global fiat and stablecoin payments network connecting banks and crypto rails.

🖱 BaseVol ($6M, Altos Ventures, Neoclassic, Base Ecosystem Fund)
Options trading layer on Base using 0DTE strategies and AI agents.

Investor attention this week centered on hybrid exchanges, AI-integrated infra, and stablecoin payments, while treasury allocations and fund launches underscored rising institutional interest in onchain assets.

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💠 Why tokenization will unfold in stages

The world is moving fast toward tokenization, but real RWA adoption is still far away. Before tokenizing real estate, gold or luxury watches, the market needs a proven foundation, and that begins with Internet Capital Markets (ICM).

➡️ ICMs act as the first testing ground where startups and digital projects are tokenized and opened to retail investors.

➡️ Liquidity is already here, with billions in daily volume, but much of it still goes into short-lived meme projects. Redirecting that capital to productive assets would have a much bigger impact.

➡️ Tokenizing digital companies is easier than physical assets. There are no ownership disputes, insurance issues or complex legal frameworks. These businesses are born online, so they tokenize naturally.

➡️ Early platforms like Believe showed how small rounds can reach multi-million valuations and attract strong retail interest.

➡️ Regulation is still the main barrier, which is why early experiments focus on testing mechanics and building user trust.

Infrastructure grows through experimentation. First come open launchpads where anyone can list, then curated platforms built on reputation and quality. As users gain trust and regulators adapt, the system matures.

Once ICMs refine their model with smooth fundraising, secondary liquidity and investor protection, tokenization of real-world assets will follow quickly.

The turning point will come when one platform becomes too big to ignore, a PumpFun moment for real assets.

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💳 Phantom launches debit card powered by $CASH

Phantom, one of the most popular Solana wallets, has introduced a new debit card directly connected to user wallets, with payments powered by the $CASH stablecoin. Registration for the whitelist is now open.

➡️ The card can be funded using either crypto or regular bank cards
➡️ Instant buying and selling will be available within the app
➡️ Payments will work anywhere Visa is accepted through Google Pay and Apple Pay
➡️ Transfers between accounts will be processed instantly

The Phantom Card operates on $CASH, a fully backed stablecoin pegged to the US dollar and running on Solana.

Crypto payments are slowly becoming a normal part of daily life, and Phantom’s step shows how close DeFi is to merging with traditional finance.

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