HashKey Capital · 316

Fixed-rate lending agreement TermMax will conduct TGE on August 25

Comparatively, fixed-rate lending and revolving strategy protocol TermMax announced that the Token Generation Event (TGE) for its governance and utility token TMX is scheduled to be held on August 25, 2026. According to official reports, TermMax currently has more than 90 million US dollars in TVL, more than 1.5 million registered wallets, and more than 90,000 daily active users. It has been deployed on 10 EVM chains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Base, and Berachain, and integrated with Morpho, Aave, Venus, Pendle, etc. The total number of tokens is fixed at 1 billion, and rewards obtained through XP, AP, and MP will be claimed after TGE. Details of distribution, lock-up, and staking will be announced in advance. Previously. TermMax is supported by Cumberland DRW, Decima Fund, HashKey Capital, Longling Capital, and MZ Web3 Fund.

8d ago

The 2026 H1 Crypto VC Report Unveiled What Cruel Signals

Source: Tiger Research Authors: Henry Kim, Ryan Yoon Compiled and edited by: BitPushNews Crypto market capital is undergoing a paradigm shift — funding is being concentrated at an accelerated pace on specific tracks and leading companies. Tiger Research and RootData jointly analyzed a total of 9,416 investment transaction data from 2018 to the first half of 2026 to outline the changing trajectory of this capital pattern. The core finding was that in the first half of 2026, capital inflows to the crypto market reached $13.3 billion, almost the same as the full year of 2024's $13.2 billion. However, funding rounds plummeted to just 435, a sharp drop of 78% from the 2022 peak of 1,978. The market is rapidly dividing: on one end there are a few large crypto-native venture capital firms that focus on leading investors, and on the other end are subsidiary investment departments that rely on exchange liquidity. Mid-sized funds, which are sandwiched in the middle and lack a clear competitive advantage, are being pushed out of the table at a speed visible to the naked eye. Game circuit funding rounds plummeted from 141 in 2024 to just 5 in the first half of 2026, a drop of 96%. The payments and stablecoin circuit, as well as capital inflows to the centralized exchange (CEX) circuit, are almost all driven by mergers and acquisitions. Traditional financial institutions participated in 54.5% of all investment transactions recorded in the first half of 2026. 1. 2021 Market Review: Using speed and diversification as a strategy The core strategy of the 2021 crypto investment market is to pursue speed and diversification of portfolios. In that year, investors executed a total of 1,750 transactions (including seed rounds), and competition for speed was so intense that AU21 Capital alone was able to close more than 13 transactions per month on average. Investment decisions at the time were reduced to extremely simple standards, such as token generation event (TGE) timelines and tokenomics (tokenomics, a structure that governs how project tokens are issued and distributed). Since issuing tokens alone can generate returns without any actual product development, venture investors largely pursue a “spray and pray” (spray and pray) strategy, spreading funds across hundreds of projects, regardless of their high or low valuations. Speed of execution was placed above strict due diligence. A new round of financing can close almost instantly, and venture capital firms that miss one round tend to chase the next project with a higher valuation. This fear of misunderstanding (FOMO) continues to circulate throughout the industry. Most VCs running this strategy failed to survive the subsequent bear market, and those that survived fundamentally changed their investment methods. 2. Which VCs have survived: The industry landscape has changed 2.1. Lead investment: The first indicator we need to examine in the past and present is “lead investment” (Lead Investment), which is the funding round that major venture capital companies have historically dominated. Some venture capital firms are still active in leading investment deals, while others have completely disappeared or only recently emerged. Since leading a round of financing has always required the reputation and capital scale only large venture capitalists have, companies that have led major rounds in the past have shown strong resilience, and most of them are still in the top ten today. 2.2. The differentiation of surviving venture capital, judging from the latest data from 2024 to 2026, crypto-native venture capital firms and established large institutions are concentrating their resources on leading investment transactions and participating more deeply in a single transaction. They changed their business model: reducing the overall number of transactions while raising the due diligence threshold, and actively seeking board seats and more influence over project governance. However, the cumulative number of regular round participation (round participation) outside of leading investment transactions showed a very different picture. Among the top 15 venture capital firms that participated from 2024 to the first half of 2026, venture capital institutions under the exchange account for a large share. Exchanges are far more willing to participate in financing rounds than lead investors. Among them, Coinbase Ventures ranked first with 140 transactions, OKX Ventures ranked second with 94, and yZi Labs ranked third with 92. Note: yZi Labs...

38d agoWendy#CEX #DEX #VC #invests #depths #financing

Data: Total investment and financing in the crypto market reached $898 million in June, leading in infrastructure and DeFi

Comparative news, according to RootData's financing statistics, the crypto primary market disclosed a total of 42 investment, financing and mergers and acquisitions in June 2026. The total amount raised was about US$898 million, down 60.5% from the previous month and 67.3% from the previous year. There are also 15 mergers and acquisitions, which have disclosed an amount of approximately US$305 million. Overall, capital flows continue to be concentrated in infrastructure, DeFi and CeFi, institutional-level capital markets, and on-chain credit, derivatives transactions, and stablecoin payment/settlement as the main incremental direction. DeFi was the most active circuit this month, completing 18 investment, financing and mergers and acquisitions, with a disclosure amount of approximately US$330 million. Morpho raised $175 million, making it the biggest funding project on the DeFi circuit this month; Fomo completed $75 million Series B funding, showing that on-chain transactions and consumer-grade portals are still attractive. There were 13 incidents on the infrastructure circuit, with a disclosure amount of about US$453 million, ranking first. Projects such as Digital Asset, Ornn, and Trace Finance each received financial support for institutional-level capital markets, AI computing power financialization, and stablecoin settlement infrastructure. CeFi completed a total of 12 events. Although the amount of non-M&A financing was small, M&A and institutional transaction services performed well. SBI Holdings acquired the Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for about US$289 million, making it the biggest merger and acquisition event of this month; SignalPlus completed the US$50 million B1 round and EDGE Markets completed the US$29.2 million Series A round, indicating that institutional transactions, derivatives, and compliant financial services are still the key direction of capital allocation. The top five projects of this month totaled about US$944 million, accounting for about 76% of the total disclosed scale. The top three projects in terms of financing and mergers and acquisitions are: Institutional blockchain infrastructure company Digital Asset (US$355 million), Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank (US$289 million, merger and acquisition), and on-chain credit agreement Morpho (US$175 million). In terms of investment institutions, Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, Paradigm, Animoca Brands, HashKey Capital, etc. remain active, and head capitals prefer to bet on projects with clear institutional clients, compliance paths, and actual usage scenarios.

52d ago

Money for a racetrack: AI and RWA are sucking out new money

Article: KarenZ, Foresight News Original Title: 2026 Crypto VC Changes: Fundraising Thresholds Narrow, LPs Only Look at Repayments, New Money Flows to AI and RWA. If you only look at leading funds, Crypto VC in the first half of 2026 is not cold. According to Foresight News, of the new Crypto VC funds announced to be completed or launched in the first half of 2026, only a16z Crypto and Haun Ventures reached a scale of $1 billion or more: the former launched a $2.2 billion Crypto Fund 5, and the latter raised $1 billion in new funds. Of the announced funds that reached more than $500 million and less than $1 billion, there was only Dragonfly's $650 million Fund IV. Further down are Variant's $222 million Variant 4, and ParaFi's new $125 million fund for stablecoins, tokenization, and institutional on-chain finance. Almost every month, Crypto VCs get hundreds of millions of dollars in new ammunition. The market isn't that cold. But another set of data gives a colder side. According to the Galaxy Research report, Crypto VC raised only 8 new funds in Q1 2026, totaling about US$1.1 billion, the lowest number of new funds in a single quarter since the third quarter of 2020. Compared with Q1 in 2023, the number of new funds raised in Q1 2026 decreased by about 43%, the total amount raised was halved, the average fund size decreased by about 41%, and the median size also fell from $62.5 million to $55 million. Source: Galaxy Research This also makes the previous capital raising more meaningful: the market has not completely cooled down, but the popularity is mainly concentrated on a small number of funds. The emergence of large funds will amplify the sense of recovery. However, the number of new funds, average size, and the pace of annual fund-raising all remind that the overall fund-raising platform of Crypto VC is already much thinner than in the previous round. Combined with public fundraising data and our interviews with IOSG Ventures founding partner Jocy Lin, HashKey Capital CEO Deng Chao, and Starbase founder Vivian, a clear signal is emerging: 2026 is not an overall recovery, but a narrower recovery. The fundraising window is still open, but the doors have narrowed. Those that can be squeezed in are usually GPs with long-term results, exit cases, clear strategies, and cross-cycle capabilities; projects that can get money are also increasingly focused on projects such as stablecoins, RWA, institutional financial infrastructure, and Crypto x AI, which are easier to verify and are closer to real financial infrastructure. From changes in LP issues, to the narrowing of racetrack preferences, to the restructuring of investment play styles and exit paths, Crypto VC is entering a new, more demanding cycle. LP requirements have changed: AUM is not enough to watch. DPI becomes a hard currency from 2021 to the first half of 2022. The primary market is like a high-speed financing machine. Funds are raising capital, projects are being financed, ecological funds are subsidizing, and exchanges and market makers are undertaking liquidity. Crypto VCs at the time had a default consensus: as long as the industry beta continues to expand, early investments can always be caught by the next round of liquidity. But now, that default consensus is no longer valid. IOSG Ventures founding partner Jocy Lin summarized this change as a shift from “narrative driven” to “DPI driven.” He believes, “In past narrative-driven cycles, the gap between head and waist funds was not fully widened; however, in the DPI-driven present, funds that can actually exit and clearly explain the exit path will take more LP funds, and the remaining money is being contested among a large number of middle and lower back funds.” Deng Chao emphasized, “Crypto is highly cyclical, so funds must not only rely on a single path to exit; they must have the ability to allocate across cycles. In terms of fund allocation, HashKey Capital places more emphasis on portfolio structures: which are long-term infrastructure, which are cash-flow projects, which are early-stage projects with high volatility but high upward trends, and which can pass through level 2 or flow...

65d agoLuxurytracy

Options trading platform SignalPlus raised $50 million in Series B1, led by HashKey Capital

Comparatively, according to PRNewsWire, SignalPlus, an institutional-grade digital asset options and derivatives trading infrastructure provider, completed the $50 million B1 round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of 500 million US dollars. The funding round was led by HashKey Capital, followed by BlockBooster and AppWorks, with Goldman Sachs acting as sole financial advisor. According to reports, SignalPlus is headquartered in Hong Kong and is committed to building an institutional-grade derivatives trading infrastructure for the integrated capital market. Its platform provides hedge funds, market makers, proprietary trading teams and asset managers with professional options analysis, real-time risk management and trade execution tools, covering digital assets and traditional financial markets.

81d ago

Data: Total crypto market funding in May reached $2.21 billion, driven by infrastructure and DeFi

Comparatively, according to statistics from the tokenized asset data platform RootData, the crypto primary market disclosed a total financing amount of about US$2.21 billion in May 2026, and a total of 62 financing incidents were disclosed. Judging from the distribution of the financing circuit, market capital still mainly flows to DeFi, infrastructure, and CeFi, while institutions' attention to transactions, payments, compliance, and institutional-level services continues to increase. DeFi became the most active track this month, with 26 financings completed, covering stablecoins, liquidity agreements, on-chain transactions and revenue strategies; the infrastructure circuit ranked second with 18 financings, with capital continuously betting on underlying technology, AI+Crypto, middleware, and on-chain scaling capabilities; CeFi completed a total of 12 financings. Although the number of incidents was not as high as DeFi, it showed outstanding performance in terms of financing amount, and large strategic financing increased markedly. The top three projects in terms of financing amount are: Korea Exchange parent company Dunamu ($667 million), payment infrastructure project Reap ($600 million, merger and acquisition), and institutional stablecoin infrastructure Arc ($222 million). In addition, projects such as prediction market platform Kalshi ($200 million) and on-chain compliance company Elliptic ($120 million) have also received significant financing. The top five financing projects of this month totaled more than US$1.9 billion, accounting for about 85% of the total amount of disclosed financing. A number of high-volume financings in May focused on exchanges, payment infrastructure, predictive markets, and on-chain compliance analysis. In particular, projects related to trading and institutional services such as Gemini, Coincheck, SignalPlus, and Variational received financing, indicating that the market is laying out the next stage of incremental capital and institutional needs. In terms of investment institutions, Kraken, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly, and HashKey Capital continue to be active, and head capitalists prefer to bet on projects with clear business models and institutional service capabilities. Overall, the financing market in May showed a trend of gradually returning from a high narrative drive to infrastructure, financial services, and real demand scenarios.

82d ago

HashKey Capital completes $40 million strategic investment in options trading platform SignalPlus

In comparison, HashKey Capital's fund announced the completion of a $40 million strategic investment in options trading platform SignalPlus, including HashKey Group's $20 million cash contribution. According to reports, SignalPlus focuses on options trading systems, automated market making and structured product solutions. It is a leading institutional crypto derivatives platform in Asia, and occupies an important share in the mainstream options market. This round of investment is a continuous increase from HashKey Capital since the SignalPlus seed funding round. The two sides will deepen strategic cooperation to jointly promote product innovation and global institutional business expansion.

92d ago

AI Settlement Layer AEON Closes $8 Million Pre-Seed Funding Round Led by YZi Labs

Comparatively, according to The Block, the AI settlement layer AEON completed a $8 million pre-seed round of financing, led by YZi Labs, with IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund, and Oak Grove Ventures participating. The structure and post-investment valuation of this round of financing were not disclosed. AEON plans to use this funding round to develop a settlement layer designed to support interaction between AI agents. AEON launched its first AI payment product in May, enabling AI agents to connect more than 50 million physical merchants around the world. Additionally, AEON has partnered with BNB Chain to launch x402 Facilitator, a product natively built on the BNB Chain infrastructure to provide service providers within the BNB ecosystem with verifiable transactions, on-chain settlements, and immutable receipts.

96d ago#financing

Solana Company completed a targeted increase of approximately $8 million, led by Mirae Asset

According to the news, SOL treasury company Solana Company completed a targeted increase and issued 3,076,922 Class A common shares at a price of 2.6 US dollars per share, which is expected to raise about 8 million US dollars (net capital of about 7.9 million US dollars), led by Mirae Asset, and the participation of HashKey Capital. The company plans to use the funds raised to increase SOL and daily operations. Furthermore, the company signed a put option agreement with the subscribing party, which stipulates that when specific conditions are triggered, the subscriber has the right to request the company to repurchase the shares at the original subscription price plus an annualized 7% internal rate of return.

117d ago

Former BlackRock Executive Joseph Chalom: Over 95% of stablecoins are denominated in US dollars, and Asian regulators should not let the payment trajectory be dominated by the US dollar

Comparing the news, it was reported live that HashKey Capital CEO Deng Chao and Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom attended the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival conversation to discuss “From Finance to Strategy: How Listed Companies Use Digital Assets as the Basis for Layouts”. Chalom worked at BlackRock for 20 years and began leading BlackRock's blockchain and digital assets team six years ago, during which time he launched Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, raising a total of about $100 billion at its peak. He said he chose Ethereum over Bitcoin to establish a digital asset vault because Ethereum is a “native productive asset” and can obtain nearly 3% of profit through staking, while Bitcoin can only be held and waited to rise in value. Sharplink has already been listed on the NASDAQ. Since launching the digital asset vault strategy in June last year, it has raised billions of dollars to buy Ethereum. Currently, it holds about 770,000 ETH, and has earned investors about 17,000 ETH and more than 35 million dollars in rewards through staking. In terms of industry trends, he pointed out that Ethereum is dominating the three major use cases: stablecoins (over 60% occur on Ethereum), asset tokenization, and decentralized finance. He specifically warned that currently more than 95% of stablecoins are denominated in US dollars. If stablecoins become payment tracks for trillions of transactions in the AI smart economy, Asian regulators should not let them be dominated by the US dollar and US Treasury bonds, which will trigger a geographical competition to promote local stablecoin legislation. Referring to the market cycle, he said that the crypto market has experienced a significant retracement since October last year, and short-term prices cannot be predicted, but in the long run, the current risk-reward ratio is at its best level in a long time. He emphasized that digital asset vaults are not passive investments; Ethereum is a highly volatile asset, and volatility is a characteristic of capital appreciation rather than a defect.

124d ago