IDG Capital · 64

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

Circle Q1's revenue of $694 million fell short of expectations, but EPS exceeded expectations, and MARA Q1 sold 20,880 BTC with a net loss of $1.3 billion

Comparative news, according to BBX data, yesterday's crypto concept stock earnings season came to an end. Core data from the stablecoin circuit and mining company circuit was revealed simultaneously. The core developments are as follows: Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: $CRCL) released the Q1 2026 financial report through the BusinessWire official announcement on May 11: Total revenue and reserve revenue of $694 million (+20% YoY), below analysts' consensus estimate of about $715 million, a gap of about $20.75 million; GAAP EPS $0.21, exceeding expectations of $0.03 (consensus $0.18); adjusted EBITDA of $151 million (+24% YoY), profit margin 53%; net profit (continuing operation) of $55 million (-15% YoY). USDC's quarter-end circulation volume was $77 billion (+28% year over year), and on-chain transaction volume reached $21.5 trillion (+263% year over year); reserve interest income was $653 million (+17% year over year); reserve yield was 3.5% (down 66 basis points year over year, reflecting lower SOFR); the 2026 guidance remained unchanged throughout the year. In addition, Circle also revealed that ARC Token completed a $222 million private pre-sale, and the fully diluted network was valued at $3 billion. Investors covered a16z crypto, Apollo, ARK Invest, BlackRock, General Catalyst, Haun Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange, IDG Capital, Janus Henderson, Agencies such as Standard Chartered Ventures. MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: $MARA) released its Q1 2026 financial report through GlobeNewsWire's official announcement on May 11: Revenue of $174.6 billion (-18% YoY, below consensus of about $182.7 billion); net loss of $1.3 billion (-$3.31 per share, below the agreed expected range of -$2.20 to -$2.34), of which approximately $1 billion came from the decline in the fair value of digital assets Cash book losses; the company mined 2,247 BTC during the Q1 period and sold 20,880 BTC during the same period; BTC holdings fell to 35,303 units (about $2.4 billion) as of March 31; computing power increased 33% year over year to 72.2 EH/s; repaid approximately 30% of unmatured convertible bonds (face value over $1 billion); combined cash and BTC balance of $2.9 billion.

102d ago

Digital financial infrastructure PhotonPay completes Series B funding of tens of millions of dollars, led by IDG Capital

Comparatively, AI-driven digital finance and payment infrastructure platform PhotonPay PhotonPay PhotonPay has completed Series B financing of tens of millions of dollars, led by IDG Capital, GL Ventures (GL Ventures), Enlight Capital, Lightspeed Faction, and Shoplazza. This round of funding will be used to deepen the deployment of global payment networks, upgrade the underlying technical architecture, enhance risk management capabilities, and accelerate global business scaling. PhotonPay plans to launch products such as balance management and flexible credit in stages starting in 2026 with Hong Kong as the first stop, and simultaneously deploy blockchain-driven payment infrastructure.

225d ago

Hey guys, are you ready to work for the post-00s?

Author: Liam, Shenchao TechFlow Original title: Middle-schoolers should get used to reporting jobs after 00. What were you doing when you were in your early 20s? Are you studying hard at the library for postgraduate studies, or are you staying up late in the lab to catch up with your report? Are you changing your resume at a coffee shop and looking forward to an internship at a major factory, or are you being pushed by your parents to take the editor exam and pursue a “stable” life? In the eyes of most people, 20-year-olds should be humble and confused, follow experiences and arrangements, and get used to bowing to 40-year-olds. But on the other side, some post-00s are rewriting the script: some dropped out of school in their dorm room and valued the company at $2 billion in two years; others built the world's largest meme launch platform, valued at $4 billion, with revenue exceeding $700 million; and some just graduated and became marketing leaders at top exchanges. They didn't get through “ten years of messy work,” but when they were young and energetic, they went straight to the center of the stage. This is no accident of genius; AI and Web3 are reshaping young people's relationships with power, wealth, and voice. In the old order, qualifications were a moat, and age was a threshold, but in the new world, these are rapidly failing. The wave of technology has once again given young people an opportunity they don't have to wait. AI and Crypto changed their lives. This is the golden age of the post-00s. Brendan Foody, the 2 billion unicorn born in his dorm room, is 21 years old, but he's no longer worried about finding an internship. AI recruitment company Mercor has a valuation of more than $2 billion in two years. Customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, and Founders Fund, with annual revenue of $75 million. And Foody is the company's CEO. In 2021, while most sophomores were still worrying about professional courses, three 19-year-olds, Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha, were planning a “revolution” in their Harvard and Georgetown dorms. Their acquaintance was quite dramatic. They met on the high school debate team, and the trio teamed up to participate in the US policy debate competition and win the championship. Coincidentally, the subject of their debate at the time was about job market injustices, particularly employment discrimination in developing countries. Perhaps due to fate, this debate became a source of inspiration for their future ventures. At first, they only wanted a small side job, hoping to quickly learn how to develop software and then help startups, but when they hired remote programmers from India, they discovered a huge opportunity: the global talent distribution is very uneven, and there are huge arbitrage opportunities. For example, India and other places have many outstanding technical talents with low salary requirements but are buried, while Silicon Valley talent is concentrated but competitive and expensive. They soon realised that what really mattered to startups was people rather than software. At the same time, ChatGPT came out, and a new idea began to emerge: use a big language model to simulate senior interviewers, automatically evaluate talents, and help employers break geographical restrictions and find the most suitable talent. In 2023, all three dropped out of school, and Mercor was officially founded. In the early days, they were simply recruitment agents, manually helping AI startups connect remote engineers in India, but within a few months, they generated $1 million in revenue and $80,000 in profit. Soon, Mercor evolved into a fully integrated, AI-driven recruitment service. After uploading a resume, job seekers are required to conduct a 20-minute video interview with an AI system. The system creates a profile based on this and automatically matches suitable positions. Businesses only need to submit job descriptions, and AI can recommend the best candidates. In 2024, all three founders were selected for the Thiel Fellowship, a funding program set up by legendary Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel for young people who dropped out of school to start a business. They also became the first group startup team in history, not only providing them with financial support, but more importantly, opening the door to Silicon Valley's top investment circles. The next financing process was like being on a rocket. September 2023, $3.6 million seed round; in early 2024, $32 million round A, valued at $250 million; in February 2025, $100 million round B, valued at $2 billion in less than two years, the valuation doubled eightfold. What's even more surprising is that in order to grab Mercor's A round shot...

367d ago深潮TechFlow#After 00 #AI #MEME #entrepreneurial #cryptocurrency

Transak closes $16 million strategic financing co-led by Tether and IDG Capital

Comparatively, Web3 payment infrastructure company Transak raised $16 million in strategic financing, which was co-led by IDG Capital and Tether, with Primal Capital, 1kx, Protein Capital, and Fuel Ventures participating. Transak plans to use this funding to expand its stablecoin payments stack and enter new markets.

375d ago

The profit of 156 million supports a market capitalization of 26 billion dollars: who is madly betting on Circle's dream of a “stablecoin empire”?

Jessy, Golden Finance Original title: Reality and Bubbles Under the 100x PE Carnival: Who's Gambling on the Future of Circle? After Circle went public, the price-earnings ratio once soared to more than 150 times. Although Circle currently has a market capitalization of 26 billion US dollars, according to the disclosure in the prospectus, its net profit in 2024 is only 156 million US dollars. Generally speaking, if a company belongs to a high-growth industry, it will have a high price-earnings ratio. The high price-earnings ratio reflects investors' expectations that the company's net profit will increase dramatically in the future, and the sharp rise in Circle's price-earnings ratio is precisely because investors have high expectations for Circle's future development. The online price has skyrocketed, and the price-earnings ratio of Circle is 100 times higher. Why are so many people buying it? Who's buying them all? Who is buying is first and foremost a traditional financial giant. BlackRock is the main manager of USDC's reserve assets. According to Circle's official website, the Circle Reserve Fund has a size of 53.3 billion US dollars. This part of the capital is mainly managed by BlackRock, which accounts for about 90% of its reserves. BlackRock is not only deeply involved in Circle's ecosystem, but also directly subscribes to about 10% of the shares in the IPO. Additionally, according to Circle's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Blackstone Group also plans to acquire approximately 10% of the shares in the IPO. According to Coindesk reports, on the first day of Circle's listing, ARK Invest, a subsidiary of Sister Mu Toujie, also bought nearly 4.5 million shares. Traditional financial giants such as BlackRock may not be Circle's short-term profits, but rather the potential of stablecoins as future financial core infrastructure. Prior to the IPO, several institutions had already become investors in Circle, such as Goldman Sachs, Accel, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, Baidu, Everbright Holdings, CICC Jiazi, and Yixin. These agencies first began betting on Circle in 2016. Precisely because these strategic investors have a strong resource network and market influence, these large institutional investors believe that Circle can use the strength of these shareholders to obtain support in terms of capital, technology, and market channels, thereby enhancing its comprehensive strength and development prospects. Of course, retail investors are also actively buying Circle. At home, discussions on platforms such as Douyin show that some investors regard Circle as a weather vane for “crypto compliance,” and even compare it to traditional payment giants such as Visa. On the first day of its listing, the trading volume reached 47,109 million shares, or about US$3,941 million. Why buy it? The sharp rise in price-earnings ratio already means that investors are not paying for Circle's present; they are betting more on Circle's future. The first is the scarce premium of the compliance moat. Circle's investment in regulatory compliance is an advantage that is difficult for competitors to replicate, and the “GENIUS Act” previously passed by the US establishes a detailed regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers. The provisions of this law are in line with Circle's operating philosophy and practices, and also provide a more stable legal environment for Circle to carry out related business. More expectations come from the future. Circle is the leader of compliant stablecoins. As the US continues to bet on the crypto circuit, Circle may have great potential in RWA, DeFi, etc. However, people's crazy purchases also have a certain relationship with changes in the macro environment. As people bet on the US interest rate cut in September and tariff risks subside, overall, high-risk assets are regaining market attention. Circle chose to go public at a time when market investment sentiment was high. At this time, the recovery in the price of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin also boosted the market's attention and confidence in related industries, and the liquidity of US stocks was also recovering. At this time, investors are in high demand for Circle's shares, which is driving the stock price to rise rapidly. However, excessive PE also indicates a potential risk, namely “whether there is a bubble that is too high”. Too high PE already indicates “too high expectations and relatively low profits.” There are still risks. First, Circle is facing greater competitive pressure. Currently, USDT still accounts for nearly 70% of the share, and new players such as PayPal's PyUSD rely on a strong user base to enter the market. Stricter regulations may also prompt large banks to directly issue stablecoins. Circle wants to be unique on the track of compliant stablecoins, which is quite difficult. But...

438d agoAlvin Liu#Circle #Crypto listing topics #stablecoins

From the “first stablecoin share” to the capital game: Circle's new chapter on Wall Street, how are retail investors coping?

Author: Nancy, PanNews Original title: “The First Stablecoin Stock” Circle's Capital Game: Old Shareholders Cash Out, Wall Street Enters, What Should Retail Investors Do? At a critical moment when the US GENIUS stablecoin bill enters the final game stage, Circle also simultaneously pressed the fast forward button for the IPO sprint in an attempt to ring the NASDAQ bell as the “first stablecoin share”. The first trading day will begin on June 5. At the point where policy signals and market bets intersect, four years after Circle hit the listing, old shareholders were finally able to use the IPO window to cash out a large percentage and obtain profits several times or even tens of times. At the same time, Circle also used the policy trend to raise the issuance scale and pricing range to attract endorsements from Wall Street giants such as BlackRock and J.P. Morgan Chase. The underlying logic behind this includes not only gambling on the prospects for formalizing US compliant stablecoins, but also a re-evaluation of Circle's global expansion capability and USDC ecological dominance. It took more than 11 years for investment institutions to exit. Wall Street's “takeover” subscription. Against the backdrop of the 2022 SPAC listing plan running aground, the USDC stablecoin market share turbulent, and increasingly strict global regulations, Circle finally restarted the IPO process, opening up a new channel for crypto finance companies to traditional capital markets. According to Circle's initial prospectus submitted to the US SEC, it plans to issue 24 million Class A common shares, of which the company will issue 9.6 million shares, and the remaining 14.4 million shares will be sold by existing shareholders. The planned pricing range is 24 to 26 US dollars per share. This second-tier investor share ratio far exceeds the company's first-tier issuance structure. It is extremely rare in technology company IPOs. It usually only appears when founders and early institutions desire to partially withdraw during the listing phase or try to reduce the dilution impact of issuance. Soon after, however, Circle raised the IPO issuance scale and price range: the new plan was to issue 32 million shares, of which the company's own issuance ratio was drastically raised to 24 million shares, the sales scale of existing shareholders was reduced to 8 million shares, and the pricing range was raised to 27 to 28 US dollars per share. At a high level, the transaction will raise up to US$896 million, bringing the company's valuation to nearly US$6.2 billion. If potential dilution factors such as employee shareholding plans, restricted stocks (RSUs), and warrants are included, the valuation will be approximately US$7.2 billion after full dilution. Notably, not only Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville are on the list of shareholders participating in this share sale, but also well-known venture capital firms, including Accel, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, and Oak Investment Partners. The average share ownership ratio of these institutions is between 8% and 10%. Judging from the financing period according to PanNews statistics, the investment period of these institutions can be traced back to 2013, which took more than 11 years. Compared to the unsuccessful SPAC deal in 2022 (valued at $9 billion at the time), the current IPO instead returned with a slightly lower valuation, but the structure was more stable and the market feedback was more positive. According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, Circle's subscription order for this IPO has exceeded the number of shares that can be issued by several times. For example, technology investment company ARK Investment Management (founded by Cathie Wood) has stated its intention to subscribe for up to 150 million US dollars of Circle shares; at the same time, global asset management giant BlackRock is also planning to buy about 10% of the IPO shares. Based on the pricing range, the investment amount is about 86.4 million to 89.6 million US dollars. Pricing strategies or reserved growth potential. Growth and concerns are also key points where the stablecoin circuit accelerates the evolution of compliance and the crypto industry moves towards mainstream adoption. Circle's submission of an IPO prospectus is not only a capital market sprint, but also an “arbitrage” of the US regulatory cycle. Once successfully listed, Circle will become the first stablecoin issuer to enter the US stock market, and its symbolic significance is no less than when Coinbase was listed back then. With strong profitability, solid compliance advantages, broad market expansion, and endorsements from traditional financial giants such as BlackRock, Circle has built a narrative framework for high-quality assets. On the one hand, according to the prospectus, Circle's total revenue in 2024 reached US$1,676 billion, compared to 1 in 2023...

444d agoLuxurytracy#Circle #Coinbase #IPOs #Crypto listing topics #Wall Street #stablecoins

An inventory of the Trump family's money-making machines

By Max Abelson and Annie Massa, Bloomberg; Compiled by AiMan @金色财经在唐纳德 · In Trump's opinion, he is the greatest businessman running for the White House. In 2015, he told an Iowa reporter: “I am the most successful candidate of all time. I own a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney's.” This may be an exaggeration, but it's not true: 10 years on, no modern US president has made his family so rich while in the White House. Since the early days of his re-election campaign, his net worth has more than doubled to around $5.4 billion. During this time, the Trump family's fame brought him more than $10 billion in real estate projects, multi-billion dollar valuations for its loss-making social media companies, and more than $500 million in sales from cryptocurrency investments alone. Additionally, he earned millions of dollars by holding shares in financial services, gun, and drone parts companies. Members of his family have also held a range of positions at the company — Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., alone has taken on at least seven new positions as advisors or executives. Compared to the hustle and bustle of his presidency, Trump's business empire's strategy was consistent and clear: betraying the family's fame. In any other era, a president's act of collecting money on such a large scale may be the focus of the year, yet political turmoil has taken up most of the attention. In his first few months in office, Trump imposed tariffs and removed some tariffs, blamed Ukraine for the Russian attack, imprisoned immigrants in foreign jails, and hinted that he would be re-elected for a third term. This is clearly not permitted by the Constitution. Furthermore, he drastically cut the government's manpower and budget, while shrinking the agencies and offices that oversee its public companies, cryptocurrency projects, and even conflicts of interest. Trump relaxed the previous administration's restrictions on overseas transactions. (He also left billionaire Elon Musk, who led government spending cuts, to manage his own conflicts of interest). This week, he plans to have dinner with the main holders of the newly launched Memecoin. What makes this era even more remarkable is that Trump was once on the verge of bankruptcy. His first term ended with riots at the Capitol, followed by a $454 million civil fraud judgment and a conviction for falsifying business records. Trump has appealed these two matters. Today, his assets are managed by his eldest son. Despite rumours of a recession, the family's wealth is greater than ever. A White House spokesperson said, “President Trump is the most transparent president in all aspects of history, including his finances. President Trump has made huge sacrifices to serve his country by handing over his multi-billion dollar empire. President Trump has disclosed his finances through his annual financial disclosure report and he will continue to do so.” Trump Jr. said he should not change his career because of his father's power. In a statement, he said, “I am an ordinary citizen and have been a commercial and serial investor since I became an adult. It's ridiculous to expect me to give up my usual practice of supporting five kids just because my dad was elected president.” The question below takes stock of the relationships, crypto projects, and licensing agreements the Trump family has used since the 2024 election campaign began, thus achieving an unprecedented rise in wealth. 1. The real estate president's term was different from his first term. At the time, his plan to resolve the conflict of interest depended on placing his assets in a trust overseen by his two oldest sons and agreeing not to carry out any new overseas transactions. This time, the restricted area is a new deal with another government. This opens the door to other opportunities. These real estate developments usually involve licensing the use of Trump-branded luxury hotels and residences, including the three Middle Eastern countries the president visited this month. Two projects link the Trump Group to government agencies in Oman and Qatar. Trump International Oman (Trump International Oman) and Trump Family Relationship: Trump Group Partners: Dar Global and Omran Group Project Value: $500 Million Launched: Muscat, Oman in June 2024. The Trump Group has already profitted from a deal involving the Omani government. The development included hotels, golf courses, and residences, and enabled the president's family to establish commercial partnerships with US allies. Trump International Oman claims to be an “ultimate power move (ultimate power move),” built for “investment winners.” The project was led by Saudi real estate giant Dar Al...

457d agoAlvin Liu#World Liberty Financial #Trump #Trump Media and Technology Group

Kaia announces investment from venture capital, led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx

In comparison, the Kaia Foundation published an article on X announcing that it has received investment from top crypto venture capital firms, led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx, Galaxy, The Spartan Group, IDG Capital, Mirana Ventures, SNZ Holding, Comma3 Ventures, Caladan, Lingfeng Capital, Waterdrip Capital Also, institutions such as MEXC Ventures participated in the investment. The specific investment institutions have not yet been disclosed. Kaia is a merger of the Klaytn and Finschia blockchains originally developed by Kakao and LINE respectively. It has the lowest transaction latency in EVM L1, has a block time of 1 second and instant finality, enables a smooth user experience and opens up possibilities for use cases that require near-real-time response.

479d ago

Modular AI network AegisAI completes pre-seed funding round led by IDG Capital

Comparatively, AegisAI announced the completion of the pre-seed round of financing, led by IDG Capital, with the participation of Flow Traders and NGC Capital. AegisAI is a modular AI-specific L1 that empowers smart contract chains such as Taifang and Solana to run AI applications.

520d ago