Waterdrip Capital · 106

dGrid AI completed a $5 million seed round, with revenue exceeding $23 million in half a year

Comparing news, dGrid AI, a decentralized AI intelligent network, released the latest data: cumulative revenue for the first half of 2026 exceeded 23 million US dollars, and there were more than 15,000 paid subscribers. dGrid also disclosed the completion of a $5 million seed round, with investors including Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, Paramita VC, and Zenith Capital. With $5 million in financing, $23 million in revenue was achieved, showing high capital efficiency. dGrid integrates 200+ mainstream models such as Claude, GPT, Gemini, and MiniMax through a unified AI gateway, and uses a self-developed Proof of Quality (PoQ) mechanism to ensure service quality and transparent pricing, and continues to build an open and verifiable decentralized AI infrastructure. This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

36d agoburnking#financing

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

HolmesAI surpassed 4 million registered users, announced the launch of Coding Agent and entering the pre-TGE stage

Comparatively, according to official sources, the AI agent platform HolmesAI announced that its registered users have officially surpassed 4 million, and simultaneously launched a new product form, Coding Agent. The product aims to expand the application scenario of “digital alienation” from social networking to the field of code and development. Users can generate exclusive coding personas by importing Markdown documents and attaching them to agents to perform development tasks. According to reports, HolmesAI has raised a total of 8 million US dollars. Investors include well-known institutions such as Bitrise Capital, IBG Capital, Generative Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, and CGV Fund, and HashKey Group also participated in early incubation support. Officials said that with the launch of the new product, HolmesAI has officially entered the pre-TGE stage. From now until June 30, the platform will open a free Coding Agent creation benefit and provide a daily call quota of 100,000 tokens. In addition, HolmesAI will continue to launch pre-TGE community incentives such as multiple rounds of airdrops and limited-time benefits in the coming weeks in partnership with Web3 ecosystem partners.

85d ago

dGrid AI Genesis Exceeds $20 Million in Revenue, Accelerates Integration of AI and Crypto Communities

Comparing news, the decentralized AI infrastructure network dGrid AI released the latest data for the Genesis membership program: cumulative revenue exceeded $20 million, paid subscribers exceeded 13,000, and funds were deposited into publicly verifiable BNB Chain Safe multi-signature treasury wallets to ensure transparency and traceability on the chain. According to information, the four core product matrices that dGrid has built are supporting the above growth: AI Gateway's unified API integrates mainstream models such as Claude, GPT, and Gemini to provide as low as 55% discount; AI Arena has over 300,000 participants in the blind evaluation competition platform and produces high-quality manual labeling data; dClaw supports minute-level local AI assistant deployment with long-lasting memory and modular plug-in capabilities; and the decentralized model market will soon be launched to support the tokenization of high-quality assets. The platform simultaneously launched Dori, a model recommendation agent to help developers instantly match the optimal model plan. At the technical level, dGrid uses a self-developed Proof of Quality (PoQ) consensus mechanism to prevent model providers from investing in poor quality models, falsifying data, or hiding calculation costs, and guarantees service quality and pricing transparency at the protocol level. The project has previously received seed funding from Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, Paramita VC, and Zenith Capital.

86d ago

Waterdrip Capital: left-handed BTC right-handed AI computing power — gold and oil in the digital age

Authors: Jademont, Evan Lu, Waterdrip Capital: Reviewing the turbulent 2025, and looking forward to a new round of industrial revolution in AI: computing power becomes the engine of economic operation “In this world, only a few people, like Edwin Drake, can unwittingly start an era that changed human history... His deep underground drill pipe not only touched the black liquid, but also touched the artery of modern industrial civilization.” In 1859, in the mud of Pennsylvania, people gathered around Colonel Edwin Drake (Edwin Drake) to laugh. At that time, the world's lighting still depended on increasingly scarce whale oil, yet Drake was convinced that underground “naphtha” could be mined on a large scale. This was widely regarded as a madman's fantasy at the time. Until the first black liquid spewed out, no one would have imagined that the advent of petroleum would not only replace whale oil as a lighting energy source, but would even become the cornerstone behind human society's seizure of voice in the next 200 years, and also restructured global power and geopolitics for the next 100 years. Human history has also reached a turning point: old wealth depended on trade and shipping, while new wealth was rising with the advent of railways and energy (oil). In 2025, we are in a very similar game. However, this time, what is surging furiously is the computing power flowing in silicon wafers, and this time “gold” is a code engraved on the chain; the “gold” and “oil” of the new era are reshaping our entire consensus on productivity and stored value assets. Looking back at 2025, the market experienced severe shocks that exceeded expectations. Trump's aggressive tariff policy forced the global supply chain to relocate, triggering a huge inflationary rebound; gold historically rose above $4,500 amid geopolitical uncertainty; and the crypto market welcomed the epic benefits of the GENIUS (Genius) Act at the beginning of the year, but experienced bursting pain in early October due to clear leverage. In addition to the hustle and bustle of macroeconomic fluctuations, industry consensus on the field of AI computing power is rapidly fermenting: the total market value of “AI water seller” Nvidia reached a landmark of 5 trillion US dollars in October. Furthermore, the three giants of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have already invested nearly 300 billion US dollars in AI infrastructure during the year. For example, the completion of xAI's million-level GPU cluster by the end of the year indicates computing power. Musk's xAI took less than half a year to build the world's largest AI data center in Memphis, and plans to expand to an impressive scale of 1 million GPUs by the end of the year. The Era of Digital Intelligence: the main theme of the next industrial revolution Ray Dalio (Ray Dalio), founder of the Qiaoshui Foundation, once said, “The market is like a machine. You can understand how it works, but you can never accurately predict its behavior.” Even though the macro environment is random and unpredictable, it is undeniable that AI is still the most important long-term growth channel for the US stock market. In the next decade, AI technology will become the most critical core cog in the market machine; and will continue to influence all aspects of governments, businesses, and individuals. Although the market debate about the “AI bubble” has never stopped, many institutions warn that the AI investment boom is already bubbling: Morgan Stanley research indicates that in 2025, the increase in investment in the AI sector led to a sharp rise in technology stock valuations, and productivity growth was not obvious, and this divergence was also compared to a bubble during the Internet boom in the 90s of the last century. But it's an unavoidable fact: the AI-driven productivity revolution has gradually entered a period of substantial monetization. Judging from investment logic, AI is no longer just a story about tech giants. The efficiency dividends and cost limit optimization it brings are the main driving forces driving profits and productivity improvements for non-tech companies. But the costs behind this also correspond to extremely harsh employment rate swaps. There is no doubt that AI will replace the labor force, especially the white-collar class. The most direct manifestation is the exponential reduction of entry-level jobs; basic coding, accounting and auditing, or elementary management consulting and legal practice positions may all become the first batch of AI replacements. As the application of AI deepens, the risk of unemployment in the healthcare, education, and even retail industries is piling up. Recently, a cruel joke has been popular in the US investment community: software engineers will be like current “civil engineers” in the future; I'm afraid the future will replace everyone's jobs, as Elon Musk emphasized in the interview. But it also heralds the advent of a new industrial era belonging to AI...

226d agoWendy#Jademont #Water Drop Capital #petroleum #viewpoints #gold

Decentralized Intelligent Network dGrid Announces: Global Node Public Sale and Genesis Mining Will Launch Simultaneously on New Year's Day 2026

According to the official news, dGrid AI, the decentralized AI intelligent network, officially announced that its core network construction will enter a new stage: dGrid global node public sale and Genesis mining activities will begin simultaneously on January 1, 2026 at 00:00 (UTC). dGrid is committed to building a “decentralized AI intelligent network”. It aims to provide open, trustworthy, and efficient infrastructure for next-generation AI applications through distributed nodes and intelligent coordination architectures, and to provide low-cost, verifiable, and trustless AI capabilities for developers and applications. This public sale of nodes will lay the foundation for dGrid's decentralized network construction. Users can participate in network construction and share network benefits by operating nodes. According to previous news, dGrid AI has received seed round investments from Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, Paramita VC, Catcher VC, 4EVER Research, and Abraca Research.

250d ago

Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Borderless

Comparing news, Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Borderless, Waterdrip Capital, VvV, and Clairvoyant Labs, as well as strategic angel investors from Arkstream Capital, LD Capital, and KuCoin Ventures. This round of financing is compared to the previous third wave of Genesis Auction The terms are the same. According to the announcement, XMAQUINA will co-host the last pre-TGE community pre-sale event with strategic partners. Details will be announced in the coming weeks.

263d ago

Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA completes a new round of financing, led by Borderless

In comparison, Web3 robotics company XMAQUINA announced the completion of the latest round of financing, led by Borderless Capital, Waterdrip Capital, VvV, and Clairvoyant Labs, as well as strategic angel investors from Arkstream Capital, LD Capital, and KuCoin Ventures, all participated in the Genesis Auction on the same terms as the public The third wave of auctions. Other notable participants in previous rounds of auctions include Moonrock Capital, MH Ventures, Generative Labs, Generative Ventures, and Mulana Capital.

264d ago

AI agent intelligent data layer ZenI completed a $1.5 million seed round, led by Waterdrip Capital and others

According to the news, ZenI, the AI agent intelligence data layer, announced the completion of a $1.5 million seed round, led by Waterdrip Capital and Mindfulness Capital, with the participation of Rootz Labs, Attention Ventures, Depin-X, and Metalabs Ventures. According to reports, ZenI is an intelligent data layer that supports AI agents and the emerging information finance (InfoFi) economy. It plans to build a data intelligence backbone that AI agents rely on, transform online and on-chain signals into structured intelligent information, and achieve automated execution.

275d ago

Decentralized AI inference routing network dGrid AI has completed a seed round of financing and will start pre-sale of nodes

Comparing news, dGrid AI, a decentralized AI inference routing network, announced that it has received seed round investment support from Waterdrip Capital, IoTeX, Paramita VC, Catcher VC, 4EVER Research, Abraca Research, etc. The core of dGrid relies on the “AI RPC + LLM Inference + Distributed Node” architecture, and is committed to breaking the monopoly pattern of centralized AI platforms and providing open, trustworthy, and low-cost AI capability support for the Web3 ecosystem. The financing funds will mainly be used to build a node network and expand ecological partners. dGrid officially stated that its node pre-sale program will soon be launched, allowing community members to participate in the construction of decentralized AI networks in advance by operating nodes and share the early growth dividends of the network. Specific rules and times will be announced through official channels.

295d ago