The Week in Numbers
In the five trading days between June 22 and June 28, 2025, crypto and blockchain startups announced $739.5 million in new equity and token financings across just 17 disclosed deals—an 80-plus-percent jump on the prior seven-day period and the strongest funding pulse since January’s ETF-driven euphoria. Ainvest
Deal flow was top-heavy: three raises—Kalshi’s mammoth $185 million Series C, Digital Asset’s $135 million strategic round, and Zama’s $57 million Series B—soaked up exactly half the week’s pie, leaving smaller strategic and seed checks to compete for oxygen.
Reuters,
Cointelegraph,
CoinDesk
Kalshi: When Regulation Becomes a Moat
Prediction-market exchange Kalshi didn’t just raise cash—it weaponized regulatory approval. Fresh off a bruising court battle that forced the CFTC to green-light election contracts, the New-York-based platform locked down a round led by Paradigm at a cool $2 billion valuation. Reuters
Why does that matter? In a market where most competitors still geo-block U.S. users, CFTC licensure turns into a distribution monopoly. Kalshi is already piping event contracts into Robinhood and Webull; the new capital bankrolls integrations with “a dozen-plus” brokerages by year-end, according to CEO Tarek Mansour’s CNBC spot. Volume has exploded 100× in 12 months, with NBA Finals markets alone clearing $130 million. Legal Sports Report
That traction explains both the number and the price. Paradigm’s Matt Huang called prediction markets “crypto 15 years ago: a new asset class on a path to trillions.” TechCrunch In a funding environment where most late-stage deals grind through down-round territory, a double-unicorn mark-up screams strategic scarcity—and, just possibly, an IPO runway.
Signal in the Noise
Kalshi’s raise is not an isolated gamble; it’s a barometer. Investors are paying for regulated rails that bridge TradFi order flow into on-chain settlement. Expect SPAN-margin event contracts to sneak into multi-asset prime brokers before the 2026 mid-terms.
Digital Asset & the Canton Bet
Institutional blockchain shop Digital Asset followed with a $135 million infusion backed by Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, DTCC and more. The war chest accelerates real-world-asset tokenization on the Canton Network—exactly the plumbing BlackRock and State Street will need when 40-Act funds start moving on-chain. Cointelegraph
The message is clear: Wall Street no longer funds crypto adjacency; it funds infrastructure it plans to use.
Privacy Goes Mainstream: Zama’s $57M B Round
The dark horse of the week was Zama, whose fully homomorphic encryption stack nabbed $57 million at a unicorn valuation. Confidential computing isn’t retail-sexy, but it solves the MiCA/Basel III headache of transacting sensitive data on public chains. Watch for Zama to shadow every RWA pilot that Digital Asset signs. CoinDesk
Why the Spigot Opened
Crypto VC totals hit $13.6 billion in 2024 and are pacing toward $18 billion in 2025, per PitchBook estimates—an +32 % trajectory even before the Bitcoin halving’s reflexive capital cycle fully kicks in. Cointelegraph Rate-cut expectations, clearer U.S. rule-making, and record on-chain fee revenue have reset risk appetite faster than many allocators projected six months ago.
But here’s the nuance: capital is funneling into “picks-and-shovels” and reg-tech plays, not speculative tokens. That aligns with LP mandates for cash-flow visibility and regulatory insulation after 2022’s bruising. Translation: expect fewer fantasy metaverse pitches and more boring, wildly profitable middleware.
Where the Money Likely Goes Next
- Brokerage APIs that abstract away KYC and settlement for prediction or sports markets.
- RWA liquidity layers—think tokenized treasuries with built-in AML attestations.
- Confidential computing to satisfy Basel capital charges once banks custody on-chain assets.
- AI × Crypto crossovers, particularly inference-proof layers and decentralized model ownership.
One under-radar beneficiary: post-trade risk engines that net exposure across tokenized and legacy instruments. Kalshi’s event contracts will eventually sit next to Treasury futures in a clearing stack; somebody gets paid handsomely to calculate VAR on that basket.
Sophia’s Playbook for Retail Investors
1. Follow the rails, not the hype. Infrastructure bets offer equity-style upside with less token-price whiplash. Early-stage allocations via syndicates or compliant crowdfunding portals can front-run public listings.
2. Monitor regulatory catalysts. Every CFTC, SEC or MiCA ruling now reprices startup valuations overnight. Kalshi’s court win created a $2 billion company; caveat emptor cuts both ways.
3. Think like the allocators. Pension funds green-lighted these rounds because the products plug into existing workflows. If a startup can’t articulate a TradFi integration, move on.
4. Keep dry powder. Funding rebounds precede bull-market parabolic moves by ~6–9 months on average. A measured DCA into liquid blue-chip tokens alongside selective private deals captures both beta and alpha.
Final Word
When nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars splashes into crypto in a single week—and the flagship check targets a regulated predictions exchange—you aren’t looking at a dead-cat bounce. You’re witnessing capital’s pivot from experimentation to execution. Smart money is buying the rails that will let mainstream investors trade every outcome under the sun. My advice? Stand on those rails before the next train leaves the station.
—Sophia Vance
