• Fireworks AI closed a $1.505 billion Series D at a $17.5 billion valuation. • Emergent, an Indian AI-coding startup barely a year old, raised a $130 million Series C led by Creaegis, becoming a unicorn at a $1.5 billion valuation. • Glacis Labs raised a $6.8 million seed for ZeroDelta, its multichain crypto clearinghouse, backed by Franklin Templeton and Coinbase Ventures. • Binance launched U.S. equities trading and previewed bStocks, tokenized U.S. stocks designed f

Humanity Protocol built its business on palm-scan biometrics and "proof of personhood" credentials, a Worldcoin-style bet that verifying humans, would become critical infrastructure. In June 2026 attackers compromised a developer's laptop via a phishing email and made off with private keys tied to a Humanity Foundation member, draining roughly $36 million from the project's treasury. The H token collapsed as much as 89% within a day.

This Week Overview (June 30 – July 3, 2026): Joulent secured $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures, which takes a 35% stake, to build a 2.67-gigawatt gas power plant in West Texas ("Project Kilby"). Together AI closed an $800 million Series C led by Aramco Ventures at an $8.3 billion valuation. Venice AI raised its first-ever outside round: $65 million at a $1 billion valuation. Five federal regulators proposed KYC rules for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.

This week overview (June 8 - June 12, 2026): • Cyera raised $600 million at a $12 billion valuation, highlighting growing demand for AI-era cybersecurity platforms. • TensorWave secured $350 million to expand its AMD-powered AI infrastructure. • Bybit launched IPO Express, bringing tokenized IPO access to retail investors and allowing participation in offerings such as SpaceX. • NinjaOne surpassed a $12.3 billion valuation after raising over $400 million.

At Consensus 2026, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko had a conversation with Ali Yahua from a16z crypto, reflecting on how far the crypto industry has come, and why he believes the next phase of growth will be driven by execution rather than experimentation.

This week overview (June 1 - June 5, 2026): • Franklin Templeton integrated its BENJI tokenized money market fund with MoonPay Trade. • Robinhood completed its $180 million acquisition of WonderFi, entering the Canadian crypto market. • Alphabet increased its planned equity raise to $84.75 billion. • Coinbase and Better funded the first bitcoin-backed mortgage, allowing borrowers to use bitcoin and USDC as collateral for home purchases.

At Consensus 2026, industry leaders Britt Cambas of Circle, Rachel Castro of Business Banking Partnerships of U.S. Bank, Pauline Shangett of ChangeNOW and Ali Tager of the National Cryptocurrency Association explored one of crypto's most important challenges: trust. The panel explored what creates trust, how companies earn it, and why the future of crypto adoption may depend more on human relationships than technical innovation.

This week overview (May 25 - May 29, 2026): Kraken expands its ecosystem with Kraken Prop, offering up to $200,000 in funded capital. VanEck launches the first U.S. spot BNB ETF (VBNB), giving regulated exchange-traded exposure to BNB. Circle strengthens its payments infrastructure by integrating Nium into the Circle Payments Network. Anthropic raises $65 billion in a Series H round at a $965 billion valuation.

At a recent Bitcoin conference panel in Las Vegas, moderated by Brandon Keys from Green Candle and participants from across the Bitcoin financial ecosystem tackled exactly that. But instead of landing on a clean number, the conversation exposed something far more important: Retirement in the Bitcoin era may no longer be about escaping work. It may be about gaining optionality.

This week overview (May 11 - May 15, 2026): BitGo reported $3.8 billion in Q1 revenue, up more than 112% year-over-year. JPMorgan launched JLTXX, a new Ethereum-based tokenized money market fund built around stablecoin reserve requirements under the GENIUS Act. Exodus posted Q1 revenue of $22.7 million, down 37% year-over-year. OKX is reportedly acquiring a 20% stake in South Korean exchange Coinone.