Crypto VC Funding Tops $104 Million in Weekly Disclosed Rounds
Weekly crypto VC funding surged past $104.2 million across eight disclosed transactions between September 19 and September 25, driven by institutional demand for stablecoin settlement and corporate treasury vehicles. The total figure represents a firm floor for weekly capital deployment. Several protocols closed rounds without disclosing exact valuations or dollar amounts, while one protocol reported a non-specific round exceeding $3 million. Data compiled from venture tracking databases DropsTab and DefiLlama confirms that payment infrastructure startups captured the lion's share of private venture capital during the seven-day period.
Leading the week's venture allocations, New York-based settlement platform Hifi secured $37 million in a Series A financing round on September 24. Growth investment firm Left Lane Capital led the investment. Hifi develops payment architecture that connects fiat bank rails to stablecoins, incorporating integrations with Visa Direct payouts and the Circle Payments Network. Executives stated the fresh equity capital will fund card issuance programs, international expansion into tokenized capital markets, regulatory licensing, and engineering headcount. Hifi currently processes over $7 billion in annualized transaction volume, establishing a strong operational footprint ahead of its capital expansion.
Private equity investors concentrated their largest checks in teams building functional corporate software rather than speculative consumer apps. The emphasis on revenue-generating payment rails reflects shifting risk parameters among institutional check-writers. Venture capital firms are prioritizing teams with established banking relationships, compliance clearance, and operational transaction volume over unproven consumer protocols.
Payment Infrastructure Dominates Private Capital Allocations
Payment-focused startups collected $60.5 million across three major transactions, establishing payment settlement as the dominant thematic driver of the weekly funding round. Joining Hifi's $37 million Series A, startup payment network Atum emerged from stealth on September 22 after raising $13.5 million in early-stage capital. High-profile venture firms participated heavily in Atum's launch round, including Variant, PayPal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Road Capital, Mirana Ventures, First Commit, and Credibly Neutral. Atum did not assign a formal seed or Series A designation to the funding round.
Atum operates an orchestration network designed to route transfers seamlessly across different stablecoins, layer-1 blockchains, and traditional legacy banking rails. The project explicitly avoids taking custody of client funds or issuing a proprietary network utility token. Instead, Atum targets financial institutions and corporate stablecoin card issuers looking for interoperable clearing architecture. By avoiding custodial responsibility and token emissions, Atum aims to bypass complex money-transmitter licensing bottlenecks that often slow cross-border payment platforms.
Adding to the payment subtotal, Tallinn-based MeshWallet closed a $10 million private financing round backed by private angel investors and boutique family offices. MeshWallet builds non-custodial wallet infrastructure specifically tailored for TRON-based USDT transactions. The platform solves a key user-friction point by enabling retail and enterprise clients to send TRC-20 USDT without holding separate TRX balances for gas fees. MeshWallet did not disclose a single lead venture partner for the transaction. The capital will fund expanded business services and retail security features across international target markets.
Public Treasury Strategies and Seed Rounds Diversify Liquidity
While venture firms funded early-stage private startups, public equity markets provided a separate liquidity avenue for digital asset strategies. Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries completed a $25 million registered direct offering to an institutional buyer. According to filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Forward Industries sold 3,125,000 common shares to generate $25 million in gross proceeds before underwriting fees. The public filing did not disclose the institutional purchaser's identity.
Forward Industries announced that net proceeds will directly fund the expansion of its corporate Solana treasury strategy. The company initiated its digital asset balance sheet allocation in 2025, purchasing and staking SOL tokens to generate yield. While included in the overall $104.2 million weekly capital tally, Forward Industries' transaction represents public equity dilution for token purchases rather than private venture equity. This distinction highlights how non-crypto public companies are using registered equity sales to execute institutional treasury strategies.
Diverging capital pathways reflect growing institutional allocations across digital asset products, as institutional asset managers look beyond spot asset holdings toward direct corporate equity exposure. Corporate balance sheets are increasingly leveraging equity issuance to acquire liquid network stakes, blending traditional corporate finance with onchain treasury management.
Institutional Capital Focuses on Functional Settlement Rails
Capital allocations across smaller seed and pre-seed rounds further emphasized specialized infrastructure, collectibles, and onchain financial primitives. Collectibles marketplace CatchBack secured an $8 million seed round led by Foundation Capital. Participation included Y Combinator, Robinhood Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and the Solana Foundation. CatchBack connects digital mystery token packs with physical trading cards, allowing collectors to trade or redeem physical assets onchain. The round demonstrates ongoing institutional interest in physical asset tokenization and real-world asset settlement expansion onchain.
In the account infrastructure sector, Infini closed a $6 million seed round on September 22. Infini provides stablecoin-based account settlement, corporate cards, and treasury management. Venture backers included Reforge, Enlight Capital, Fortwest Capital, NexGen Capital, SNZ Capital, and Vernal Capital. Simultaneously, onchain DeFi protocol infiniFi closed a financing round exceeding $3 million led by Electric Capital, with support from New Form Capital, Generative Ventures, and Fasanara Capital. That raise brought infiniFi's cumulative funding past $6 million, though only the new $3 million tranche was counted in weekly totals. Onchain pricing developer functionSPACE also raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round led by Maven 11 Capital, alongside Blockwall and Smape Capital.
Two additional projects secured strategic backing without disclosing financial terms. Onchain metals and foreign-exchange trading platform XStable raised capital from YZi Labs, the Sui Foundation, Taisu Ventures, and CatcherVC. Meanwhile, onchain perpetuals developer Travix finalized a seed round led by Amber Group on September 21. Both undisclosed transactions were omitted from the weekly $104.2 million sum.
Investors navigating early-stage deals must balance venture valuation expectations against real liquidity, especially when reviewing early-stage token sale mechanics and liquidity execution. As private venture capital concentrates in non-custodial payment rails and corporate stablecoin software, will legacy payment processors acquire these emerging platforms before their annualized transaction volumes threaten traditional banking fees?
