ChainCatcher news, the AI blockchain platform Talus Network has completed a $6 million financing round, with a valuation of $150 million. Polychain Capital led the round, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Animoca, Geek Cartel, Echo, and angel investors including Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Sentient core contributor and Symbolic Capital co-founder Kenzi Wang, 0G Labs CEO Michael Heinrich, Allora Labs CEO Nick Emmons, and Nuffle Labs co-founder Atlan Tutar. This brings Talus's total funding to $9 million.The funds will help further develop the Talus ecosystem, including Protochain, the Nexus framework, and the "AI Dating Experience" application.According to RootData, Talus Network is a blockchain platform focused on decentralized artificial intelligence. The network leverages the powerful capabilities of Move, emphasizing security, speed, and an enhanced developer experience. Talus Network creates a future that empowers users in a fair and accessible way by cultivating a diverse ecosystem of intelligent agents for decentralized applications.

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by Coindesk, Bitcoin-listed mining company MARA Holdings (MARA) has increased its previously announced convertible preferred note issuance from $700 million to $850 million.The company also raised the amount of the initial purchaser's option to buy additional bonds from $105 million to $150 million. The offering is expected to close on November 20 and is a private placement for qualified institutional buyers. The fundraising is expected to be approximately $833 million, of which $199 million will be used to repurchase MARA's existing $212 million convertible notes due in 2026. The remainder will be used for Bitcoin (BTC) acquisitions, asset expansion, and general corporate purposes.Previously reported yesterday, MARA plans to raise $700 million through the issuance of convertible preferred notes to purchase more Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Information, AI search startup Perplexity is raising a new round of funding at a valuation of at least $8 billion. X, Notion, and OpenAI have all made acquisition offers to Perplexity ranging from $150 million to $200 million, and Microsoft has also expressed interest in acquiring the company.

According to CNBC, German citizen Horst Jicha has become a fugitive after skipping bail in a $150 million cryptocurrency fraud case in New York. He tampered with his ankle monitor on October 3 and subsequently failed to appear in court. The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office is actively investigating to apprehend him. Of Jicha's $5 million bail, $4 million was personally guaranteed by his partner, children, and three others, while $1 million in cash has been deposited with the federal government, putting their bail amounts at personal risk.The case against Horst Jicha was originally set to go to trial on March 31, facing multiple charges of securities fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors indicated that the USI Tech platform was essentially a fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme, in which Jicha deceived investors, residing in Brazil and Spain before and after his arrest. He was arrested in Florida at the end of 2023 and was released on bail in January, but violated the conditions of his bail by failing to appear in court, meet with his attorney, or seek medical attention. After his arrest, approximately $150 million worth of Ethereum and Bitcoin was sent to a cryptocurrency deposit address controlled by Horst Jicha.

ChainCatcher news, Bitdeer Technologies Group announced its plan to publicly issue $150 million in convertible notes, maturing on August 15, 2029, to expand its data centers and develop ASIC-based mining equipment.It is reported that these notes are the company's senior unsecured debt, with an annual interest rate of 8.5%, unless converted, redeemed, or repurchased early.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the full-chain AI aggregator Aidatify has completed a Series A funding round of $17.5 million at a valuation of $150 million, led by SM Capital. Aidatify is built by the full-chain and DeFi infrastructure VGESS team.It is reported that the funds will be used to expand investment in the Aidatify ecosystem and products.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the full-chain AI aggregator Aidatify has completed a Series A funding round of $8.3 million at a valuation of $150 million, with investments from STIX, oilinvest, Alter Global, Spencer, and others.It is reported that Aidatify is built by the full-chain and DeFi infrastructure VGESS team, and the raised funds will be used to expand investments in the Aidatify ecosystem and products.

ChainCatcher news, crypto mining company Hut 8 announced a strategic investment of $150 million from Coatue, and the two parties will collaborate to build an artificial intelligence infrastructure platform.Coatue has agreed to invest $150 million in the company through convertible notes, with an annual interest rate of 8.00% (compounded quarterly). The initial term of the notes is five years, and the company has the option to extend it for up to three additional one-year terms. The issuance of the notes is expected to be completed on or before July 11, 2024.

ChainCatcher news, according to FORTUNE, venture capital firm CMT Digital has been raising $150 million for its fourth fund since a month ago.Gerald Brant is responsible for overseeing this fundraising, serving as the Head of Capital Formation at CMT Digital. Before joining CMT Digital, Gerald Brant held the same position at BlockTower Capital and Pantera Capital.If successful, the fourth fund will be the largest fund the company has raised to date. The first three funds raised $25.5 million, $130 million, and $100 million, respectively.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Nasdaq-listed Semler Scientific has purchased an additional $17 million worth of Bitcoin and announced plans to raise $150 million to acquire more Bitcoin.Semler Scientific CEO Doug Murphy-Chutorian stated, "Semler remains focused on expanding its healthcare business as well as the dual strategy of acquiring and holding Bitcoin. The company now holds 828 Bitcoins, which underscores our view that Bitcoin is an attractive investment and can serve as a reliable store of value. We will continue to pursue a strategy of purchasing Bitcoin with cash."According to current market data from CoinDesk Indices, Semler's 828 Bitcoins were acquired for $57 million and are now valued at $59 million.

ChainCatcher news, the decentralized social protocol Farcaster has completed a $150 million Series A funding round, with a valuation of $1 billion. Paradigm led the round, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, and others. The project stated that the ample funding allows Farcaster to continue iterating on developer primitives, such as channels and direct messaging, while also focusing on growth and retaining daily active users of the protocol.According to the Dune Analytics dashboard created by Pixelhack, as of May 20, Farcaster's 7-day daily active user count is close to 45,000, marking a 30% increase since the peak of the Frames craze on February 11.

ChainCatcher news, a United Nations report shows that North Korean hackers laundered $150 million worth of stolen crypto assets through Tornado Cash in March 2024. In March 2023, North Korean hackers illegally extracted $147.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from HTX. A year later, these funds were transferred to North Korea via Tornado Cash.According to Reuters, the United Nations is currently investigating 97 incidents of North Korean cyberattacks, which have consumed approximately $3.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2024.

ChainCatcher news, Binance CEO Richard Teng claims that Nigerian officials demanded up to $150 million in cryptocurrency bribes from Binance to resolve its disputes with the government.Teng stated in a blog post on Tuesday: "Binance's lawyer reported that he received a request for a large sum of cryptocurrency to be secretly paid within 48 hours to resolve the allegations against Binance." The Nigerian Ministry of Information dismissed this allegation on Wednesday, stating that the Binance CEO's statement "lacks substantive content."According to a source familiar with the matter, Nigerian government officials are conducting a secret investigation into these bribery allegations, possibly involving someone claiming to have access to those in power contacting Binance.

ChainCatcher news, according to data from Cryptoslam, the NFT sales on the Solana chain in April slightly exceeded $150 million, reaching $153,304,602.45, setting the lowest monthly record so far in 2024.It is reported that last month, the transaction volume of NFTs on the Solana chain was approximately 2.18 million, also marking the lowest level of the year to date, with about 250,000 unique seller addresses and approximately 487,000 unique buyer addresses.

ChainCatcher news, ZachXBT posted data on social media stating that the Solana ecosystem recently raised over 796,000 SOL (149.2 million USD) from 33 project presales.Many of these presale projects are suspected scams. @Sartoshi0x secretly stole 62% of the SOL from the presale after receiving 7,000 SOL and did not distribute the tokens.The account @Jared_eth, which raised 2,100 SOL, is a fake Jared MEV bot account; another fake Jared account had previously obtained 440,000 USD in presale funds in June 2023. @Vombatus_eth rug pulled after raising over 13,000 SOL.Previously, ChainCatcher reported that Solana co-founder Toly (Anatoly Yakovenko) called for an end to such presale project models on the X platform.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, ARK Invest sold more than 580,000 shares of COIN stock last week, worth $149.85 million based on Friday's closing price. This is ARK's largest reduction in Coinbase stock since the week of February 16.