fundraising

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis posted on the X platform, stating that the Democrats previously requested to lower the annual fundraising cap for Regulation Crypto from $75 million to $50 million and to add a $200 million lifetime fundraising cap.Cynthia Lummis stated that the relevant parties have agreed to these two requests and included them in the CLARITY Act, but at the same time, she accused the Democratic lawmakers of ultimately voting against the rules she had previously drafted, which aimed to protect retail investors.

S&P Global Ratings released a report on Thursday, granting the UK digital bank Revolut a BBB+ investment grade rating for the first time, and expects the company to issue senior unsecured bonds in 2027 to establish a debt buffer capable of absorbing potential losses and meeting regulatory requirements.The report noted that Revolut's balance sheet has exceeded £40 billion (approximately $53.5 billion); if the bank were to collapse, the Bank of England could push for a restructuring, with investors bearing the corresponding losses. S&P expects that as Revolut expands its unsecured retail lending business and launches mortgage products, its loan portfolio size will double by 2027 and double again by 2028.S&P believes that Revolut has a strong consumer brand, a scalable technology platform, and an increasingly diversified product range, but its main banking customer relationships still account for a lower proportion compared to traditional banks, and rapid global expansion may exacerbate operational complexity and compliance risks. BBB+ is considered a lower tier within S&P's investment grade ratings.

According to Bloomberg, Augnition Global Investors, a technology hedge fund founded by Jeff Wang, the former head of global equities at Sequoia Capital, announced that it has completed fundraising of over $1 billion.According to disclosed regulatory documents, the fund started with at least $570 million in capital, of which about 45% is internal capital.

According to a report by The Paper, the case of Qian Zhimin, involving over 40 billion yuan in illegal fundraising and more than 60,000 bitcoins, has seen new developments in domestic judicial procedures. The Tianjin Second Intermediate People's Court announced that it has accepted the Tianjin People's Procuratorate Second Branch's application to confiscate the illegal gains of the suspect Qian Zhimin as of September 28.According to the property confiscation list published by the Tianjin Second Intermediate Court, in addition to bitcoins, the involved virtual currencies also include 72,745.79502 bitcoins cash, 72,745.78555 bitcoins gold, 72,745.7845 bitcoins Satoshi Vision, 3,605,989.9995 ripples, and 70,081,208.62553222 dogecoins (which have been converted and deposited into an interest-bearing account by British judicial authorities). Additionally, the confiscated assets also include cash in US dollars, euros, and British pounds, jewelry, as well as bank balances and investment portfolios.The Tianjin People's Procuratorate Second Branch believes that Qian Zhimin is suspected of fundraising fraud, and after fleeing, he has been wanted for a year without appearing in court. There is evidence proving that over 61,800 bitcoins and other assets seized in the UK belong to illegal gains and their proceeds, and should be recovered along with the transformed and converted properties and proceeds, except for those legally returned to the harmed fundraising participants, which should be confiscated.

According to The Block, the UK Bitcoin treasury company The Smarter Web Company is conditionally raising £10 million (approximately $13.2 million) through a preferred stock issuance. Of this, £4 million (approximately $5.3 million) in net proceeds will be used to increase its Bitcoin holdings.This batch of preferred shares is expected to start trading in London on October 14, with an initial annual dividend yield of 12%, paid weekly.

According to The Information, the former head of Tesla (TSLA.O) Optimus is starting a robotics startup that may raise about 100 million dollars.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a member of Hamas's military wing, two French nationals, and two charitable organizations, accusing them of raising over $2 million for Hamas through cryptocurrency and so-called humanitarian donations in a fundraising campaign that lasted six years.The Treasury stated that Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid raised funds in France under the guise of humanitarian efforts, subsequently transferring the money to Hamas. This network raised over $2 million between 2020 and 2026, with $1.5 million occurring after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The two also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq in Gaza, who is the deputy battalion commander of Hamas's Kassam Brigades.The sanctions freeze the assets of the relevant entities within U.S. jurisdiction, and Americans are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions may face secondary sanctions risks, and restrictions also extend to companies in which the sanctioned parties hold more than 50% directly or indirectly. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on complex financial intermediaries and fraudulent means. This move indicates U.S. concern about the role of cryptocurrency in broader fundraising networks, rather than viewing it as Hamas's primary source of funding.

According to market news, venture capital giant DIG Ventures announced the completion of a $120 million fundraising for its third fund. This fund has received support from institutions such as Horsley Bridge, Sofina, Granite, and a donation fund from a top university in the United States, and will invest in AI-native enterprise software and cloud infrastructure startups at the Pre-seed and seed stages.Investment directions include infrastructure areas such as data, identity verification, compliance, and orchestration that support the development of AI-native enterprise software. The fund plans to lead the majority of investment rounds and has already begun deploying capital.

According to Bloomberg, investment firm 1789 Capital is negotiating to raise $3 billion for its second growth fund, planning to increase its larger-scale investments in startups. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at the firm, with the information coming from informed sources.The sources said that 1789 Capital has already raised $2 billion from existing investors. The fundraising is still ongoing, and the final amount may increase. The individuals requested anonymity due to the discussion of non-public information, and 1789 Capital declined to comment on the financing matters.

The House Committee on Ways and Means passed the "Digital Asset Tax Clarification Act" with a vote of 38 in favor and 5 against, establishing the first federal tax framework for digital assets. The bill sets a threshold for taxation, stating that cryptocurrency transactions with network or transaction fees not exceeding $10 are exempt from taxes, but this exemption does not apply to service providers conducting transactions on behalf of others, and the relevant provisions will not take effect until December 2027.The bill also requires the Treasury Department to establish a voluntary disclosure program for digital assets within 12 months of the bill's enactment, allowing eligible taxpayers to amend previous filings and settle owed taxes, interest, and penalties. The bill specifies that income from mining and staking will be taxed as ordinary income, while allowing certain investment trusts to stake without affecting their tax status. The previous version included an option for deferred income recognition, but that provision has been removed, and the issue of income recognition timing remains unresolved.Committee Chairman and Republican Congressman Jason Smith called it a historic moment for the committee. This vote took place the day after the Senate's procedural vote on the "Clarity Act" failed (49 votes to 50), with Democrats opposing the bill mainly due to ethical concerns raised by Trump's cryptocurrency interests. The House will recess until after the November elections, and the bill may advance during the lame-duck session, with public attention shifting to the Senate Finance Committee.

The U.S. House of Representatives' fundraising committee is scheduled to review a series of digital asset tax legislation on September 16, advancing the crypto tax bill toward a full House vote. This review focuses on two core issues: when miners and stakers should pay taxes on newly created tokens, and whether the wash sale rules applicable to stocks should cover digital assets.The two key bills are the "Mining and Staking Tax Clarification Act" H.R. 9175 and the "Applying Existing Tax Anti-Abuse Rules to Digital Assets Act" H.R. 9172. The former stipulates that miners and stakers do not need to pay taxes immediately upon receiving new tokens but can wait until the tokens are actually sold to pay taxes as ordinary income; the latter extends wash sale and constructive sale rules to actively traded digital assets, closing tax loopholes that crypto traders have exploited for years.

The Smarter Web Company announced plans to launch the UK's first Bitcoin-backed preferred stock, subject to shareholder approval. The company expects to raise between $20 million and $34 million through a potential IPO to increase its Bitcoin holdings and acquire cash-generating operational businesses.

BitcoinTreasuries.NET posted on platform X that pre-market trading has opened, and Strive's SATA is only 5 cents away from par value.SATA has raised enough funds this week to purchase over 280 BTC and will soon begin accumulating Bitcoin.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced on Thursday that three issuers raised a total of 102.5 million rupees (approximately 10.72 million USD) through its Demat 2 pilot program by issuing tokenized corporate bonds. This pilot utilizes distributed ledger technology to issue, hold, and settle corporate bonds.REC Ltd. was the first to issue on September 7, raising 50 million rupees (approximately 5.23 million USD) from 18 investors; L&T Ltd. raised a similar amount from 4 investors on September 9, and IIFL raised 25 million rupees (approximately 2.6 million USD) from 1 investor on the same day. SEBI stated that the pilot infrastructure records corporate bonds in the form of native digital tokens on a distributed ledger owned by the depository and achieves atomic settlement of bonds and funds through a unified market interface connected to the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency.This mechanism can reduce settlement risks arising from the separation of securities and funds transfer, allowing issuers to receive funds on the same day as the bidding, whereas the existing process typically takes two to three days. The regulator noted that the information of bondholders on the shared ledger is instantly visible to all authorized entities, and at maturity, e₹ payments will go directly into the bondholders' central bank digital currency wallets. SEBI clarified that this pilot does not create a new category of corporate bonds; tokenized bonds retain the same ISIN, issuer obligations, coupon, maturity, covenants, ratings, and investor rights as traditional paperless bonds. The pilot will be implemented in three phases, with the first phase covering institutional issuance, while secondary trading and retail access will be conducted in subsequent phases within SEBI's regulatory sandbox.

On September 7, China's leading packaging and testing company Changdian Technology announced plans to raise no more than 6.5 billion yuan (approximately 968 million USD) through a private placement of shares, aimed at expanding advanced packaging capacity for AI chips and related technology research and development.The funds raised will primarily be directed towards the construction of production lines for high-density system-in-package and wafer-level packaging aimed at AI computing chips, in response to order demands from clients such as NVIDIA and AMD. Changdian Technology stated that the bandwidth and heat dissipation requirements for packaging technology have significantly increased for AI chips, and existing capacity is nearing full operation. This fundraising plan still requires approval from the shareholders' meeting and regulatory authorities.

Layer1 Public Chain Linera has raised approximately $150,000 since launching its community round public fundraising on September 1, with 172 addresses participating, leaving a gap of 95.2% from the target of $3.2 million.It is reported that the token valuation for this round of financing is $160 million, lasting for a total of 7 days. Previously, in 2022 and 2023, Linera raised a total of $12 million, with investors including a16z, GSR, Tribe Capital, Flow Traders, Laser Digital, and others.

According to YNetNews, the first Israeli star to enter the NBA, Omri Casspi, announced that his venture capital firm Swish Ventures has completed a $250 million fundraising for its third fund, increasing the firm's assets under management to approximately $800 million.The new fund is expected to invest in about 12 startups, with an average single investment of around $20 million, focusing on areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure, primarily targeting seed and Series A financing. Swish Ventures has currently invested in 20 companies, including Cognition AI, Applied Compute, EON, Wonderful, Upwind, etc., of which 8 have reached unicorn valuations, with a total valuation of its portfolio companies exceeding $60 billion.