EP. 096 | Our Members Raised $500M+ Last Week. Access is Earned
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Member Spotlight
Meet Caitlin Szikszai 👋
Caitlin has spent the past 6 years at Republic, working at the forefront of capital formation and helping bring new investment opportunities to market.
Now she’s onto her next chapter.
Huge congrats to Caitlin on joining Coinbase🚀
She’s stepping into the Capital Formation team, focused on Protocol Sales, right at the intersection of capital, tokens, and the next wave of onchain markets.
This is what our network is all about. Keep building.
Missed you in Malibu 😘
Malibu. Soho House. Private terrace.
We took over the Pacific coast for a night of quiet luxury and high-stakes alignment; architecting a collision of the titans defining the next decade of culture and capital.
The room was a surgical blend: the leadership behind TikTok and the NBA dining alongside the mind behind Beast Industries and The Chernin Group.
This is the Introduction.com standard: bridging the gap between frontier technology and the world’s most powerful legacy boardrooms.
In case it wasn’t clear. This is how we move.
Whether you are seeking a seat at the table or looking to build one for your own ecosystem, the standard remains the same.
Tremendous thanks to our partners Privé MalibuandBH3 for bringing this to life.
You might have missed Malibu. Don’t miss Miami.
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You never stop building.
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20,000+ operators across crypto, finance, AI, and policy.
If you’ve been watching from the sidelines, this is your moment.
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The really party begins after hours:
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New scene. New table. New cuisine.
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Events
HK Assets & Access with Animoca Brands and Wonderful
Thursday, April 30
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM GMT+8
Thirsty Shaker Cocktail Bar
Hong Kong Island
Top Raises
Member Activity
Member Activity
VC
OpenGradient announced $9.5M in total funding with participation from a16z crypto and Coinbase Ventures.
The capital will fund the development of its decentralized compute layer designed to enable verifiable and secure AI model execution onchain.
A win for a16z is a win for us! LFG!
Deutsche Börse Group acquired a $200M stake in Payward, the parent company of the Kraken exchange.
The strategic investment aims to foster collaboration between traditional exchange infrastructure and the digital asset market to develop regulated institutional products
Massive victory for Jack Traube and the Kraken team! Keep ‘em coming!
CAEX Exchange secured a strategic investment from OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital to meet a $380M capital threshold.
The funding enables the platform to participate in Vietnam’s pilot program for regulated digital asset trading and infrastructure development.
Big win for Diogo Duarte and the OKX Ventures team for their support in this strategic milestone!
Series A
Pharos closed a $44M Series A funding round with participation from Chainlink and Sumitomo Corporation.
The capital will accelerate the build-out of its institutional Layer 1 infrastructure, focusing on scaling the onchain RWA economy across Asia.
Huge win for the Chainlink team and their continued support of foundational network infrastructure!
Libeara completed a Series A funding round led by GSR(amount undisclosed).
The investment will scale its regulated tokenization platform, which has already supported over $1B in compliant onchain assets.
Shoutout to the team at GSR for their leadership in bringing traditional financial instruments into the digital era!
Pre-Seed
Pumpcade secured $1M in pre-seed funding led by Pump.fun.
The capital will launch its live-streaming prediction market platform, allowing users to create embedded markets that resolve in as little as 60 seconds.
Macro Update
The Hormuz Blockade: Data Breakdown
Institutional reports from mid-April 2026 highlight the massive shift in energy markets following the U.S. naval blockade.
1. Iran’s Economic Asphyxiation
The blockade has isolated Iran from its "shadow" trade with Asia, stranding 20% of global oil supplies and driving prices up by 30%. The daily economic damage to Iran is estimated at $435M, with $276M of that being direct losses from halted crude and petrochemical exports.
2. The U.S. Energy Pivot
As Middle Eastern supply faces a 9.1M bpd gap, the U.S. is filling the vacuum. The EIA forecasts record U.S. production of 13.51M bpd for 2026. With the Brent-WTI spread peaking at $15/bbl, American shale has become the primary, cost-effective lifeline for the West.
3. Global Liquidity & Allied Fragility
The "energy dollar" squeeze is draining global liquidity. Japan, which relies on the Middle East for 94% of its oil, has been forced to release 80M barrels (45 days of demand) from its national stockpile. Meanwhile, the IMF has slashed global growth forecasts to 2.6% in adverse scenarios as central banks deplete forex reserves to cover record energy costs.
Headlines
Bernstein Projects Prediction Market Sector to Reach $1 Trillion by 2030
Bernstein analysts estimate that prediction market trading volumes will hit $1 trillion by 2030, driven by a fourfold surge in activity this year alone.
Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have already generated $60 billion in year to date volume, surpassing the total for all of 2025 as the sector transitions from sports betting to institutional economic and political contracts.
Visa Joins Stripe as Network Validator for Tempo Blockchain
Visa has officially launched an in house validator node on the Tempo network, joining Stripe and Standard Chartered’s Zodia Custody in securing the next generation payment blockchain.
The move marks a significant step in Visa’s roadmap to run critical blockchain infrastructure natively to support high scale stablecoin payments and agentic commerce.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF Records $34M Inflows on Day One
Morgan Stanley’s MSBT debuted with $34 million in net inflows, undercutting competitors with the market’s lowest fee of 0.14%.
As the first major U.S. bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF, the launch leverages a powerhouse advisory network of 16,000 advisors to compete with BlackRock’s dominant IBIT fund.
X Rolls Out ‘Smart Cashtags’ for Real Time Trading and Data
Social media giant X has launched its Smart Cashtags feature in the U.S. and Canada, integrating real time financial dashboards directly into the timeline.
The update allows users to view live charts and onchain data by tapping a ticker, with a Wealthsimple integration now enabling direct stock and crypto trading for Canadian users within the app.
Drift Attributes $270M Exploit to North Korean Intelligence Operation
Solana based exchange Drift revealed that a recent $270 million exploit was the result of a sophisticated, six month operation by North Korean intelligence.
The breach highlights the escalating security risks for decentralized protocols as state sponsored actors increasingly target onchain liquidity pools to bypass global financial sanctions.
Regulation Roundup
United States 🇺🇸
SEC Grants Approval for 24/7 Stock Trading to Combat Manipulation
The SEC granted accelerated approval for the rollout of 24/7 continuous stock trading, a move designed to eliminate the price manipulation frequently seen during illiquid after hours sessions. The regulatory shift aligns traditional equity markets with the global, always on nature of digital assets, allowing for more transparent price discovery across time zones.
FDIC Proposes Strict Reserve Rules for Stablecoin Issuers
Following the enactment of the GENIUS Act, the FDIC proposed a new ruleset requiring stablecoin issuers to maintain 100% reserve backing with a 40% diversification cap at any single bank. The proposal clarifies that while reserves must be held in safe assets, they are corporate deposits and do not qualify for individual pass through insurance, establishing a clear firewall for the banking system.
International 🌏
Japan Reclassifies Crypto as Financial Products to Unlock Tax Relief
The Japanese Cabinet approved a bill to officially reclassify cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, moving them under the same regulatory umbrella as traditional stocks. This pivot introduces a flat 20% capital gains tax replacing the previous miscellaneous income rate of up to 55% while implementing institutional grade bans on insider trading.
Swiss Banking Giants Launch Digital Franc Stablecoin Sandbox
A coalition of six major Swiss banks, including UBS and Raiffeisen, launched a live Swiss Franc stablecoin sandbox to test regulated, programmable payments. Partnering with Swiss Stablecoin AG, the initiative is designed to ensure Switzerland remains a global leader in digital finance by providing a secure, bank backed alternative to offshore stablecoins.
Bank of Japan Signals Dovish Pivot to Support Market Stability
The Bank of Japan successfully cooled global market fears by signaling a pause in its rate hike cycle, removing a significant black swan risk for the Yen carry trade. The central bank’s commitment to maintaining accommodative conditions has stabilized global liquidity, providing a renewed tailwind for Bitcoin and broader risk assets.
