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VC ‘spray-and-pray era over’ as crypto startups raise $883m in February – DL News

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VC ‘spray-and-pray era over’ as crypto startups raise $883m in February – DL News

  • Fundraising down but not out in 2026, DefiLlama data shows.
  • Stablecoins, artificial intelligence agents, and institutional tools top sectors, VCs say.

Venture capitalists funnelled $883 million into crypto startups in February despite the market downturn, according to DefiLlama data.

The figure represents a 13% decrease fromthis time last year, when startups secured over $1 billion amid a crypto bull run.

These days, venture firms are still doling out cheques but erring on the side of caution.

“Last year, you could raise on a narrative and a deck,” Andrei Grachev, managing partner at crypto VC firm DWF Labs, told DL News.

“This year, investors want revenue, users, and a reason to believe the product survives a bear cycle,” he said. “The spray-and-pray era is over.”

Grachev said that bear markets “always present opportunities” and that some of DWF Labs’ best-performing investments were made during downturns.

He points to three key themes driving venture investment in 2026.

Those include stablecoins and payments infrastructure, artificial intelligence agents, and institutional tools such as compliance and treasury management.

“It’s not sexy but it’s where the next $500 billion of institutional capital needs to flow through before it touches any token.”

Here are the biggest raises in February.

Flying Tulip, $206 million

Founded by veteran decentralised finance architect Andre Cronje, Flying Tulip secured $206 million via a token sale this month to build what it describes as an all-in-one financial stack.

The platform combines spot trading, lending and perpetual derivatives with its native stablecoin, ftUSD, positioning itself as a vertically integrated liquidity hub.

A core innovation is the ftPUT structure, which grants token holders a permanent redemption right to anchor the FT token’s floor value.

Capital is allocated into relatively conservative yield venues such as Aave and Lido, aiming to generate sustainable native returns.

The raise signals strong investor appetite for DeFi models that blend structured downside protection with exchange-grade financial tooling.

Whop, $200 million

Whop, a social commerce marketplace for digital goods, attracted a $200 million strategic investment from stablecoin giants Tether, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. The platform connects thousands of creators with more than 18 million users, facilitating the sale of software, online courses, and subscription-based communities.

The deal centres on integrating Tether’s Wallet Development Kit to enable self-custodial settlement in USDT and the newly launched USAT stablecoin.

By reducing reliance on traditional banking rails, Whop aims to accelerate payments within the global creator economy, particularly in emerging markets.

The capital will support expansion across Europe and Asia and fund AI-powered commerce tools, Whop said.

Anchorage Digital, $100 million

Anchorage Digital, the first federally regulated digital asset bank in the US, raised $100 million in strategic equity from Tether, lifting its valuation to $4.2 billion.

The investment deepens a partnership under which Anchorage serves as the regulated issuer for Tether’s US-compliant stablecoin, USAT.

Anchorage provides institutional-grade custody, staking, governance and settlement infrastructure, acting as a bridge between traditional capital markets and blockchain-native finance.

You’re reading the latest instalment of The Weekly Raise, our column covering fundraising deals across the crypto and DeFi spaces, powered by DefiLlama.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.

Riyadh Prepares to Host the World’s Tech Ecosystem as LEAP 5 Targets Global Expansion and Billions in Investment

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Riyadh Prepares to Host the World’s Tech Ecosystem as LEAP 5 Targets Global Expansion and Billions in Investment

As the global technology sector searches for its next frontier of growth, LEAP is preparing to take centre stage once again. The award-winning technology event returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 13 to 16 April 2026 to convene the world’s most influential tech leaders, policymakers, investors, and founders.

Co-organised by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf, the fifth edition reflects the Kingdom’s growing role as a hub for innovation under Vision 2030.

With the 2025 event acting as a launchpad for a staggering $14.9billion in deals and announcements, the platform continues to serve as a catalyst for investment. The organisers anticipate that LEAP 5 will attract over 201,000 visitors, alongside more than 600 startups, 1,800 global tech brands, and 1,900 investors.

Tech titans set the agenda

LEAP 5 will bring together the architects of the next digital era, featuring a world-class speaker line-up of over 1,000 industry visionaries. CEOs and innovators from global tech giants—including Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Lenovo, Huawei, Cisco, and Cerebras Systems—will join leading Saudi enterprises like stc and Aramco.

The speaker faculty highlights figures defining the future of their respective sectors:

  • Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, will discuss the advancement of cloud infrastructure.
  • Justin Hotard, CEO and president of Nokia, will focus on shaping connectivity.
  • Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN, will champion the application of AI in the region.
  • Chandra Donelson of the US Space Force and Hanne Jesca Bax from EY will showcase frontier innovations that governments and industries will rely on tomorrow.
Expansive new zones and platforms

This year’s event will feature its most expansive programme yet, spanning more than twenty stages covering critical sectors such as climate tech, health tech, fintech, space tech, and smart cities.

Key highlights of the expanded footprint include:
  • DeepFest: Returning as the region’s premier platform for AI and deep tech, DeepFest will feature an immersive Tech Arena with live demonstrations and practical AI use cases from firms like Snowflake, Alteryx, and Xerox.
  • GameX Creative: A flagship zone powered by global gaming leaders like Savvy Games Group, ESL FACEIT Group, and Kojima Productions, spotlighting the technologies redefining esports and digital storytelling.
  • Sports Tech Hub: An expanded scale hub convening institutions like The English FA, La Liga, and the Aston Martin Formula One Team to explore how AI, data, and immersive tech are reshaping athlete performance and fan engagement.
  • LEAP Connect: A newly curated networking environment built to accelerate meaningful collaboration across the ecosystem through structured matchmaking for founders, investors, and C-suite leaders.
A nexus for capital and startups

For the global fintech and investment communities, LEAP’s Investor and Startup Programme positions Riyadh as a crucial hub for capital. Anchored by the Investor and Founder Stage and the $1million Rocket Fuel Pitch Competition, the programme unites startups and investors across 60 tech verticals. Heavyweight participation from PIF, SVC, 500 Global, and 20VC is expected to drive cross-border deals and early-stage investment at scale.

Faisal Alkhamisi, chairman of the SAFCSP, noted the rapid maturation of the event: “Over the past four years, LEAP has evolved at a rocket-fuelled pace, playing a critical role in nurturing talent, creativity and investment. Yet, this is just the beginning. LEAP will continue to reflect the ever-changing tech landscape and inspire pioneers from across the globe.”

Mike Champion, CEO of Tahaluf, added: “LEAP has become a place where the future is not just discussed but built. The momentum in Saudi Arabia is extraordinary, and as LEAP enters its fifth edition, it will take this ambition into new worlds, unlocking investment and shaping the technologies that will define the next decade.”

Bitcoin, U.S. stock futures give up early gains as Iran conflict intensifies

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Bitcoin, U.S. stock futures give up early gains as Iran conflict intensifies

Bitcoin BTC$66,227.89 pulled back from Asian session highs alongside losses in the U.S. stock futures as Iran stepped up attacks in the Middle East, reportedly hitting an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.

The leading cryptocurrency fell back below $66,000 after hitting a high of nearly $67,000 in early Asian hours. The S&P 500 e-mini futures fell to 6,790, down 1.4% on the day, reversing the early rise to 6,857. Meanwhile, oil prices continued to trade higher by over 7% on both sides of the Atlantic.

Iran reportedly stepped up missile attacks on the U.S. assets in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE, according to several open source intelligence (OSINT) sources on X. It also attacked Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura refinery, the widely-followed War & Gore OSINT handle said. Aramco is the world’s largest oil-producing company.

Meanwhile, according to BBC, Israel carried out another round of airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting Iran’s premier regional proxy, Hezbollah.

Iran’s attacks in neighboring countries aim to jack up the cost of conflict for the U.S., according to Stephen Coltman, head of macro at 21shares.

“Iran’s strategy to date has been to raise the cost to the United States of sustaining the conflict by launching attacks on neighboring countries and attempting to disrupt the flow of oil and LNG through the Strait of Hormuz,” he told CoinDesk in an email.

“Wars are generally inflationary, driving up commodity prices and widening fiscal deficits, and despite an initial knee‑jerk selloff when the conflict began,” he added, hinting at potential for appreciation in perceived store of value assets like bitcoin.

The conflict began Saturday after the U.S. and Israel attacked Israel in what has been described as a pre-emptive move to cripple its missile arsenal and nuclear ambitions. So far, bitcoin has not shown signs of haven demand.

7:42 UTC: Adds comments from 21Shares.

Anthropic’s AI Used in Iran Strikes After Trump Moved to Cut Ties: WSJ

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Anthropic’s AI Used in Iran Strikes After Trump Moved to Cut Ties: WSJ

In brief

  • U.S. Central Command reportedly used Anthropic’s Claude for intelligence assessments, target identification, and battle simulation during the Iran strikes.
  • Experts warn the six-month phase-out timeline understates the true cost of replacing an AI model embedded across classified defence pipelines.
  • OpenAI made a deal with the Pentagon following Anthropic’s fallout.

Hours after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to halt use of Anthropic’s AI tools, the U.S. military carried out a major airstrike on Iran that reportedly relied on the company’s Claude platform.

U.S. Central Command used Claude for intelligence assessments, target identification, and simulating battle scenarios during the Iran strikes, people familiar with the matter confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. 

It came despite Trump’s directive on Friday that agencies begin a six-month phase-out of Anthropic products following a breakdown in negotiations between the company and the Pentagon over how the latter can use commercially developed AI systems.

Decrypt has reached out to the Department of Defense and Anthropic for comment.

“When AI tools are already embedded in live intelligence and simulation systems, decisions at the top don’t instantly translate to changes on the ground,” Midhun Krishna M, co-founder and CEO of LLM cost tracker TknOps.io, told Decrypt. “There’s a lag—technical, procedural, and human.”

“By the time a model is embedded across classified intelligence and simulation systems, you’re looking at sunk integration costs, retraining, security re-certifications, and parallel testing, so a six-month phase-out may sound decisive, but the real financial and operational burden runs far deeper,” Krishna added.

“Defense agencies will now prioritize model portability and redundancy,” he said. “No serious military operator wants to discover during a crisis that its AI layer is politically fragile.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the company would not strip safeguards preventing Claude from being deployed for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. 

“We cannot in good conscience accede to their request,” Amodei wrote, after the Defense Department demanded contractors allow their systems for “any lawful use.”

“The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War,” Trump later wrote on Truth Social, ordering agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic products. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed, designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security,” a label previously reserved for foreign adversaries, barring every Pentagon contractor and partner from commercial activity with the company. 

Anthropic called the designation “unprecedented” and vowed to challenge it in court, saying it had “never before publicly applied to an American company.” 

The company added that, to its knowledge, the two disputed restrictions had not affected a single government mission to date.

“The debate isn’t about whether AI will be used in defense, that’s already happening,” Krishna added. “It is whether frontier labs can maintain differentiated guardrails once their systems become operational assets under ‘any lawful use’ contracts.”

OpenAI moved quickly to fill the gap with CEO Sam Altman announcing a Pentagon deal on Friday night covering classified military networks, claiming it included the same guardrails Anthropic had sought. 

Asked whether the Pentagon’s effective blacklisting of Anthropic set a troubling precedent for future disputes with AI firms, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded on X, “Yes; I think it is an extremely scary precedent, and I wish they handled it a different way.

“I don’t think Anthropic handled it well either, but as the more powerful party, I hold the government more responsible. I am still hopeful for a much better resolution,” he added.

Meanwhile, nearly 500 employees from OpenAI and Google signed an open letter warning that the Pentagon was attempting to pit AI companies against each other. 

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Over $9 billion flees BTC and ETH ETFs in four months

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Over $9 billion flees BTC and ETH ETFs in four months

The U.S.-listed spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen record outflows over the past four months, confirming that a full-blown crypto market is underway.

Investors have pulled $6.39 billion from bitcoin ETFs over four straight months of outflows, the longest monthly losing streak since the funds launched in January 2024, according to data source SoSoValue data.

Ether ETFs have also fallen out of favor, bleeding $2.76 billion over the past 4 months.

These huge outflows indicate that institutional appetite for digital assets has collapsed, which explains the price losses in the two tokens. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, peaked at over $126,000 in early October and has since almost halved to $67,000. Ether has had a much steeper fall, down over 60% from highs above $4,950 in August last year.

Alternative investment vehicles such as spot ETFs emerged as the clearest and most observable source of sustained institutional activity after their debut in early 2024. Investors poured billions in 2024 and in months following pro-crypto Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. elections, greasing the bull run in both tokens at the time.

The demand, however, evaporated after the early October crash, which was supposedly led by pricing inefficiencies on offshore exchange Binance. Recent days have seen sporadic inflows, but analysts say a sustained trend is needed for any meaningful market bounce.

Bitcoin under pressure as oil spikes 6%. What’s next?

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Bitcoin under pressure as oil spikes 6%. What’s next?

A brief Sunday rally didn’t survive contact with Monday.

Bitcoin slid to $66,702 in early Monday trading, down 1.1% over the past 24 hours, as traditional markets reopened and began pricing the U.S.-Iran conflict that crypto had been trading in isolation since Saturday.

Sunday’s bounce to $68,000 on the Khamenei confirmation has now been mostly unwound, with the market settling back into the mid-$66,000 range that preceded the strikes.

The broader crypto picture was mixed. Ether fell 2.5% to $1,967, solana dropped 4.1% to $84, and XRP lost 3.6% to $1.36. The weekly numbers paint the real damage, with solana down 8.1% over seven days to lead losses among majors.

Traditional markets told the story crypto was anticipating. Brent crude surged as much as 13% at the open before settling around $77.50, still up 6.4%, the biggest jump since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil flows, is effectively closed, per Bloomberg. Asian equities dropped 1.4% and U.S. equity futures fell 0.7%. Gold climbed to $5,350 an ounce.

The oil move is what matters most for crypto’s near-term direction. Higher energy prices feed directly into inflation expectations, which push back the timeline for Fed rate cuts, which tighten the liquidity conditions that drive risk asset prices.

But the situation remains fluid. Conflicting reports emerged Monday about whether Iran is seeking to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. The Wall Street Journal reported a fresh push to negotiate, while Iran’s national security chief Ali Larijani said the country won’t negotiate.

Earlier Sunday, Trump said the bombing campaign will continue until objectives are achieved, though The Atlantic reported he agreed to talk with Iran’s new leadership.

Meanwhile, some crypto traders say further downside risks for the market could be limited.

“Given that Iran has been isolated from global financial markets for quite some time, we believe that downside risk is limited,” said Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at BTSE.

“Some have been concerned about oil prices and their potential impact on inflation, but the world has been weaned off Iranian oil and increased supply from OPEC and the U.S. should be enough to stabilize prices.”

Whether that proves right depends on whether the Strait of Hormuz reopens and how long Trump’s “objectives” take to achieve. Until both of those questions have answers, crypto trades as a risk asset in a world that just got riskier.

Hyperliquid’s Token Rises as Weekend Iran Shock Finds Few Open Markets

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Hyperliquid’s Token Rises as Weekend Iran Shock Finds Few Open Markets

In brief

  • HYPE rose about 6% even as Iran headlines drove weekend volatility.
  • Hyperliquid absorbed early volume as price moves formed before traditional futures reopened.
  • Weekend shocks may turn always-on perps into a repeat venue for early risk pricing and fee growth, Decrypt was told.

As tensions escalated over Iran-related headlines this weekend, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token rose about 6% as traders turned to the always-on decentralized perpetuals platform to express risk while many traditional markets were closed.

Bitcoin and other risk assets fell as Iran-related tensions escalated, while oil and gold moved higher amid a broader risk-off shift. Volatility rose, and funding rates turned negative across crypto derivatives markets as traders adjusted positioning.

Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange that lets traders buy and sell perpetual futures contracts directly on-chain without using a centralized intermediary.

Its native token, HYPE, fell to about $26.2 at the end of February, in line with the broader market pullback, before surging to roughly $32 as volatility picked up on Sunday.

The token is up about 25% year to date, though it remains well below its September peak near $58, per CoinGecko data.

Trading volume over the last 24 hours for the exchange reached a near one-month high on Saturday, rising to a peak of $200 million before dissipating as traders digested the risk premium to global energy markets.

Always-on trading

Hyperliquid was one of the few venues open and liquid as volatility picked up over the weekend, drawing trading activity at a time when equity futures and many centralized crypto platforms were either closed or operating with thinner books.

“As a decentralized perpetuals platform, it was one of the few venues actually open and liquid when the Iran headlines hit, and in a weekend event where centralized venues are closed off to face thin liquidity,” Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at Merkle Tree Capital, told Decrypt.

Geopolitical shocks “make the case for non-custodial, always-on trading infrastructure,” McMillin added, noting how HYPE appears to sit “at an interesting intersection.”

Hyperliquid’s token “benefits both from volume-driven fee revenue during chaos events and from any broader rotation away from centralised exchange risk,” he said. “It’s worth watching whether weekend crisis volume is becoming a structural tailwind rather than a one-off.”

For HYPE, this ties geopolitical shocks directly to trading volume and fee activity, supporting the view that off-hours crises may become a repeat source of demand.

First response

Decentralized platforms like Hyperliquid’s are increasingly serving as “the first-response venue for geopolitical risk,” Dominick John, analyst at Kronos Research, told Decrypt.

“Institutions leverage these always-on markets to anticipate moves in conventional venues, using on-chain perpetuals to hedge before broader markets open,” John explained, adding that such a function positions decentralized venues “for early risk pricing.”

Weekend geopolitical shocks provide decentralized perpetuals exchanges “a structural edge” that captures “risk-driven flow while TradFi sleeps,” he added.

While platforms like Hyperliquid could serve that purpose, most other perpetual decentralized exchanges, including its own HIP-3 markets, would still need to “achieve much deeper order book liquidity to onboard institutional traders,” Siwon Huh, researcher at Four Pillars, told Decrypt.

On Hyperliquid, new markets require HYPE to be staked, and much of the platform’s fees go toward HYPE buybacks, meaning volatility and trading growth can directly increase demand for the token, which has also shown lower correlation to Bitcoin than many other altcoins, he explained.

“For now, they appear to have already established themselves as highly useful exchanges at the retail level,” Huh said, adding that the weekend geopolitical shocks are likely to “capture demand from liquidity providers requiring hedging at a much larger scale.”

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Magic Eden Shifts Focus From NFTs to Casino Platform

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Magic Eden Shifts Focus From NFTs to Casino Platform

Magic Edin is shifting resources from NFTs to its casino platform Dicey, after a closed beta saw $15 million wagered by around 200 users in two months.

Solana-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden is winding down its support for Bitcoin and Ethereum to double down on its upcoming online casino and sportsbook, Dicey.  

Magic Eden CEO and co-founder Jack Lu said in an X post on Friday that it is winding down support for its Ethereum Virtual Machine and Bitcoin-based Runes and Ordinals marketplaces on March 9, followed by its Bitcoin API on March 27, and its crypto wallet on April 1.

He added that the platform will end its NFT buyback program and would be “doubling down” on Dicey, with Lu saying there is a “massive opportunity” in iGaming, or online gambling. 

“It is clear we’re entering a new era where finance and entertainment merge,” Lu said, adding he was “incredibly bullish” on Dicey’s two-month-old closed beta, which has seen 200 users wager over $15 million.

Source: Jack Lu

Dicey offers an on-chain casino and plans to launch a sportsbook in a similar fashion to blockchain gambling sites such as Stake. 

Magic Eden cutting NFTs to streamline toward gambling

The changes see Magic Eden, once one of the most popular NFT marketplaces, significantly scale back its focus on NFTs.

Lu said the platform will “exclusively” focus on NFT packs, which bundle random NFTs from various collections, similar to physical trading card packs.

Related: Logan Paul sells Pokémon card for $16.5M, years after fractional NFT row

Lu said the shift was ultimately down to most of the platform’s products not contributing significantly to revenues.

“80% of our cost are tied to products generating only 20% of our revenue. By winding down these products, we’re refocusing on our Solana roots [and] retaining our most profitable products, betting on deep on crypto entertainment, and positioning our products for long term growth.”

The NFT market has been significantly impacted amid a broader crypto market downturn over the past few months, with major players such as Nifty Gateway announcing in January that it was shutting down.