Crypto Funding Rebounds in October as Kalshi Raises $1 Billion

RootData recorded $2.099 billion in disclosed crypto venture funding for October 2026, up 65.4% from September but remained 65.3% below the October 2025 total. RootData counted 67 disclosed deals, up 8.1% from 62 in September, while October 2025 had 112. The year-over-year deal count fell 40.2%, even as monthly capital recovered.

RootData based the figures on records available October 29, 2026. It counted deals without disclosed amounts toward the transaction total but excluded them from the funding total.

What does the monthly rebound obscure?

RootData put September funding at $1.269 billion and October 2025 at $6.046 billion, framing October's recovery against a lower base and a much weaker year-earlier market. RootData's breakdown assigned the 67 disclosed deals across these categories:

• DeFi: 26.9%.
• CeFi: 17.9%; AI: 14.9%; RWA/DePIN: 10.4%.
• Tool/Wallet and L1/L2: 4.5% each.
• Privacy: 1.5%; other categories: 19.4%.

How did Kalshi anchor the round?

The Cryptonomist reported that CFTC-regulated prediction exchange Kalshi raised $1 billion in a Series G disclosed October 29, 2026, at a $40 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management co-led the round. The valuation rose from $22 billion in May 2026. It was the largest disclosed October transaction, according to The Cryptonomist.

Kalshi said the $1 billion proceeds would fund institutional sales, distribution, product development and international expansion, with particular attention to Latin America and Europe. Planned offerings include indices, single-stock perpetual futures and compute markets. Kalshi reported more than 30 million accounts and annualized trading volume above $1 trillion.

Where did AI capital go?

The Cryptonomist reported that Pearl secured $130 million, split between $55 million in equity and a $75 million GPU infrastructure fund. Lightspeed, Ribbit and Square Peg invested.

The Cryptonomist also reported that Pearl's layer-1 blockchain uses Proof of Useful Work, linking block production to GPU matrix multiplication. Miners can train or run AI models while validating blocks, earning block rewards and inference fees, according to The Cryptonomist.

BUZZ Alpha Cloud, a HIVE Digital Technologies subsidiary, secured roughly $129 million in credit at a fixed 9.0% annual rate over three years, according to The Cryptonomist. The Cryptonomist said the credit covers around 80% of the project's expenses and backs a Canadian GPU rollout under a three-year agreement with Cohere.

HIVE's CEO said the financing connects to a roughly $165 million acquisition of 2,303 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs. Previously issued 0% convertible bonds cover the equity portion. Delivery is set for late in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Nous Research, an open-source AI collective, secured $90 million through a Series B led by Robot Ventures at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to The Cryptonomist. The company also debuted an enterprise AI agent and brought total funding to date to $158 million.

Where did payments and tokenization attract capital?

The Cryptonomist reported that Whop, a payments API company, secured $200 million in Series D funding at a $5.09 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures as co-leads. Whop's tools cover business setup, payment distribution and operations for entrepreneurs and small merchants, and the company averages transaction fees of about 6%.

The Cryptonomist reported that French regulated tokenization platform Spiko secured $90 million in an NEA-led Series B, lifting total funding to $120 million. The Cryptonomist said Spiko issues UCITS money-market funds as on-chain shares representing assets including U.S. Treasuries, while an independent custodian bank holds those assets outside Spiko's balance sheet.

The Cryptonomist reported that Hong Kong-based PhotonPay raised $40 million in a Blockchain Capital-led Series C for multi-asset wallets, global card issuance, local clearing and financial tools for AI agents. As of August, PhotonPay reported $65 billion in annualized transaction volume and more than 200,000 business customers.

The Cryptonomist reported that stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Noah added $16 million to its seed financing, taking the round to $38 million. Noah said it had signed more than 150 customers since the start of 2026 and covered more than 150 markets and 60 currencies. Noah said the money will support regulatory coverage, engineering and compliance hiring, and a New York office.

What funding backs bitcoin insurance and embedded banking?

The Cryptonomist reported that Bermuda-based Meanwhile raised $37.5 million in a Bain Capital Crypto-led round, which lifted Meanwhile's cumulative funding above $180 million to date. The Cryptonomist said its BTC Life 1-Pay whole-life policy serves high-net-worth clients outside the United States and denominates premiums and death benefits in bitcoin. After one year, policyholders can borrow up to 90% of policy value.

The Cryptonomist reported that Meow raised $31.6 million in a Stifel-led Series B, with Archetype VC participating. Its embedded banking services let enterprises and AI agents open USD checking accounts and request debit cards. The service supports USD, USDC, USDT and SWIFT payouts across more than 150 countries.

Kalshi said international expansion would focus on Latin America and Europe, while HIVE's delivery timeline for 2,303 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs points to late in the fourth quarter of 2026. RootData's next totals will test whether larger rounds can reverse the 40.2% year-over-year decline in deal count.