Kalshi's $1 Billion Round Headed a $2.1 Billion Month for Crypto VC

Kalshi raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, capping a month in which disclosed crypto venture funding reached $2.099 billion across 67 deals, according to WuBlockchain's monthly VC report based on RootData records through October 29, 2026.

The dollar total climbed 65.4% from September 2026's $1.269 billion but dropped 65.3% from October 2025's $6.046 billion. Deal count told a similar story: 67 rounds in October, up 8.1% from 62 in September but down 40.2% from 112 a year earlier. Deals with undisclosed amounts count toward the deal tally but not the dollar total, and RootData figures may still be revised as financings surface late.

Where did the money go?

DeFi led sector share at roughly 26.9%, followed by CeFi at 17.9%, AI at 14.9%, and RWA/DePIN at 10.4%. Tool/Wallet and L1/L2 each took about 4.5%, Privacy took 1.5%, and other categories made up the remaining 19.4%. In plain terms: payments, stablecoin rails, and AI infrastructure absorbed the bulk of the capital.

The CFTC-regulated prediction platform Kalshi nearly doubled its valuation in five months. Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management co-led the round; Kalshi's previous round closed in May at $22 billion.

Which rounds topped the table?

The ten largest disclosed rounds:

• Kalshi — $1 billion at $40 billion valuation, co-led by Sequoia and Wellington Management.
• Whop — $200 million Series D at $5.09 billion, co-led by Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures. The payments API firm charges a blended average fee of about 6% of platform transactions.
• Pearl — $130 million, split between $55 million equity and a $75 million GPU infrastructure fund. Lightspeed, Ribbit, and Square Peg invested.
• BUZZ Alpha Cloud — ~$129 million credit facility at 9.0% over three years, loan-to-cost about 80%.
• Nous Research — $90 million Series B at $1.5 billion, led by Robot Ventures.
• Spiko — $90 million Series B led by NEA.
• PhotonPay — $40 million Series C led by Blockchain Capital.
• Meanwhile — $37.5 million led by Bain Capital Crypto.
• Meow — $31.6 million Series B led by Stifel.
• Noah — $16 million add-on, bringing its seed round to $38 million.

Takeaway: a single $1 billion round accounted for nearly half the month's disclosed dollars.

What is the AI infrastructure angle?

Pearl is building a Layer-1 on Proof of Useful Work, tying block production to GPU matrix multiplication. Miners can train or run AI models while validating blocks and earn both block rewards and inference fees.

BUZZ Alpha Cloud, a subsidiary of listed data-center operator HIVE Digital Technologies, signed its roughly $129 million facility with an institutional lender to fund an AI GPU cluster, including NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems, supporting a three-year sovereign AI contract with Cohere. HIVE's CEO said the financing corresponds to an about $165 million purchase of 2,303 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs, with the equity portion funded by 0% convertible bonds issued earlier this year. GPU delivery is expected near the end of Q4 2026.

Nous Research, a three-year-old open-source model and decentralized AI collective, reached $158 million in total funding. Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Samsung, and 1789 Capital — where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner — joined the round, and the company launched an AI agent for enterprise users.

Takeaway: AI compute, not token issuance, is the sector's current magnet for capital.

How are stablecoins and payments drawing capital?

Spiko, a French regulated tokenization platform, issues UCITS money-market funds and represents assets such as U.S. Treasuries as on-chain shares; total funding now stands at $120 million. Assets sit with an independent custodian bank, not on Spiko's balance sheet.

Hong Kong-based PhotonPay will use its $40 million to expand multi-asset wallets, global card issuing, local clearing infrastructure, and financial tools for AI agents. SBI Group, IDG Capital, GL Ventures, and Lightspeed Faction participated.

Noah said it has signed more than 150 new customers since the start of 2026 and now covers more than 150 markets and over 60 currencies. The new capital funds regulatory expansion, engineering and compliance hires, and a New York office.

Takeaway: stablecoin rails are scaling through compliance headcount, not just code.

What about the stranger bets?

Meanwhile, a Bermuda bitcoin-denominated life insurer and the first licensed life insurer operating entirely in bitcoin, has now raised more than $180 million. Its BTC Life 1-Pay product — a single-premium whole-life policy for high-net-worth clients outside the United States — lets clients pay premiums in bitcoin and receive a lifetime guaranteed death benefit in bitcoin; after the first year, policyholders can borrow up to 90% of the policy's value. The company has signed 15 brokers in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Switzerland.

Meow, which provides embedded banking for AI agents and enterprises, lets users including AI agents open USD checking accounts and request virtual or physical debit cards, with USD, USDC, USDT, and SWIFT payouts to more than 150 countries.

The month's pattern is clear: money is concentrating in payments plumbing, stablecoin infrastructure, and GPU-backed AI compute, while headline dollar figures remain far below the 2025 peak. Whether October's month-on-month rebound holds depends on rounds still undisclosed in RootData's records.