# Funding Related Articles

HTX News Center provides the latest articles and in-depth analysis on "Funding", covering market trends, project updates, tech developments, and regulatory policies in the crypto industry.

Crypto Derivatives Risk Appetite Plunges As ETF Outflows Hit Bitcoin

Crypto derivatives traders have significantly reduced risk appetite following last week's near-20% Bitcoin sell-off, according to a Deribit Insights report using Block Scholes analytics. The proprietary Risk Appetite Index fell sharply below 0.05 as Bitcoin attempted to stabilize above $60,000. This pullback coincided with the longest streak of outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs since their launch, reinforcing a cautious institutional sentiment. While Bitcoin's 25-delta options skew recovered from deeply bearish levels, it remained negative at nearly -9%, indicating traders still value downside protection more than upside calls. Concurrently, Ethereum funding rates have traded negative since June 5, signaling bearish positioning in perpetual swap markets. The report concludes that despite price consolidation, derivatives data shows professional traders remain in a defensive, cautious stance rather than signaling a confident return to bullish exposure. Key indicators for a shift would be a recovery in Bitcoin ETF inflows and a normalization of the options skew and ETH funding rates.

bitcoinist06/13 00:37

Crypto Derivatives Risk Appetite Plunges As ETF Outflows Hit Bitcoin

bitcoinist06/13 00:37

Morning Brief | CME Launches Nasdaq Cryptocurrency Index Futures; Asset Manager Janus Henderson Makes Strategic Investment in Ethena

Market Digest: CME Launches Nasdaq Crypto Index Futures; Janus Henderson Invests in Ethena Key developments include CME Group introducing cash-settled Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures tracking eight major cryptocurrencies. Asset manager Janus Henderson announced a strategic investment in Ethena, integrating its CLO product into USDe reserves and planning regulated investment vehicles. Tether led a massive ~$1.4 billion Series C for robotics firm NEURA. Hong Kong's SFC clarified licensed firms can service existing mainland China clients remotely. Data indicates Q2 2026 is set to be the worst quarter for crypto public fundraising (IEO/ICO/IDO) since late 2020, with only $58M raised. Meanwhile, a CFTC proposal aims to regulate prediction markets to prevent manipulation. In other news, Polymarket's FIFA World Cup champion market surpassed $1.8B in volume, and a suspected exploit on an old Raydium pool resulted in a $1.34M loss.

链捕手06/11 01:33

Morning Brief | CME Launches Nasdaq Cryptocurrency Index Futures; Asset Manager Janus Henderson Makes Strategic Investment in Ethena

链捕手06/11 01:33

Maelstrom’s Bitcoin Grants Hit 20 Months — 5 Developers, 4 Active, Here’s What They’ve Accomplished

Maelstrom, the family office of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, has published the first annual report for its Bitcoin Grant Program. Over a 20-month period beginning in October 2024, the program has supported five developers, with four currently active. They are paid monthly in Bitcoin, with grants capped at $400,000 per developer annually. Two developers focus on Bitcoin Core: **Rkrux** is a prolific code reviewer, working on MuSig2 and wallet descriptor modernization. **Stratospher** focuses on critical consensus and peer-to-peer network code, fixing bugs that could cause network splits. Two others advance Bitcoin privacy: **Benalleng** develops Payjoin, a protocol that breaks common surveillance heuristics, with integrations in several wallets. **Macgyver** works on Silent Payments, enabling reusable static addresses without on-chain reuse, driving wallet adoption and standardization. The program funds only open-source Bitcoin protocol work with no commercial ties. The report highlights this model as a direct, transparent way for successful industry participants to fund the essential, unglamorous development underpinning Bitcoin's security and privacy.

bitcoinist06/10 13:32

Maelstrom’s Bitcoin Grants Hit 20 Months — 5 Developers, 4 Active, Here’s What They’ve Accomplished

bitcoinist06/10 13:32

Exclusive | ByteDance's AI Drug Discovery Unit Initiates Spinoff and Funding, AI4S Enters Industrialization Phase

Exclusive | ByteDance’s AI Drug Discovery Unit Initiates Spin-off for Financing, Signaling Industrialization Phase for AI4S. ByteDance’s AI drug discovery business line has begun the process of spinning off as an independent entity to raise outside funding, marking a key step toward industrializing its AI for Science (AI4S) efforts. Post-spin-off, ByteDance will remain the controlling shareholder. The new company will inherit the core team, algorithms, technology platform, and existing pipeline assets. It will also continue to receive computing power support from ByteDance's Volcano Engine. The AI drug discovery team, established in 2021 and led by Liu Kai with a core team of about 50 AI and pharmaceutical experts, has been responsible for foundational model research and industrialization. It has consolidated ByteDance's protein structure prediction model team and launched several key technologies. These include the molecular structure prediction models Protenix and Seedfold, the protein design tool PXDesign, and the AI drug discovery platform "Anew Labs." Anew Labs has produced research covering protein-ligand dynamics, molecular generation, and free energy calculation, and has developed early-stage drug pipelines like IL-17 and IL4R inhibitors. Notably, its IL-17 small molecule program, presented in April 2026, demonstrated the first small-molecule blockade of three IL-17 dimers, a significant step in autoimmune disease research. This progress demonstrates ByteDance’s AI capabilities have advanced from model development to validating specific drug targets and molecules. The company believes the opportunity to transition from research to industry is now ripe. The spin-off aims to establish an organizational structure better suited to the business's unique needs—long R&D cycles and complex validation processes involving wet labs and clinical trials—to attract top talent and drive deeper integration of AI with the pharmaceutical industry. The move responds to the pharmaceutical industry's pressing need to improve efficiency amid high R&D costs, long timelines, and high failure rates. The field of AI4S is rapidly advancing, as seen with tools like AlphaFold evolving from protein prediction to modeling complex biological interactions and the emergence of multimodal molecular generation models for drug design. ByteDance has been building its AI4S capabilities for years, exploring areas like computational biology, molecular simulation, and materials science. This spin-off represents its first major attempt to industrialize AI4S. An insider stated the company attaches great importance to this move, hoping that an independent entity with greater decision-making flexibility can pioneer a viable industrial path for AI4S in China.

marsbit06/10 06:26

Exclusive | ByteDance's AI Drug Discovery Unit Initiates Spinoff and Funding, AI4S Enters Industrialization Phase

marsbit06/10 06:26

Bitmine Continues Aggressive Ethereum Accumulation as Others Scale Back

Bitmine, an Ethereum treasury, accumulated 126,971 ETH last week, reinforcing its aggressive accumulation strategy amid a broader market downturn. Its holdings now total $9.6 billion in assets, including 5.54 million ETH—representing 4.59% of the total supply—203 Bitcoin, stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings, and cash. The company has staked approximately 4.72 million ETH, generating significant yields and potential annual income of around $230 million. Chairman Thomas 'Tom' Lee views the market decline as the beginning of a "crypto spring," driven by anticipated rising demand for decentralized networks like Ethereum from advancing AI systems. Unlike many other treasury firms that have halted or reversed accumulation, Bitmine continues to acquire. It recently announced plans to raise capital via a public stock offering, with proceeds potentially used for further ETH purchases, ecosystem investments, and infrastructure expansion. Bitmine now holds the world's second-largest corporate crypto treasury and the largest dedicated Ethereum treasury.

TheNewsCrypto06/09 13:31

Bitmine Continues Aggressive Ethereum Accumulation as Others Scale Back

TheNewsCrypto06/09 13:31

Morning Post | BitMine Purchased 126,971 ETH Last Week; Trader Eugene Announces Exit from Crypto Market

ChainCatcher Daily: Key developments include prominent trader Eugene announcing his exit from crypto markets, citing better opportunities in traditional stocks. In security news, the Syscoin cross-chain bridge was hacked, involving approximately 5 billion SYS, leading to a suspension of its bridging services. On the institutional front, BitMine significantly increased its ETH holdings by 126,971 last week, bringing its total to 5.54 million ETH (4.59% of supply). Conversely, Bitcoin treasury company Strategy purchased an additional 1,550 BTC for $101.3 million. Other notable updates: AI company Moonshot AI is seeking up to $2B in new funding targeting a $30B valuation, digital bank Revolut is planning a secondary share sale at a ~$115B valuation, and a Strategy proposal was approved to change STRC dividend payments from monthly to bi-monthly. In legal news, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has formally applied for a presidential pardon. The report also includes 24-hour trending meme tokens on Ethereum, Solana, and Base networks, and features articles discussing market "tail-end" rallies and the growing scarcity and value capture of AI inference compute.

链捕手06/09 01:32

Morning Post | BitMine Purchased 126,971 ETH Last Week; Trader Eugene Announces Exit from Crypto Market

链捕手06/09 01:32

Valuation Surpasses 200 Billion, Kimi Reportedly Raises 13.6 Billion More, Speeds Up Hong Kong IPO

Beijing-based AI unicoth MoonDark (Kimi) is reportedly in talks for a new funding round aiming to raise up to $20 billion (approximately RMB 136 billion), targeting a post-money valuation of $300 billion (approximately RMB 2.035 trillion). If successful, this would mark its third round in six months and a six-fold increase from its $43 billion valuation in December last year. Last month, the company completed a $20 billion funding round led by Meituan Longzhu, reaching a valuation exceeding $200 billion. According to reports, MoonDark has raised over RMB 376 billion across six rounds, making it the most funded large language model startup in China. Founded in 2023 by CEO Yang Zhilin, the company's core product is the Kimi AI Assistant. In April, it launched and open-sourced its flagship model, Kimi K2.6, which has demonstrated performance comparable to top models like GPT-5.4 in certain benchmarks. Recently, it began beta testing for Kimi Work, a local AI agent for knowledge workers. Commercially, the company's Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) reportedly surpassed $2 billion in April. Regarding its IPO plans, Bloomberg reported in March that MoonDark is preparing for a listing in Hong Kong, though the process remains in early stages. The funding and IPO pace for leading Chinese AI firms has accelerated notably in 2026, mirroring global trends where companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are also setting new fundraising and valuation records. Securing substantial capital is becoming a critical factor in the competitive landscape alongside model capabilities.

marsbit06/08 07:45

Valuation Surpasses 200 Billion, Kimi Reportedly Raises 13.6 Billion More, Speeds Up Hong Kong IPO

marsbit06/08 07:45

Crypto Billionaires Rally Behind Nigel Farage As Political Stakes Rise

Reform UK’s fundraising surged sixfold in early 2026, raising $12.5 million—more than any other British party—largely driven by two major crypto donors. Christopher Harborne (Tether stakeholder) donated $4 million, while Ben Delo (BitMEX co-founder) gave $5.4 million. This combined $9.4 million surpassed the roughly $5.4 million each raised by Labour and the Conservatives. Nigel Farage, Reform’s leader, has actively courted crypto support, advocating for lower crypto taxes and a Bitcoin reserve. Meanwhile, a separate $6.7 million personal gift from Harborne to Farage is under parliamentary inquiry regarding its declaration. Reform’s rise, fueled significantly by crypto-linked donations, marks a major shift in UK political financing.

bitcoinist06/05 20:01

Crypto Billionaires Rally Behind Nigel Farage As Political Stakes Rise

bitcoinist06/05 20:01

Token Inefficient, Economy Tokenless

The article "Tokens Aren't Economical, Economics Aren't Tokenized" analyzes a pivotal shift in the AI industry from a technology-driven narrative to one dominated by capital efficiency. It highlights two concurrent trends: a severe capital shortage due to the exorbitant and recurring costs of compute (e.g., OpenAI's high burn rate) and a wave of corporate spin-offs where major tech companies are separating their AI units (like Kuaishou's Kling and Baidu's Kunlunxin). The core argument is that AI's "anti-internet" business model, where user growth increases costs rather than profits, has created a disconnect between high valuations and actual cash flow. Spin-offs address this by allowing AI assets to be valued independently. Within a parent company, they are seen as cost centers, but as standalone entities, they are priced based on their growth potential and scarcity in the primary market, leading to massive valuation premiums (e.g., Kling's estimated value tripling post-spin-off). The industry is at an inflection point, moving from "model worship" to "value realization." The competition is evolving from a pure compute (GPU) race to a broader focus on systemic efficiency and full-stack engineering (involving CPUs and orchestration) to achieve viable commercialization. The year 2026 is framed as a critical moment where the industry must definitively answer how to economically translate AI capability into tangible business value, reshaping the sector's future power structure.

marsbit06/05 11:13

marsbit06/05 11:13

Morning Post | Bitmine Plans to Raise $300 Million Through Preferred Stock Issuance; Polymarket Accuses Kalshi of Commercial Espionage

ChainCatcher's Daily Crypto Brief: Key developments from the past 24 hours include significant funding moves, regulatory actions, and market predictions. Bitmine announced a $300 million preferred stock fundraising. Polymarket accused rival prediction platform Kalshi of corporate espionage, citing numerous suspicious coincidences in product launches, a claim Kalshi strongly denied. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a joint "Disruption Week" anti-fraud operation with companies like Coinbase and Meta, froze over $3.8 million in cryptocurrency linked to scams. In infrastructure news, Macau completed its integration with the multi-central bank digital currency bridge, mBridge, aiming to build efficient cross-border payment channels. Cosmos Labs acquired the block explorer Mintscan. Market-wise, Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered's Head of Digital Assets Research, stated Bitcoin is nearing a bottom around $63,000, maintaining a year-end target of $100,000. He noted stability in U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF holdings. Ahead of SpaceX's anticipated IPO, internal insiders at Rocket Lab (RKLB) sold over $18.41 million in stock. In tokenization, Goldman Sachs partnered with Apex and Archax to launch a tokenized real estate fund. The meme token tracker GMGN reported the top trending tokens: on Ethereum, HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD; on Solana, TROLL, swarms, WORLDCUP, neet, Buttcoin; and on Base, PEPE, toby, ODDS, ELSA, SKI.

链捕手06/05 01:32

Morning Post | Bitmine Plans to Raise $300 Million Through Preferred Stock Issuance; Polymarket Accuses Kalshi of Commercial Espionage