Wu said October VC Monthly Report: Financing quantity rose by 21%, Coinbase acquisition of Echo

Author | Wu Says Blockchain

According to statistics from RootData, there were 75 venture capital projects publicly disclosed by Crypto VC in October 2025, an increase of 21% compared to September 2025 (which had 62 projects), and a decrease of 25% compared to October 2024 (which had 100 projects). Note: Since not all financing is disclosed in the same month, the above statistics may increase in the future. The number of projects in each sector is as follows:

Among them, CeFi accounts for about 26.7%, DeFi accounts for about 18.7%, NFT/GameFi accounts for about 8%, L1/L2 accounts for about 4%, RWA/DePIN accounts for about 12%, Tool/Wallet accounts for about 10.7%, and AI accounts for about 20%.

In October 2025, the total financing amount was $4.556 billion, a month-on-month decrease of 11% (compared to $5.122 billion in September 2025), and a year-on-year increase of 484% (compared to $780 million in October 2024). Among them, the top 10 rounds by amount are as follows:

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), made a strategic investment of $2 billion in Polymarket, which gives Polymarket a pre-money valuation of approximately $8 billion. Through this transaction, ICE not only gains a financial stake in Polymarket but will also become the global distributor of its event-driven data.

Stripe-supported blockchain startup Tempo has completed a $500 million Series A funding round, with a valuation of approximately $5 billion, led by Thrive Capital (Joshua Kushner) and Greenoaks, with participation from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel. Tempo was co-developed by Stripe and Paradigm, focusing on stablecoin payment infrastructure, with partners including OpenAI, Shopify, and Visa.

Galaxy Digital has entered into an investment agreement with a global leading asset management company to raise $460 million through private placement. The company stated that the funds will be used for general corporate purposes and to advance its Helios data center project located in Texas, which is scheduled to deliver the first phase of 133 megawatts of critical IT load capacity in the first half of 2026.

Coinbase has agreed to acquire the blockchain-based financing platform Echo for approximately $375 million. This acquisition is Coinbase's eighth this year, as the company continues to expand its range of services under the favorable regulatory environment of the current U.S. administration.

The U.S. compliance prediction market platform Kalshi has completed a financing round of over $300 million, with its valuation jumping to $5 billion. This round was led by Sequoia Capital and a16z, with follow-on investment from existing shareholders such as Paradigm.

DDC Enterprise has completed a $124 million equity financing, led by PAG Pegasus Fund and Mulana Investment Management, with participation from OKG Financial Services. The funds raised will be used to advance its Bitcoin reserve strategy. To date, the company has acquired a total of 1,058 BTC.

Greenlane Holdings (NASDAQ: GNLN) announced the completion of a $110 million private placement financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Blockchain.com, Kraken, North Rock Digital, CitizenX, dao5, and others. Greenlane will use the proceeds to purchase BERA in the open market and OTC, for the purpose of establishing a reserve and liquidity operations.

IG Group Holdings plc (LSEG:IGG) sold Small Exchange Inc to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken's parent company Payward Inc for $100 million (£74.9 million). The transaction includes £24.3 million in cash and £50.6 million in Payward shares. This sale brings IG Group a post-tax profit of £73.3 million and increases its regulatory capital resources by £22.7 million.

Meanwhile, it announced the completion of a $82 million financing round, led by Haun Ventures and Bain Capital Crypto, with participation from Pantera Capital, Apollo, and others. The new funds will be used to expand its core product — life insurance priced in Bitcoin — and to extend its business globally. The company's total financing to date has reached $143 million.

The decentralized energy network Daylight Energy announced the completion of a $75 million financing, with $15 million equity led by Framework Ventures, and participation from a16z crypto, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Coinbase Ventures, among others. Additionally, it secured $60 million in project financing led by Turtle Hill Capital. Daylight incentivizes households to install distributed solar and energy storage through a crypto network, with revenue sources including user subscriptions and market compensation for electricity fed back to the grid during peak times. The company launched the DayFi yield protocol, which puts electricity revenue on-chain as assets and provides yields.