Original Coverage & Source Attribution: en.cryptonomist.ch
One AI computing deal dominated crypto venture capital funding from October 17–23, 2026: Tenstorrent’s $1.5 billion Series E accounted for approximately 85.1% of the $1.7626 billion announced across eight disclosed financings. Whop’s $200 million round followed, while smaller investments backed banking, stablecoin payments and AI-agent infrastructure.
Key takeaways
- Tenstorrent reached a $6.2 billion post-money valuation.
- Sequoia and Shopify Ventures led Whop’s Series D.
- Tether backed Tenstorrent and led investments in Mural and Peso.
Crypto venture capital funding reaches $1.7626 billion
The weekly total covers financing announcements, including transactions completed before the reporting period. It excludes valuations, cumulative fundraising figures and previously announced offerings.
The deal inventory drew on Crypto Fundraising, DeFiLlama and DropsTab, with checks against company announcements, investor disclosures and reporting. Tenstorrent’s financing led the crypto-linked funding tally, followed by commerce platform Whop.
Tenstorrent’s Series E funds servers and chip designs
Tenstorrent completed its equity financing on October 19, with Trace Capital and Innovation X leading the round. The investment established a $6.2 billion post-money valuation.
Tether Investments participated alongside ARK Invest, Morgan Stanley, Sandisk, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management & Research Company. Tether confirmed its participation on October 20.
Tenstorrent said it would direct the proceeds toward deploying Galaxy servers at scale and developing AI and CPU designs licensed to chipmakers. The company has operations in Santa Clara and Austin.
Whop raises $200 million for expansion and product development
Whop’s October 21 Series D brought in $200 million, with Sequoia and Shopify Ventures leading. Whop placed its valuation at $5.1 billion and said the money would fund international expansion and research and development in payments and advertising.
The platform supports sales of digital products, subscriptions, software access and online services, with stablecoin payment capabilities connecting its commerce operations to crypto infrastructure.
Tether’s February strategic investment was a separate $200 million transaction that valued Whop at $1.6 billion. Only the October Series D counts toward this reporting period.
Banking, payments and smaller infrastructure deals
Mural secured $15 million for infrastructure connecting banking and blockchain payments.
Erebor and Mural
Robinhood Ventures Fund I disclosed its preferred-stock purchase on October 21; the transaction closed on September 17. Erebor serves US businesses in technology, defense, robotics, AI and digital assets.
Robinhood said Erebor received its full national charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and FDIC insurance in February. Its deposits exceeded $7 billion, a figure excluded from the funding total. Retail investors gain exposure through RVI, a New York Stock Exchange-listed closed-end fund; the preferred shares are securities, not insured deposits.
Tether led Mural’s $15 million Series A, joined by North Island Ventures and existing investors. Mural’s October 20 announcement placed cumulative funding at $28 million.
The New York company connects accounts, payments, identity verification and compliance tools. Mural said it processed $2.1 billion across 128 countries after its API launched in 2025; customers include Deel and Opera. Proceeds support hiring, licensing, compliance and market expansion. Its AI-agent payment controls include spending limits, approved counterparties and audit records.
AI data, Bitcoin income and automated payments
Dataline raised $10.6 million in seed funding, co-led by Lattice and Dispersion Capital. Participants included Coinbase Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Anagram and Vlad Tenev. The AI-agent data provider also plans a separate public token sale, excluded from the tally.
HoneyB’s developer, Nectar Group, raised $5 million in a seed round that included Portal Ventures, Peer Ventures and Anchorage Digital Ventures as investors. Through coordinated custody, credit and asset management, HoneyB intends to pair Bitcoin collateral with institutional-grade income strategies.
Solana Ventures led Hylo’s $1 million strategic round, with Colosseum participating. The protocol is building leveraged tokens, stablecoin systems and yield infrastructure, separate from its prior $1.5 million seed round.
X Pay, headquartered in the Netherlands, secured $1 million from a group of nine investors, among them DCI, Credit Scend, Skyland Ventures and Zerra Ventures. It uses x402 for automated USDC payments. The capital will be used to expand blockchain support, conduct a security audit, build an API marketplace and prepare for EU compliance.
Tether also led Bolivian fintech Peso’s pre-seed investment, announced October 21, to expand Latin American USDT payment infrastructure. Lighthouse secured additional strategic funding for persistent AI-agent memory and decentralized storage. Sonic Labs entered an OTC agreement involving approximately 13 million S tokens.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
