Katie Haun successfully secured $1 billion for two new venture capital funds on Monday, despite the crypto industry experiencing a downturn in investments. The month of April 2026 witnessed only $659 million invested across 63 deals in the crypto venture capital sphere, marking a 74% decline from March and registering as the lowest monthly total since July 2024. For the year up to now, crypto VC investments have reached $5.64 billion, which is significantly lower compared to the pace set in 2025 due to large funding rounds from companies like Binance, Polymarket, and Kalshi. Funding has consistently decreased each month following October 2025’s peak of $3.84 billion, aligning with a 37% reduction in the global crypto market cap over the same timeframe.
Haun Ventures’ ability to raise $1 billion is particularly noteworthy given these conditions. The company distinguishes itself as one of the few crypto-native funds that have expanded counter-cyclically, growing its assets under management from $1 billion to $2.5 billion while firms like Paradigm, Pantera, and a16z crypto experienced reductions post-2025’s peak. Previous successful investments by Haun include backing Bridge at a $100 million valuation before Stripe acquired it for $1.1 billion, as well as investing in BVNK at $678 million ahead of Mastercard acquiring it for $1.8 billion—the largest stablecoin acquisition to date. Haun’s strategy has been underpinned by the belief that stablecoin infrastructure is critical financial infrastructure and that dominant payments companies, rather than other crypto entities, would be the ones making acquisitions.
The newly raised funds aim to extend this focus into AI agents, with Haun arguing these will require regulated financial systems—such as wallets, payment rails, and compliance measures—to function effectively. The firm is betting on Erebor, a federally insured digital bank initiated by Palmer Luckey valued at $4.35 billion, which targets AI and defense technology sectors instead of retail consumers. Haun clarified she isn’t shifting focus: “We’re not becoming an AI fund. But AI agents will need regulated financial plumbing, and the firms that built stablecoin infrastructure are best positioned to build it.”
Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) announced crossing 15,000 BTC in its treasury after acquiring 444 BTC for $33.9 million at an average cost of $76,307 per coin. This positions Strive as the 9th largest public corporate Bitcoin holder, approaching Riot (15,680 BTC) and Coinbase (15,389 BTC). As of May 1, it held $97.9 million in cash alongside $50.4 million in Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, creating a layered Bitcoin investment strategy combining direct holdings and structured products. Strive labels itself as “the first publicly traded asset management Bitcoin treasury company” and tracks its performance by Bitcoin per share rather than earnings, with a YTD BTC yield of 18.7%.
DTCC plans to integrate traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) through tokenization. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which managed $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year and oversees $114 trillion in assets, will initiate live tokenized securities trades in July with a full commercial launch by October. This service will tokenize assets such as Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and US Treasuries while maintaining existing legal protections and ownership rights. The innovation lies in the use of blockchain tokens that represent these assets, enabling them to be transferred across digital networks unlike traditional systems. DTCC secured its SEC no-action letter last December for a specific set of assets on approved blockchains.
The Trump crypto lawsuit has evolved into a dual-front battle as World Liberty Financial filed a defamation suit against Justin Sun in Florida state court, countering the federal fraud case Sun initiated against WLFI in California recently. The dispute originally centered around a frozen token issue but has now expanded to include allegations of market manipulation and hidden smart contract features. WLFI claims that Sun-associated wallets moved $300 million to Binance when WLFI began public trading in September 2025, allegedly orchestrating a short-selling campaign to suppress the company’s stock price at launch. Following the freeze of Sun’s 2.9 billion tokens—agreed upon in his original investment contract—Sun accused WLFI of scamming and embedding “backdoors” in smart contracts, threatening that his lawsuit would destroy World Liberty. WLFI is seeking damages and a public apology.