Follow the Money: $761.5 Million in Investments Over a Week, New Lakestar Fund at $300 Million and Bybit's Expansion

From July 18 to July 25, 2026, Incrypted recorded 15 investment deals, of which seven totaled $761.5 million. Among them were corporate deals, traditional venture fundraising, M&A, and much more. We provide more details in our weekly digest. Incrypted Infographic.

Classic Venture

During the specified period, six projects received funding from venture companies. In particular:

• $300 million --- Lakestar. The venture firm announced the closing of the Lakestar Resilience I fund, amounting to $300 million, aimed at startups in the fields of defense, security, and critical infrastructure. The raised capital will be directed towards investments in technology companies, particularly those developing robotics, aerospace systems, and software for the defense sector.

• $180 million --- Augustus. The company raised funding in a Series B round at a valuation of $1 billion led by Tiger Global. The funds will be used to expand the infrastructure of digital dollar accounts and payment services for banks and fintech companies in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as to develop its own banking platform, Marble.

• $8 million --- Cordant. The startup received investments in a seed funding round led by Motive Partners and Oak HC/FT. The team is developing a platform for managing payment infrastructure that integrates data from banking systems, payment networks, compliance, and risk management, simplifying operational control and the implementation of AI in the financial sector.

• $5 million --- eCash (Bitcoin Drivechains). The project, which develops Drivechains technology (BIP300/301) for the Bitcoin ecosystem, disclosed information about the raised investments in the second funding round after an initial $3 million in 2022. The funds will help prepare for the launch of the main network with seven sidechains for payments, privacy, prediction markets, and other applications, as well as complete the product's market entry.

• $4 million --- SwarmBase. The company reported an increase in total funding to $7 million after securing additional funds from Castrum Istanbul. The raised capital will be used to develop the infrastructure for agent-based artificial intelligence, enabling autonomous AI agents to collaboratively conduct research, software development, and corporate business processes.

• $1 million --- ILITY. The layer-one blockchain focused on the economy of autonomous AI agents raised strategic funding at a valuation of $80 million with participation from Archer Capital and TBV. The investments will be directed towards developing protocol infrastructure, launching an ecosystem of AI agents, and creating tools for their interaction and on-chain settlements.

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Several other projects secured funding but did not disclose the investment amounts.

The startup K25.ai, which develops a predictive market platform based on artificial intelligence, raised funding in a Series A round with strategic support from Amber Group. The investments will help the company scale its infrastructure that creates real-time prediction markets for sports, esports, entertainment content, and creator economies. After the round, K25.ai's valuation increased to $200 million.

Notabene has received strategic investments from Ripple to develop the infrastructure for regulated stablecoin payments. The partners will integrate RLUSD into the Notabene Flow platform and work on scaling corporate transactions while adhering to regulatory requirements. The Notabene network already connects over 2,300 financial institutions and facilitates transactions worth over $2 trillion annually.

The Tenor project has closed its seed funding round led by Variant, with participation from Nascent, Coinbase Ventures, and other investors. The team is developing a non-custodial on-chain lending platform with fixed rates for institutional borrowers and asset managers. The funds raised will be directed towards creating the infrastructure to transition the traditional lending market, valued at approximately $200 trillion, into a blockchain environment.

Token Sales

The metaDAO has completed the sale of Rip Cars, where the team raised $250,000. Meanwhile, nearly $30 million was pledged for participation in the oversubscription format. Additionally, two campaigns from Gno.land and Townsquare are nearing completion on Sonar. At the time of writing, the former has raised only 50% of the planned $2.5 million, while the latter has closed an unspecified limit of $1 million, but the sale continues in an oversubscription format.

Furthermore, users can learn about current and upcoming token sales through the relevant section on the website, which provides information about active and future asset sale campaigns. Our team also maintains a dedicated Telegram channel and tracks the most relevant events: Incrypted Infographic.

Corporate Placements and Deals

Representatives from the institutional sector continue to accumulate funds to form cryptocurrency reserves and expand operations. Last week, one deal was recorded:

• $263.5 million --- Strategy. The largest corporate holder of Bitcoin raised funds through a market-priced share sale program, selling over 2.7 million shares of MSTR. The funds raised increased the company's cash reserves to $3.225 billion.

Mergers and Acquisitions

From July 18 to 25, five acquisition deals were recorded in the market.

The company Unserious, which develops IP brands and Web3 products, acquired the NFT project Creepz with the support of investor Adam Weitzman. The deal is expected to accelerate brand development by integrating Unserious's expertise in cryptocurrencies, consumer products, and entertainment, while the founders of Creepz will continue to support the project during the transition.

The Tie acquired Liquidity Land. The provider of institutional analytics for the digital asset market is integrating a platform that helps DeFi protocols and blockchain networks attract liquidity through incentive campaigns. The deal will expand The Tie's product ecosystem and strengthen its position in analytics and infrastructure for on-chain markets.

The Tie also announced the acquisition of Staking Rewards. The company gained control over the Staking Rewards platform and data business, one of the largest providers of information on staking and yield for digital assets. The acquisition will allow The Tie to expand its suite of institutional products and strengthen its position in the digital asset analytics market.

Premia acquired Raven Market. As part of the deal, Premia obtained all technologies, intellectual property, models, and infrastructure from Raven, which will be integrated into the company's institutional platform on the Canton Network. Following the completion of the transaction, Raven will cease to exist as a separate product, and its solutions will be used to develop Premia's services.

The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has acquired a controlling stake in PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal (NOBI). Following the completion of the deal, the company has been renamed Bybit Indonesia and will operate under the supervision of Indonesia's Financial Services Authority. This acquisition allows the exchange to strengthen its presence in the Indonesian market and expand its operations through a locally licensed platform.

Accelerators, Grants, and DAO Funding

This week, ecosystems and DAOs did not allocate funds to support projects.

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Top Investors

The most active investors of the week were Variant, Nascent, Amber Group, Balaji Srinivasan, and Coinbase Ventures, according to CryptoRank data. Incrypted Infographic.

What Are Investors Focusing On?

From July 18 to July 25, funding was attracted by projects in segments such as DeFi, blockchain services, CeFi, blockchain infrastructure, DAT, and others. The main focus of investors was on DeFi. Incrypted Infographic.

It is worth noting that last week, projects in the Web3 space attracted $3.49 billion in investments.

Stay tuned to Incrypted for updates on new investments in the development of the digital world.