Prediction markets took almost all the money between 26 and 30 Oct. Kalshi, the US-regulated event-contracts exchange, raised a $1 billion Series G at a $40 billion post-money valuation on Thursday, co-led by Wellington and Sequoia. The round was announced a day after Utah filed criminal charges against the company and its two co-founders, which Kalshi has said it will fight in court.
Strip Kalshi out and the week looks very different: five rounds worth $62.5 million in total. Stablecoin payments and compliance led that group. PhotonPay, a Hong Kong payments company, raised $40 million, and Predicate, which builds compliance checks into on-chain assets, raised $8 million. Both rounds were led by Blockchain Capital.
The rest went to trading access and on-chain credit, a sign that investors still want crypto rails that plug into traditional assets. The most interesting deal on paper did not count towards the total at all: Ibis came out of stealth with a $250 million credit facility from FalconX, which is a loan line, not equity.
| Company | Amount | Round | Lead investor | Valuation | Sector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalshi | $1 billion | Series G | Wellington and Sequoia (co-leads) | $40 billion post-money | Prediction markets | Kalshi |
| PhotonPay | $40 million | Series C | Blockchain Capital | Not stated | Stablecoin and fiat payments | PR Newswire |
| Predicate | $8 million | Series A | Blockchain Capital | Not stated | On-chain compliance | Blockchain Capital |
| Mochatrade | $5.5 million | Seed | CoinFund | Not stated | US stock perpetuals for Indian traders | CoinFund |
| Spicenet | $5 million | Series A | dao5 | Not stated | Cross-chain trading access | Spicenet |
| Birch Hill | $4 million | Seed | Multicoin Capital | Not stated | On-chain US credit | Multicoin |
Total: $1,062.5 million across six rounds; $62.5 million excluding Kalshi. Ibis’s $250 million FalconX facility is debt and is not counted. The list covers rounds CryptoWatchDesk could verify to a company post, a company-issued release or two outlets; it is not a complete tracker.
Deals of note
Kalshi’s $1 billion Series G. Baillie Gifford, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CapitalG and Morgan Stanley Investment Management were among 10 co-investors, and the company says its annualized trading volume now tops $1 trillion across prediction markets, commodities, crypto and perpetual futures. The business model is an exchange’s: Kalshi earns fees on the contracts traded on it, which is why the competition from Coinbase’s third-quarter results and others matters.
PhotonPay’s $40 million Series C. SBI Group joined as a new investor and IDG Capital, GL Ventures and Lightspeed Faction followed on, the company said, adding that its annualized transaction volume reached $65 billion in August. The money goes to wallets, card issuing and local clearing that let businesses move between stablecoins and ordinary currencies (background: what a dollar stablecoin is).
Ibis’s $250 million FalconX facility. The New York start-up will originate and tokenize structured credit, first for crypto trading firms, with Anchorage Digital Bank as custody, banking and design partner, according to its release. FalconX also led an undisclosed pre-seed round, so the lender and the lead investor are the same firm, a structure worth watching.
The Ledger Weekly returns next Friday. For the deals before this week, see our last edition.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.