Morning Report | a16z Crypto completes $2.2 billion fundraising for its fifth fund; Bullish invests $4.2 billion to acquire share transfer agency Equiniti; PayPal's Q1 performance exceeds expectations

整理：ChainCatcher

Important News:

• Dan Bin: Has built a position in Circle, its stock price is expected to welcome a new round of increase
• Polymarket official team member hints that POLY token may be issued soon
• Bullish spends $4.2 billion to acquire share transfer agency Equiniti
• a16z Crypto completes $2.2 billion fundraising for its fifth fund
• PayPal Q1 performance exceeds expectations, but Q2 guidance is weak, dropping over 10% at one point during trading
• Securitize, Jump Trading, and Jupiter collaborate to launch fully on-chain regulated tokenized stock trading
• Crypto venture capital Ethereal Ventures discloses its two funds total approximately $150 million for the first time

What important events happened in the past 24 hours?

Coinbase invests seven-figure amount in Centrifuge and establishes it as a core partner for tokenization on Base

According to ChainCatcher, Coinbase announced a seven-figure strategic investment in Centrifuge and selected it as the main asset tokenization cooperation platform for its public chain Base.

Under the partnership, Centrifuge will become the core infrastructure for issuing tokenized assets on Base, supporting the on-chain and trading of real-world assets (RWA) including ETFs, credit funds, and structured products. The two parties already have a collaborative foundation, including the launch of the first compliant on-chain S&P 500 index fund on Base.

Coinbase stated that the choice of Centrifuge is due to its advantages in institutional-grade infrastructure, compliance capabilities, and scalability. The platform provides a complete solution from asset structuring, tokenization tools, to yield interfaces and compliance support. This collaboration is seen as an important step for Coinbase to strengthen its asset tokenization strategy, which may further expand to more highly liquid traditional financial assets in the future.

Global Millennial Capital's fund completes $100 million fundraising, focusing on the DeFi sector

According to ChainCatcher, Global Millennial Capital (GMCL) announced that its first "IPO Opportunities Fund" has completed a final fundraising of $100 million, with investors including family offices from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, as well as international wealth management institutions, providing investment opportunities in tech companies nearing liquidity events through private placements for professional and institutional investors.

The fund primarily targets mid-sized tech companies with a market capitalization between $5 billion and $20 billion, focusing on areas such as artificial intelligence and DeFi technology, emphasizing companies with scalable business models, stable revenue structures, and mature governance systems.

GMCL stated that such mid-sized tech companies are in the early stages of value release but are often overlooked by large funds and early investors. The fund strategy will focus on participating in key stages before companies' IPOs or strategic exits while strengthening risk management and investment discipline.

Securitize, Jump Trading, and Jupiter collaborate to launch fully on-chain regulated tokenized stock trading

According to ChainCatcher, asset tokenization platform Securitize announced a collaboration with Jump Trading Group and decentralized trading aggregator Jupiter to launch fully on-chain regulated tokenized stock trading. This integration combines Securitize's end-to-end regulatory infrastructure, Jump's liquidity, and Jupiter's front-end distribution interface, aiming to create a complete market structure stack.

This move marks the transition of tokenized stocks from issuance to a scalable and liquid secondary market. Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo stated that the collaboration demonstrates that liquidity, accessibility, and compliance can be achieved within the existing regulatory framework. Jump provides liquidity through its PropAMM deployed on Solana, while Jupiter serves as the user access point. The entire system operates under existing securities regulations.

The system provides large-scale liquidity support for issuers, offers a compliant path for distributing tokenized securities to distribution platforms, and indicates to regulators that blockchain-based markets have achieved scalability while enhancing efficiency, transparency, and accessibility.

PayPal Q1 performance exceeds expectations, but Q2 guidance is weak, dropping over 10% at one point during trading

According to ChainCatcher, digital payment company PayPal (PYPL) released its Q1 2026 financial report, with net revenue of $8.35 billion, exceeding market expectations of $8.05 billion; adjusted earnings per share were $1.34, higher than the expected $1.27.

However, the company provided cautious guidance for Q2, expecting adjusted earnings per share to decline by about 9% quarter-over-quarter, with guidance set at $1.34. It also provided full-year guidance for fiscal year 2026, with adjusted earnings per share of $5.32 and revenue of $34.06 billion.

Affected by the weaker-than-expected Q2 guidance, PayPal's stock dropped over 10% during trading, currently narrowing the decline to about 8%.

a16z Crypto completes $2.2 billion fundraising for its fifth fund

According to ChainCatcher, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz's crypto branch a16z crypto has completed $2.2 billion fundraising for its fifth fund. This fund is smaller than the record $4.5 billion raised for its fourth fund in 2022.

a16z crypto communications partner Paul Cafiero stated that the firm intends to return to a smaller fund size because "shorter fundraising cycles allow us to keep up with the rapidly changing crypto trends." Previous fund sizes for a16z crypto were $2.2 billion for the third fund in 2021, $515 million for the second fund in 2020, and $350 million for the first fund in 2018.

a16z crypto also announced the promotion of CTO Eddy Lazzarin to general partner (GP), making him the fourth GP alongside Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya, and Guy Wuollet.

a16z crypto stated that although the market is in a relatively calm phase, adoption signals are improving, noting that the use of stablecoins continues to grow, and blockchain applications in capital markets are becoming increasingly widespread, including perpetual contracts for price discovery, prediction markets for information aggregation, and on-chain lending for stablecoin credit markets. The firm also cited the "GENIUS Act" as an example of a clearer regulatory framework, maintaining a "hopeful and optimistic" attitude towards the passage of the "Clarity Act" this year. The fund will focus 100% on crypto investments, without expanding into adjacent fields such as AI or robotics.

a16z crypto has previously invested in projects such as Coinbase, Uniswap, Solana, Kalshi, Anchorage Digital, and Phantom. Other crypto venture capitals have also been active recently, with Haun Ventures completing $1 billion fundraising for its second fund earlier this week, Dragonfly recently completing $650 million for its fourth fund, and Paradigm reportedly seeking up to $1.5 billion for a broader fund, while Blockchain Capital is also raising about $700 million.

Bullish spends $4.2 billion to acquire share transfer agency Equiniti

According to ChainCatcher, the Wall Street Journal reported that crypto trading platform Bullish will acquire share transfer agency Equiniti for $4.2 billion (including debt). The acquisition of Equiniti is expected to close in January next year, pending regulatory approval.

Equiniti serves nearly 3,000 listed companies, including Berkshire Hathaway and Moody's.

Forbes: SBF's venture capital ability reassessed, could have amassed $100 billion wealth if not imprisoned

According to ChainCatcher, Forbes reported that SBF's early investment portfolio is being re-evaluated by the market, with some opinions suggesting that if he had not been imprisoned due to the FTX collapse, his venture capital layout could theoretically yield a wealth increase of up to approximately $100 billion.

Before the FTX collapse, SBF had established an investment landscape covering several star companies, including Anthropic, SpaceX, Robinhood, and AI programming tool Cursor, which was considered to have significant foresight.

Industry insiders pointed out that he had bet on key tracks before the AI wave exploded, including: Cursor recently reached a partnership with SpaceX, with a valuation potentially reaching $60 billion, and Anthropic's valuation is nearing $90 billion. Rory O'Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, stated that SBF had invested in several core AI companies before ChatGPT, "demonstrating rare investment sensitivity." However, this "investment talent narrative" was ultimately completely altered by the FTX collapse.

SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for misappropriating over $8 billion in customer funds. At his peak, his personal wealth reached approximately $24 billion, and he appeared on the Forbes 400 list. Today, his venture capital ability intertwined with his financial crime history has become one of the most controversial cases in crypto history.

Animoca Brands launches $10 million investment plan to support the developer ecosystem of AI agent platform Minds

According to ChainCatcher, Animoca Brands announced that it will invest up to $10 million in teams building projects using its AI agent platform Minds.

Minds is a continuously running AI agent platform that allows users to deploy and manage "sovereign" AI agents without operating local servers or managing hardware and software.

AI startup Sierra, founded by OpenAI board chair, completes $950 million Series E financing at a valuation of $15.8 billion, led by GV

According to ChainCatcher, CNBC reported that Sierra, an enterprise AI startup co-founded by OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, has completed $950 million in Series E financing, with a post-financing valuation of $15.8 billion.

This round of financing was led by Tiger Global and GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet, with existing investors such as Benchmark, Sequoia, and Greenoaks participating.

Sierra primarily provides AI customer service agent products for enterprises, automatically handling customer service and support scenarios for enterprise clients. It is reported that Sierra's annual recurring revenue has surpassed $150 million over eight quarters.

Bret Taylor stated that Sierra operates using a "model cluster" approach, combined with its own fine-tuning layer, to provide AI agent services to enterprise clients. Previously, Sierra completed $175 million in financing in October 2024, with a valuation of $4.5 billion at that time.

Ethena: Fifth season airdrop claims now open, distributing 2% of ENA supply
According to ChainCatcher, Ethena's fifth season airdrop claims are now open. This airdrop will distribute 2% of the ENA supply.
Data: Binance SAFU fund successfully bottom-fished, currently floating profit of about $200 million
According to ChainCatcher, Arkham monitoring shows that the Binance SAFU fund address successfully bottom-fished, holding 15,000 BTC currently valued at $1.21 billion, with a floating profit of about 20%, worth approximately $200 million.

It is reported that the Binance SAFU fund has completed a $1 billion Bitcoin purchase plan, holding 15,000 BTC valued at $1.005 billion (calculated at the price when transferred to the SAFU fund).

Crypto venture capital Ethereal Ventures discloses its two funds total approximately $150 million for the first time

According to ChainCatcher, Fortune reported that crypto venture capital firm Ethereal Ventures has spoken out for the first time after nearly five years since its establishment. The venture capital was co-founded by Min Teo and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin in 2021, with two funds totaling approximately $150 million, having invested in over 80 early projects including EigenLayer.

It is reported that Ethereal Ventures' first fund has performed well in terms of distributed capital return rate (DPI), while the second fund has deployed less than a quarter of its capital, still retaining ample "dry powder."

Telegram founder: TON transaction fees reduced by 6 times, Telegram will become the largest validator

According to ChainCatcher, Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated on the X platform that the transaction fees on the TON network have been reduced by 6 times.

He also revealed that Telegram will replace the TON Foundation as the largest validator of the network and plans to launch new development tools and performance upgrades within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Polymarket official team member hints that POLY token may be issued soon
According to ChainCatcher, Polymarket official team member Mustafa (@mustafap0ly) hinted during community interactions that progress related to the POLY token may come soon. When asked by a user when they can stake POLY tokens to reduce transaction fees or potential future listing fees, Mustafa replied "soon."
Dan Bin: Has built a position in Circle, its stock price is expected to welcome a new round of increase

According to ChainCatcher, well-known investor and chairman of Shenzhen Oriental Harbor Investment Management Co., Ltd. Dan Bin stated on social media, "Due to the recommendation of researchers, I have built a position in Circle Internet Group (CRCL.US). CRCL surged significantly on Monday, becoming one of the standout performers in the US stock market that day. The core catalyst for this surge is the key progress of the US "Clarity Act." The Senate reached a compromise on stablecoin regulatory provisions, clearing the core differences for the advancement of the bill, completely eliminating long-term regulatory uncertainties for the industry and opening up long-term growth space for compliant stablecoin leaders like Circle.

The market generally expects that as the regulatory framework is implemented, the compliance advantages of USDC will be further strengthened, and its market share is expected to continue to increase in emerging scenarios such as cross-border payments and AI intelligent trading. On the fundamental side, Circle's core business is entering an explosive period. The circulation of USDC it issues has surpassed $79 billion, setting a historical high, and the interest income from reserve assets has significantly increased, with clear profit expectations for the company in Q1 2026, continuously solidifying its performance fundamentals.

At the same time, a new industry narrative of AI + stablecoins is emerging, with USDC as the base currency for on-chain transactions, its value positioning is fully upgraded, and the market is continuously advancing the valuation reshaping process from "crypto cycle stock" to "Web3 + AI infrastructure target." In addition, the overall sentiment in the crypto market is warming up, adding momentum to the stock price increase. Bitcoin once broke through the $80,000 mark, driving crypto concept stocks to strengthen collectively, with market liquidity and risk appetite significantly improving, and funds accelerating into the market, making CRCL a favored target for funds in the core track.

Key attention should be paid to two critical nodes: first, the Q1 financial report data released on May 11, verifying the performance realization situation; second, the final landing rhythm of the stablecoin bill. If the regulatory and fundamental logic continues to be realized, CRCL is expected to welcome a new round of valuation increase.

SC Ventures, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, strategically invests in GSR, becoming its first external shareholder

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reported that SC Ventures, the fintech and investment arm of Standard Chartered Bank, has made a strategic investment in crypto market maker GSR.

The company is also expanding into other tokenized financial services areas. This investment makes SC Ventures the first external strategic shareholder of GSR since its establishment in 2013.

Meme Popularity Rankings

According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of May 6, 09:00,

The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD

The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: TROLL, swarms, Punch, neet, 67

The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: PEPE, BASED, B3, SKYA, NATO

What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?

Stablecoins and Latin American Remittances: The Misunderstood $174 Billion Market

Recently, every fintech company's business plan has the same page: "Latin America is the next big opportunity. Stablecoins are the killer app for cross-border payments."

But if you ask them how large their actual remittance channel is; ask them what percentage of users want dollars instead of their local currency; ask them why Mexico's digitization rate is 25% while Colombia's exceeds 50%. Most of the time, you will get a silence.

I spent six months working with our local teams in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. Talking to users, mapping the competitive landscape, analyzing internal peer-to-peer, card, and payment data, and stress-testing every assumption in public reports.

Here are our real findings. As a frontline builder, it took me six months to write this article, and I hope it helps you gain a comprehensive understanding of what is happening there. You will find that most fintech companies have misread this market, and at the end of the article, I also outline the potential of this market, hoping to be of assistance to you.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.