Author: Gabby

Tether and Gnosis have jointly invested $4.4 million into Sorted Wallet, a lightweight mobile crypto application designed for emerging markets. The funding includes $3.4 million in equity led by Tether and Gnosis, with additional contributions from Movement, Angel Invest Group, and angel investors like the founders of RWA.io. Strategic support of $1 million came from Vox Solutions.

Sorted Wallet’s app is only 10MB, making it ideal for low-cost feature phones and basic Android devices prevalent in Africa, South Asia, and parts of Central America. The wallet has already surpassed 500,000 downloads, with strong adoption in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Madagascar. Mexico and several Central American nations are also showing growth.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino emphasized that true financial inclusion requires reaching users who can’t afford expensive smartphones or data plans. He noted that digital assets have moved beyond trading to real-world applications, but infrastructure must be built for those on simpler devices. Tether previously invested $1.5 million in Sorted Wallet in 2024, and this latest round reinforces their commitment.

Gnosis investment partner Daniele Pinna described Sorted Wallet as a crucial access layer for stablecoin payments in markets where traditional fintech has limited reach. Gnosis, known for the Safe non-custodial wallet, sees Sorted’s lightweight approach as key to extending crypto payments via telecom networks.

The new funds will help Sorted Wallet expand into more Sub-Saharan African and South Asian markets, strengthen telecom integrations, and launch a new payment mechanism in May.

On-chain sleuth @ai_9684xtpa has identified a cluster of wallets potentially tied to venture capital firm a16z that may now hold a significant amount of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token. The analysis suggests these addresses could be the sixth-largest HYPE holders, and possibly the biggest external holder outside of Hyperliquid’s own ecosystem. However, a16z has not officially confirmed this connection, so the attribution remains speculative.

According to the analyst, the wallets have accumulated roughly 9.18 million HYPE since August 2025, with a current estimated value near $356 million based on an average purchase price of about $38.77. Lookonchain adds that since the start of 2026, the addresses added 4.92 million HYPE, worth around $183 million, and still hold 8.844 million HYPE across dozens of addresses after some transfers to exchanges and liquidity providers.

The whale activity coincides with a strong rally for HYPE, which recently surged about 24% in six days, approaching its all-time high. This uptick is attributed to factors like ETF demand, USDC growth, and increased synthetic market activity. Data from Santiment shows HYPE climbing from $38.32 on May 13 to roughly $47.65, with TradingView indicating strong buying pressure near $48.

Hyperliquid’s ecosystem has also seen a boost from new investment vehicles. Bitwise announced it would allocate 10% of management fees from its BHYP Hyperliquid ETF to buy and hold HYPE on its balance sheet. The fund launched on the NYSE on May 15. Combined with 21Shares’ THYP product, net inflows have surpassed $5.6 million quickly after launch. Hyperliquid now handles approximately $8 billion in daily trading volume and controls over 50% of decentralized perpetual futures open interest.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan recently described HYPE as one of crypto’s most mispriced assets, arguing that investors may still view Hyperliquid as merely a fast-growing derivatives exchange rather than a broader trading platform. This perspective adds context to the growing interest from both retail and institutional players.

Paradigm, a venture capital firm known for its deep ties to the cryptocurrency space, has taken a strategic step beyond digital assets by co-leading a massive $110 million funding round in SendCutSend, an on-demand manufacturing company. The investment marks a notable expansion of Paradigm’s portfolio into industrial infrastructure and automated production services, areas traditionally outside its core focus.

SendCutSend, which provides software-driven, rapid-turnaround manufacturing for industries such as robotics, defense, aerospace, and automotive, secured the funding at a valuation exceeding $1 billion. According to Jim Belosic, founder and CEO of SendCutSend, the company had operated profitably for years without outside venture capital before this round. He explained that surging customer demand and production pressures forced the company to seek external capital to accelerate expansion rather than resorting to price hikes or slower delivery times.

Belosic noted that over the past year, SendCutSend logged more than 35,000 overtime hours as demand consistently outstripped capacity. The company has been growing at roughly 100% year-over-year, making traditional financing options inadequate for the scale of its expansion ambitions. With the new funding, SendCutSend plans to invest over $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing and domestically produced materials over the next five years. It also intends to spend more than $250 million on expanding current facilities and opening new production sites nationwide, aiming to increase capacity, lower prices, and maintain short lead times.

Matt Huang, Paradigm’s co-founder and managing partner, confirmed the firm’s role as co-lead investor in the round. Other participants include Sequoia partner Andrew Reed and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. Belosic acknowledged that he had previously avoided venture capital because many investors misunderstood manufacturing businesses and expected software-like growth returns, but he expressed confidence in this group of backers.

This investment is part of a broader trend by Paradigm to diversify its holdings beyond cryptocurrency. In recent months, the firm has partnered with Stripe on the Tempo payments network, collaborated with OpenAI on EVMbench for smart contract security testing, and developed a professional prediction market terminal for institutional traders. Additionally, Paradigm Bitcoin general partner Dan Robinson proposed PACTs, a protocol to help Bitcoin holders prove wallet ownership privately against future quantum computing threats.

Despite this expansion, Paradigm remains a significant player in the crypto venture space. The firm’s move into industrial manufacturing signals a strategic shift toward adjacent infrastructure and technology sectors while maintaining its core crypto investments.

Zerohash, a provider of digital asset infrastructure, is reportedly in talks to secure new funding that would value the company at over $1.5 billion. This development comes after Mastercard decided not to proceed with a planned investment, instead pursuing a different strategic acquisition in the stablecoin sector. According to sources, Mastercard had been considering a significant investment in Zerohash but shifted its focus after agreeing to acquire BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, for up to $1.8 billion. The deal with BVNK is designed to bridge on-chain payments with traditional fiat systems across more than 130 countries. A Zerohash representative refrained from commenting on the fundraising discussions, while Mastercard did not respond to inquiries.

Earlier this year, Mastercard was in advanced talks to acquire Zerohash entirely, with a potential valuation between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. That deal would have been one of Mastercard’s largest moves into the stablecoin space. Zerohash offers a suite of API-based tools that enable banks, brokerages, and fintech companies to integrate crypto and stablecoin capabilities, including custody, compliance, liquidity, and settlement. The company has also been involved in tokenized fund projects with major asset managers like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Hamilton Lane.

Zerohash achieved unicorn status in September 2025 after a $104 million Series D-2 funding round led by Interactive Brokers, which brought its total raised capital to $275 million. Other participants included Morgan Stanley, Apollo-managed funds, SoFi, and Jump Crypto. The company’s platform now supports over 5 million users in 190 countries and powers products for notable clients such as Stripe, Shift4, DraftKings, and Kalshi. By providing a complete digital asset infrastructure, Zerohash allows firms to offer crypto trading, stablecoin payments, and tokenized assets without building blockchain systems from the ground up.

South Carolina has introduced a new legislative framework for digital assets, emphasizing self-custody rights and limiting state engagement with central bank digital currencies. Governor Henry McMaster signed Senate Bill 163 into law, which updates the state’s approach to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

The law ensures that individuals and businesses can accept digital currencies as payment without being prohibited. It also protects the right to use self-hosted or hardware wallets for storing digital assets. Additionally, state and local governments cannot impose extra taxes or fees on cryptocurrencies used for transactions.

A key provision bars state agencies, commissions, departments, and political subdivisions from accepting CBDC payments or participating in Federal Reserve pilot programs related to government-issued digital currencies. This move aligns with growing opposition to CBDCs among Republican lawmakers, who raise concerns about surveillance and financial privacy.

The legislation also provides legal protections for cryptocurrency mining. Local governments cannot enforce mining-specific noise restrictions in industrial areas beyond existing regulations. Furthermore, several blockchain activities, including mining, node operation, application development, staking infrastructure, and crypto-to-crypto trading, are exempt from money transmitter licensing requirements.

Definitions for blockchain, digital assets, wallets, nodes, mining, and staking have been formally added to the South Carolina Code of Laws. Similar efforts have emerged in other states, such as Kentucky, which recently enacted a bill protecting self-hosted wallets and preventing discriminatory restrictions on crypto mining.