$204 Million in Crypto Venture Investments: Payward, Latitude, and More

In the crypto market, venture investments have been on the rise, with $204 million raised by 11 projects between September 1 and 12, 2026. One notable investment was in Payward, the parent company of Kraken, which received a $100 million investment from Nasdaq. This investment valued Payward at $21 billion and expanded the partnership between the two companies to develop infrastructure for trading tokenized stocks.

Another significant investment was made in Latitude, a Texas-based startup that raised $35 million in a Series A funding round led by Oak HC/FT. The company is building a global payments system that enables businesses to transfer money using stablecoins.

OpenReserve, a fintech startup, closed a funding round led by a16z crypto, with participation from several other venture capital firms. The company is developing a 24/7 national bank with blockchain infrastructure and has received preliminary conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a full-fledged national bank.