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Introduction.com Updates (Members):
Introduction.com x Silicon Valley Bank Members Only Soirée Powered by Arcadia
HAPPENING TOMORROW, 2-3 SPOTS STILL AVAILABLE
Introduction.com x Silicon Valley Bank: Members Only Dinner (NYC):
The Introduction.com team is excited to announce our first IRL, members only, event in New York City.
A closed-door gathering of top founders, investors, and operators from across Web3, AI, and fintech.
Hosted in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank and Introduction.com, this event is designed for high-value connections and meaningful relationships.
No panels. No pitches. Just curated introductions, deep conversations, and access to the people shaping the next decade of innovation.
Attendance is strictly by invitation.
Super excited for this announcement, will be the first of many!
Introduction.com x Acquire.fi Members Only Soirée Powered by Arcadia
Introduction.com x Acquire.fi: Members Only Dinner (Singapore)
A closed-door evening bringing together top family offices, allocators, and members of Introduction.com.
In partnership with Acquire.fi — the go-to platform for Web3 M&A, Secondaries & OTC.
Hosted at the Mandarin Oriental Penthouse, overlooking the Formula 1 track — the most sought-after venue in the country, the evening is designed for high-value connections and meaningful exchange.
No panels. No pitches. Just curated introductions, deep conversations, and access to the people allocating billions into Web3’s future.
Attendance is strictly by invitation. Capacity is limited to a select circle of our global members, venture partners, and a handful of founders building in the most competitive sectors.
If you’ve been invited, it’s because we believe you bring something rare to the table and will walk away with relationships that compound for years.
Guests will enjoy an open bar and chef-prepared service throughout the night, ensuring the environment remains both relaxed and conducive to meaningful connection.
👶 New Member Announcements:
The Introduction.com team is super excited to announce the newest additions to our community this week!
(We’d love to see you up here one day🤠)
Apply Today
Join us in welcoming Figo (@figo_saleh) from the investment team at IOSG Ventures (@IOSGVC), where he leads the Kickstart program backing projects at the earliest stages. With a background in fullstack engineering and a passion for supporting early builders, he brings both technical insight and venture experience to the community. We are excited to welcome him!
Follow Figo on X and LinkedIn!
Introducing Havard (@killerego_) from Blockwall (@blockwall_vc), a pre-seed and seed Web3 VC backing founders across the industry. With experience as both an operator and founder in Web3 startups spanning supply chain, insurance, and media, (and even as a former maritime engineer), he brings a dual perspective as builder and investor to the Introduction.com network. Thrilled to have him join us!
We're excited to welcome Flow (@FlowTraderTM), who leads Business Development and Marketing at Ostium Labs (@OstiumLabs) the #1 RWA perp DEX. With a background spanning traditional finance, prop trading, and building his online presence as FlowTrader, he brings a trader-first mindset to building RWA infrastructure and go-to-market strategies in Web3. Excited to add him to the community!
Follow Flow on X and LinkedIn!
Welcoming Thibault (@ayotibo), Co-Founder and COO of Hibachi (@hibachi_xyz), a privacy-focused perps exchange leveraging ZK technology to optimize performance. With experience co-founding and scaling ventures like Hashflow and now building at the intersection of DeFi and infrastructure, he brings deep expertise in both retail and institutional trading to the community. We’re excited to have him on board!
Table of Contents
What We’re Looking at 👀
🌟 This week felt like a snapshot of crypto’s maturing cycle.
Coinbase acqui-hired Sensible’s design brains to sharpen its on-chain consumer push, Figure walked onto Nasdaq with a $5B+ valuation, and Inversion raised big to bring TradFi businesses directly on-chain.
Add in Franklin Templeton cozying up to Binance, SSA proving crypto is financial infrastructure, and prediction markets re-rating into the billions, and you’ve got a market sprinting toward legitimacy.🌟
Money Moves(Funding/M&A): 🤑
From Introduction.com Members 💳️
Coinbase x Sensible
Coinbase just scooped up Sensible’s brains, not its brawn.
In this market, talent is the prize 🧠 > 💪
Maturing Markets as Q3 Winds Down 🕰️
Hype follows capital, but sometimes capital follows vision.
Sensible had early traction simplifying yield in DeFi, but instead of scaling solo, its founders are joining Coinbase in a classic acqui-hire.
Who’s Sensible? 🤔
Sensible was a crypto-native yield platform designed to make staking and DeFi rewards feel seamless and intuitive.
In English: it tried to make earning and staking feel smooth, like using a normal phone app.
Jacob Frantz:
Former Head of Strategy at Eco, with experience in fintech UX and token-driven consumer engagement.
Zak Salmon:
Previously led product at Compound and contributed to early growth at Paradigm, bringing deep protocol and design chops.
The Deal 🔍
Coinbase is bringing in the Sensible founders to bolster its consumer product org focused on on-chain experiences.
The Sensible app will shut down by October 10, and users must withdraw funds before then.
What We Know ✅
This is a pure acqui-hire; no IP, tech stack, or broader team is coming over.
Sensible’s shutdown was announced to users directly; no transition or integration of its existing product.
Frantz and Salmon will join Coinbase’s “protocol product” division working on on-chain interfaces and DeFi abstraction.
What We Don’t Know ❓
No price tag has been disclosed.
No update on what happens to non-founder team members.
It’s unclear whether any of Sensible’s product learnings will be ported into Coinbase’s stack.
Why It Matters 🚦
This is a classic example of how design talent has become its own asset class in crypto.
Sensible’s core product didn’t break out, but its UX-first approach made the team valuable to a company like Coinbase.
For an exchange leaning hard into on-chain identity, smart wallets, and accessible yield, talent that understands how to translate DeFi into something usable is more valuable than another protocol.
Looking Ahead 🔮
Frantz and Salmon are expected to work on Coinbase’s consumer-facing on-chain tools—likely tied to Base, smart wallets, and staking.
Their experience turning abstract crypto mechanisms into friendly products aligns with Coinbase’s broader roadmap: making on-chain feel like online.
The product may be gone, but the design principles Sensible stood for are now inside the machine.
Industry Leaders 🤠
Figure
Figure Technologies just rang the bell on Wall Street 🔔
What’s Happening 🚀
Figure raised $787.5M in its IPO, selling 31.5M shares at $25 each. It now trades on the NASDAQ under ticker FIGR.
Who Is Figure? 🤔
Founded in 2018 by Mike Cagney and June Ou, Figure set out to speed up home equity and mortgage finance. Their vision: use blockchain to cut friction and automate loan origination, securitization, and secondary trades.
Today, Figure offers HELOCs, cash-out refinance loans, DSCR loans, crypto-backed loans, and runs Figure Connect, a marketplace for trading and originating consumer and institutional credit.
Major Company Milestones 📆
Figure’s IPO wasn’t luck, it was engineered through leadership shifts, financial discipline, and product expansion.
2018–2019: Launched Provenance Blockchain and its first digital HELOCs, proving blockchain could strip friction out of consumer lending.
2021: Raised $200M Series D at a $3.2B valuation, scaling from niche blockchain lender to mainstream fintech contender.
2024 (Leadership Pivot): Michael Tannenbaum (ex-Brex, SoFi) replaced Mike Cagney as CEO. This was a calculated step toward IPO readiness; Tannenbaum brought fintech scaling experience and Wall Street credibility, while Cagney stayed on to steer vision and governance.
Late 2024 (Product Expansion): Rolled out cash-out refinance loans, DSCR loans, crypto-backed loans, and launched Figure Connect, broadening from single-product lending into institutional-grade infrastructure.
2025 H1 (Financial Proof): Posted $191M revenue and $29M profit, a sharp turnaround from losses. Home equity originations hit $6B, up 29% YoY, reinforcing the IPO story of profitability and growth.
👉 Together, these milestones show Figure’s bigger play: to turn blockchain from a niche experiment into the core infrastructure of credit and real estate finance.
The IPO Numbers 🔢
Figure’s IPO wasn’t just about raising money, it was proof they want blockchain finance to be taken seriously by Wall Street.
💵 Shares sold: 31.5M
💰 Price per share: $25
📊 Total raised: $787.5M
🏦 Valuation at IPO: $5.29B
⚖️ Underwriters: Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, BofA
Market Reaction 📈
Wall Street piled in. Shares opened at $36 (44% above IPO price), closed at $31.11 (+25%), and briefly pushed valuation to $7.6B.
The buzz was loud: IPO priced above its range, demand was hot, and analysts are calling it proof crypto-fintech is investable again. Wall Street’s not just buying stock, it’s buying the idea that blockchain can finally power boring old finance.
Looking Ahead 🔮
The test now is scale. Can Figure keep execution clean, grow non-agency liquidity, and expand its credit marketplace, all while navigating regulators, housing cycles, and investor pressure?
Now that Figure is public, with fresh capital and Wall Street watching closely, its next moves will decide whether fintech-plus-blockchain can truly win back institutional trust.
Inversion
What’s Happening 🚀
Inversion just closed a $26.5M seed round to launch a new model for Web3 adoption.
Instead of pitching tools, they’re buying real businesses and wiring blockchain into the core.
Who? 🤔
The team is led by Santiago Roel Santos, ex-ParaFi partner with deep experience in crypto investing and TradFi strategy.
Alongside him is Suzanne Dannheim, ex-Goldman, adding investment banking and institutional chops.
Lead investor: Dragonfly
Backers: VanEck, ParaFi, Faction, Wintermute, and more
Together, they’re backed by some of the biggest names in TradFi and crypto VC.
Their vision is simple: turn underperforming businesses into profit engines by quietly embedding blockchain infrastructure.
What Makes Them Unique ⚡
While most crypto infrastructure players build tools and hope companies adopt them, Inversion is rewriting the playbook.
By acquiring businesses outright, they determine when and how blockchain gets applied, not as a showcase of technology, but as a lever to improve margins, efficiency, and enterprise value.
This is private equity powered by Web3, opening new channels for capital allocation, scale, and commerce, while keeping profitability at the center from day one.
The Fund 💸
The seed went to Inversion Labs, the operating company.
🚨A larger Inversion Capital fund is being raised separately to bankroll acquisitions.
Seed raised: $26.5M
Valuation: ~$100M
Backers: Dragonfly, VanEck, ParaFi, Faction, Wintermute
Capital fund: expected to be hundreds of millions for direct roll-ups
This $26.5 million seed is one of the largest early raises in the TradFi-on-chain space, well above Bitwave’s $7.25 million and Fractal’s $6 million.
Investor conviction reflects not just the ownership model but also favorable regulatory tailwinds and a bullish market that together create a stronger runway for Inversion’s strategy.
What We Know / What We Don’t 🤷
What We Know ✅
Founders are finance-heavy: Roel Santos (ex-ParaFi, JPM, Sageview) and Dannheim (ex-Goldman).
Funders are a who’s-who of crypto and TradFi: Dragonfly, VanEck, ParaFi, Faction, Wintermute.
Vision is clear: acquire legacy businesses, cut costs, improve margins, and make them blockchain-native under the hood.
Seed funding is earmarked for Inversion Labs — the ops and integration engine.
What We Don’t ❓
Who’s doing the actual tech build-out? No CTO or engineering team has been profiled yet.
What stack or chain they’ll lean on: Avalanche has been mentioned, but no concrete details.
Whether there will be a token tied to Inversion’s model, or if it stays purely equity/infra.
How much of the Capital fund is earmarked for ownership vs day-to-day operations.
Whether Inversion will own and operate the acquired companies long-term, or flip them once margins improve.
Looking Ahead 🔮
If Inversion executes, it could prove the fastest path to mass crypto adoption isn’t building shiny new dApps, it’s taking over old-world businesses and making them blockchain-native behind the scenes.
The next milestone: announcing their first acquisition and showing whether this PE-meets-DeFi playbook can deliver real profits.
Events 📆
Introduction.com x Acquire.fi Members Only Soirée Powered by Arcadia
IRL:
NYC; 9/18 🗽
Singapore; 10/2 🇸🇬
Seoul, Korea; 9/23 - 9/24 🇰🇷
Tuesday, September 30; Location TBD
Warszawa, Poland 9/5 - 9/7 🇵🇱
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 10/1 - 10/2 🇸🇬
Top Stories 📰
Binance x Franklin Templeton
The Announcement 🚨
Binance and $1.6 trillion AUM giant Franklin Templeton have teamed up to launch tokenized investment products.
The goal: blend Franklin’s regulatory credibility with Binance’s global scale to push TradFi deeper into digital assets.
What We Know / What We Don’t 🤷
What We Know ✅
Franklin Templeton has been exploring tokenization for years (e.g. OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund).
Binance brings distribution, liquidity, and retail reach unmatched in crypto.
Initial focus is on tokenized funds and yield products, with launches expected outside the U.S. later this year.
The partnership is framed as strategic collaboration, not a one-off experiment.
What We Don’t ❓
No word on exclusivity — Franklin could easily bring similar products to other exchanges.
Which blockchain(s) or stack will power these offerings hasn’t been disclosed.
Governance, economics, and revenue splits remain unclear.
Whether there will be a crypto-native token layer or strictly regulated assets isn’t confirmed.
What’s in It for Binance 🏦
Franklin Templeton gets scale, liquidity, and a splashy signal that TradFi is bullish on Web3. They’re not exclusive to Binance, but this deal is their loudest declaration yet that tokenization is real.
For Binance, it’s a credibility upgrade and a pathway to becoming more than just a crypto exchange.
The Wins for Binance:
Institutional credibility by aligning with a trillion-dollar asset manager.
Access to new asset classes through tokenized funds and securities.
User growth from TradFi-curious investors and retention for existing users.
Diversified revenue streams from trading, custody, and product distribution.
A reputational shift: from crypto-native to universal digital asset marketplace.
What This Means for the Industry 🌍
TradFi isn’t just dipping a toe into digital assets, it’s wading in with real capital, partnerships, and product pipelines.
The Franklin–Binance deal shows that the biggest money managers see blockchain not as hype, but as infrastructure worth building on.
For crypto, the signal is powerful: the race to total tokenization is on. What matters now isn’t just who builds the rails, but who controls distribution.
If partnerships like this hold, Wall Street and crypto exchanges may finally stop circling each other and start converging on the same endgame: turning every asset into a token.
Crypto in SSA
Crypto as Infrastructure for Resilience 🌍
Sub-Saharan Africa just posted $205B in crypto inflows from July 2024 to June 2025, making it the third-fastest growing region for adoption worldwide.
In a landscape of inflation, FX shortages, and shaky banking rails, crypto is becoming financial infrastructure.
By the Numbers 🔢
Total value received: $205B, up 52% YoY
Nigeria: $92.1B in inflows, nearly 45% of the region’s total and almost triple South Africa’s volume
Retail activity: 8% of crypto value in SSA comes from transfers under $10K, compared to ~6% globally — proof that everyday users, not just institutions or whales, are driving adoption
Stablecoins power cross-border trade, while Bitcoin is used as a hedge against inflation and weak local currencies
South Africa’s flows are more institutional, boosted by clearer regulation that gives banks and funds confidence to participate
Crypto here isn’t hype, it’s resilience.
For global finance, it’s a signal that the next wave of adoption may come not from speculation, but from regions where crypto fills real economic gaps.
Polymarket v Kalshi
Dueling Prediction Market Dragons 🐉
Two prediction market giants are circling new funding highs.
Reports say Polymarket is weighing a round at $9–10B valuation, while Kalshi is close to raising at ~$5B.
Both moves reflect how far the category has come from niche betting corners to regulated financial products.
Polymarket v Kalshi: Funding Rounds 💸
Polymarket
2020: Raised ~$4M seed, backers included Polychain.
2021: $4M Series A, led by Polychain & Naval Ravikant.
June 2025: >$200M round, led by Founders Fund, at ~$1B valuation.
Sept 2025 (reports): In talks for new raise at $9–10B valuation.
Kalshi
2021: Raised $30M Series A, led by Sequoia. Valuation not disclosed.
2022: $30M Series B, led by Sequoia with additional participation.
July 2025: $185M Series C at ~$2B valuation, led by Paradigm.
Sept 2025 (reports): Negotiating new raise at ~$5B valuation.
Regulatory Framework & Legal Wins ⚖️
Regulatory clarity has been the make-or-break factor for prediction markets. Both players have fought uphill battles, but recent wins are setting the stage for institutional adoption.
Polymarket
2022: Settled with the CFTC for offering unregistered event contracts. Forced to block U.S. users and operate offshore.
2023–2024: Focused on global markets while negotiating a framework to return to the U.S.
2025: Secured a compliance path that allowed it to reopen access in the U.S., effectively unlocking its largest potential market.
Kalshi
2021–2022: Launched as the only CFTC-regulated prediction market, but immediately faced challenges on what contracts could be listed.
2023: CFTC tried to block Kalshi from listing event contracts tied to political outcomes (e.g., elections).
2024–2025: Kalshi fought back in court and won — rulings upheld its right to list political and event-driven contracts. This victory solidified Kalshi’s regulatory moat and positioned it as the incumbent in the U.S. market.
Polymarket’s story is one of settlement and reentry, clawing its way back into the U.S. after being sidelined. Kalshi’s is one of courtroom victories and defense, using regulation as a moat to entrench itself in the market.
By the Numbers 📊
Polymarket
T-12 Trading Volume: Over $10B+, including a record $1.16B in June 2025 alone.
T-12 Active Users: Around 201K monthly actives, ~286K traders in July 2025 (up after a slump), and ~19K DAU. Trend shows fewer users making bigger bets.
T-12 Revenue: Not publicly disclosed. Third-party estimates suggest ~$5M annual run-rate, but actual fees may be higher given volumes.
Kalshi
T-12 Trading Volume: Roughly $2B in 2024, up from $183M in 2023. In 2025, volumes have accelerated: $875M in August alone, with $1B+ monthly highs reported recently. Single events like NFL Week 1 (2025) saw $441M in trading volume.
T-12 Active Users: Growing U.S.-centric base, boosted by mainstream events and regulatory clarity.
T-12 Revenue: About $24M in 2024, up from $1.8M in 2023 (+1,200% YoY). 2025 revenue figures not yet disclosed but likely much higher given the surge in volume.
Wrap Up / Looking Ahead 🔮
Prediction markets are no longer a side show, they’re shaping up as a new asset class.
The question is whether liquidity (Polymarket) or licenses (Kalshi) will define who wins this trillion-dollar opportunity.
US Regulation
What’s Happening in the U.S. 🇺🇸
Washington has crypto on its mind. From court rulings to Senate frameworks to the SEC’s own vision, the federal narrative is shifting toward defining, and legitimizing on-chain markets.
Tokens not securities: Judge Paul Atkins argued that most crypto tokens should not be classified as securities, adding judicial weight to the industry’s fight against SEC overreach.
SEC’s new vision: SEC Chair outlined a roadmap for “on-chain markets and agentic finance,” signaling the agency sees blockchain as part of future market structure rather than just speculative assets.
Senate framework: Senate Democrats introduced a comprehensive market structure proposal, aiming to give regulators clearer authority while setting guardrails for trading platforms and stablecoins.
Taken together, these moves point to a maturing U.S. policy environment where lawmakers, judges, and regulators are no longer debating if crypto belongs, but how to integrate it.
🚦The signal: crypto is graduating from the fringe into a federally defined asset class 🚦
Uncle Sam finally read the whitepaper 📜
Wrap Up ✌
✨ The through-line is clear: talent, regulation, and capital are converging.
U.S. policy signals are hardening, Wall Street is piling in, and even private equity is eyeing blockchain as a margin-maker.
Whether it’s Sensible’s UX, Figure’s profits, Inversion’s model, or Polymarket’s liquidity, the message is the same, crypto is no longer asking for a seat at the table, it’s redesigning the table.✨
