Transak Founder Says VCs Have Rewritten the Rules for Crypto Startup Funding as Midas Raises $50M

Venture Capital Gets Selective With Crypto Deals

Raising venture capital for crypto startups has become considerably harder compared to the previous bull cycle. Sami Start, founder of infrastructure provider Transak, shared this assessment in an interview with DL News, noting that funds have dramatically narrowed their deal pipeline and raised the bar for projects seeking financing.

Against the backdrop of a broader market downturn, venture investors have shifted their focus toward companies building stablecoin infrastructure and payment networks. Projects whose operations directly tie into the real economy and traditional financial institutions are getting priority.

Start emphasized that abstract concepts no longer attract capital. Investors now look for a real user base, regulatory compliance, and product integration into existing financial workflows.

Why This Matters

The shift in VC priorities signals growing maturity in the crypto industry. While previous cycles saw funding flow to projects at the idea stage, today's market demands a working product, revenue, and regulatory transparency. This fundamental change could accelerate the convergence of crypto infrastructure with traditional finance while filtering out speculative ventures lacking viable business models.

Midas Closes $50M Series A

Despite the tighter screening criteria, some projects continue to attract substantial funding. On-chain investment platform Midas announced the completion of a $50M Series A round led by RRE Ventures and Creandum.

"Funding round announcement" — Midas (@MidasRWA), original post

Other participants included Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Framework Ventures, GSR, Ledger Cathay, and several institutional and venture investors.

New Midas Protocols: Liquidity and Transparency

Alongside the funding announcement, the Midas team unveiled two key tools:

• Midas Staked Liquidity (MSL) — a protocol providing instant liquidity for on-chain assets, eliminating settlement delays and reducing counterparty risks.
• Midas Attestation Engine — a mechanism that continuously generates cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve attestations and updates asset valuations directly on-chain. Any investor or third-party smart contract can independently verify the backing of the platform's tokens (mTokens) at any time.

Expansion Plans

Midas plans to deploy the $50M toward expanding its asset lineup. The roadmap includes strategies based on reinsurance and accounts receivable, as well as the launch of tokenized equities. The team is also working on direct integration with Ledger hardware wallets to tap into new liquidity sources.

RRE Ventures general partner Vik Singh pointed to demand for Midas infrastructure as traditional finance migrates to blockchain and tokenization fundamentally reshapes capital markets. Midas CEO Dennis Dinkelmeyer stated the company's goal is to make investing as open and composable as the internet itself.

Context: Big Rounds Keep Coming

Midas's raise is not an isolated case of large-scale funding in 2026. In March, Bloomberg reported that prediction market platform Kalshi raised over $1 billion in a new financing round, pushing its valuation to $22 billion. This confirms that institutional capital remains willing to back crypto — but only projects with proven business models and infrastructure value.