equity

According to the 8-K document submitted by Circle Internet Group to the U.S. SEC, a subsidiary of Circle signed an agreement with Binance on September 17, 2026, to expand their strategic cooperation in promoting USDC. At the same time, Binance subscribed to 1,237,011 shares of Circle Class A common stock at a price of $80.84 per share, totaling an investment of $100 million. This price reflects a discount compared to the market price prior to the signing of the subscription agreement.Under the agreement, Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee, calculated as a percentage of the amount of USDC held through Circle's modular smart contract wallet infrastructure service, while Binance will carry out additional promotional activities for USDC on its platform. The agreement has a term of five years, and either party may unilaterally terminate it upon the occurrence of specific events. The new agreement replaces the previous agreements from November 2024 and August 2025.The subscribed shares are issued through a private placement and are not registered under the Securities Act. Binance agrees not to directly or indirectly sell, transfer, pledge, or hedge such shares from the date of delivery until the second anniversary or before the termination of the commercial arrangement, while retaining voting rights and subject to several customary exceptions.

According to official news, the AIA Ecosystem Fund announced four updates to the AIA ecosystem, including the official launch of products, alignment of token and equity value, execution of token burn and unlock as planned, and the invalidation of unallocated tokens for dismissed members.In terms of products, the AI Token Smart Router under DeAgentAI was officially launched to the public today, providing unified access to DeAgentAI's proprietary models and 38 mainstream third-party models, supporting model routing, API calls, and usage measurement. Since the internal testing, the platform has served 8 top domestic and international large model clients, processing over 54 million external model calls, with monthly revenue exceeding one million dollars.Regarding the alignment of token and equity value, the AIA Ecosystem Fund stated that all revenue generated from products and business lines under DeAgentAI, as well as related intellectual property and value, will exclusively belong to the foundation and be governed by $AIA holders, with equity investors no longer entitled to residual cash flow. Additionally, the previously disclosed buyback has been fully completed, and the repurchased tokens will be burned as planned.The AIA Ecosystem Fund also stated that the one-year lock-up period for investors, team members, and advisors has ended, entering a three-year linear release period, consistent with the arrangements disclosed at launch; community, ecosystem, and staking shares will still be executed according to the original schedule.The shares of former employees who left normally will be distributed as agreed, but some former team members previously engaged in serious illegal activities. The AIA Ecosystem Fund clearly stated a zero-tolerance policy for any actions that harm the interests of the project and community. Any team member dismissed due to misconduct or harm to project interests will have their unallocated $AIA immediately invalidated, and the company reserves the right to pursue criminal liability.

According to Fortune magazine, the American enterprise AI startup Arcee AI has completed a $150 million Series B funding round, with a pre-money valuation of $1 billion. This round was led by Vista Equity Partners, Cambium Capital, and Emergence Capital, with participation from Microsoft's M12, AI10 Ventures, Hitachi, IAG, P7, and Wipro.Arcee did not disclose the specific amount, but insiders say it is at least $150 million. Founded in 2023, Arcee initially focused on fine-tuning and optimizing existing models, later shifting to building open-weight models from scratch. Its founder, Mark McQuade, was an early employee at Hugging Face. The funds will be used to develop new open-weight models and products, expand collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, and work with Vista's portfolio companies.

Zhiyu (02513.HK) stated in a conference call with analysts and investors that the company has just completed a refinancing of $5 billion with a "small equity, large debt" structure, which was driven by the demand for computing power expansion.After the release of GLM-5 in February, the demand for model calls surged tenfold, and nearly all of the company's computing power reserves were depleted within the week of the release, forcing the suspension of the main product, Coding plan. In response, Zhiyu actively addressed the situation, completing a $4 billion refinancing in July, and finally made a large-scale layout for computing power expansion; after refinancing another $5 billion on September 11, it firmly continued to expand its computing power layout.After this expansion, Zhiyu's computing power has taken shape and is now able to support the company's rapid business growth and the continuous research and development of larger-scale models.

According to a report by Reuters, artificial intelligence company Zhipu has launched a Hong Kong stock placement of approximately 2 billion USD and a convertible bond issuance of about 3 billion USD, totaling a financing scale of around 5 billion USD. Zhipu will issue 21.97 million new shares at a placement price of 714 HKD per share, which is about a 10% discount compared to the closing price of 793 HKD; at the same time, it will issue 20.14 billion RMB (approximately 3 billion USD) zero-coupon convertible bonds, maturing in September 2027. The issuance price of the convertible bonds is 100% to 100.5% of face value, corresponding to a yield of -0.5% to 0%, with an initial conversion price of 892.5 HKD, which is a 25% premium over the placement price.The proceeds from the financing will mainly be used for research and development, computing power resources, and related infrastructure, as well as for business expansion, strategic investments, potential mergers and acquisitions, working capital, and other corporate purposes. This stock placement and convertible bond issuance will occur simultaneously, but the settlement of the two transactions is not interdependent.

Centrifuge, in a post on X, announced that the governance proposal CP172 has been approved. The official statement indicates that this is the first time in history that tokens will be converted into tokenized equity. After necessary approvals and legal analysis are completed, Centrifuge will proceed with the proposed restructuring.According to the governance forum proposal, the Centrifuge Network Foundation plans to restructure and re-register as a Cayman Islands exempt limited liability company, Centrifuge, Inc., to issue equity. Eligible CFG token holders can exchange 1 CFG for 1 share of tokenized equity through the Centrifuge platform, with no additional fees. Qualified holders with 100,000 CFG or more will be directly registered as shareholders, while those with less than 100,000 will participate through a trust structure in collaboration with CoinList.The conversion is voluntary, and non-participating holders can continue to hold or sell their tokens on the open market. Centrifuge will strive to maintain market liquidity during the conversion period. The proposal is legally guided by Ogier, with advisory support from Galaxy Digital Labs LLC and The Tokenized Asset Coalition.

The CEO of Bitcoin Reserve Company Metaplanet, Simon Gerovich, posted on the X platform in response to the controversy surrounding the company's equity incentive plan and MMXX Ventures. Gerovich admitted that the company "failed to adequately explain" the incentive arrangement known as "Series 10 Stock Options" and stated that he is a "significant but non-controlling shareholder" of MMXX's parent company, not involved in its trading decisions.The controversy stems from a stock rights plan established in December 2022, with a reward pool set at 20% of Metaplanet's fully diluted equity. After shifting to a Bitcoin reserve strategy in April 2024, the company dilutes existing shareholders with each new share issuance, while Gerovich's option rights increase accordingly. On August 18, the board canceled the floating adjustment mechanism, fixing the Series 10 pool at 319 million shares and setting a five-year lock-up period, but did not restore the reward pool to the level it was at when the Bitcoin strategy was initiated. On August 28, Gerovich exercised 92,000 Series 10 options, acquiring 64 million new shares, and currently holds about 6.2% of the company; he and MMXX together hold over 27% of the fully diluted equity.Shareholders expressed dissatisfaction. A shareholder using the pseudonym The Bitcoin Pharaoh stated on X that the adjustments in August were "a step in the right direction," but demanded that Gerovich address the issues that have arisen, disclose the owners of MMXX, and restore the reward pool to the level it was at when the Bitcoin strategy was initiated.

a16z's AI infrastructure team has successfully backed two acquisitions within five days: Cursor has been acquired by SpaceX, and Stripe announced the acquisition of OpenRouter. According to The Information, the total value of a16z's holdings corresponding to these two investments has exceeded $8 billion.In 2024, a16z participated in Cursor's $60 million Series A round, when the company's valuation was only $400 million. Now, SpaceX is acquiring Cursor for $60 billion. Bloomberg previously reported that a16z is Cursor's largest external shareholder, holding about 10%, which is valued at approximately $6 billion based on the acquisition price.In 2024, a16z established its first $1.25 billion infrastructure-focused fund. The Information states that the two transactions involving Cursor and OpenRouter are enough for the related fund to return all principal to LPs and also provide additional profits. This year, a16z raised another $1.7 billion for its infrastructure fund and recently raised an additional $1.1 billion specifically for AI hardware. Martin Casado, head of AI infrastructure, noted that a few years ago, only about 5% of the startup projects he encountered were in hardware, and now that figure is close to 20%.

According to The Defiant, Securitize has announced a partnership with Socios.com, where Securitize will provide regulated securities issuance, investor onboarding, and ownership record services for Socios.com’s plan to sell tokenized minority equity in professional sports clubs.The token product branded as Socios Equity Tokens will be subject to applicable securities laws, league requirements, club approvals, and jurisdictional restrictions. Fan Tokens and Socios Equity Tokens will function as separate products, with the former used for participation and utility, while the latter represents regulated financial rights.Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, stated that professional sports clubs represent an important asset class that has largely remained private and difficult to access. Securitize's regulated infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe can provide clubs and their owners with new ways to issue and manage equity. Alexandre Dreyfus, founder and CEO of Chiliz Group, mentioned that the collaboration with Securitize will explore entering the next phase through regulated tokenized equity.It is reported that this plan is expected to become the first tokenized project launched by Securitize under the EU DLT pilot regime, which only accepts issuers with a market capitalization of less than 500 million euros. Securitize received authorization from Spain's CNMV for DLT trading and settlement systems in November 2025.

According to SolanaFloor, the supply of tokenized equity on the Solana chain has reached a historic high, with the scale of tokenized equity deposited in lending protocols also hitting a new high of $60 million. $NVDAx and $SPYx rank at the top by the number of holders.

Hyperliquid's native treasury company Hyperliquid Strategies announced that it has expanded its equity purchase agreement with Chardan Capital Markets from $1 billion to $2.5 billion.After the initial $1 billion is sold, further stock sales below $12.02 will be subject to the Nasdaq 19.99% exchange cap limit, unless approved by shareholders.

According to Bloomberg, investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group is raising approximately $1 billion for a new continuation fund using equity from its star assets such as OpenAI, SpaceX, Databricks, and wealth management firm Creative Planning as "chips." However, sources indicate that Dragoneer's initial fundraising target was $2 billion, and it is currently unclear what specific assets are included in the final $1 billion fund raised.It is reported that Dragoneer hopes to enhance the fund's appeal to investors by establishing a continuation fund that allows for the continued holding of some existing assets for a longer period. This fundraising also reflects that, as the valuations of popular private tech companies like OpenAI and SpaceX continue to attract market attention, holding early or private equity in these companies is becoming an important chip for asset management firms in fundraising and asset restructuring.

Ripple's multi-asset brokerage business Ripple Prime has launched the Delta One service aimed at institutional investors, officially expanding into the U.S. equity derivatives market. This service allows clients to execute total return swaps linked to U.S. listed stocks, indices, and digital assets, and supports cross-asset margin calculations.Noel Kimmel, President of Ripple Prime, stated that this is an important step in the development of Ripple Prime and a natural extension of the platform. The service is primarily aimed at financial institutions such as hedge funds and asset management companies, allowing clients to trade around the clock through a single counterparty. Ripple Prime currently has over $1 billion in regulatory net capital.Ripple Prime was renamed after Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road completed in October 2025. In August of this year, Ripple Prime completed a $275 million private placement of senior unsecured notes, and in May, it secured $200 million in debt financing from a fund managed by Neuberger Specialty Finance to expand its institutional lending capabilities.

SK Group plans to sell a 49% stake in its Ulsan artificial intelligence data center in South Korea to several private equity firms. SK Telecom and SK Broadband intend to approve the transaction at the board meeting on August 27.KKR will acquire a 29% stake, while a consortium formed by IMM Investment and Stonebridge Capital will acquire a 20% stake. The transaction is valued at approximately 3 trillion won, which includes about 1.2 trillion won in capital increase.

Citigroup expects that by 2026, the issuance scale of South Korean companies in the global bond and stock markets will reach a record high. Companies are raising growth funds through international investors, with SK Hynix's $26.5 billion U.S. listing being the most prominent. Jangho Park, CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Korea, stated that South Korea has an increasing number of world-class companies and emerging industry leaders, who are increasingly utilizing capital markets with competitive financing conditions to raise funds for their growth objectives.As Citigroup makes this forecast, the two major chip manufacturers in South Korea are becoming the main beneficiaries of global artificial intelligence infrastructure construction. South Korea is seeking to encourage companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, to invest at least 135 trillion won ($975 billion) in chip and data center construction, although many projects are still in the early planning stages.

According to the Form D document disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the prediction market platform Kalshi Inc. is conducting a private equity offering under Rule 506(b) exemption, with a total issuance size of approximately $1.499998 billion, of which approximately $1.12001 billion has been sold, leaving approximately $379.99 million remaining for sale. The document shows that the first sale date is April 3, 2026, and 71 investors have already participated.

EntropyIO announced the launch of the first liquidity trading method for Anthropic, aimed at making cutting-edge assets that were previously accessible to only a select few available to a broader audience. The project has completed a $14 million financing round led by Ribbit Capital and received $40 million in HYPE staking support to build improved and new markets.EntropyIO stated that the first related markets have gone live on Hyperliquid. EntropyIO focuses on providing liquidity trading and market infrastructure for cutting-edge assets.

Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) submitted a letter of opinion to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stating that eligible equity perpetual contracts can be classified as securities futures. This category is jointly regulated by the two agencies, allowing exchanges to compete on execution quality rather than jurisdiction.HPC pointed out that there is still no clear classification for perpetual contracts under U.S. law (whether futures or swaps), and this fundamental issue remains unresolved. They possess characteristics of futures such as standardized terms, the ability to hedge positions, and forward value, although they do not have a fixed expiration date, but prices converge continuously through funding rates.The letter of opinion proposed four points: confirm that the definition of securities futures can encompass cash-settled equity perpetuals with futures characteristics; retain flexibility for product listings at trading venues; maintain consistency in classification between the two agencies; modernize the securities futures framework to accommodate new structures. HPC stated that in the past 10 months, the trading volume of Hyperliquid perpetual contracts has exceeded $48 billion, and a clear framework would help relevant products enter the U.S. market.

According to businesswire, Bitcoin treasury company BSTR Holdings announced that it has reached an agreement with Cantor Equity Partners to terminate the business combination agreement signed by both parties on July 16, 2025.The reason for termination is that under the current market environment, the valuation of Bitcoin and publicly listed Bitcoin treasury companies continues to be under pressure, leading to a mismatch in the capital market, which restricts the amplifying effect of financing tools such as convertible bonds and perpetual preferred stocks in Bitcoin treasury strategies.BSTR stated that it will continue to promote institutional-level Bitcoin asset management business once the market environment stabilizes.