Last updated: October 26, 2026. Covers announcements from October 3 to 23; we update this page after month end.
TL;DR
Crypto companies we track announced 20 funding rounds between October 3 and 23, 2026, with $307.8 million disclosed across 15 of them. The money concentrated at the infrastructure end: tokenized cash platform Spiko's $90 million Series B alone was 29% of the disclosed total. Stablecoin payments startups raised far less, but one investor dominated them: Tether led or backed 5 of the 7 payments rounds.
The October numbers
Metric
October 3 to 23, 2026
Rounds tracked
20
Rounds with a disclosed amount
15
Total disclosed
$307.8 million
Largest round
Spiko, $90 million Series B
Payments rounds
7 ($32 million disclosed)
Rounds led or backed by Tether
5
All figures come from the table below, where each round links to its announcement or the report that disclosed it.
Where the money went: tokenized cash over payments
The biggest checks went to the plumbing that turns stablecoins and funds into yield-bearing, onchain money.Spiko raised $90 million led by New Enterprise Associates to expand its tokenized cash funds, which it says hold $2.7 billion for more than 10,000 customers. Fission raised a $10 million Series A led by Pantera Capital to buy tokenized fund positions from holders who want out before redemption, and Multiliquid closed a Polychain-led seed for tokenized asset liquidity.
The pattern is consistent: investors are funding the layer that makes tokenized money behave like cash, liquid, redeemable and yield-bearing, rather than new chains or consumer apps.
Tether is now the default seed investor in stablecoin payments
Tether led or backed five October payments rounds: Mural, Peso, EFY Finance, Saber Money and AIsa. Only one of those, Mural's $15 million Series A, disclosed an amount. The rest were undisclosed strategic or early-stage checks into companies extending USDT payments into Latin America, Asia and the Gulf.
The framing that explains this: every new payment network that settles in USDT increases demand for USDT. Tether's investments work as distribution spending as much as venture bets. For founders, that makes Tether the most accessible strategic investor in the category, with an obvious trade-off: building on one issuer's stablecoin ties the business to that issuer's regulatory fortunes.
AI agent payments arrive as a funding category
Three October rounds were explicitly about payments made by software agents rather than people. AIsa lets agents buy data, software and compute within spending limits, X Pay uses the x402 standard for automated USDC payments, and Mural said part of its roadmap is controls for agent-initiated payments. The sums are small, but three rounds in three weeks makes it a theme worth tracking.
How we build this list
We start from weekly funding inventories compiled by crypto.news, which draws on Crypto Fundraising, DefiLlama and DropsTab, then confirm each round against the company announcement or the report that first disclosed it. Every row in the table carries that source link.
What we exclude: rounds at companies whose core business is not crypto, even when crypto investors participate. That removed Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion Series E (AI chips), Whop's $200 million Series D (digital commerce), Nous Research's $90 million (AI models) and Mecka's $60 million (robotics data) from October's totals. We also leave out rounds without a confirmed announcement date and token price movements.
Amounts: we count only newly announced money. Noah's row is the $16 million extension, not its cumulative $38 million seed. Undisclosed rounds are listed but excluded from totals.
Funding rounds, October 2026
$307.8M total raised20 roundsLargest: Spiko ($90M)
How much did crypto startups raise in October 2026?
Between October 3 and 23, 2026, the crypto companies we track announced 20 rounds with $307.8 million disclosed across 15 of them. Broader trackers that include crypto-adjacent AI and commerce companies report much higher totals, mainly because of Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion AI chip round.
What was the largest crypto funding round in October 2026?
Spiko's $90 million Series B, announced October 6, 2026 and led by New Enterprise Associates, was the largest crypto-native round in our October data. Spiko runs tokenized cash and money market funds and said the round brought its total funding to $120 million.
Which stablecoin companies raised money in October 2026?
Stablecoin payments companies that raised in October 2026 include Mural ($15 million Series A led by Tether), Noah ($16 million seed extension), Peso, EFY Finance and Saber Money (undisclosed, Tether-backed) and X Pay ($1 million). Spiko and Fission raised for tokenized cash and fund infrastructure.
Why is Tether investing in so many payments startups?
Tether profits from USDT in circulation, so payment networks that settle in USDT expand its core business. Its October investments in Mural, Peso, EFY Finance, Saber Money and AIsa all extend USDT payments into new markets or use cases, which makes them closer to distribution spending than conventional venture investing.
How often is this funding report updated?
We publish a funding round report every month and update the current month's page after month end with any late announcements. Each round links to its primary source, and the full table can be downloaded as an Excel file for research or prospecting.
