Fomo Raises $75 Million at $550 Million Valuation as Major VCs Bet on Consumer Crypto
A consumer-focused cryptocurrency trading application has secured $75 million in funding from investors who typically avoid the crypto space.
Fomo, a social-first crypto trading app, announced a $75 million Series B funding round led by Index Ventures, valuing the company at $550 million. Union Square Ventures also participated, alongside existing investor Benchmark and angel investors including Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga; Humam Sakhnini, CEO of Discord; and Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Eventbrite.
Founded in 2025 by three former dYdX employees—Paul Erlanger, Se Yong Park, and Prashan Dharmasena—Fomo aims to make on-chain trading as seamless as a conventional consumer application. Key features include non-custodial accounts, a rapid onboarding process of approximately 30 seconds, social functionalities like leaderboards and copy trading, and access to a wider array of assets than Coinbase across multiple blockchains, all without the need for users to manage wallets, bridges, or gas fees.
Since its launch in May 2025, Fomo has attracted over 625,000 users and facilitated $4 billion in trading volume. The platform is currently onboarding around 3,500 new users daily with a lean team of 17 employees. This latest funding round brings Fomo’s total capital raised to approximately $94 million.
Julia Andre, a partner at Index Ventures, noted a significant market shift towards consumer blockchain trading and expressed confidence in Fomo’s ability to capitalize on it. “We’re not investing in Fomo because it’s a crypto business,” Andre stated. Co-founder Paul Erlanger was direct about the challenge they are addressing: “On-chain trading is simply impossible.” His vision is for Fomo to be perceived not as a crypto app at all, mirroring the trajectory of Coinbase and Robinhood.
The involvement of established, non-crypto venture capital firms in a nine-figure raise for a crypto startup, particularly during a challenging market downturn, signals a strong conviction that the next wave of users will engage through user-friendly consumer applications rather than complex exchanges. This timing also aligns with a recent uptick in retail search interest and trading volume, as Bitcoin stabilizes near the $64,000 mark.
Fomo’s ambitions extend beyond digital tokens. The company introduced derivatives trading in June and plans to integrate equities, derivatives, and prediction markets as they move on-chain, positioning it as a direct competitor to Coinbase’s “everything app” and Robinhood. Co-founder Se Yong Park indicated that the new funds will be used for acquisitions and to expand the engineering team, providing them with the necessary resources to pursue these goals.
Strategy Buys Just 520 BTC After Raising $300 Million in Cash
MicroStrategy sold $335.5 million worth of its stock last week but allocated only a fraction of those proceeds to Bitcoin, purchasing just 520 BTC, valued at approximately $35 million, at an average price of $67,068. This acquisition brings MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 847,363 coins. The remainder of the funds raised was retained as cash.
The company significantly increased its U.S. dollar reserves, adding roughly $300 million to reach a total of $1.4 billion. This cash is earmarked for supporting the credit quality of its preferred shares and covering dividend payments and debt obligations.
Some analysts interpret this move as damage control for MicroStrategy (MSTR). Saylor’s preferred stock, which pays dividends and has been instrumental in funding Bitcoin acquisitions, recently hit a record low of $83 before a partial recovery. The selloff in preferred shares also coincided with a dip in Bitcoin’s price and broader market sentiment. By raising equity and accumulating cash instead of aggressively buying more Bitcoin, MicroStrategy appears to be prioritizing the strengthening of its balance sheet over expanding its digital asset holdings.
Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s CEO, personally purchased $1 million worth of MSTR stock, vowing to hold it until it returns to par value, a public display of confidence amidst growing scrutiny of the company’s model in a prolonged bear market.
This strategy suggests that Saylor and MicroStrategy are focused on protecting both the company’s stock and its Bitcoin reserves. This may involve prioritizing MSTR’s financial stability, even if it means a slower pace of Bitcoin accumulation. While concerns about MicroStrategy’s financial stability may be overstated, MSTR shareholders could face further short-term volatility.
BitMine, SharpLink, and Joe Lubin Fund New Ethereum Research Lab
Two of the largest corporate holders of Ethereum have now invested in the research and development of the Ethereum network itself.
BitMine, SharpLink, and Joe Lubin are the primary financial backers of ETHLabs, a new independent nonprofit research and development laboratory. The lab is staffed by five researchers who previously worked at the Ethereum Foundation.
ETHLabs has set an ambitious goal: to establish Ethereum as the settlement layer for the global economy. Its initial research efforts are specifically targeting institutional adoption, focusing on areas such as faster settlement times, native asset issuance, cross-chain interoperability, increased mainnet capacity, and research into Ethereum’s monetary properties. In addition to the three anchor funders, community supporters include Hayden Adams of Uniswap, Jesse Pollak of Base, and prominent researchers Justin Drake, Danny Ryan, and Tim Beiko.
BitMine and SharpLink are the two largest corporate holders of ETH. By funding research aimed at enhancing ETH’s value, these entities with significant ETH holdings are directly investing in the network’s future growth. Analyst Tom Lee has highlighted the role of institutions and AI agents in driving adoption, emphasizing the ecosystem’s need for increased talent and research to support this expansion. ETHLabs is also explicitly focused on value accrual and the practical application of decentralized finance (DeFi), areas that ETH holders have long argued have been underemphasized by the Ethereum Foundation in its pursuit of credible neutrality.
To ensure that funding does not translate into undue influence, ETHLabs routes all contributions through an independent grants administrator, creating a clear separation between the researchers and the entities providing financial support.
This development occurs amid a period of talent attrition from the Ethereum Foundation and heightened debate over the direction of Ethereum’s development and how the ETH asset captures value. ETHLabs is being positioned as a complementary entity to the Foundation, rather than a breakaway faction, representing a fusion of idealism and pragmatism. The core strategy is to align the largest ETH holders with the researchers capable of fostering network growth, with an independent administrator ensuring transparency and accountability.
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