Wu said November VC Monthly Report: Naver's $10.3 billion acquisition of Upbit, Kalshi raised $1 billion in financing, etc.

Author | Wu Says Blockchain

According to RootData statistics, in November 2025, a total of 57 venture capital projects were publicly disclosed by Crypto VC, a month-on-month decrease of 28% (79 projects in October 2025) and a year-on-year decrease of 41% (96 projects in November 2024). Note: Since not all financing is announced in the current month, the above statistics may increase in the future. The number of projects in each sector is as follows:

Among them, CeFi accounts for about 12.5%, DeFi accounts for about 30.4%, NFT/GameFi accounts for about 1.8%, L1/L2 accounts for about 1.8%, RWA/DePIN accounts for about 7.1%, Tool/Wallet accounts for about 5.4%, and AI accounts for about 7.1%.

In November 2025, the total financing amount was 14.54 billion USD, of which the acquisition of Upbit accounted for 10.3 billion, a month-on-month increase of 219% (45.56 billion USD in October 2025), and a year-on-year increase of 3131% (4.5 billion USD in November 2024). The top 10 rounds ranked by amount are as follows:

Naver has agreed to acquire Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately 10.3 billion USD. This acquisition marks the largest financing in the history of crypto, with Naver Financial and Dunamu valued at approximately 4.9 trillion KRW and 15.1 trillion KRW, respectively. Through this share exchange, Naver Finance will become its wholly-owned parent company. In the first nine months of this year, Dunamu’s consolidated operating revenue grew by 22% year-on-year to 1.19 trillion KRW, with revenue from trading platform operations, including Upbit, accounting for approximately 97.9%.

The prediction market platform Kalshi has secured $1 billion in funding, valuing the company at $11 billion, more than doubling its funding valuation from less than two months ago. This round of financing was led by returning investors Sequoia and CapitalG, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Anthos Capital, and Neo. According to Bloomberg, Kalshi's main competitor Polymarket was reportedly in discussions last month to raise additional funds at a valuation of between $12 billion and $15 billion.

DRW Holdings and Liberty City Ventures have signed a subscription agreement to initiate a private financing of approximately $540 million through the publicly listed company Tharimmune Inc. Tharimmune will hold the native Token (Canton) of the blockchain Canton for financial transaction scenarios. DRW and Liberty City participated in a $135 million financing of Digital Asset in June this year, with other participants including Citadel Securities and Goldman Sachs.

Ripple completed a $500 million financing, with its valuation rising to $40 billion. This round of financing was led by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group, affiliates of Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, funds managed by Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace.

Kraken has received a strategic investment of $200 million from Citadel Securities, resulting in a post-investment valuation of $20 billion. Previously, the exchange raised $600 million in September at a valuation of $15 billion, bringing the total funding to $800 million across two rounds. Kraken stated that the funds will be used to advance global expansion and payment product development.

The BTC lending platform Lava announced that it has raised an additional $200 million to build Lava's BTC financial toolkit. This funding comes from global capital partners, including venture capital and debt financing, with angel investors Anthony Pompliano and Eric Jackson participating in this round of financing.

The public sale of Monad (MON) on Coinbase raised $188 million, with a public sale price of 0.025 USDC for a total supply of 7.5% of MON, and an FDV of $2.5 billion. Monad is a Layer-1 Blockchain that is compatible with ETH.

The US-listed cryptocurrency wallet company Exodus Movement announced the acquisition of W3C Corp for $175 million (which includes the crypto card and payment business Baanx and Monavate). The transaction is composed of the company's own funds and financing provided by Galaxy Digital, collateralized by BTC. The deal is expected to be completed in 2026 after customary approvals.

The UK's largest retail bank, Lloyds Banking Group, has signed a £120 million (approximately $157.8 million) acquisition agreement with digital wallet provider Curve. Curve has confirmed to investors that the share sale agreement has been completed, but the sale valuation is significantly lower than previous funding rounds, leading to strong dissatisfaction among some early shareholders. Curve has raised over £250 million in total funding, and its CEO previously warned that if the sale is not completed, the company may run out of cash this year.

Paxos Trust Company has acquired the crypto wallet platform startup Fordefi Inc., with the transaction valued at over $100 million, which is higher than the $83 million valuation Fordefi received after its latest funding round last year. The wallet offered by Fordefi is based on MPC encryption, suitable not only for digital wallets but also for institutional trading use cases.