Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Assets Review (September 1, 2025)

Gate Ventures

TL;DR

• Trump attempted to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, further challenging the independence of the Federal Reserve and influencing its decision-making process.
• This week’s economic data includes the US labor market report, ISM Purchasing Managers’ Index, and trade data.
• The ETH/BTC ratio remains resilient amidst the recent market pullback of ETH and BTC.
• Best performer: CRO rebounded strongly due to the synergy effect of DAT, outperforming other top 30 coins.
• Newly listed: WLFI enters the market and is attracting attention due to its ecosystem and political connections.
• Google Cloud builds a universal ledger blockchain for payment and financial institutions.
• Numerai has secured up to $500 million in funding from J.P. Morgan Asset Management to expand its artificial intelligence hedge fund.
• Aave Labs launched Horizon to enable stablecoin lending against tokenized real assets.
• The infrastructure industry has the most funding.

Macro Overview

Trump attempted to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, further challenging the independence of the Federal Reserve and influencing its decision-making process.

Since August, the U.S. government’s intervention in the Federal Reserve has increasingly extended to specific personnel appointments and dismissals. At the beginning of August, Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler suddenly resigned, and Trump nominated his economic advisor Stephen Milan to temporarily fill this vacancy. Recently, Trump attempted to remove Governor Lisa Cook from her position, which poses an unprecedented challenge to the independence of the Federal Reserve. If Trump is successful in these two key personnel changes, along with the Governors Bowman and Waller he nominated during his first term, the White House would control 4 out of 7 seats on the Federal Reserve Board. This could impact the appointments and dismissals of regional Federal Reserve presidents.

The United States is entering a phase dominated by fiscal policy, accompanied by monetary easing. Recent personnel changes in the Federal Reserve have confirmed this trend. Under fiscal dominance, US dollar liquidity may tend to be abundant, benefiting global risk assets. The monetization of debt, financial repression, and the resurgence of inflation may enhance the effectiveness of fiscal deficits, buying time to address structural issues, and the nominal economic cycle in the US may recover from the bottom.

This week’s upcoming data includes the U.S. labor market report for August, the PMI data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), and trade data including factory orders and trade figures. The labor market report will be the focus of this week, expected to be released this Friday. Last week’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data met expectations, with July PCE rising by 0.2% and core PCE increasing by 0.27%. Additionally, despite weak trade, the U.S. GDP for the second quarter of 2025 still grew by 3.3%, showing a rebound stronger than previous levels after a decline in the first quarter.

DXY

The market synergy from the PCE index, GDP revisions, and interest rate cut expectations has prompted the dollar index to decline further, reaching a one-month low again.

U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell last week as investors were eager to inject more liquidity into risk asset classes.

gold

Last week, gold prices rose significantly due to dovish data and expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut. Favorable Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data and revisions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) helped stimulate gold purchases.

Crypto Assets Market Overview

1. Main Assets

BTC price

ETH price

ETH/BTC ratio

SOL/ETH ratio

After several weeks of increases, the price of Ethereum has entered a periodic correction, falling below the $4,400 level and waiting for further buying power to readjust. As for Bitcoin, it has posted losses for the third consecutive week and is currently below the $110k level.

As more DAT companies enter the market, investors are faced with a wider range of Crypto Assets that are packaged in a manner similar to traditional stocks or other financial instruments, which may further facilitate the acceptance of Crypto Assets by major institutional investors. The leverage used in the acquisition of Crypto Assets may help amplify the price impact on the underlying coin assets.

Due to Ethereum’s more attractive performance compared to Bitcoin and Solana over the past two weeks, the ETH/BTC ratio and the SOL/ETH ratio are both moving in a direction that shows a stronger preference for the ETH side.

2. Total Market Cap

Crypto Assets total market value

The total market capitalization of crypto assets excluding BTC and ETH

Last week, the total market value of Crypto Assets fell below 3.7 trillion, while the total market value excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum was 1.02 trillion. Compared to the dominant Bitcoin and Ethereum, the altcoin market remains relatively weak in terms of market acceptance and real user penetration, but the integration between stocks and Crypto Assets may somewhat slow the aforementioned trend.

3. Performance of the Top 30 Crypto Assets

Source: Coingecko and Gate Ventures, as of September 1, 2025

Last week was a bloody week for most of the top 30 tokens, as there was a significant price readjustment among these multiple assets, a follow-up effect of investors taking profits. The only asset that showed an unusually strong increase was CRO, which benefited from the announcement of the upcoming de-SPAC transaction involving Trump Media, Crypto.com, and the blank-check company Yorkville Acquisition for CRO’s strategic DAT company.

4. New Token Launch

WLFI will start trading on multiple crypto asset exchanges from September 1st. The trading price has repeatedly exceeded the entry price for early investors, and it is expected to further expand its business across multiple narratives and segments, including stablecoins. In addition, it has formed a strategic partnership with Nasdaq-listed company ALT5 Sigma, which raised $1.5 billion for the WLFI treasury and welcomed Eric Trump to its board.

Key Crypto Assets Highlights

1. Google Cloud builds a universal ledger blockchain for payment and financial institutions.

Google Cloud is developing its own blockchain network, the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), aimed at supporting payments and digital financial products. GCUL is currently running in a private testing network and will be detailed later this year. GCUL is designed as an “efficient, trust-neutral” infrastructure layer for financial institutions, supporting Python-based smart contracts and providing access through a single API. Google Cloud emphasizes that the system is permissioned and focuses on compliance, enabling payment automation and digital asset management within a regulated framework.

Despite being described as a layer network, the private and permissioned models of blockchain have raised skepticism in the Crypto Assets community, with some arguing that it does not reflect decentralization. The initiative was first disclosed in March 2025, when Google Cloud and the CME Group revealed a pilot testing GCUL for wholesale payments and asset tokenization. If successful, GCUL could become a core enterprise-level ledger service, expanding Google Cloud’s influence at the intersection of fintech and blockchain infrastructure.

2. Numerai secured up to $500 million in funding from JPMorgan Asset Management to expand its AI hedge fund.

Numerai ($NMR), an AI-driven hedge fund, has announced that it has secured up to $500 million in funding from JPMorgan Asset Management, marking its largest financing milestone to date. Over the past three years, Numerai’s assets under management have grown from $60 million to $450 million, thanks to the support of its network of data scientists.

Numerai emphasized JPMorgan’s reputation as one of the world’s largest quantitative and machine learning-driven strategy allocators, making this collaboration a validation of its AI-focused approach. Last year, the company’s global equity hedge fund net return was 25%, further solidifying its pre-trade performance record. The company is now expanding its team, having recently recruited an AI researcher from Meta and a trading engineer from Voleon, along with other professionals, to enhance its quantitative and infrastructure capabilities. Numerai described this funding round as a turning point, marking its ability to compete at scale within the hedge fund industry while deepening its ties with traditional finance.

3. Aave Labs launched Horizon for stablecoin lending against tokenized RWA.

Aave Labs has launched Horizon, a new institutional platform that allows for stablecoin lending against tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) such as U.S. Treasuries and mortgage obligations. Horizon is built on a restricted instance of Aave V3, providing a capital-efficient, compliant, and 24/7 lending infrastructure tailored to institutional needs. Through Horizon, qualified institutions can use tokenized securities as collateral and borrow stablecoins like USDC, RLUSD, and GHO. Compliance is enforced at the token level through issuer permissions, while the stablecoin market remains permissionless to maintain the composability of DeFi.

The launch partners include Circle, VanEck, WisdomTree, Chainlink, Centrifuge, Superstate, OpenEden, Hamilton Lane, Securitize, Ethena, and Ant Digital Technologies. The assets supported at launch cover major tokenized funds such as Superstate USTB and USCC, Circle’s USYC, Centrifuge’s JAAA and JTRSY, as well as VanEck’s VBILL. Overall, these assets have entered an on-chain RWA market that now exceeds $25 billion. Chainlink’s SmartData underpins Horizon’s architecture, providing real-time fund valuations directly on-chain, starting from Onchain NAV, enabling automated over-collateralization for DeFi institutional growth.

Key Venture Capital Transactions

1. Maven 11 and Lightspeed Faction led a $4.5 million seed round financing for Credit Coop’s on-chain credit network.

Credit Coop has completed a $4.5 million seed round financing led by Maven 11 Capital and Lightspeed Faction, with participants including Coinbase Ventures, Signature Ventures, Veris Ventures, TRGC, and dlab. This financing will be used to expand its programmable credit platform aimed at the stablecoin economy. Credit Coop addresses the inefficiencies of traditional settlement systems that delay payments for businesses, targeting a $25 trillion payment opportunity. Its core product is a guaranteed credit line powered by Spigot technology that converts future receivables (e.g., Visa or Mastercard settlements) into instant operating capital. Repayments will be programmed at the source, eliminating counterparty risk while remaining fully on-chain, transparent, and compliant with UCC Article 12.

The company plans to expand beyond payments into market payments, SaaS revenue, and subscriptions, enabling instant financing for any digital cash flow. Early adopters include Rain, Coinflow, Tulipa Capital, Re7 Capital, and Valinor, which have processed $180 million, with active loans of $8.7 million, and no defaults on an additional $130 million in queued borrowing demand. The new funds will accelerate product development, network expansion, and lender-borrower integration, positioning Credit Coop as the foundational layer for instant, programmable credit in the stablecoin era.

2. M0 raised 40 million dollars in Series B financing to build the stablecoin network infrastructure.

M0, a stablecoin infrastructure startup, has completed a $40 million Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Pantera Capital, and Bain Capital Crypto. This funding round includes equity and locked tokens, bringing M0’s total funding to nearly $100 million.

M0 was launched in 2023, aiming to create a “zero layer of currency” - a foundational network that enables stablecoin issuers to seamlessly interoperate. M0 provides the infrastructure for liquidity and interoperability between stablecoins, eliminating the complexities of transferring assets across blockchains like Ethereum or Solana. M0 has partnered with MetaMask to launch its own stablecoin and plans to scale up the introduction of issuers before prioritizing profitability.

The influx of funds comes against the backdrop of a surge in the adoption of stablecoins, highlighted by Circle’s $30 billion IPO valuation and the passage of the Genius Act, which sets a federal regulatory framework for the industry. Tech giants like Meta and Airbnb, as well as banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of America, are also exploring the integration of stablecoins, and M0 is positioning itself as a foundational participant in this transformation.

3. The Visa-integrated stablecoin platform Rain has raised $58 million in Series B funding to expand its enterprise payment infrastructure.

Rain is a leading enterprise-level stablecoin payment platform that has completed a $58 million Series B funding round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participants including Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Samsung Next, Lightspeed, and Norwest. This funding round brings Rain’s total funding to $88.5 million, having just completed a Series A round five months prior. Rain enables fintech, banking, and markets to embed stablecoins into cards, wallets, and payments through a single API. Its infrastructure covers capital inflow, storage, expenditure, and capital outflow, serving over 1.5 billion people through global partners. Rain is expanding into Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, driven by regulatory clarity from the US GENIUS Act and Europe’s MiCA.

The company has pioneered a stablecoin card integrated with Visa, processing millions of transactions in over 150 countries, with a projected 10-fold increase in transaction volume by 2025. Portfolio partners including Nuvei, Avalanche, Dakota, and Nomad use Rain for payments, consumer purchases, B2B spending, and cross-border payroll. Rain is also a key member of Visa, uniquely settling 100% of card transaction volume directly in stablecoins. With a new round of financing on the horizon, Rain will expand its engineering, compliance, and commercial teams to support the growth of existing partners and enter new markets. By natively building stablecoins and meeting corporate compliance standards.

Venture Capital Market Indicators

The number of transactions completed last week was 27, with Infra having 11 transactions, accounting for 41% of the total transactions. At the same time, Social had 1 transaction (4%), Data had 1 transaction (4%), Gamefi had 1 transaction (4%), and DeFi had 13 transactions (48%).

Weekly investment trading summary, source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of September 1, 2025

The total financing amount disclosed last week was 237 million USD, with 33% of the transactions (9/27) not revealing the financing amount. The largest financing came from the infrastructure sector, totaling 137 million USD. The transactions with the most financing are: Rain at 58 million USD, M0 at 40 million USD.

Weekly venture capital trading summary, source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of September 1, 2025

The total fundraising amount for the 5th week of August 2025 rose to $237 million, an increase of 60% compared to the previous week. Last week’s fundraising amount grew by 28% year-on-year.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures is the venture capital arm of Gate, focusing on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the Web 3.0 era. Gate Ventures collaborates with global industry leaders to support promising teams and startups that have the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.

Website: https://www.gate.com/ventures

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