Feeling Bullish in a bubble market, the top 250 Web3 companies to watch; AI Goliaths scooped 40% of the VC$, and more Summer action…

The Cryptonite Weekly Rap Aug 19 ∙ Preview

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Bullish raised $1.1 billion at a valuation of $5.4 billion, with its stock debut on the New York Stock Exchange last week, and it surged briefly to over $13 billion in market cap. Chairman Brendan Blumer and CEO and former president of the NYSE, Tom Farley, are shown feeling groovy on the BLSH IPO day.

According to a recent Silicon Valley Bank ‘State of enterprise software’ report, out of the $197.2 billion that has gone into private companies thus far in 2025, $81.3 billion, a whopping 41% of VC cash, ended up in the coffers of AI startups, a dramatic rise from just 10% in 2021. The lion’s share of this funding ended up in the hands of just 10 private companies, including Cryptonite 300 top companies, OpenAI, xAI, Scale AI, Inflection AI, Adept, Jasper, Cohere, and Anthropic. (The other two non-AI companies on this list are SpaceX and Stripe, which both took in big rounds in 2025.) OpenAI alone accounted for $40 billion, making it the largest single financing event in VC history. This level of VC money concentration represents a 75% increase from the previous year and marks the highest concentration in over a decade.

The future of AI relies on rapidly expanding the AI infrastructure, data acquisition, and developing large language models. Ultimately, only a handful of ‘platform’ companies with deep pockets and technical expertise can withstand these stringent funding requirements. The good news is that these massive infrastructure investments are fostering the next generation of breakout AI startups, and most will benefit from building on the stacks/platforms of well-funded leaders.

Masa’s deal with Sam early this year started at $340 billion and ultimately landed at SoftBank investing in OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation. Art by Grok

AI stock bubble? Sam Altman thinks so.

It’s a bit of an irony that the man who has raised the most money during the AI private company funding boom is likening the AI rush to ‘the tech bubble’ in the late 90s. ‘When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. Are we in a phase where investors, as a whole, are overly excited about AI? Yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? Also, Yes.’ OpenAI’s chief, Sam Altman, told The Verge.

Sam is right, of course, and we have been blowing the whistle on this bubble since the end of last year. We even challenged SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son's investment in OpenAI in our February post (see below), which initially started at a $340 billion valuation, and (perhaps Masa read our post—we know his team does), the price was subsequently whacked to $300 billion.

The AI bubble reality hit the US in the face after the explosive rise of DeepSeek, a Chinese tech firm that claimed its AI chatbot had been trained for under $6 million, far below the billions spent by US counterparts.

Torsten Slok, head economist at Apollo Global Management, The P/E ratios notes that today's top 10 S&P 500 companies significantly outpace those of the broader index and the top 10 from the 1990s, signaling unsustainable investor optimism driven by AI promises (e.g., trillion-dollar efficiency gains and transformative breakthroughs).

We agree with Sam and Torsten, and the overheated market is stalling the AI IPO market. Why risk public scrutiny when you can raise vast amounts of inexpensive cash in the private, bubbling over, equity markets?

The top AI private companies for 2025—Elon gets hostile with Sam, Masa holds the cards, Hello DOGE, goodbye middle managers, and more groovy stuff... Anthony Perkins · Feb 20 Read full story

Cloud computing comes up for air

Interestingly, just as dApp enthusiasts like Cryptonite have been proclaiming the ‘end of cloud computing,’ supported recently by a three-year downward trend in investing in new cloud companies, Accel’s latest Euroscape report shows a dramatic 27% year-over-year jump in cloud funding. Cloud investments are likely to experience sustained growth as AI demand escalates, but the allocation will be highly selective, favoring startups with a clear focus on AI. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta are collectively spending $30 billion to $60 billion annually on AI advancements. This bodes very well for our new Cryptonite ‘Companies to Watch’ list, which is presented below.

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Bullish on the IPO market

Bullish’s successful IPO last week is a good omen for the grand march towards a more decentralized financial world. The company is notable for targeting institutional spot and derivatives trading investors by integrating decentralized finance protocols with the security of centralized organizations. Interestingly, Bullish also acquired the crypto media platform CoinDesk to build a presence in cryptocurrency data and media services.

VC Kingpin Peter Thiel is all in on DeFi, and changing the game on Wall Street to eliminate intermediaries and their userous fees.

Peter Thiel, the pioneering Pal cofounder and VC kingpin, who made early bets on Facebook and Palantir, is a key backer of Bullish. Bullish’s NYSE stock debut last week also bolsters the tech IPO market, as the company raised approximately $1.1 billion at a $5.4 billion opening valuation, only to see its stock surge sharply, yet briefly over $13 billion in market cap, and has settled down to just north of $9 billion.

Peter Thiel’s other DeFi bets: ETHZilla (ETHZ/ATNF); BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), Plasma (Plasma Foundation), Citrea, Erebor (crypto-friendly bank). His 2025 actions suggest a pivot toward Ethereum and Bitcoin DeFi as the next frontier for financial innovation.

In light of the private AI company bubble noted above, the IPO market for the rest of the year is expected to primarily come from the blockchain app and infrastructure sectors. Coreweave has been the only AI company to debut its stock, while the crypto sector took out eToro, Circle, and now Bullish. Long-term, we remain committed to the belief that equity in startups will be tokenized on Day One and will trade like cryptocurrencies today, without the need to ‘go public’ and adhere to the increased regulations associated with public company reporting.

Top IPO prospects from the blockchain space include Gemini, Kraken, Figure Technology Solutions, BitGo, Chainalysis, Consensys, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Blockchain.com, Anchorage Digital, and FalconX, with Ripple, Fireblocks, and Binance also being mentioned.

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Your invitation to Silicon Valley '25—50%-ticket discount until August 31st! The Cryptonite Weekly Rap and Anthony Perkins · Jul 18 Read full story

Sample of the Cryptonite Companies to Watch in 2025

Crusoe, Denver, CO, USA, founded 2023 by Chase Lochmiller (CEO), Cully Cavness—Clean-energy-powered data centers tailored for high-performance AI computing and cloud services. Top VC backers: Founders Fund, NVentures (Nvidia), Upper90, Valor Equity Partners—Last known valuation: $2.8 billion (December 2024).

Netradyne, San Diego, CA, USA, founded 2022 by Avneesh Agrawal (CEO), David Julian (CTO)—AI-powered fleet and driver safety solutions for commercial vehicles. Top VC backers: Geodesic Capital, Pavilion Capital, Point72 Private Investments, Qualcomm Ventures—Last known valuation: $2.25 billion as of January 17, 2025.

Kalshi, New York, NY, USA, founded 2022 by Tarek Mansour (CEO), Luana Lopes Lara (COO)—Federally regulated prediction market exchange for trading event contracts on future outcomes. Top VC backers: Multicoin Capital, Neo, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital—Last known valuation: $2 billion.

Auradine, Santa Clara, CA, USA, founded 2017 by Rajiv Khemani (CEO), Saptadeep Pal (CTO), Patrick Xu, Barun Kar—Innovative solutions for blockchain and AI by offering complete solutions including energy-efficient silicon, robust infrastructure, and state-of-art software. Top VC backers: Celesta Capital, Mayfield Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, StepStone Group—Last known valuation: $1.5 billion.

Lukka, New York, NY, USA, founded 2020 by Jake Benson (Founder), Robert Materazzi (CEO)—Enterprise-grade data management and software solutions for crypto assets and blockchain transactions. Top VC backers: Animoca Brands, Liberty City Ventures, Marshall Wace, State Street—Last known valuation: $1.3 billion.

Lava, New York, NY, USA, founded 2013 by Shehzan Maredia (CEO and CTO)—Bitcoin lending platform that enables users to borrow dollars against their Bitcoin holdings without selling.. Top VC backers: Harlem Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Streamlined Ventures—Last known valuation: $1.5 bilion.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, founded 2024 by Chris Gibson (CEO), Blake Borgeson (CTO), Dean Li—AI and biology platform to discover new drugs for rare diseases and complex conditions through high-throughput experimentation.. Top VC backers: Laurion Capital Management, NVIDIA, NVentures (Nvidia), undisclosed—Last known valuation: $2.5 billion.

Cybereason, Boston, MA, USA, founded 2022 by Lior Div (CEO), Yossi Naar (CTO), Yonatan Striem-Amit—AI-driven cybersecurity platform for endpoint protection and threat detection. Top VC backers: Accel, Liberty Strategic Capital, SoftBank, SoftBank Vision Fund—Last known valuation: $3.1 billion (March 2025).

Hadrian, Los Angeles, CA, USA, founded 2021 by Chris Power (CEO)—AI-powered automated factories for precision component manufacturing in aerospace and defense.. Top VC backers: Founders Fund, Lux Capital, a16z—Last known valuation: $1.5 billion.

Dexterity, Redwood City, CA, USA, founded 2024 by Samir Menon (CEO)—Physical AI and robotics solutions to automate dexterous tasks in logistics and warehousing.. Top VC backers: Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Obvious Ventures, Tiger Global—Last known valuation: $1.65 billion (March 2025).

Cryptonite Companies to Watch in 2025……

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