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Stablecoin Protocol Level Aims to Expand $80M DeFi Yield Token With Fresh Capital Raise

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Stablecoin protocol Level raised a fresh round of venture capital to expand its $80 million yield-paying stablecoin as yield-generating digital asset offerings are increasingly in demand with a cooldown in crypto prices.

Peregrine Exploration, the development firm behind Level, received another $2.6 million led by early backer Dragonfly Capital with Polychain also participating, founders David Lee and Kedian Sun told CoinDesk in an interview. New investors include Flowdesk, Echo syndicates Native Crypto and Feisty Collective by Path, and angel investors Sam Kazemian of Frax and Albert Chon of Injective.

The latest round followed a $3.4 million raise in August, bringing total venture capital funding to $6 million to date.

Level, with its lvlUSD token, is competing in the fast-growing stablecoin asset class, one of the hottest sectors in crypto and a darling among venture capital investments. Stablecoins—cryptocurrencies with a fixed price, predominantly tied to the U.S. dollar—are a key piece of infrastructure for trading and transactions on blockchains. However, the largest issuers do not generally offer yield to users earned on assets in the backing reserve. Tether, for example, reported $13 billion profits last year, in part from the U.S. Treasury yield backing its $143 billion USDT token.

That’s why a new generation of yield-earning stablecoins is getting increasingly popular among crypto investors. Ethena’s USDe, which generates yield on a market-neutral carry trade strategy harvesting futures funding rates, zoomed to above $5 billion supply in little more than a year. Meanwhile, tokenized versions of money market funds and Treasury bills, another stablecoin alternative, hit a $4.6 billion market capitalization.

Level’s stablecoin offers investors yield from putting the backing assets to work on decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols like Aave, while automating its reserve management. Users can mint lvlUSD by depositing Circle’s USDC or USDT stablecoins and lock up (stake) the tokens to lend out to generate yield on-chain. As of last week, annualized yield for staked version of lvlUSD stood at 8.3%, higher than tokenized money market fund yields. Meanwhile, lvlUSD has been integrated with DeFi protocols such as Pendle, Spectra and LayerZero, and can be used as collateral on Morpho.

«Their fully on-chain, transparent approach to yield generation sets them apart from competitors relying on opaque, centralized methods,» said Sven Wellmann of Polychain, one of the investors in the protocol.

According to Level’s calculation, the protocol outpaced rival stablecoins’ yield offerings over the past month, which has helped its supply surpass $80 million in five months since its beta launch.

With the latest funding, Level plans to expand their team and marketing efforts while continuing to expand utility for lvlUSD beyond staking it, Kedian Sun explained. The protocol also plans to tap into Morpho to generate yield in the next few weeks.

With those efforts, lvlUSD could potentially push towards a $200-$250 million market cap, a key milestone the team wants to achieve, Sun said.

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Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

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Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Keyrock, founded in Brussels, Belgium and best known for its work in market making, options and OTC trading, said it will fold Turing Capital’s investment strategies and Luxembourg fund management structure into its wider platform. The division will be led by Turing Capital co-founder Jorge Schnura, who joins Keyrock’s executive committee as president of the unit.

The company said the expansion will allow it to provide services across the full lifecycle of digital assets, from liquidity provision to long-term investment strategies. «In the near future, all assets will live onchain,» Schnura said, noting that the merger positions the group to capture opportunities as traditional financial products migrate to blockchain rails.

Keyrock has also applied for regulatory approval under the EU’s crypto framework MiCA through a filing with Liechtenstein’s financial regulator. If approved, the firm plans to offer portfolio management and advisory services, aiming to compete directly with traditional asset managers as well as crypto-native players.

«Today’s launch sets the stage for our longer-term ambition: bringing asset management on-chain in a way that truly meets institutional standards,» Keyrock CSO Juan David Mendieta said in a statement.

Read more: Stablecoin Payments Projected to Top $1T Annually by 2030, Market Maker Keyrock Says

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Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

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Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Keyrock, founded in Brussels, Belgium and best known for its work in market making, options and OTC trading, said it will fold Turing Capital’s investment strategies and Luxembourg fund management structure into its wider platform. The division will be led by Turing Capital co-founder Jorge Schnura, who joins Keyrock’s executive committee as president of the unit.

The company said the expansion will allow it to provide services across the full lifecycle of digital assets, from liquidity provision to long-term investment strategies. «In the near future, all assets will live onchain,» Schnura said, noting that the merger positions the group to capture opportunities as traditional financial products migrate to blockchain rails.

Keyrock has also applied for regulatory approval under the EU’s crypto framework MiCA through a filing with Liechtenstein’s financial regulator. If approved, the firm plans to offer portfolio management and advisory services, aiming to compete directly with traditional asset managers as well as crypto-native players.

«Today’s launch sets the stage for our longer-term ambition: bringing asset management on-chain in a way that truly meets institutional standards,» Keyrock CSO Juan David Mendieta said in a statement.

Read more: Stablecoin Payments Projected to Top $1T Annually by 2030, Market Maker Keyrock Says

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Gemini Shares Slide 6%, Extending Post-IPO Slump to 24%

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Gemini Space Station (GEMI), the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has seen its shares tumble by more than 20% since listing on the Nasdaq last Friday.

The stock is down around 6% on Tuesday, trading at $30.42, and has dropped nearly 24% over the past week. The sharp decline follows an initial surge after the company raised $425 million in its IPO, pricing shares at $28 and valuing the firm at $3.3 billion before trading began.

On its first day, GEMI spiked to $45.89 before closing at $32 — a 14% premium to its offer price. But since hitting that high, shares have plunged more than 34%, erasing most of the early enthusiasm from public market investors.

The broader crypto equity market has remained more stable. Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. crypto exchange, is flat over the past week. Robinhood (HOOD), which derives part of its revenue from crypto, is down 3%. Token issuer Circle (CRCL), on the other hand, is up 13% over the same period.

Part of the pressure on Gemini’s stock may stem from its financials. The company posted a $283 million net loss in the first half of 2025, following a $159 million loss in all of 2024. Despite raising fresh capital, the numbers suggest the business is still far from turning a profit.

Compass Point analyst Ed Engel noted that GEMI is currently trading at 26 times its annualized first-half revenue. That multiple — often used to gauge whether a stock is expensive — means investors are paying 26 dollars for every dollar the company is expected to generate in sales this year. For a loss-making company in a volatile sector, that’s a steep price, and could be fueling investor skepticism.

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