vc

According to official news, the Ethena Foundation announced four adjustments to the Ethena ecosystem, including repurchasing locked tokens held by early investors, further aligning the value of tokens with equity, launching a governance proposal for income to repurchase ENA, and canceling future monthly unlocks for VC investors.The Ethena Foundation stated that it has completed the acquisition of all locked ENA tokens from some major seed round investors who had sold ENA in the past 9 months. Regarding the alignment of token and equity value, the Ethena Foundation and Ethena Labs have reached a "Master Framework Agreement," which stipulates that the intellectual property and value generated by the agreement will exclusively belong to the foundation and be governed by ENA holders, while equity investors in Labs entities will no longer enjoy residual cash flow.In addition, the governance proposal for income to repurchase ENA has been launched. According to the proposal, the net income generated by all business lines under the Ethena brand will be used for programmatic repurchase of ENA, and the proposal has been approved by the Risk Committee. The Ethena Foundation also stated that it has reached an agreement with major investors to eliminate the selling pressure caused by future monthly unlocks for VC investors by releasing unallocated tokens. Team tokens will still remain locked according to the original allocation plan.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, the Hack VC associated address (0x2a5...590CF) transferred 21.85 million ENA to the Wintermute deposit address through multiple intermediaries 4 hours ago, suspected to be a sell-off, involving an amount of 3 million dollars.ENA has risen 58.09% in the past week, currently priced at 0.1478 dollars.

According to TechCrunch, the robotics startup Generalist has secured nearly $200 million in additional funding led by 8VC, bringing its post-money valuation to approximately $3 billion. This funding is an extension of the $400 million Series B round led by Radical Ventures in June, increasing the total amount raised in this round to $600 million.Founded in 2024, Generalist's founding team includes former Google DeepMind researcher Pete Florence, Andy Zeng, and former Boston Dynamics engineer Andrew Barry. The company is developing AI foundational models adaptable to various robots; its latest Gen 1.5 model claims to enable robots to learn and complete new tasks through video demonstrations lasting only 3 to 12 seconds.

20VC partner P_Bonnet published an article comparing the history of the aluminum industry to AI, exploring a scenario of "if everything goes well." Most supply shortages will turn into surpluses within 3-5 years and destroy value, but the aluminum industry has seen a price drop of over 99.9% and a market expansion of over 1000 times over more than a century, as each price reduction unlocks new uses rather than collapsing within the same market.AI Tokens are moving up the same cost ladder at nearly 10 times the speed, with the key point being that humans are no longer a constraint. Conversational AI is limited by human reading speed and user scale, while reasoning and agents can make consumers no longer human. Agentic AI may completely remove human limits, leaving only the rapidly improving costs and utilities. The aluminum industry also relied on technological breakthroughs to transform a cheap metal into a structural material.At the infrastructure level, Alcoa monopolized for decades through processes, its own ore, and electricity; Nvidia has accumulated processes like CUDA, with production capacity resembling leasing, and lacks its own power, as major clients have directly locked in nuclear power and are developing their own chips. Ultimately, value will shift to those who discover new uses that could not exist at old prices; price collapse, technological effectiveness, and capital migration are not opposites but the same outcome.

Stanford Business School Professor Ilya Strebulaev, in collaboration with Blake Jackson, released the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson Venture Capital Firm Rankings, based on nearly 30 years of data from over 230,000 investments and nearly 13,000 VCs. The research estimates that about 5% of VCs generate approximately 90% of the industry's profits. The top five are Sequoia Capital (10,158 points), Andreessen Horowitz (8,292 points), Accel, DST Global, and Tiger Global. Among them, Parkway Venture Capital (19th place) and Notable (20th place) made it into the top 20, but are not well-known leading brands.The rankings are based on six major factors: discount valuation, dilution adjustment, net profit (after costs), value added (lead investments and board seats), human capital decay (three-and-a-half-year half-life), and credit allocation between institutions and individuals (25% for the investing institution and 75% for the current institution). Of the top 100, 62 are located in California, 19 in New York, and 6 each in Massachusetts and Texas. 21 were established in 2015 or later, and 23 of the best investments are in frontier AI or AI infrastructure companies, with OpenAI listed as the best investment by 4 firms, xAI by 3, and Anthropic and Perplexity by 2 each. The ranking methodology has a correlation of only about 0.27 with the Midas List, with SV Angel investing in about 139 unicorns ranked 31st, and Thrive with only 47 unicorns ranked 8th. This ranking is the result of research by Stanford professors and does not constitute investment advice.

Former Hack VC partner and platform head [Hsin-Ju](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/member/Hsin-Ju C.?k=MTUzMjc=) stated that he decided to refuse a settlement agreement that required him to remain silent, preferring to accept a $0 compensation, and has fired his lawyer. He plans to publicly disclose all evidence from his time at Hack VC on August 26 (Wednesday). Hsin-Ju mentioned that he has worked in the crypto industry for 9 years, having been employed at Stellar, Solana, and Fhenix, and that last year during his time at Hack VC, he repeatedly requested to leave due to severe medical emergencies (including Graves' disease, hyperthyroidism, and severe insomnia). However, he was threatened by partners that if he left before completing relevant meetings, he would be blacklisted in the industry, forcing him to work continuously under extreme pressure, which ultimately led to a suicide attempt.Hsin-Ju stated that after the suicide attempt, he expressed in writing that he had no intention to sue and only wished to leave without retaliation. However, Hack VC subsequently had issues with his COBRA health insurance for nearly 4 months, which were only resolved after a lawyer intervened. During the legal process, they continued to attempt to harm his interests through lawyers and employees. Currently, both parties' lawyers are prepared for private mediation and settlement, but he is unwilling to exchange silence for money and chooses to speak out. Hsin-Ju emphasized that he performed well during his employment, having received raises and bonuses, and that the lawsuit is not about money, fully aware that he may face adverse consequences when confronting an institution of $600-700 million scale.Hack VC responded that they are aware of the former employee's statement and express deep concern for his health, but there are significant differences in understanding of the events, and they are currently unwilling to publicly discuss details to respect his privacy.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the event "Valorant: MIBR vs Team Envy - VCT Americas Stage 2 Last Chance Qualifier" on the prediction market Polymarket, the win rate of the "MIBR" option in the sub-market "Map 3 Round Spread: MIBR (-3.5) vs Team Envy (+3.5)" has experienced significant fluctuations, soaring from 50% an hour ago to the current 90% (a fluctuation of 40%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market Polymarket for the event "Valorant: FURIA Esports vs G2 Esports - VCT Americas Stage 2 Last Chance Qualifier," the "Map 3 Total Rounds: Over/Under 20.5" sub-market's "Over" option win rate has experienced a dramatic fluctuation, soaring from 50.5% an hour ago to the current 90.05% (a fluctuation of 39.55%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

AI security startup Mindgard announced the completion of a $30 million Series A funding round, led by Album VC, with participation from Karma Ventures, .406 Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, IQ Capital, and Lakestar.Mindgard was founded by Dr. Peter Garraghan in 2022 and incubated at Lancaster University in the UK, with headquarters in Boston and London. The company's platform offers Shadow AI discovery, AI red team testing, and runtime AI protection capabilities, having helped disclose over 150 high-impact AI security vulnerabilities, including issues such as the Cursor IDE zero-day code execution vulnerability, Google Antigravity trusted workspace defects, and ChatGPT image generation protection failures.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the prediction market Polymarket for the event "Valorant: Team Heretics vs. Natus Vincere - VCT EMEA Qualifiers," the option "Team Heretics" in the sub-market "Map 3 Round Spread: Team Heretics (-2.5) vs. Natus Vincere (+2.5)" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in win probability, rising from 50% an hour ago to the current 90.05% (a fluctuation of 40.05%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the market prediction event on Polymarket "Valorant: Gentle Mates vs Eintracht Frankfurt - VCT EMEA Qualifiers", the "Map 2 Total Rounds: Over/Under 21.5" sub-market's "Over" option win rate has experienced significant fluctuations, soaring from 50% an hour ago to the current 90% (a fluctuation of 40%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the predicted market Polymarket for the event "Valorant: G2 Esports vs. Sentinels - VCT Americas Stage 2 Omega Group," the option "G2 Esports" in the sub-market "Match Winner" has experienced significant fluctuations in win probability, soaring from 56.5% an hour ago to the current 89.5% (a fluctuation of 33%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to the Financial Times, after three years of record low stagnation, Chinese venture capital firms are accelerating the fundraising of new funds, seeking to capitalize on investors' renewed interest in the Chinese technology sector.Data from Asante Capital shows that at least 60 new dollar funds are planning to raise a total of about $35 billion, of which about 40 are venture capital funds. HSG, IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China, and Ming Shi Capital are promoting new funds or preparing to start fundraising, while ZhenFund and Qiming Venture Partners have recently completed fundraising.The successful listings of technology companies such as Zhipu and MiniMax, as well as progress in projects like The Dark Side of the Moon, DeepSeek, and the robotics field, have prompted investors to refocus on Chinese technology. Some investors view allocating to Chinese AI as a way to hedge bets on the U.S. market, as Chinese companies are highly competitive on costs and offer lower-priced model services.However, market participants indicate that this does not mean Chinese venture capital has returned to a boom period, but rather that dollar fundraising has selectively restarted after three consecutive years of low levels.Preqin data shows that in 2022, a total of 1,105 China-related funds raised $150 billion, while in 2025, only 97 funds raised $13.6 billion.Currently, some large U.S. investors remain cautious due to restrictions on sensitive technology investments, while European and Middle Eastern funds show stronger interest. Investors are vying for more co-investment rights in the current "buyer’s market" and are demanding fund managers to invest more of their own capital. Meanwhile, a large amount of capital is competing for a limited number of high-confidence projects, particularly concentrated in the AI sector.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Valorant: FUT Esports vs Team Vitality - VCT EMEA Alpha Group," the "Total Rounds on Map 3: Greater/Less than 18.5" sub-market's "Greater" option win rate has experienced significant fluctuations, soaring from 50% an hour ago to the current 90% (a fluctuation of 40%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the predicted market Polymarket for the event "Valorant: Evil Geniuses vs MIBR (BO3) - VCT Americas Stage 2 Alpha Group," the sub-market "Map 2 Round Spread: MIBR (-10.5) vs Evil Geniuses (+10.5)" has seen a dramatic fluctuation in the win rate of the "MIBR" option, soaring from 50% an hour ago to the current 90% (a fluctuation of 40%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the predicted market Polymarket for the event "Valorant: BBL Esports vs. Gentle Mates - VCT EMEA Alpha Group," the sub-market "Map 3 Spread: BBL Esports (-2.5) vs. Gentle Mates (+2.5)" saw the win probability for the "BBL Esports" option fluctuate dramatically, rising from 50% an hour ago to the current 90% (a fluctuation of 40%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

According to The Block, Physical AI data engine company Axis Robotics has completed a $12 million seed round of financing, led by Hack VC, with participation from Nomad Capital, Pi Network Ventures, 10K Ventures, and others.Axis plans to build a large-scale "human-in-the-loop" global data engine to address the scarcity of training data for robots, difficulties in generalization, and compatibility issues with different hardware. Its platform covers task generation, simulation remote operation, mobile Ego data collection, and automated cleaning and labeling pipelines. Currently, it has over 100,000 active data contributors, generating approximately 1,200 hours of simulation data and 20,000 hours of real-world scenario data each month, and has established commercial partnerships with several hardware and industrial clients, including Booster Robotics and Geely Auto.

According to South Korean media Asiae, six leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, a16z, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and NEA, announced the signing of a strategic investment cooperation memorandum (MOU) with the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea, planning to jointly explore investment opportunities, share investment information, and strengthen global venture capital布局.Furthermore, the South Korean government is accelerating the promotion of policies to attract overseas venture capital, coupled with the launch of the "National Growth Fund," which has a scale of 200 trillion won. The market expects that the Korean venture capital sector will see a simultaneous inflow of policy funds, private capital, and overseas capital, with strategic industries such as AI and semiconductors likely to receive more investment. However, industry insiders warn that if a large amount of capital concentrates on a few popular companies, it may inflate company valuations and create bubbles, potentially facing valuation adjustment pressure during future IPOs and mergers and acquisitions, affecting fund returns.