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ParaFi Capital Invests $35M in Jupiter to Accelerate Growth

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Crypto Breaking News

Jupiter, a Solana-based on-chain trading and liquidity aggregation protocol, has secured a $35 million strategic investment from ParaFi Capital, marking the first instance of outside capital for a project that previously grew through bootstrapped, profitable expansion. The deal features market-priced token purchases with no discount and an extended lockup, settled entirely in Jupiter’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, JupUSD. In addition to the funding, ParaFi was granted warrants to acquire more Jupiter tokens at higher prices, a structure designed to align long-term interests. In this context, Jupiter’s native asset JUP (CRYPTO: JUP) figures prominently as the vehicle for long-run upside. The round comes as Jupiter reports more than $1 trillion in trading volume over the past year and continues broadening its product suite beyond swaps into perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins.

Key takeaways

  • ParaFi Capital led a $35 million strategic investment in Jupiter, structured as market-priced token purchases with a long lockup and settled in JupUSD.
  • The deal includes warrants enabling ParaFi to acquire additional JUP tokens at higher prices, signaling long-term alignment with Jupiter’s roadmap.
  • Jupiter has expanded beyond swap routing to offer perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins, and it has processed over $1 trillion in trading volume in the last year.
  • The project has actively diversified into on-chain finance tools, including an on-chain prediction market beta with Kalshi and the January launch of JupUSD.
  • The news helped lift JUP by roughly 9% in the 24 hours after the announcement, underscoring continued investor interest in DeFi infrastructure on Solana.

Tickers mentioned: $JUP

Sentiment: Bullish

Price impact: Positive. The investment news coincided with a notable uptick in JUP’s price, reflecting market optimism about Jupiter’s expanded capabilities.

Trading idea (Not Financial Advice): Hold. The capital infusion and warrants suggest a longer runway for product development, though investors should monitor how Jupiter executes its expanded roadmap and uses the new capital.

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Market context: The round aligns with a broader wave of venture funding flowing into decentralized protocols and on-chain infrastructure, as capital seeks to back liquidity, risk management, and settlement layers within DeFi ecosystems. This pattern has been visible alongside other notable token-based financings in the sector during 2025–2026.

Why it matters

The ParaFi-led investment marks a significant milestone for Jupiter, signaling growing institutional confidence in Solana-native DeFi protocols that aim to consolidate liquidity, trade execution, and on-chain settlement under one roof. By choosing a structure that includes market-priced token purchases and warrants, the arrangement ties ParaFi’s upside to Jupiter’s longer-term success, rather than providing a one-time liquidity boost. For Jupiter, the capital provides runway to accelerate product development without sacrificing profitability—an important distinction after years of bootstrapped growth. For users and developers, the deal intensifies Jupiter’s stance as a backbone for DeFi activity on Solana, potentially delivering deeper liquidity, smarter routing, and more efficient settlement mechanisms through JupUSD.

The expansion of Jupiter’s product line is a critical component of this shift. In addition to swap routing, Jupiter is building out perpetuals and lending services, as well as stablecoins to enable seamless on-chain settlement. The launch of JupUSD in January, a dollar-pegged stablecoin native to Solana and built with Ethena Labs, signals a deliberate move toward on-chain, fiat-pegged settlement that can improve capital efficiency and reduce counterparty risk for traders and liquidity providers alike. The related on-chain prediction market initiative with Kalshi, launched in beta in October, further underscores Jupiter’s ambition to fuse price discovery, liquidity, and risk management into a single ecosystem on Solana.

Source: CoinGecko

The market reaction to Jupiter’s disclosures has been positive, with the native token rising by around 9% in the 24 hours following the announcement, according to CoinGecko data. This price movement, while not a guarantee of future performance, reflects investor enthusiasm for projects that combine high-throughput liquidity networks with on-chain settlement and sophisticated risk tools. The broader context—an ecosystem where on-chain finance and decentralized infrastructure attract steady VC attention—adds further momentum to Jupiter’s trajectory.

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Beyond Jupiter, the DeFi landscape has recently seen a flurry of large-value, token-based rounds aimed at expanding decentralized infrastructure. In October, a16z Crypto invested $50 million in Jito, a Solana-based liquid staking protocol, while in January Babylon reportedly raised $15 million from a16z Crypto to advance Bitcoin-native staking and on-chain credit. The sustained interest from top-tier venture funds indicates a broader conviction that decentralized protocols with robust tokenomics and real-use cases can scale alongside centralized finance. Other notable funding rounds have come from entities like Maelstrom Fund and Animoca Brands in support of Bio Protocol, an AI-native, blockchain-based framework for biomedical research, and from Pantera Capital and Jump Crypto in Humanity Protocol’s on-chain identity initiative.

As this trend persists, Jupiter’s latest round not only validates its business model but also helps to illuminate how scalable, on-chain settlements can coexist with high-throughput liquidity networks on Solana. The combination of liquid trading, diversified product lines, and on-chain settlement tools positions Jupiter as a potential anchor in a growing web of DeFi primitives that increasingly rely on tokens to align incentives across developers, liquidity providers, and traders.

For readers tracking the evolution of decentralized protocols, the next few quarters should reveal how aggressively the warrants are exercised, how JupUSD’s liquidity and settlement metrics develop, and how the Kalshi-backed prediction market performs in terms of user engagement and capital flow. The ongoing expansion of product offerings—from lending and perpetuals to stablecoins and predictive markets—will be a key barometer of whether Jupiter can translate capital infusions into durable network effects and sustainable economics on Solana.

As Jupiter advances its roadmap, investors and users should watch for concrete milestones related to governance, liquidity benchmarks, and further partnerships that can broaden ecosystem participation. The investment from ParaFi Capital could serve as a catalyst for more targeted development, clearer revenue pathways, and enhanced liquidity, reinforcing Solana’s position as a platform capable of hosting complex financial primitives while maintaining efficiency and speed.

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The story around Jupiter and ParaFi is a case study in how traditional VC capital is beginning to anchor decentralized finance projects that prioritize on-chain settlement, scalable liquidity, and diversified product suites. With JUP gaining traction and JupUSD opening new pathways for stable, on-chain transactions, the ecosystem stands at a pivotal juncture where institutional backing could accelerate the maturation of Solana-native DeFi infrastructure.

What to watch next

  • ParasFi’s warrant exercise and any subsequent token issuance or pricing impacts.
  • Usage and liquidity growth metrics for JupUSD and its role in on-chain settlement.
  • Progress and user adoption metrics for the Kalshi-powered on-chain prediction market.
  • Continued VC interest in Solana-native DeFi protocols, with attention to other rounds like Jito and Babylon.
  • Any regulatory or macro developments affecting on-chain finance and SOL ecosystem participants.

Sources & verification

  • Official statements or announcements from Jupiter and ParaFi detailing the $35 million investment and the warrants structure.
  • Jupiter price data and market metrics from CoinGecko, including the 24-hour price movement for JUP.
  • Public information on the JupUSD stablecoin launch with Ethena Labs and its on-chain settlement use case.
  • News coverage of Kalshi-backed on-chain prediction market beta and subsequent developments.
  • Related venture-funding milestones in the DeFi space, including a16z Crypto investments in Jito and Babylon, as well as supports for Bio Protocol and Humanity Protocol.

Strategic investment anchors Jupiter’s DeFi expansion and on-chain settlement

Jupiter has closed a strategic round from ParaFi Capital worth $35 million, a milestone as the Solana-native protocol transitions from bootstrapped growth to institutional backing. The deal features market-priced token purchases with no discount and an extended lockup, settled entirely in Jupiter’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, JupUSD. In addition to the funding, ParaFi was granted warrants to acquire more Jupiter tokens at higher prices, a structure designed to align long-term interests. The token involved in the deal is Jupiter’s native asset JUP (CRYPTO: JUP), a factor contributing to market sentiment around the round.

The round signals a broader shift in the DeFi landscape toward professional capital backing on-chain infrastructure. Jupiter has reported more than $1 trillion in trading volume over the past year and has expanded beyond swap routing to offer perpetuals, lending, and stablecoins. The funding is intended to support continued product development and a more robust ecosystem around liquidity aggregation, pricing, and settlement, with the warrants providing upside potential tied to Jupiter’s long-run success.

Following the capital infusion, Jupiter rolled out continued product expansion, including a beta on an on-chain prediction market developed with Kalshi in October and the January launch of JupUSD, a Solana-native, dollar-pegged stablecoin built in partnership with Ethena Labs. This trajectory points to a broader ambition: to fuse liquidity networks with sophisticated settlement and risk-management tools in a single, seamless ecosystem. The market has already begun to respond, with JUP up roughly 9% in the 24 hours after the announcement, underscoring investor interest in DeFi-enabled infrastructure with clear, real-world use cases.

In the broader context, the DeFi landscape has seen a series of token-based rounds aimed at expanding decentralized protocols and on-chain capabilities. For instance, a16z Crypto’s investment in Jito and Babylon’s funding round illustrate a trend of large venture capital allocations targeting decentralized finance and its ancillary segments. These moves, alongside funding for Bio Protocol and Humanity Protocol, demonstrate a growing appetite among institutions to back projects that bridge AI, biotech, identity, and on-chain finance. The momentum suggests a maturing market where capital is increasingly tied to platforms that can deliver scalable liquidity, cross-asset risk management, and on-chain settlement at scale.

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As Jupiter navigates this expansion, the key tests will be how effectively ParaFi’s warrants translate into sustained token demand, how quickly JupUSD gains liquidity and adoption across trading venues, and how the Kalshi-backed prediction market vendor and its user base evolve. If these elements align, Jupiter’s model could become a more durable backbone for DeFi liquidity and settlement on Solana, a network that continues to attract developers and capital seeking high-performance on-chain finance.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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XRP-associated Ripple seeking VASP license in Brazil

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Ripple adds Coinbase's BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL futures to its $3 trillion prime brokerage

Ripple, the payments-focused blockchain company closely associated with the XRP Ledger (XRP) network, is expanding its digital asset services in Brazil while preparing to apply for a license with the country’s central bank, a move that would place it under the nation’s new crypto framework.

The company said Tuesday it is rolling out a broader set of services that bundle cross-border payments, digital asset custody, brokerage and treasury tools. It said the combined offering targets banks and fintechs that want to move money across borders, hold crypto and manage liquidity in one system.

It said it also plans to apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license with the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), in line with the country’s crypto regulation.

“Latin America has always been a priority market for Ripple — not just because of the scale of the opportunity, but because Brazil has built one of the most advanced and forward-thinking financial ecosystems in the world,” Monica Long, president at Ripple, said in a statement.”

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The firm said that several Brazilian firms already use Ripple’s payments network and crypto services. Banco Genial, for example, handles same-day U.S. dollar transfers, while Braza Bank uses the system for foreign exchange flows and issued a real-backed stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. Fintech Nomad and others use the network to shift funds between Brazil and the U.S. and settling in stablecoins.

Ripple is also pushing its custody product in the country, aimed at institutions that need secure storage tied to trading and tokenization. The firm said partners such as CRX and Justoken are using the setup to issue tokenized assets, including real-world assets like commodities.

The Brazil push comes as Ripple has been quickly expanding through acquisitions, building services around trading and digital asset infrastructure. That included the $1.25 billion purchase of prime brokerage Hidden Road and buying corporate treasury business GTreasury for $1 billion. The firm also issues a U.S. dollar stablecoin, the $1.5 billion , via its custody arm.

The firm said it has processed over 100 billion in transactions across its payments ecosystem. Recently, Ripple started a share buyback program that valued the the firm at $50 billion.

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Uniswap (UNI) drops 4.1%, leading index lower

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9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2026-03-17: vertical

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2148.63, down 0.9% (-20.59) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

One of 20 assets are trading higher.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2026-03-17: vertical

Leaders: NEAR (+0.4%) and CRO (+0.0%).

Laggards: UNI (-4.1%) and SUI (-4.0%).

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The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

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Oklo (OKLO) Stock Gains 5% Following Subsidiary’s Nuclear Regulatory Breakthrough

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OKLO Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • Atomic Alchemy, Oklo’s fully-owned subsidiary, obtained its inaugural NRC materials license for isotope handling, processing, and distribution at its Idaho facility.
  • This approval creates Oklo’s first commercial revenue opportunity through isotope sales from the Idaho Radiochemistry Laboratory.
  • This license is separate from Oklo’s primary advanced reactor projects, which remain pending NRC authorization before power generation can commence.
  • A concurrent announcement revealed Oklo’s new partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy for its inaugural reactor deployment at Idaho National Laboratory.
  • Shares climbed 4.6% during premarket hours on Tuesday, with quarterly earnings scheduled for release after market close.

On Tuesday, Oklo achieved a significant regulatory victory, albeit with an important distinction. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded its first materials license—though notably, the approval went to Atomic Alchemy, a wholly-owned subsidiary that Oklo acquired in 2025, rather than to the parent company directly.


OKLO Stock Card
Oklo Inc., OKLO

This authorization permits Atomic Alchemy to accept, store, handle, and sell isotopes through its Idaho Radiochemistry Laboratory located in Idaho Falls. The license specifically covers up to 2 Curies of Radium-226, plus Cobalt-60 and Americium-241 for calibration applications.

These isotopes serve critical functions in medical applications, scientific research, industrial manufacturing, and national defense sectors. Oklo’s CEO Jacob DeWitte addressed the market gap directly: “Demand for critical isotopes is rising, but U.S. supply remains limited.”

The business implications are tangible and immediate. With this licensing approval, Atomic Alchemy can launch commercial isotope sales from its Idaho laboratory—representing the first revenue-generating capability within Oklo’s portfolio. Currently, the parent company has yet to record any revenue.

Crucially, investors should understand that this license differs entirely from the reactor authorization that markets have been anticipating. Oklo’s advanced fast reactor technology continues navigating the NRC approval pathway. Until that separate clearance arrives, the company cannot commercialize electricity generation—which represents its primary long-term business model.

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Scope and Implications of the New License

The regulatory approval followed comprehensive review procedures and an on-location inspection of the Idaho operations. Atomic Alchemy’s strategy involves recovering and reprocessing retired radium sources—materials historically classified as waste—converting them into valuable feedstock for medical isotope manufacturing, particularly for targeted alpha therapy applications.

Beyond immediate operations, this laboratory serves as groundwork for larger ambitions. Atomic Alchemy is engineering a multi-reactor isotope production facility featuring up to four Versatile Isotope Production Reactor (VIPR) units, each designed for approximately 15 MWth output capacity.

Tuesday’s announcements included a second development. Oklo formalized an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy covering design, construction, and operational support for its debut reactor at Idaho National Laboratory through the DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program initiative.

The Meta Partnership and Earnings Expectations

Oklo’s nuclear energy vision has attracted substantial corporate interest. A notable partnership with Meta Platforms involves developing a nuclear energy campus in Ohio’s southeastern region. BofA Securities characterized this arrangement as “one of a few firm, binding partnerships today” within the emerging nuclear sector.

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Shares appreciated 4.6% in premarket activity Tuesday as market participants evaluated the regulatory milestone. The company’s quarterly financial results are scheduled for release after the closing bell on the same day.

Oklo maintains its target timeline for commercial nuclear power delivery between late 2027 and 2028.

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Stablecoins to Replace Old FX Rails, but Off-Ramps Remain a Chokepoint

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Stablecoins to Replace Old FX Rails, but Off-Ramps Remain a Chokepoint

Stablecoins are gaining traction in high-cost cross-border payment corridors in emerging markets as they reduce some of the inefficiencies of legacy foreign exchange (FX) infrastructure, according to research firm Delphi Digital.

Stablecoins are emerging as the cheapest alternative to move US dollars in emerging economies due to the high costs of legacy FX corridors, which can reach up to 8% in combined fees when sending money to Argentina or Nigeria. 

Delphi said in a Monday article on X that 81% of the cost in those corridors comes from servicing the underlying banking infrastructure, which it argues gives stablecoin rails a structural advantage.

“Stablecoin rails eliminate most of what makes these corridors expensive to operate.”

“Settlement is atomic, so pre-funded liquidity sitting idle in local currencies is no longer necessary,” Delphi said, adding that volume thresholds and intermediary chains also become obsolete as stablecoins settle directly against the US dollar.

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Related: Yield-bearing stablecoins surge as Washington fights over yield

Delphi’s prediction highlights the real-world impact of stablecoins in emerging markets, where locals use them to cut remittance costs to pennies or send instant transactions, bypassing legacy banking infrastructure. 

Source: Delphi Digital

Off-ramps remain a chokepoint for stablecoin adoption

Off-ramps, such as access to bank accounts or interbank rails, remain a significant chokepoint when value needs to move between onchain and legacy environments, according to the company.

Source: Delphi Digital

Most of the “friction” lies outside the blockchain, they said. While stablecoin minting and burning settle in seconds, bank wires feeding into these systems add significant delays due to batch processing schedules.

“Closing the gap is as much a regulatory problem as a technical one.”

The company added that stablecoins won’t replace the major FX corridors overnight, but the ones in emerging markets where “infrastructure costs dwarf currency risk and banks have largely given up on competing.”

Related: Stablecoin payments startup Kast raises $80M at $600M valuation: Report

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Stablecoin supply on the rise despite falling crypto prices

Despite falling cryptocurrency valuations, the stablecoin supply rose 2.5% during the past month, from $308 billion on Feb. 17 to $316 billion as of Tuesday, according to DeFiLlama.

Delphi said emerging markets remain one of the clearest sources of stablecoin demand, particularly where users need cheaper access to dollar liquidity and cross-border transfers.

Total stablecoin supply, all-time chart. Source: DeFiLlama

Investment companies continue pouring capital into stablecoin payment providers. On Tuesday, Singapore-based digital payment company Dtcpay raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by investment firm Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India to fuel the expansion of its compliant stablecoin-based payment network.