Core Viewpoint - Zerohash, a blockchain infrastructure company, is negotiating to raise $250 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, having recently exited acquisition talks with Mastercard while still considering strategic investment from the company [1] Group 1: Company Overview - Zerohash was founded in 2017 and provides APIs and development tools related to crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenization for financial institutions and fintech companies [1] - Notable clients of Zerohash include Interactive Brokers, Stripe, BlackRock's BUIDL fund, and Franklin Templeton [1] Group 2: Financial Activities - The company is in discussions to secure $250 million in funding at a valuation of $1.5 billion [1] - Zerohash has chosen to remain independent after withdrawing from acquisition negotiations with Mastercard [1]

Core Viewpoint - Fitch has downgraded the rating of Ethereum expansion and infrastructure development platform Polygon to "B-" with a negative outlook [1] Group 1 - The downgrade reflects concerns regarding Polygon's future performance and market position [1]

Core Insights - Raiku, a Solana infrastructure startup, has completed a $13.5 million funding round, which includes a $11.25 million seed round led by Pantera Capital and a $2.25 million pre-seed round co-led by Figment Capital and Big Brain Holdings [1] Funding Details - The funding consists of $11.25 million from the seed round and $2.25 million from the pre-seed round [1] - Other participants in the funding include Jump Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, and HashKey Capital [1] Company Objectives - Raiku aims to enhance the Solana network's transaction execution by introducing a parallel execution layer and scheduling engine [1] - The goal is to coordinate block space with validators to ensure predictable and guaranteed transaction execution under high load conditions [1]