Thursday 5 November: Erebor Bank raises $100M, 7 more rounds
Tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure set the tone. Morgan Stanley tokenized US equities and Treasuries through DTCC’s new service, Circle reported 865millioninquarterlyrevenueandreserveincomewhilecuttingabout5%ofitsstaff,andBitsoBusinesspassedUS150 billion in annualized payments. On the funding side, Openbank led a round of more than €120 million in Revel and Takenos raised $7 million to take its stablecoin platform across Latin America. Block’s $764 million settlement is the compliance counterweight.
The lead
Morgan Stanley tokenizes US stocks and Treasuries through DTCC’s new service
Morgan Stanley says it is among the first banks to use the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s new Tokenization Service, creating blockchain-based…
Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation · Regulation
Why it matters
Tokenized US stocks and Treasuries now run through DTCC’s own infrastructure, so builders face an integration question with established settlement rails rather than a standalone-chain experiment.
Coverage note: our round capture increased in September 2026, so the Index currently overstates market activity.
Our news
• Novastart Is Building the Operating System for the AI Era
• Birbank opens a redesigned Ganja branch built around a digital corner — Birbank, part of Azerbaijan’s Bir ecosystem, has opened a redesigned Kapital Bank-Birbank branch in Ganja, the country’s second-largest city.
• Octopus Ventures holds first close of First Cheque II, targeting more than £20M — Octopus Ventures has held the first close of First Cheque II, its second dedicated pre-seed fund.
• TBC Georgia becomes the first bank in Georgia to launch palm payments — TBC Georgia has launched palm payment, the first bank in the country to offer it.
• Paraguay’s central bank puts digital lender ueno into resolution as its governor resigns — The Central Bank of Paraguay has placed ueno, a digital lender with around 3 million customers, into resolution after its solvency ratio fell below 50% of the…
• Deblock extends its card round-up to physical gold — Deblock has added gold to its automatic round-up.
• Zilch reports £147.5M FY26 revenue, up 36% — Zilch has published its annual report for the year ended 31 March 2026.
• Bitso Business passes US$150B in annualized payments, up 83% — Bitso Business has passed US150billioninannualizedtotalpaymentvolume,up83%fromUS82 billion a year earlier.
The rounds
8 today · 29 in the last 7 days
Company · Round · Lead investor · Amount
• Sentra · Unnamed round · Capital One Ventures · $150M
• Erebor Bank · strategic investment · — · $100M
• Finpilot · Series A · — · $10M
• Takenos · Seed extension · North Island Ventures · $7M
• enza · Seed+ · 4DX Ventures · $6M
• mamun · Seed · Phaze Ventures · $3M
• Revel · undisclosed · Openbank · €120M
• Kabilio · Unnamed round · — · €10M
Quick hits
Regulation
• SG Pyvio received a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, effective 1 November, covering five services including cross-border transfers and merchant acquisition. — Fintech News Singapore
Payments
• SG Pine Labs and Stripe launched a unified commerce offer for Singapore retailers, combining Stripe online payments with Pine Labs in-store terminals, with other Southeast Asian markets planned for 2027. — Fintech News Singapore
• US Western Union reported third-quarter revenue of about $1 billion, down 2%, while promoting its USDPT stablecoin and the Stablecard wallet launched in August with a USDPT-backed Visa secured credit card. — PYMNTS
Other
• GB Schroders launched a tokenized feeder share class of its Emerging Market Bonds fund on Solana, issued through Centrifuge, marking its first deployment on the network. — CoinDesk
• US Clusia acquired ACH audit firm Optim ACH Solutions, adding ACH audits to an assurance practice that serves more than 60 fintechs and service providers; terms were not disclosed. — PR Newswire
Crypto
• AE First Abu Dhabi Bank completed a two-way transfer of a digital asset portfolio with custodian Komainu, enabling digital assets to move as collateral for institutional financing. — Fintech News Middle East
Banking
• FR Crédit Mutuel Arkéa confirmed a cyberattack that led to fraudulent transfers converted into crypto; ZachXBT estimates losses above $133 million, and the bank says client assets were unaffected. — The Block
Builders Fintech Funding Index
Number of the day 143.4 · This week 30 rounds · Baseline 20.9
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7,162 companies · 7,539 investors · 9,737 rounds
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Your coverage of companies like Enza and Takenos is fascinating, do you connect with fintech founders looking for banking and cross-border payment infrastructure partners?
The DTCC angle is the important shift: the hard integration is proving how tokenized positions reconcile with existing custody and settlement, not picking a chain. For Nigerian markets, what would need to be local first—custody, FX controls, or a regulated distribution partner—before this reaches ordinary investors?