#651
Caps Lock Alpha
Published:
Jul 18, 2026
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Across time immemorial, traders have paid to hear news a heartbeat faster than others. Back in the 1800s, Rothschild paid a premium for carrier pigeons that helped them get financial and political news faster. In 2026, the most market-moving wire on earth is one man’s social media feed. And starting Aug 1st, access goes on sale. Trump Media is launching Truth API, giving high-frequency trading firms real-time, licensed access to posts from Truth Social’s top ten accounts: the President, the White House, RFK Jr., and other people who can move billions with a caps-lock key.
Firms have been scraping the platform for months anyway; Trump Media is simply converting freeloaders into subscribers, the same playbook X and Reddit run. And the company could use the cash: its media business did less than $4m in revenue last year against a $712m net loss. The API may be the only line on the income statement built to scale.
Alternative data has found its apex product - the policymaker feed, sold by the policymaker's own company, priced by latency. It seems the modern ticker tape has a blue checkmark and a typo risk.
Portfolio News
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NYDIG calls CLARITY Act most important catalyst for digital assets - The Bitcoin-focused firm's Q2 report highlights the regulatory bill as a potential game-changer, but passage odds are slipping as the Senate clock ticks down. Read more
Caps Lock Alpha
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Industry News
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Visa Is Expanding Its Crypto Push With New Stablecoin Platform - The launch is Visa’s latest move to build infrastructure around stablecoins as traditional financial firms position themselves for broader use of blockchain-based payments following recent regulatory advances. Read more
Stripe and private-equity firm Advent offer to buy PayPal - Stripe and Advent International made a joint takeover bid for PayPal Holdings that would value the company at around $53b, sources say. PayPal is in the early stages of a turnaround under CEO Enrique Lores, who took over in March and plans to cut costs by at least $1.5b. Read more
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US and UK pledge to embrace stablecoins more in regulatory push - The recommendations are part of an effort the US and UK launched last September, which tries to iron out cross-border issues that companies might face when introducing crypto products. Called the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future it focuses on getting US and UK regulators to work together. Read more
Select Financings
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Cyclops - Miami based stablecoin infrastructure platform for payment companies raised $20m in Series A funding led by Nava Ventures. Read more
Feathery - San Francisco based startup Feathery, AI operating and decisioning system for financial services, raised $30m in total funding led by Portage Ventures. Read more
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Flex - San Francisco based AI-native banking platform for mid-sized business owners raised $70m in Series B funding led by Halo Fund. Read more
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Lumin Digital - California based cloud-based digital banking software provider for banks and credit unions raised $115m in growth funding led by Light Street. Read more
Moneybox - London based wealthtech scaleup raised £45m in new funding. Read more
Prolo - London based construction procurement startup raised £4.2m in Seed funding led by Triple Point Ventures. Read more
Pure - San Francisco based compliance-first financial infrastructure platform for peer-to-peer skill games raised $8m in Seed funding led by Hidden Capital. Read more
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Velocity - London based stablecoin treasury and settlement platform for corporate users raised $38m in Series A funding led by Dragonfly and FirstMark. Read more
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