Good day. Market turbulence almost feels like the default now, and that’s not helping public offerings.

Fundrise postponed the direct listing of its venture fund. Robinhood Ventures Fund I had to reduce the size of its offering earlier this month.

“The latest bout of volatility has certainly delayed offering timelines, but as of now, the delay is tentatively ‘months’ and not ‘quarters,’” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research and IPO-focused exchange-traded funds.

The market went into the year anticipating huge IPOs for the likes of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.

In general, companies aren’t pushing back plans as far as 2027, Kennedy said. “Bankers and advisers know that the current level of volatility can quickly subside, and so IPO prep work is continuing,” he added.

And if it comes to that, a smaller offering isn’t the end of the world either.

Robinhood Ventures Fund I debuted on public markets at a fund size of $658.4 million, less than the $1 billion it targeted, for example.

“Looking at the broader market environment over the past several weeks, we decided to adjust the size of the offering. We’re confident that RVI is still a good size for Robinhood Ventures’ first fund, and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead for deploying its capital,” a Robinhood representative said. On Tuesday, Robinhood Ventures announced it had closed investments in Stripe and ElevenLabs.

And now on to the news...

Mastercard's blockchain buy. Payment companies are preparing for a world where transactions are in digital tokens.

• Mastercard on Tuesday said it would acquire stablecoin-infrastructure company BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, giving the company access to infrastructure that underpins transfers of the digital currency.
   
• The deal will give Mastercard the ability to link its vast payments-processing network, the pipeline that connects customer money to merchants they want to pay, directly with stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a traditional fiat currency like the U.S. dollar.

Arizona sued the parent companies of Kalshi, a startup prediction platform, on Tuesday for operating what the state said was an illegal gambling business without a license.

• Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes accused Kalshi of accepting bets from residents on sports, elections and events in violation of state law. Arizona doesn’t allow unlicensed wagering businesses and bans elections betting, Mayes said. The state charged the company with 20 counts of illegal betting and wagering.
   
• New York-based Kalshi said, “These state-court charges are seriously flawed. It’s gamesmanship.”

A top banking regulator is on the verge of letting crypto firms become banks. Banks aren’t happy about it.

• Jonathan Gould, one of the country’s most powerful banking regulators, has given the green light to crypto firms such as Ripple and Crypto.com to build banks—and is welcoming applications from others, including payment-technology companies. That is rankling the banking industry, which sees the new players as potential rivals that aren’t subject to the same level of regulatory oversight.

As more women rise through the industry ranks, they shape not only the cultures of their own firms, but also the industry itself. Join us for a conversation with some of our past and present Women to Watch honorees, as we discuss issues female professionals face building their careers, as well as some of the emerging themes that stand to shape dealmaking as the year unfolds. Register here to join the webinar at 1 p.m. ET March 26.

Funds

San Francisco-based Gradient closed its fifth fund with $220 million in commitments to make pre-seed and seed stage investments in AI startups.

People

S2G Investments, which invests across sectors including food and agriculture, oceans and energy, appointed Brian O’Connor as managing director and co-head of special opportunities. He was previously a partner at Global Infrastructure Partners.

Credit-building platform Self Financial said founder James Garvey has returned as chief executive officer of the company.

Frore Systems, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of advanced thermal technologies used across data centers and edge devices, closed a $143 million Series D round, valuing the company at $1.64 billion. MVP Ventures led the investment, which included participation from Mayfield, Addition and others.

Upvest, a Berlin-based investment infrastructure provider, scored a $125 million funding round, including $90 million in equity. Sapphire Ventures and Tencent led the equity portion, which saw participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and BlackRock.

Surf AI, a New York-based agentic operations platform for security teams, launched with $57 million in combined seed and Series A funding. Accel led the investment, which included participation from Cyberstarts and Boldstart Ventures.

Standard Template Labs, a New York-based IT service management platform, launched with $49 million in funding co-led by Iconiq and CRV.

Beautiful.ai, a San Francisco-based provider of AI-powered presentation software, picked up a $45 million investment from General Catalyst.

Native, a cloud-security "control plane" provider based in Seattle and Tel Aviv, emerged from stealth with $42 million in funding, including a $31 million Series A round. Investors included Ballistic Ventures, General Catalyst, YL Ventures and Merlin Ventures.

BusRight, a New York-headquartered student transportation technology platform, raised more than $30 million in new funding. Volition Capital led the investment, with Partner Tomy Han joining the company’s board.

Multiply, a San Francisco-based advertising startup where ads learn from company data and continuously improve, emerged from stealth with $9.5 million in funding. Mayfield led the investment, which included participation from Sorenson Capital and others.

• Finance Bros to Tech Bros: Don’t Mess With My Bloomberg Terminal
   
• The E-Nose Knows: AI Learns to Smell
   
• See the Seemingly Magical Science Behind Quantum Computing
   
• Why Defense-Contractor Stocks Aren’t Rallying
   
• China Has Five-Minute EV Charging. America Is Trying to Catch Up.
   
• Microsoft Seeks More Coherence in AI Efforts With Copilot Reorganization
   
• IBM Closes $11 Billion Deal for Confluent

• Trapped! Inside a self-driving car during an anti-robot attack. (New York Times)
   
• Gecko Robotics lands the largest U.S. Navy robotics deal yet (TechCrunch)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova and Zachary Cole.

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

Join us on LinkedIn.