Grayscale Sees Selective ETF Era

Luke Truitt of Orca and Loopscale | Catalyst Raises $30M Seed Round

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
October 09, 2026

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Good Morning,

As SEC listing standards shift gatekeeping from regulators to issuers, Zcash’s breakout raises an uncomfortable question about whether ETF inflows reflect durable conviction or simply a regulated wrapper amplifying the market’s latest rotation.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: Grayscale Sees Selective ETF Era 👀
Founders Highlight: Luke Truitt of Orca and Loopscale 🐋
Deal Flows: Catalyst Raises $30M Seed Round 💰️

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WHAT MATTERS

Grayscale Sees Selective ETF Era

State of play: Grayscale’s Krista Lynch says crypto ETFs are moving beyond bitcoin and ether into a more selective phase, with a $1B Zcash debut suggesting that investor demand, not mere listing eligibility, will decide which tokens earn a fund wrapper.

SEC generic listing standards now cover roughly 15 tokens, narrowing a field from the 27 candidate assets Grayscale flagged in January.
The Zcash fund hit its milestone in just 30 trading days, ranking in the top 1% of ETFs launched over the past decade by first-month assets.
Grayscale filed to tokenize its bitcoin and ether covered-call funds under the SEC’s innovation exemption, which Lynch called a “consolation prize” after the Clarity Act failed.
Lynch argued the bill’s defeat brought a degree of certainty by removing the legislative question mark hanging over the industry.
Grayscale also joined other crypto firms last month in urging the SEC to speed ETF reviews and allow confidential draft filings.

Why it matters: With eligibility no longer the bottleneck, issuer selection becomes a curation signal that can drive flows into a handful of tokens.

Our take: Calling the Clarity Act’s defeat “clarity” is spin, since an SEC exemption is a policy the next commission can revoke.

For builders and investors: Watch which of the 15 eligible tokens draw filings next, as issuer conviction is now a leading indicator of institutional flows.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Luke Truitt of Orca and Loopscale

Intro: Luke Truitt is the CEO and Founder of Loopscale, a DeFi protocol focused on fixed-rate borrowing, lending, and investment vaults using an on-chain order-book system.

Solana DeFi protocols Loopscale and Orca have merged, with Luke retaining the CEO role at the combined entity.

Previous background: Before Loopscale, Luke co-founded AML Group, a Durham-based defense tech startup that won a Department of Defense contract for AI-driven RF jamming evasion.

He previously traded S&P, Nasdaq, and eurodollar futures as a quantitative trader at Optiver in Chicago.
His earlier career spanned machine learning at General Motors, where he worked on computer vision for Cruise’s autonomous driving and plant error detection.

The big idea: Luke Truitt’s big idea is that connecting Loopscale's custom, fixed-rate lending engine directly to Orca's deep trading pools creates a reliable market where any complex asset can be borrowed against and traded simultaneously.

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INSIGHTS

JPMorgan Sees Crypto Flows Rebounding

JPMorgan estimates $50B has entered crypto this year, but the mix matters more than the total, as the corporate treasury and VC bid that carried the first half gives way to ETF and futures demand still running at roughly half of last year’s pace.

ETF flows turned positive for the year after heavy May and June outflows, though they remain negative since the Oct. 10, 2025 downturn.
CME bitcoin positioning has topped its previous peak and ether sits near its October 2025 high, as trend-following funds rebuild longs.
Bitcoin miners have been modest net sellers at about $1.8B, with listed miners offloading coins to fund AI infrastructure.
Treasury companies are shifting from debt toward preferred shares to fund purchases, raising their ongoing interest and dividend burdens.
Venture capital is concentrating in fewer, larger rounds, while infrastructure firms increasingly lean on debt financing.

DEAL FLOWS

Catalyst Raises $30M Seed Round

Deal flows remained the same this week - we saw $250M+ in deals 💼

Catalyst’s $30M Sequoia-led seed bets that AI agents can turn plain-language prompts into executable trading strategies, a pitch that sharpens the tension between democratizing sophisticated trading and giving retail users faster ways to lose money.

Jump Trading, PeakXV, Lux Capital, AntiFund, Coinbase, and Premji Invest joined the round, with no valuation disclosed.
The startup was founded in 2025 by ex-Worldcoin Justin Zheng and Dylan Iskandar, who published DoD cybersecurity papers in high school.
Its agents execute trades only with human approval, keeping users in the loop on every order.
A pilot with power traders reportedly generated hundreds of millions in volume within a couple of weeks.
Catalyst is now onboarding waitlisted users and building personalized education tools to explain trading risks and safety.

Deal flows in the past week:

Uorm, $7.5M Pre-Seed Round
Imperial, $1.5M Seed Round
Vest Labs, $13M Seed Round
Noah, $16M Seed Round
Navra, $19M Series A Round
Nous Research, $90M Series B Round
Spiko, $90M Series B Round
OKX, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round
Xverse, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round
Antseed Foundation, $2.4M Public Token Sale Round
Jumper, $3M Public Token Sale Round
Anvil, $5M Public Token Sale Round
Umia, $6.1M Public Token Sale Round

QUICK BITES

Securitize launches 1:1-backed tokenized stocks.
Grayscale says crypto ETF market is entering new phase.
US government moves $1B in bitcoin tied to Bitfinex hack.
JPMorgan estimates $50B has flowed into crypto this year.
Top Democrat probes ties between Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether.
Samsung to launch USDC transfers on Solana for US Galaxy users.
Standard Chartered to expand crypto custody services in Singapore.
Orca merges with Loopscale in push to finance AI, robotics and defense.
EU regulator gives platforms 3 months to remove unauthorized stablecoins.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Simon’s read on Fintech is Dead.
Delphi’s read on The Emerging Onchain Market.
Haseeb’s read on Against Cryptographic Doomerism.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.