Y Combinator Seeks Crypto Startups in Finance, AI, Stablecoins

Y Combinator, an American technology startup accelerator, published a Crypto Request for Startups (CRFS) in October 2026, outlining the areas in which it is seeking new companies to fund.

In an X post on October 28, Nemil Dalal, a Y Combinator visiting partner, shared the document and noted that the next application deadline is the following Monday.

The document states that the past year marked the first period in which crypto uptake was led by institutions rather than consumers. It attributes the growth to financial needs such as hedging and faster cross-border enterprise transfers rather than speculation.

At @ycombinator, we’re excited to fund more crypto startups solving financial needs including AI capital raising, stablecoins, trading, and agents.

Here’s our latest crypto request for startups. Our next application deadline is Monday. pic.twitter.com/zjRaM9dl4w

— Nemil Dalal (@nemild) October 28, 2026

Focus areas in the request

Y Combinator outlined four developments it expects to shape the sector. 

First, major assets are expected to become increasingly tokenized, beginning with stablecoins and stocks and extending to home titles, debt, and commodities.

Second, new assets will be issued directly on blockchain networks, ranging from startup equity to micro-securities valued at less than $10,000 that could not previously be tokenized.

Third, centralized and decentralized financial primitives will emerge to support trading, lending, and derivatives.

Finally, AI agents are expected to become primary financial actors, accessing tokens and financial primitives through blockchain-based APIs.

For the next six months, the accelerator highlighted several specific categories.

Under capital, it pointed to AI capital raising that uses blockchain infrastructure to facilitate fundraising. 

In stablecoins, it listed new U.S. dollar stablecoins aimed at underserved user or merchant segments such as gaming, stablecoins denominated in additional currencies, and neobanks that use stablecoins to serve customer groups including global contractors and international businesses. 

For trading, it described tokenization of real-world assets that benefit from continuous trading and DeFi integration, along with new exchanges and trading interfaces focused on those assets, derivatives, or particular geographies. Under agents, it noted tools that enable agents to trade crypto and other assets, as well as infrastructure and APIs built for agents rather than solely for human developers, including mechanisms for moving between fiat and crypto.

The document added that some of the strongest ideas may fall outside the categories listed.

Crypto sector raises $148.589B in total funding rounds

Data compiled from DeFiLlama on October 28 at 17:30 UTC, covering 2014 through late 2026 show 7,332 total funding rounds and $148.589 billion in total capital raised across the crypto sector. 

Funding volumes rose sharply around 2021–2022, declined, then increased again in 2024–2026.

Recent rounds recorded on October 27, 2026, include Hyperbolic, which raised $30 million in a Series A round focused on AI; Spicenet, which raised $5 million in a Series A for a DeFi project; Luxor Technology, which raised $16 million in a strategic round for mining; Cancore, which raised $7.2 million in a seed round for a cross-chain DeFi project at a $60 million valuation; and Predicate, which raised $8 million in a Series A for infrastructure.

Related startup-targeted activities in the crypto sector

The Y Combinator request appears against a backdrop of other capital allocation and platform expansion in the sector. Robinhood recently raised $225.5 million for its second venture fund, Ventures Fund II, which targets early-stage startups, including those in crypto. The fund was listed on the New York Stock Exchange after pricing 8 million shares at $25 each, as per a Reuters report.

In November 2025, Coinbase launched Coinbase Business in Singapore, its first such service outside the United States. The platform is aimed at startups and small-to-medium businesses and supports cryptocurrency trading, digital payments, and settlement in stablecoins, including USDC and XSGD. Coinbase partnered with Standard Chartered to enable real-time Singapore-dollar transfers between bank accounts and crypto wallets.

Y Combinator has not disclosed the number of applications expected or the size of any potential investments under the current request.

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