Crypto market maker Portofino, founded by former Citadel Securities executives, emerges from stealth with $50M from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and others (Tom Matsuda/The Block)

Parikshit Mishra / CoinDesk:
Charles Schwab, Citadel, Fidelity, and others announce cryptocurrency exchange EDX Markets, that will leverage tech from US stock market MEMX  —  The exchange will be led by Jamil Nazarali, a former senior executive at trading giant Citadel Securities.  —  Financial heavyweights including …

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Dubai-based baraka, a commission-free investment app for Middle East users to invest in US stocks and ETFs, raised a $20M Series A led by Valar Ventures  —  Stock-trading apps have multiplied over the past couple of years, targeting varying demographics and audiences that they feel need …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
QA Wolf, a cloud-based service to detect software bugs, exits stealth with $20M from Inspired Capital, Thiel Capital, and others  —  QA Wolf, a cloud-based platform designed to detect bugs in software, today exited stealth and announced a $20 million funding round with contributions from Inspired Capital …

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Paris-based Regate, which offers an all-in-one platform to manage invoices, expense reports, and payments, raised a $20M series A led by Valar Ventures  —  French startup Regate has raised a $20 million Series A funding round (€20 million) led by Valar Ventures.

Danny Hakim / New York Times:
Russia’s RT, banned by major platforms in March 2022, has found an audience on Thiel-backed Rumble, often pushing Russian propaganda about the Ukraine invasion  —  An interview of captive Americans done “under duress” appears on a web platform backed by J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel.

Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Thiel-backed conservative video platform Rumble is up 37% after going public via SPAC merger at a $2.1B valuation, raising $400M  —  Rumble Inc., the conservative video network backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, became a publicly traded company Monday through a deal with a blank-check firm …