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BlockBeats News, July 1st. According to statistics, the 14 largest fundraisings in the first half of 2026 globally raised a total of $4.3 billion, with the Predictive Markets, AI, and Payments sectors being the most favored by capital. Specifically, the Predictive Market platform Kalshi took the lead with a $1.2 billion fundraising, while Polymarket raised $600 million, bringing their combined fundraising total to $1.8 billion, accounting for over 40% of the top 14 fundraisings. In the AI field, Replit, Exa AI, and OpenRouter raised $400 million, $250 million, and $113 million respectively. In the blockchain sector, Canton Network, Arc, and Morpho raised $355 million, $222 million, and $175 million respectively. Additionally, projects in the Payments, RWA, Infrastructure, and Compliance sectors such as Rain, Slash, Goldcom, Alpaca, and Elliptic also made it to the list.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will support research and development in the field of physical AI that combines robotics and AI technology to enhance the competitiveness of Japan's manufacturing industry, where it has a strong advantage. The new company, named "Noetra" (formerly Japan AI Foundation Model Development), is established with SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group at its core. In addition to a high level of Japanese language understanding and reasoning ability, the company will also focus on developing foundational models capable of recognizing images, videos, audio, and physical spaces. The company has been selected for a support project under the "New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization" (NEDO), which is affiliated with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Odaily reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is publicly soliciting opinions on "novel exchange-traded funds (novel ETFs)" to evaluate their regulatory framework and market rule design. The SEC stated in its document that it continues to monitor the market's interest in various innovative products, including funds related to crypto assets, investment opportunities based on blockchain technology, and new types of financial derivatives such as "event contracts." This request for comment is seen as a further early-stage exploration by the SEC regarding the boundaries of ETF regulation, especially as demand continues to grow for crypto ETFs, on-chain asset exposure products, and structured derivatives. Regulators are seeking a new balance between innovation and risk control. (The Block)