California-based startup accelerator Y Combinator made its first on-chain investment in USDC▼$0.9998, backing prediction-markets infrastructure startup Totalis with a $500,000 seed check.
Y Combinator (YC), the Silicon Valley startup accelerator, has made its first startup investment entirely in the USDC stablecoin, sending prediction-markets startup Totalis a $500,000 seed check on Solana, according to the companies.
The money, according to an X post, moved in three on-chain transfers — a $1 test, then $124,999 and $375,000 — and landed directly in Ramp, the treasury platform Totalis said it uses. YC’s standard deal is a $500,000 seed investment, and Totalis is listed on YC’s site as a Spring 2026 company building a “derivative layer for prediction markets.”
Totalis is trying to make prediction markets feel more like a real trading product, letting users bundle views across different events instead of betting on just one outcome, according to its description.
The startup says that means combining bets across areas like crypto, sports and geopolitics, with the longer-term goal of becoming a core derivatives layer for the market.
Investment in USDC Amid Circle Backlash
In YC’s history this is the first case involving stablecoins for startup funding, which puts a crypto-native rail into a very normal piece of startup life.
But the funding comes at a rough moment for Circle, the company behind USDC. Earlier in April, the firm faced criticism after the Drift exploit, where stolen funds — including a large share in USDC — moved across chains. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT and others said Circle had the technical ability to act sooner but didn’t.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire later said during a press conference in South Korea the company doesn’t freeze wallets without legal orders, arguing it must follow court or law enforcement directives.
