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- Y Combinator has completed its first all-stablecoin funding round, investing $500,000 in USDC on Solana into startup Totalis.
- The funds were sent in three onchain transactions and are being held on Ramp, as the startup plans to operate across both stablecoins and fiat.
Y Combinator has completed what appears to be a small but notable shift in startup finance, sending its first fully stablecoin-denominated investment to a portfolio company rather than wiring dollars through more familiar rails.
Prediction markets startup Totalis said Monday that it received $500,000 in USDC on Solana from the Silicon Valley accelerator. The funds are being held on Ramp, a financial operations platform that the company says it will use to manage both stablecoin and fiat transactions.
A routine startup check, settled in stablecoins
The mechanics were simple enough, which is partly the point. According to Totalis, Y Combinator sent the investment in three onchain transactions: first a $1 test transfer, then $124,999, followed by $375,000.
That sequence makes the process sound less like a crypto stunt and more like a familiar financial workflow translated onto new rails. Test the address, confirm receipt, send the rest. It is practical, not theatrical.
Totalis described the round as a “small but meaningful shift” in how startups get funded. That feels about right. Y Combinator writing one check in USDC does not remake venture capital overnight, but it does suggest the firm is at least willing to treat stablecoins as operational money rather than just something its founders build around.
Solana and USDC enter the funding workflow
The choice of USDC on Solana matters too. USDC gives the transaction a familiar dollar reference point, while Solana offers speed and low-cost settlement. For startups operating in crypto-native sectors, that combination is increasingly hard to ignore.
Totalis said it plans to use Ramp to execute transactions in both fiat and stablecoins, and even pay its credit card bill through its stablecoin account on the platform. That detail gives the funding round a broader significance. The stablecoin transfer is not being treated as a one-off novelty, but as part of the company’s working treasury setup.
For Y Combinator, the signal is subtle but real. Venture funding has long been shaped by bank wires, legal documents and cap tables that move at institutional speed. This round suggests at least some of that process can now settle onchain without looking especially strange.
