Gauntlet lands $125M Series C from SBI to scale DeFi risk infra

Gauntlet, a New York–based digital asset risk and optimization platform focused on decentralized finance, has closed a $125 million Series C financing led by Japanese financial services group SBI Holdings through its U.S. subsidiary. Multiple reports and the company’s announcement state that SBI was the exclusive or sole investor in the round, which was finalized in June 2026 and publicly disclosed on July 9, 2026. The fresh capital marks Gauntlet’s largest fundraise to date and follows its $24 million Series B completed in 2022, which was led by Ribbit Capital at a reported valuation of around $1 billion.

The Series C proceeds will be used to deepen Gauntlet’s role in institutional on‑chain finance, expand its stablecoin coverage across additional currencies, and broaden its product suite for traditional financial institutions moving into digital assets. Gauntlet provides quantitative risk analysis, modeling, and optimization tools for DeFi lending markets and vaults, managing risk and yield strategies for protocols and institutional clients such as large asset managers and exchanges, and is cited as a key risk manager for platforms like Morpho. The new funding is expected to support global team growth and further build out infrastructure bridging traditional capital markets with on‑chain lending and stablecoin products. While the company’s latest valuation for this Series C was not disclosed in any of the reports or the company release, sources consistently reference the prior $1 billion valuation at its 2022 Series B as the most recent publicly known figure.

SBI Holdings’ concentrated investment in Gauntlet continues its broader strategy of increasing exposure to DeFi lending and digital asset infrastructure. The group has recently backed other crypto and DeFi initiatives and sees Gauntlet’s risk management technology as a foundation for safer institutional participation in on‑chain markets. For Gauntlet, the oversubscribed Series C from a single large financial conglomerate underscores growing demand from traditional institutions for specialized risk tools in DeFi, and positions the company to scale its coverage to more protocols, assets, and geographies while maintaining a focus on capital efficiency and risk controls in on‑chain environments.