Private markets and financial firms saw significant capital movements, with Hellman & Friedman exploring a $10 billion sale of Applied Systems and Bessemer Venture Partners raising $5.75 billion for artificial intelligence funds. Concurrently, banking shares pulled back as the S&P 500 Financial index dropped 2 percent. Crypto platforms faced mixed regulatory and strategic developments, including Binance securing a stake in Circle while confronting federal sanction probes.
01Company specific
Kalshi Denies Reports of CFTC Investigation into Trading Activity
Prediction markets operator Kalshi stated on Tuesday that it has not been contacted by the Trading Commission and does not believe the regulator has opened a formal examination. The denial follows a Wall Street Journal report that the agency was reviewing a flurry of trading activity in Kalshi's Ether perpetual futures market. Nearly one million trades in the Ether market were placed in similar amounts, with trades of roughly $5,500 each accounting for over $5 billion in Ether perpetual volume over the past month. The activity prompted allegations of wash trading and scrutiny over trading patterns. Kalshi attributed the repeated trade sizes to incentive programs that pay market makers to keep buy and sell orders available at specified sizes and price ranges. Head of communications Elisabeth Diana described the discourse as rumors seeded by competitors and noted that the company transmits its data to the regulator daily. The firm also reported that trading volume surpassed $1 billion a week after launching its perpetual futures markets in May.
Financial Stocks Fall Amid AI Concerns and Yield Curve Flattening
The Financial fell 2 percent on Tuesday as investors sold shares amid mounting concerns over disruption and a flattening . The bank sector index dropped 3 percent, led by steep declines among major money managers. Charles Schwab shares fell 6.1 percent, Ameriprise Financial dropped 4.4 percent, and Raymond James lost more than 3 percent. Market participants pointed to Meta Platforms releasing Muse, an AI agent that recently surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app for iPhones, as a catalyst for anxiety regarding wealth management incumbents. Concurrently, the gap between two- and 10-year Treasury yields narrowed to 17.90 earlier on Tuesday before settling at a positive 21 basis points, marking its flattest level since March 2025. The curve has flattened gradually from 55.5 basis points on August 18 as traders price in . was further dampened by initial public offering delays in the AI infrastructure sector, including SB Energy postponing its roadshow and Holtec suspending its planned US listing.
Binance Buys $100 Million Circle Stake in Five-Year USDC Deal
Binance purchased $100 million of Circle Class A common stock in a private placement and signed a five-year commercial agreement to promote the USDC . Binance acquired 1,237,011 shares at $80.84 each in a transaction that closed on September 17, 2026. The purchase price represented a five percent discount to the market price prior to closing. Under the terms of the private placement, Binance agreed not to sell, transfer, or pledge the shares for up to two years, while retaining full voting rights. The new commercial agreement supersedes prior arrangements from November 2024 and August 2025. Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee calculated as a percentage of USDC held through Circle's Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure service. Binance, in exchange, will accelerate the promotion, awareness, and integration of USDC across its platform, particularly in . Circle stock closed at $94.29 on Monday before the filing appeared. Tether's USDT remains the largest stablecoin with roughly $183.4 billion in circulation, compared to approximately $75 billion for USDC.
Hellman & Friedman Considers $10 Billion Sale of Applied Systems
channelnewsasia.com reports that Hellman & Friedman is exploring a sale of insurance software provider Applied Systems at a of up to $10 billion. The firm is working with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs on the process. Headquartered in Chicago, Applied Systems provides software for insurance agencies and brokerages to manage customer relationships and policy administration. Its customers include HUB International, Insurance Office of America, and the Baldwin Group. The company generates more than $550 million in annual before interest, taxes, , and amortization. Hellman & Friedman previously acquired Applied Systems from Bain for approximately $1.8 billion in early 2014.
Bessemer Venture Partners Raises $5.75B for AI Investments
techcrunch.com reports that Bessemer Venture Partners announced on Wednesday that it has raised $5.75 billion across two new funds to accelerate its investment across all parts of the stack. The firm dedicated $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investing and the remaining $4 billion for growth startups. Since 2022, the firm has invested in more than 260 AI-native companies. So far, Bessemer has invested $3 billion into AI-related startups, including those focused on compute, infrastructure, foundation models, dev tools, app-layer startups, and agentic tech. The firm has previously backed companies such as Anthropic, Cognition, Legora, Perplexity, Ramp, Shopify, and Waymo, alongside -era enterprise winners like Box, DocuSign, and Gainsight.
Bessemer New AI Funds ($B)
Growth startups take the majority of the new capital.
Binance Probed by US Prosecutors Over Potential Iran Sanctions Violations
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance Holdings Ltd. violated United States sanctions on Iran by failing to halt certain trading activity on its platform. The Manhattan US attorney's office is leading the inquiry alongside the Justice Department's criminal division in Washington, with authorities scrutinizing whether the exchange knowingly allowed the transactions to proceed. Binance stated that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy for sanctions violations and cooperates fully with law enforcement. The current investigation follows a 2023 guilty plea in which Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion settlement for banking compliance violations and anti-money laundering infractions. In February, the company reported that more than 1,500 people, representing about 25% of its global headcount, worked on compliance. The platform previously faced scrutiny in February when U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal initiated a probe into alleged sanctions violations totaling $1.7 billion, an accusation Binance rejected after finding no supporting evidence.
UWM Sets Terms for $400 Million Rights Offering Backstopped by Oaktree and Ishbia
UWM Holdings set the terms for a 200 million-share rights offering designed to raise at least $400 million. Class A shareholders of record as of October 2, 2026, will receive one transferable subscription right for each share held. The subscription price will be the greater of $2 per share or 85% of the volume-weighted average price of the company's Class A stock over the ten trading days from October 27, 2026, through November 9, 2026. Rights are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on a when-issued basis on October 1, 2026, under the symbol UWMC RTWI, and on a regular-way basis on October 6, 2026, under UWMC RT. The offering is scheduled to expire on November 12, 2026. If the offering fails to generate $400 million in gross proceeds, Oaktree Management affiliates hold the and the Ishbia family parties hold the obligation to purchase additional securities to cover the shortfall. Those backstop securities can be issued as Class A common stock at the subscription price or as junior perpetual non-convertible with accompanying warrants. The arrangement forms the final leg of a $2.05 billion capital framework that previously included $1.65 billion in preferred and warrants issued to Oaktree and the Ishbia family in August 2026. That earlier financing accompanied the suspension of UWM's common and followed a $451.9 million net loss and $39.7 billion of loan origination volume for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, alongside a $603 million loss on tied to hedging the Two Harbors MSR after losing an bid to CrossCountry . With UWM common stock trading below the $2 floor price at $1.26 on Wednesday, market analysts at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods suggest the offering will likely rely on the Oaktree and SFS Group backstop.
Large private capital raises and major software exits show robust deal appetite, yet regulatory probes and yield curve pressures continue to weigh on major institutions. Whether shifting yield curves and regulatory scrutiny will stall broader financial sector dealmaking stays unresolved.
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