Fairmint Partners with BitcoinFi Accelerator to Bring $26M in Startup Funding Equity Natively Onchain
Launching fundraising onchain from the start allows startups full control and transparency over their cap tables, positioning them for accelerated growth
NEW YORK, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For the next generation of unicorns, tokenizing equity after the fact is a relic of the past. Today, BitcoinFi Accelerator and Fairmint announced that its latest cohort has bypassed traditional legacy systems entirely, bringing $26M in fundraising equity natively onchain from the start. By leveraging Fairmint’s regulated infrastructure, these founders are ensuring their corporate ownership is as programmable and scalable as the products they build.
Co-led by Draper Associates, Draper Dragon and Thesis, in partnership with Supernormal Foundation, the BitcoinFi Accelerator has supported over 20 startup teams across three batches in 1.5 years. In the most recent cohort, seven teams selected from more than 100 global applicants chose to move their cap tables onto Fairmint’s infrastructure. As an SEC-registered transfer agent with $1.5B in equity already onchain and counting, Fairmint makes equity more programmable, more liquid and brings execution and settlement into a single system of record.
Unlike tokenization, which often involves wrapping static, off-chain assets on a digital shell, Fairmint’s infrastructure allows equity to be born onchain. This eliminates the friction of syncing spreadsheets with reality and ensures that compliance, governance and ownership are inextricably linked from day one. It also allows for instant settlement, reducing equity transfer times from weeks to seconds.
"Retrofitting old equity structures onto the blockchain is a band-aid; building natively onchain is the cure," said Joris Delanoue CEO of Fairmint. "The founders in the BitcoinFi Accelerator program made a decision that was smart for today and essential for tomorrow because onchain equity solves real problems right now. It makes fundraising faster, due diligence cleaner and investor relationships more transparent. But it also means these founders have their equity sitting on the rails that private markets are moving toward: programmable, composable, regulated DeFi infrastructure. That's not just a better cap table, that's how the next unicorns get built."
The move represents a shift toward infrastructure alignment, where companies building the future of finance ensure their own corporate DNA lives on the same rails as their technology.
"We built this program to find the most ambitious founders in the Bitcoin ecosystem and give them every advantage we could. Seeing them bring their equity onchain with Fairmint wasn't just a logistical decision. It was a signal that these founders think about their companies differently. They're building on the same infrastructure their products run on, and that alignment matters to the investors who will back them next," said Maxime Bucaille, co-founder of BitcoinFi Accelerator and Principal at Draper Associates.
Fairmint’s infrastructure delivers a level of precision that traditional cap tables cannot match:
- Encoded Compliance: As an SEC-registered transfer agent, Fairmint utilizes the Open Cap Table Protocol. Compliance and transfer restrictions are baked into the smart contracts.
- Real-Time Governance: Equity issuance and investor onboarding occur in real-time. What used to take weeks of legal coordination now happens with the speed and finality of a blockchain transaction.
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Native Liquidity Readiness: By starting onchain, these companies are natively compatible with DeFi integration and secondary liquidity pools, bypassing the costly on-ramping process that plagues traditional startups.
By embedding Fairmint into the cohort experience, BitcoinFi Accelerator is moving the industry beyond the spreadsheet era. Onchain equity is the new standard for serious accelerator programs. The tools founders use to manage ownership and raise capital should be as forward-thinking as the companies they're building. The accelerators that embed Fairmint into their cohort experience aren't following a trend; they're setting one. The founders who come through those programs will be better capitalized, better prepared and better connected to the financial infrastructure the private market is moving toward.
Accelerator programs and founders ready to build on the infrastructure of the future can learn more at Fairmint.com.
About Fairmint
Fairmint is an SEC-registered transfer agent building onchain equity infrastructure. The company turns capitalization tables into smart contracts, facilitating the issuance, management and transfer of equity securities. Fairmint's Open Cap Table Protocol enables programmable equity with embedded compliance and real-time settlement. Founded in 2019 by Joris Delanoue and Thibauld Favre. Equity moves onchain at Fairmint.com.
About BitcoinFi Accelerator
The BitcoinFi Accelerator, co-led by Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, and Thesis in partnership with Supernormal Foundation, is a 6-week program that mentors and invests $150K in early-stage startups building products and infrastructure to connect users, capital, and real activity to Bitcoin. It focuses on enhancing Bitcoin’s liquidity, staking, and utility, and supports founders across DeFi, consumer products, and infrastructure.
Media Contact:
Tara Evans
Uproar by Moburst for Fairmint
press@fairmint.com
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