Y Combinator to hold crypto startup interviews in New York for first time

Famed startup accelerator Y Combinator is set to host interviews in New York City for the first time, focusing specifically on fintech and crypto startups, as it looks to back more firms in the space.

"This is the first time YC has taken its interview process for a specific sector on the road in this way, as they are meeting founders where key ecosystems are forming," the accelerator said Wednesday.

The interviews will take place in person on May 21 in New York, a YC spokesperson told The Block. Startups selected through this process will join YC's Summer 2026 batch, which starts on June 23 in San Francisco, the spokesperson added, noting that funding and access to YC partners and resources begin immediately.

YC’s standard deal for accepted startups is a $500,000 investment for a 7% stake. An option to receive funding in Circle's USDC stablecoin is also available after YC introduced that option earlier this year.

The New York move comes as YC sees the city emerging as a major hub for startups working on stablecoins, tokenization, trading, agentic commerce, and capital markets.

"All of finance is going to run onchain. We want to back the founders making this reality," Nemil Dalal, visiting partner focused on crypto and a former Coinbase executive, said earlier this week on X.

Dalal said he expects crypto-related startups to become a bigger part of YC batches over time.

"What I see happening is fintech teams that don't consider themselves crypto, but use crypto rails. Makes sense as we get more use cases, less (infrastructure)," he said.

YC's Winter 2026 batch included crypto and fintech startups such as Sponge Wallet, a financial infrastructure startup for the AI agent economy; Unifold, a crypto onramp services provider; Sequence Markets, a unified trading platform for crypto, real-world assets, and prediction markets; and Valence, a platform for trading across prediction markets.

Since launching in 2005, YC has invested in more than 5,000 companies with a combined valuation above $1 trillion, according to its website. Its portfolio includes OpenAI, Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit.

YC’s first crypto investment was Coinbase in 2012. Since then, it said it has backed more than 150 crypto and fintech companies, including prediction markets platform Kalshi, DeFi trading platform Axiom, and NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Last year, YC partnered with Coinbase to support startups building onchain infrastructure. At the time, the accelerator described the shift as "Fintech 3.0," referring to a financial system built with code where payments settle instantly, assets are held in self-custodial wallets, and services operate globally around the clock.