Good morning, it’s Crypto Editor Jeff Roberts pinch-hitting for Allie. Over the course of my career, I’ve written many stories along the lines of “Buzzy new startup raises $50 million.” Imagine my surprise then when I learned that, in recent years, those splashy headline numbers are not always what they seem. In a growing number of deals, it turns out, a chunk of the money raised doesn’t go to the startup, but instead into the pockets of the founder.

That was the case with crypto payments firm Mesh, which announced an $82 million Series B this year that included a $20 million payout to its founder. Ditto with the blockchain social network firm Farcaster, which raised an eye-popping $150 million Series A, but saw its CEO carve off at least $15 million of that. You can read about other exa

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