In the first half of 2025, cryptocurrency venture capital surged to $37 billion.

Author: Marco Manoppo

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

The first half of 2025 marks a turning point for cryptocurrency venture capital. After two years of capital tightening and cautious investors, funds have poured in. As of June 30, the disclosed total of cryptocurrency financing has exceeded $37 billion, with over 150 tracked transactions covering seed rounds, Series A-C, strategic rounds, and IPOs. Despite regulatory uncertainties and ongoing token price fluctuations, institutional and venture capital confidence in the industry has strongly returned.

Key Points:

• The disclosed total of cryptocurrency financing in the first half of 2025 has exceeded $37 billion, making it one of the most active periods since the 2021 bull market, with over 150 tracked transactions.

• Large-scale financings such as Binance's $2 billion strategic financing and Circle's $1.1 billion IPO have pushed the average transaction size to $248 million, highlighting the market's renewed confidence in mature platforms.

• Most funds have shifted from consumer applications and speculative projects to scaling solutions, compliance infrastructure, and cross-chain protocols.

• Approximately $700 million has flowed into AI-related cryptocurrency projects, indicating that investors view this as the next significant frontier of innovation.

• Top investors such as a16z crypto, Paradigm, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Sequoia account for about 40% of the highest valuation rounds, and currently, large funds still hold significant influence over the direction of the cryptocurrency industry.

Overall Financing Overview

From January to June 2025, cryptocurrency and blockchain startups raised approximately $37.3 billion in disclosed funding.

The average transaction size is about $248 million, significantly higher than in previous years. Of course, this average is influenced by several large financings and IPOs, such as Binance's $2 billion strategic financing and Circle's $1.1 billion IPO. The median transaction size is close to $50 million, reflecting that most financing rounds still fall within the mid-market range.

This total financing amount makes the first half of 2025 one of the most active periods since the 2021 bull market. Notably, a significant amount of funds has flowed into infrastructure and scaling solutions, rather than just consumer applications.

Monthly and Quarterly Trends

The financing amounts vary each month, with March being the strongest. In March alone, driven by large strategic round financings and pre-IPO funding, the estimated financing amount reached $8 billion.

The total financing amount for January and February was about $9.4 billion, while April saw a slight slowdown, around $4.5 billion.

In May and June, financing activity rebounded, each exceeding $5 billion, primarily from later-stage transactions and Circle's IPO.

Quarterly, the financing amount for the first quarter was close to $17.4 billion, while the second quarter added another $15.9 billion. Although the first quarter was driven by early-year momentum and Binance's financing, the second quarter's financing was broader, with large financings spread across scaling infrastructure, custody solutions, and DeFi.

This pace indicates that investors made financing decisions early in the year, possibly to lock in valuations before further increases in token prices.

Industry Segmentation and Analysis

Analyzing the funding distribution across industries provides a clear understanding of which areas investors see long-term value in:

• DeFi and financial infrastructure attracted the largest share, with financing exceeding $6.2 billion. Institutional DeFi protocols focusing on compliant lending, derivatives, and liquidity provision are particularly popular.

• Layer 1 and Layer 2 scaling solutions raised about $3.3 billion. Projects like EigenLayer, LayerZero, and other protocol-focused initiatives are the biggest beneficiaries, reflecting investors' belief that Ethereum scaling and cross-chain interoperability remain unresolved opportunities.

• Custody, security, and compliance solutions attracted over $1.2 billion in funding. This also highlights the importance of trusted infrastructure amid tightening regulatory requirements.

• Stablecoins and payment networks raised about $1.5 billion, indicating ongoing capital support for projects linking fiat currencies and on-chain liquidity.

• The AI-Crypto fusion has become a rapidly growing theme, with approximately $700 million invested in projects that integrate large language models, decentralized computing, and token incentives.

• Compared to 2021-2022, financing in the NFT and gaming sectors remains sluggish, totaling about $600 million, underscoring the market's shift from speculative collectibles to more utility-focused applications. In short, capital has decisively shifted from purely consumer hype cycles to infrastructure, compliance tracks, and expanded ecosystems.

Notable Financing Rounds

Several large financings have dominated headlines and capital flows. Binance's $2 billion strategic financing in January immediately set the tone for this year's financing market, indicating that even mature exchanges still enjoy significant investor confidence. Circle's $1.1 billion IPO became the largest public exit case in the first half of the year, confirming that the stablecoin model is viable and capable of generating revenue. Meanwhile, the financings of Binance and Circle are the second and third largest financing rounds in cryptocurrency history, respectively.

Other notable financing rounds include TON's $400 million strategic financing, Phantom's $150 million Series C financing, and LayerZero's $150 million investment. These financings alone account for a quarter of the total financing in the first half of the year.

An important dynamic phenomenon: almost all large financing rounds attracted participation from top investment firms such as a16z crypto, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Pantera Capital, signaling that mainstream venture capital funds will continue to concentrate equity in industry-leading companies.

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