Taking a Closer Look: Cryptocurrency Venture Capital Funding Exceeds $1 Billion for the Second Consecutive Month
Crypto Venture Capital Fundraising has exceeded $1 billion for the second consecutive month, according to reports from RootData. In April, the industry saw $1.02 billion in investments across 161 rounds, following March’s impressive $1.09 billion across 186 rounds.
This consistent funding represents the first time since October-November 2022 that the crypto sector has achieved over $1 billion in venture capital in two consecutive months.
April saw several high-profile fundraisings that contributed to this billion-dollar milestone. One notable deal was BlackRock’s $47 million investment in Securitize, a company specializing in real-world asset tokenization. Additionally, the Layer-1 blockchain Monad raised $225 million, with backing from Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures. Auradine, a blockchain infrastructure startup, secured an $80 million deal, while Berachain, another Layer-1 blockchain built on Cosmos, raised a significant $100 million.
Blockchain infrastructure firms topped the list of contributors to venture capital funding, attracting $1.7 billion in 2024 so far. Decentralized finance protocols followed closely behind, raising $626 million. However, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have struggled to secure funding, with only $3 million raised in 2024.
The surge in crypto venture capital fundraising aligns with the ambitions of major VC firms like Pantera Capital and Paradigm, who have been seeking substantial fundraising for new cryptocurrency projects. Pantera Capital aims to secure a $1 billion fund raise, which would make it the largest in the industry since a16z’s record-breaking $4.5 billion raise in May 2022.
In the first quarter of 2024, VC funding in the crypto space experienced a notable surge, breaking a two-year downtrend. A total of $3.67 billion was secured, with a 38% increase in funds invested and a 49% increase in the number of projects receiving funding compared to the previous year.
Web3 startups secured just under $1.9 billion in funding across 346 deals in the first quarter, a remarkable 58% increase from the previous quarter. Analysts at Bernstein Research suggest that crypto funds could reach $500 billion to $650 billion in VC funding within the next five years, a substantial leap from the current valuation of approximately $50 billion.
Since 2014, crypto venture capital funding has reached $100 billion across 5,195 funding rounds. This year, the industry is expected to surpass the $9.3 billion funding milestone achieved in 2023, as it has already secured over $3.67 billion across 604 funding rounds in 2024.