Last June witnessed a significant recovery in venture capital (VC) fundraising activities in the cryptocurrency sector, with a total amount raised of approximately 2.8 billion USD. This figure is many times higher than the 594 million USD in May, indicating that the VC market is gradually regaining momentum.
Notable funding rounds and leading sectors
The largest funding rounds in June included Kalshi with 185 million USD (Series C), Digital Asset 135 million USD, and Zama 57 million USD. Including private token sales, World Liberty Financial also raised 100 million USD from the UAE and a16z purchased 70 million USD worth of EigenLayer tokens.
Although projects focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) had the highest number of transactions (21 projects raised 116 million USD), Prime Services was the leading sector in terms of total funds raised, with 5 projects bringing in 1.15 billion USD. Infrastructure also received a significant amount of investment, totaling 881 million USD. This indicates that, although AI is a hot trend, substantial capital is still flowing into core financial services in the crypto space.
The shift towards later-stage funding rounds
A noteworthy point is the increase in later-stage funding rounds. Pre-seed and Seed rounds raised about 121 million USD, but Series B rounds reached 127 million USD, and Series C to F rounds were even higher at 185 million USD. This marks a change from May when Seed rounds led. This shift, along with Circle's IPO, is an early sign of the maturation of the crypto VC market.
Overall, June brought a strong recovery that the crypto VC market has been seeking, affirming strength in certain sectors and the increasing interest of VCs in AI.
source: #Decrypt