DeFi Takes the Lead in Crypto Venture Capital Space in January, Despite Overall Funding Decline
In January, venture capital investment in the crypto sector experienced a decline, despite the launch of Bitcoin ETFs and a relatively strong crypto market. However, there was an increase in the number of funding rounds, although the total amount raised decreased.
According to a report released on February 5 by industry research outlet Wu Blockchain, there were a total of 113 publicly disclosed investment projects in the crypto venture capital space in January, representing a month-on-month increase of 10.8%. This number is slightly higher than the 111 projects in January 2023 and indicates growing interest in the sector.
However, the total fundraising amount in January was $650 million, a decrease of 28.6% from the previous month’s $910 million. Despite this decline, the figure is 3.2% higher compared to January 2023’s $630 million.
The report also highlighted that decentralized finance (DeFi) dominated the space, representing 19% of the total funding. Infrastructure projects and NFTs/GameFi each accounted for approximately 12% of the total.
The largest VC raise for the month was conducted by HashKey Group, which raised nearly $100 million in its Series A funding round. Core Scientific, a crypto mining company, announced the oversubscribed results of its $55 million equity offering. Other notable fundraising rounds included $50 million raised by market maker Flowdesk in a Series B round, and $40 million raised by crypto bank Sygnum.
While DeFiLlama, a DeFi analytics platform, reported a slightly higher figure of $460 million raised in January, it did not include centralized finance (CeFi) projects such as Flowdesk.
Despite the dominance of DeFi, overall crypto venture funding has remained relatively flat compared to the billion-dollar monthly highs seen in 2021 and 2022. Although there was a slight increase at the end of 2023, it has not reached previous levels.
In February, notable projects that raised funds included crypto payments app Oobit, which secured $25 million, hybrid crypto exchange Cube, which raised $12 million, layer-1 blockchain Nibiru, which also raised $12 million, and web3 gaming platform Pixelmon, which raised $8 million in a seed round.
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