Crypto Funding in 2025 Swings Between Slump and Resurgence
The chatter in crypto circles this summer hasn’t been about meme coins or celebrity endorsements of late. Instead, it’s about how venture money seems to be drying up and flooding in at the same time. Q2 2025 data from Galaxy Digital shows VC funding for crypto and blockchain start‑ups falling to $1.97 billion across 378 deals, down 59% from the previous quarter.
It was the second-smallest quarter for crypto fundraising since late 2020, and analysts point out that a single $2 billion sovereign injection into Binance in Q1 skews the comparison, so the decline looks closer to 29% when that mega‑deal is removed. Even with fewer checks being written, sectors like artificial intelligence, blockchain infrastructure and trading tools still attract cash, and pre‑seed activity hasn’t dried up.
Those mixed signals are prompting some founders to look beyond traditional venture rounds. Many are turning to token launches to raise capital, and going after the best crypto presale launchpad. It makes things easier for first‑time investors in particular by showing early projects, team backgrounds and basic tokenomics all in one place, so newcomers can get a feel for what due diligence looks like without committing to a huge stake. It’s a way for retail punters to see the same data rooms that used to be reserved for insiders, and it’s changing the rhythm of early‑stage fundraising.
As money gets tighter, capital tends to favor more established names. Galaxy’s report notes that later‑stage companies captured about half of all dollars invested, and a single $300 million cheque went to XY Miners, a firm building data‑center hardware to meet booming artificial intelligence demand. The United States regained its lead in both deal count and capital, accounting for nearly half of Q2 investment, with the United Kingdom and Japan a distant second.
Investors say that’s partly because U.S. regulations have become clearer than those in many other regions, making due diligence less of a gamble. Still, $1.76 billion went into just 21 new crypto venture funds. Macro headwinds and competition from spot exchange‑traded funds are keeping allocators on the sidelines, and some are directing new money toward AI start‑ups instead.
The paradox is that retail adoption keeps growing even as venture deals slow. Triple‑A, a Singapore‑based payments company, estimates that 6.8% of the global population, over 560 million people, owned cryptocurrency in 2024. That suggests the audience for crypto‑backed products is broad, even if venture investors are pickier about who gets funding.
There’s another wrinkle. While Galaxy’s figures paint a cautious picture, other trackers see a very different landscape. A Q2 roundup from infrastructure firm QuickNode puts venture funding at just over $10 billion, the highest quarterly total since early 2022, with June alone accounting for $5.14 billion.
The blog notes that this surge followed clearer U.S. regulations around digital asset custody and tokenized securities, and that the money went largely to companies building infrastructure rather than speculative games.
These deals were huge, 31 rounds over $50 million each, and targeted sectors like tokenized finance, Bitcoin‑native products and AI‑enabled DePIN projects. Smart money, as they call it, is waiting for compliant products and revenue‑generating models, not simply hype-chasing.
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