CeFi drives $860 million in April crypto fundraising as prediction and AI bets spread

RootData data shows CeFi raised about $606 million across 8 deals, infrastructure $105 million across 14, and DeFi $90 million.

CeFi concentration and sector breakdown

According to April data from Web3 analytics platform RootData, the disclosed total raised in the crypto primary market reached roughly $860 million, spread across 55 financing events and 5 M&A deals, a slight dip from March’s 62 events that still points to steady activity.

Capital was heavily skewed toward centralized platforms. CeFi topped the table with about $606 million raised across 8 deals, followed by infrastructure at $105 million across 14 deals, and DeFi at $90 million across 19 deals, making infrastructure the most active category by deal count as institutional attention continues to favor foundational tooling and rails.

The month’s top three rounds were all in the trading and L1 stack. Vietnamese exchange CAEX pulled in $380 million from backers including OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital, while global exchange Kraken raised a $200 million strategic investment from Deutsche Bank, and Layer‑1 project Pharos Network closed a $44 million Series A. Together, CAEX and Kraken accounted for roughly $580 million, or about 67% of all disclosed April capital, highlighting the ongoing concentration of money into a small number of CeFi leaders.

Prediction markets and AI funding broaden out

RootData’s sector drill‑down shows the prediction‑market narrative evolving from last month’s “single giant” raise into a more distributed ecosystem build‑out. Eight prediction‑related projects secured seed or angel funding, including decentralized prediction venue XO Market at $6 million, meme‑inflected PUMPCADE with multiple rounds totaling $6 million, and Atlasx Protocol at $2 million.

That follows a March wave of capital that put prediction markets back on the map and now appears to be seeding a cluster of smaller, more specialized platforms instead of one or two dominant hubs. It mirrors trends covered in a recent crypto.news story, which noted that on‑chain betting has been moving from niche to mainstream around elections and macro themes.

Artificial intelligence is undergoing a similar diffusion. RootData tracked eight AI‑related crypto projects raising in April, spanning AI agents like Nava ($8.3 million seed) and AIW3.ai ($2 million), AI infrastructure such as Cluster Protocol ($5 million for decentralized model‑verification), and AI content creation startup Oh ($7.5 million Series A). The data supports what a separate crypto.news analysis recently described as “AI x crypto entering a multi‑pronged, experimentation phase.”

Kraken also delivered one of April’s most notable “on‑chain plus off‑chain” moves. In the same month it raised $200 million from Deutsche Bank, the exchange bought CFTC‑regulated derivatives venue Bitnomial for $550 million, reinforcing a dual strategy of using external capital while buying regulated market structure—an approach examined in a prior crypto.news feature.

On the investor side, GSR, Coinbase Ventures, L1D, Tether, Kosmos Ventures, and Animoca Brands tied as the most active backers, each disclosing three deals, according to RootData. Their activity aligns with a broader Q2 pattern crypto.news has highlighted in several reports, showing capital steadily returning to infrastructure, trading platforms, and AI‑adjacent projects even as overall deal sizes remain concentrated at the top.