According to Blockworks, a report released by PitchBook on Monday showed that in the first quarter of 2024, the financing of crypto startups reached US$2.4 billion, an increase of 40% over the investment capital in the last quarter of 2023. In the report, PitchBook analysts wrote: "As investors' positive sentiment towards cryptocurrencies returns, we expect the number and pace of investment to continue to increase this year unless there is a major market downturn."
Big deals this week include Web3 social media platform Farcaster closing a $150 million Series A led by Paradigm. Other investors include a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, Variant, and Standard Crypto. “Since October, Farcaster has seen 350,000 paid user signups and 50x growth in network activity,” Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero said in a statement on Tuesday.
In addition, this week EVM layer-2 Plume announced a $10 million seed round led by Haun Ventures. Other investors include Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt and Portal Ventures. Plume was built to bring real-world assets on-chain, and currently has more than 80 RWA and DeFi projects built on its private testnet.