According to ChainCatcher, according to RootData statistics and analysis, from August 2023 to the present, market financing events and secondary market prices have risen simultaneously, and financing rounds have dropped by 10% compared to the peak of Bitcoin prices in November 2021. In the same cycle, the monthly financing amount has been at the "pressure level" of US$1 billion. Compared with the financing amount at the peak of the previous bull market, it has dropped from US$6.12 billion to US$1.01 billion, a drop of about 83%. The data shows that in this round of bull market cycle, project valuations have been revised, and the demand for project financing has increased, but the difficulty of financing has also increased. In addition, the fundraising and exit pressure of institutional investors continues to increase, so the participation of Web3 angels/individual investors will help support more Web3 early entrepreneurs and project innovations.
RootData released the top 50 list of Web3 angel investors in the past year (August 1, 2023-August 1, 2024) based on factors such as investment activity and influence. Among them, the top 10 angel investors in the past year have participated in a total investment of US$1.88 billion and participated in 234 rounds of financing events. These investments are mainly distributed in infrastructure (15.9%), DeFi (9.2%) and GamFi (8.3%). Projects in the new track AI account for 4.7%, which is higher than the modularization (2.6%), LSD (2.1%), DePIN (1.13%) and RWA (0.75%) tracks that institutional investors are more concerned about.
In the past year, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal was the most active with 39 investments. He participated in Berachain's $100 million Series B financing, as well as financing for well-known projects such as Ether.Fi, Succinct, and Movement. Solana co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has invested in 12 infrastructure track projects in the past year, accounting for 26% of his total investment. Well-known angel investor Balaji Srinivasan has made 24 investments in the past year, with a total investment of $230 million. He pays more attention to AI and tool projects. Well-known NFT collector Dingaling has participated in project financing events in more than 30 different segments in the past year, of which the GamFi track accounts for 48% of his total participation in financing.
