Written by: aididiaojp.eth, Foresight News
According to Foresight Wiki statistics, a total of 979 financing rounds in the crypto industry were recorded in 2024, including 354 in tools and infrastructure, 196 in the DeFi sector, 112 in asset management, and 137 in blockchain gaming and NFT sectors, with a total disclosed investment amount of approximately $11.583 billion. The total disclosed investment amount remained flat compared to last year, and the number of financing rounds in the DeFi sector saw significant growth, with a year-on-year increase of 37%.
In 2024, there were a total of 17 funding rounds exceeding $100 million, of which 6 were in the AI sector. The ten noteworthy projects are as follows:
Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has raised $5 billion, achieving a valuation of $45 billion.
Mixed reality startup Magic Leap recently received $590 million investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, as Magic Leap enters the metaverse market.
The 'Network State' project Praxis announced the completion of $525 million in financing, with participation from GEM Digital, among others. Praxis claims to be the world's first network state, an internet-native alliance aimed at accelerating technological advancement and revitalizing Western civilization. Over 14,000 Praxians reside in 82 countries/regions.
Monad Labs completed $225 million in financing, led by Paradigm. Monad Labs aims to enhance the performance of the Ethereum Virtual Machine by introducing parallel execution and superscalar pipeline technology through its parallel EVM Layer1 project Monad, addressing the low throughput issues of existing EVM-compatible blockchains.
Bitcoin infrastructure development company Blockstream announced the completion of $210 million in convertible note financing, led by Fulgur Ventures. Blockstream will accelerate the adoption and development of its Layer2 technology, grow its mining business, and expand its Bitcoin reserves.
Decentralized social protocol Farcaster completed $150 million in financing, led by Paradigm. Farcaster will primarily focus on daily active user growth and adding developer primitives such as channels and direct messaging to the protocol.
Crypto investment platform Public completed $135 million in equity and debt financing, led by Accel. Public will enhance the AI capabilities of its platform.
Digital asset management company ParaFi Capital completed $120 million in financing, with participation from Theta Capital Management, among others. ParaFi Capital plans to acquire stakes in other crypto funds focused on specific market segments, strategies, or regions, aiming to build a portfolio of 30 to 50 such funds over the next 3 to 5 years.
Layer1 public chain Berachain completed $100 million in Series B financing, led by Framework Ventures, among others. Berachain claims its currently available blockchain test version has processed 100 million transactions, and the platform aims to be compatible with applications based on the Ethereum blockchain.
HashKey Group announced the completion of nearly $100 million in Series A financing at a valuation exceeding $1.2 billion. HashKey Group will deepen its ecosystem layout in the virtual asset industry, accelerate the diversification of licensed business products in Hong Kong, and promote compliant innovation development globally.
A total of 100 funding rounds at the $10 million level, of which 22 rounds have disclosed financing amounts of $50 million or more. The ten noteworthy projects are as follows:
On-chain IP protocol Story core contributor team PIP Labs announced the completion of a $80 million Series B financing, led by a16z Crypto.
Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon completed $70 million in financing, led by Paradigm.
Modular blockchain Eclipse completed $50 million in Series A financing, led by Placeholder and Hack VC. Eclipse has launched its mainnet and has released development and testnet versions of its protocol, with multiple DApps already testing its infrastructure.
DeFi lending protocol Morpho completed $50 million in strategic round financing, led by Ribbit Capital.
Cryptographic company Zama completed $73 million in Series A financing, led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs. Zama will continue to research and develop its FHE tools.
Crypto market maker Flowdesk completed $50 million in Series B financing, with participation from Cathay Innovation, Ripple, Bpifrance, among others. This round of financing values Flowdesk at over $250 million. Flowdesk plans to use this round of financing to further expand its global business, focusing on expansion in Singapore and the U.S., and establishing a new office in London.
Online Q&A site Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo announced the completion of $75 million in financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funds from this round will primarily be used to accelerate the development of its AI chat platform Poe, with most of the funds expected to be paid to the creators of Bots on the platform through its creator monetization program.
U.S. fintech company Figure Technologies completed $60 million in Series A financing. Figure announced the establishment of an independent company called Figure Markets, which will develop a platform for investors to trade various blockchain-native assets, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, and alternative investments. The new trading platform will use the Provenance blockchain.
Cross-border payment and settlement blockchain company Partior completed $80 million in Series B financing, with investment from Deutsche Bank.
ZK proof startup Succinct Labs completed $55 million in a new round of financing, led by Paradigm.
In terms of institutions, ranked by the number of disclosed investments in 2024, the top ten institutions are OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Polychain Capital, Foresight Ventures, a16z, Big Brain Holdings, Robot Ventures, HashKey Capital, Hack VC, Spartan Group, Bankless Ventures, GSR Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CMS Holdings, and SevenX Ventures, with specific investment counts and amounts as follows:
OKX Ventures invested in a total of 50 projects, with 10 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Portal, ether.fi, Taiko, Myshell, CARV, Movement Labs, Cysic, Goplus Security, Solv Protocol, and Mocaverse.
Animoca Brands invested in a total of 48 projects, with 15 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely io.net, Polyhedra Network, peaq, XION, Monad, Puffer Finance, Shiba Inu, Lava, Humanity, Goplus Security, Bondex, Redacted Cartel, Balance, Mawari Network, Gelato, and Sapien.
Polychain Capital invested in a total of 37 projects, with 17 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Aitlayer, Monkey Tilt, Eclipse, Polyhedra, dappOS, Berachain, Movement Labs, Botanix Labs, Babylon, ORA, Pi Squared, Lombard, Sahara AI, Story Protocol, Yellow Card, Bitfinity, and Hyperbolic.
Foresight Ventures invested in a total of 36 projects, with 17 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Overworld, ether.fi, io.net, Morph, Myshell, Gomble Games, IoTeX, Avalon, Movement Labs, Avail, Fhenix, Sentient, Lombard, Sahara AI, Pin AI, Noble, and Lens Protocol.
a16z invested in a total of 35 projects, with 18 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Ouora, Doppel, Espresso Systems, MyPriz, Kiosk, Farcaster, xAI, Neynar, Tapi, Morpho, Story Protocol, SSI, Balance, Pin AI, Exowatt, Azra Games, Opacity Network, and Vlayer.
Big Brain Holdings invested in a total of 34 projects, with 11 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Overworld, Utila, Parallel, Gomble Games, Monad, Shiba Inu, Sonic, MegaETH, Essential, Solayer, and Hemi Labs.
Robot Ventures invested in a total of 34 projects, with 11 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Backpack, Succinct Labs, Alpen Labs, Movement Labs, Nuffle Labs, Conduit, MegaETH, Sentient, Pi Squared, Celestia, and Delta.
HashKey Capital invested in a total of 33 projects, with 13 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Overworld, Polyhedra Network, mystiko, Seeds Labs, Cysic, Avail, Goplus Security, Particle Network, ORA, Sentient, Huma Finance, Mento, and Nillion.
Hack VC invested in a total of 32 projects, with 16 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Aitlayer, Monkey Tilt, io.net, Eclipse, Mezo, Berachain, Movement Labs, Fhenix, Sentient, Solayer, Pin AI, Variational, Gelato, Nillion, Exabits, and Spicenet.
Spartan Group invested in a total of 30 projects, with 10 projects at the $10 million level and above, namely Overworld, MetaCene, Morph, Peaq, Parallel, Centrifuge, Particle Network, Redacted Cartel, RedStone, and Essential.
In terms of crypto funds, a total of 23 crypto funds were announced to be established in 2024, including:
Uncorrelated Ventures raised $315 million for a new fund, with 20% allocated to support crypto startups.
LayerZero launched the lzCatalyst program in collaboration with a16z and others, with participating funds incentivized to invest $300 million in LayerZero integrated projects.
Crypto venture capital Hack VC raised a new fund of $150 million, having deployed about one-third.
Immutable, King River Capital, and Polygon Labs plan to raise $100 million for a new Web3 gaming fund.
Web3Port established a $100 million fund Web3Port Foundation.
Mask Network's venture capital Bonfire Union will launch its second fund, currently raising a total of $100 million.
CMT Digital is raising $150 million for its fourth fund.
The new venture fund under Tiger Global has completed $2.2 billion in fundraising, the smallest fundraising amount in nearly a decade.
Hypersphere has launched a $130 million liquidity fund Atlas, and plans to raise an additional $75 million.
Borderless Capital launched a $100 million DePIN fund.
Former Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares founded Crucible Capital, aiming to launch two new funds totaling $75 million.
Solana accelerator Colosseum raised $60 million and has invested in 11 projects.
Cryptomeria Capital plans to launch a $50 million Web3 venture capital fund.
Pantera Capital completed $20 million in financing, planning to double its support for the TON blockchain ecosystem.
VanEck launched a $30 million venture fund to support crypto and AI.
Morph and Foresight Ventures jointly launched a $20 million ecosystem fund.
Foresight Ventures, MEXC Ventures, and Mirana Ventures established a fund for the expansion of the Aptos ecosystem.
Frictionless Capital has raised $20 million and will invest in the blockchain sector.
Figment Capital completed a strategic round of financing.
CDP Venture Capital launched an accelerator program Frontech Accelerator with a scale of 7 million euros.
Crypto venture capital Contango raised $5 million to invest in startups at the intersection of AI and blockchain.
Venture capital firm AgileGTM established a $10 million B2B blockchain accelerator fund.
Asymmetry plans to raise a new fund of $21 million, focusing on the blockchain sector.
