Written by: aididiaojp.eth, Foresight News
According to Foresight Wiki statistics, in 2024, the Wiki has recorded a total of 979 investment and financing cases in the crypto industry, including 354 in tools and infrastructure, 196 in DeFi, 112 in asset management, 137 in blockchain games and NFTs, with a disclosed total investment and financing amount of approximately $11.583 billion. The disclosed total investment and financing amount is flat compared to last year, while the number of financing cases in DeFi has significantly increased compared to last year, with a year-on-year growth of 37%.
In 2024, there were a total of 17 funding rounds exceeding $100 million, with 6 rounds 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 from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Magic Leap is entering the metaverse market.
The 'network nation' project Praxis announces completion of $525 million funding, with participation from GEM Digital and others. Praxis claims to be the world's first network nation, an internet-native alliance aimed at accelerating technological advancement and revitalizing Western civilization. Over 14,000 Praxians reside in 82 countries/regions.
Monad Labs completes $225 million funding, led by Paradigm. Monad Labs aims to introduce parallel execution and superscalar pipeline technology through its parallel EVM Layer1 project Monad, enhancing the performance of the Ethereum virtual machine and addressing the low throughput issues of existing EVM-compatible blockchains.
Bitcoin infrastructure development company Blockstream announces completion of $210 million convertible note funding, 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 completes $150 million funding, 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 completes $135 million equity and debt funding, led by Accel. Public will enhance the AI capabilities of the Public platform.
Digital asset management company ParaFi Capital completes $120 million funding, with participation from Theta Capital Management and others. ParaFi Capital plans to acquire stakes in other crypto funds focused on specific niches, strategies, or regions, with the goal of building a portfolio of shares in 30 to 50 such funds over the next 3 to 5 years.
Layer1 public chain Berachain completes $100 million Series B funding, led by Framework Ventures and others. Berachain claims that its current blockchain test version has processed 100 million transactions, and the platform aims to be compatible with applications based on the Ethereum blockchain.
HashKey Group announces completion of nearly $100 million Series A funding at a valuation of over $1.2 billion. HashKey Group will deepen its ecosystem layout in the virtual asset industry, accelerate the diversification of its licensed business products in Hong Kong, and promote the group's compliant innovation development globally.
There were a total of 100 funding rounds at the $10 million level, with 22 rounds disclosing funding amounts of $50 million and above. The ten noteworthy projects are as follows:
On-chain IP protocol Story core contributor team PIP Labs announces completion of $80 million Series B funding, led by a16z Crypto.
Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon completes $70 million funding, led by Paradigm.
Modular blockchain Eclipse completes $50 million Series A funding, led by Placeholder and Hack VC. Eclipse has launched its mainnet and has released development and testnet versions of its protocol, with multiple DApps testing its infrastructure.
DeFi lending protocol Morpho completes $50 million strategic round funding, led by Ribbit Capital.
Cryptography company Zama completes $73 million Series A funding, led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs. Zama will continue to research and develop its FHE tools.
Crypto market maker Flowdesk completes $50 million Series B funding, with participation from Cathay Innovation, Ripple, Bpifrance, and others. This round of funding values Flowdesk at over $250 million. Flowdesk plans to use this round of funding to further expand its global business, focusing on expansion in Singapore and the United States, and establishing new offices in London.
Online Q&A site Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo announces completion of $75 million funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This round of funding 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 monetization program.
U.S. fintech company Figure Technologies completes $60 million Series A funding, Figure announces the establishment of an independent company named 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 utilize the Provenance blockchain.
Cross-border payment and settlement blockchain company Partior completes $80 million Series B funding, with participation from Deutsche Bank.
ZK proof startup Succinct Labs completes $55 million new round of funding, led by Paradigm.
In terms of institutions, according to the 2024 disclosure of investment counts ranking, 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 has made a total of 50 investments, including 10 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are Portal, ether.fi, Taiko, Myshell, CARV, Movement Labs, Cysic, Goplus Security, Solv Protocol, and Mocaverse.
Animoca Brands has made a total of 48 investments, including 15 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are 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 has made a total of 37 investments, including 17 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are 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 has made a total of 36 investments, including 17 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are 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 has made a total of 35 investments, including 18 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are 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 has made a total of 34 investments, including 11 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are Overworld, Utila, Parallel, Gomble Games, Monad, Shiba Inu, Sonic, MegaETH, Essential, Solayer, and Hemi Labs.
Robot Ventures has made a total of 34 investments, including 11 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are Backpack, Succinct Labs, Alpen Labs, Movement Labs, Nuffle Labs, Conduit, MegaETH, Sentient, Pi Squared, Celestia, and Delta.
HashKey Capital has made a total of 33 investments, including 13 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are Overworld, Polyhedra Network, mystiko, Seeds Labs, Cysic, Avail, Goplus Security, Particle Network, ORA, Sentient, Huma Finance, Mento, and Nillion.
Hack VC has made a total of 32 investments, including 16 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are Aitlayer, Monkey Tilt, io.net, Eclipse, Mezo, Berachain, Movement Labs, Fhenix, Sentient, Solayer, Pin AI, Variational, Gelato, Nillion, Exabits, and Spicenet.
Spartan Group has made a total of 30 investments, including 10 projects with funding of $10 million and above, which are 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 raises $315 million for a new fund, with 20% allocated to support crypto startups.
LayerZero collaborates with a16z and others to launch the lzCatalyst program, participating funds will be incentivized to invest $300 million in LayerZero integrated projects.
Crypto venture capital Hack VC raises a new fund of $150 million, approximately one-third has been deployed.
Immutable, King River Capital, and Polygon Labs plan to raise $100 million for a new Web3 gaming fund.
Web3Port establishes 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.
Tiger Global's new venture fund completes $2.2 billion fundraising, the smallest fundraising amount in nearly a decade.
Hypersphere launches a $130 million liquidity fund Atlas, and plans to raise $75 million more.
Borderless Capital launches a $100 million DePIN fund.
Former Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares establishes Crucible Capital, planning to launch two new funds totaling $75 million.
Solana accelerator Colosseum raises $60 million, having invested in 11 projects.
Cryptomeria Capital plans to launch a $50 million Web3 venture capital fund.
Pantera Capital completes $20 million funding, planning to double its support for the TON blockchain ecosystem.
VanEck launches a $30 million venture capital fund to support crypto and AI.
Morph and Foresight Ventures jointly launch a $20 million ecosystem fund.
Foresight Ventures, MEXC Ventures, and Mirana Ventures set up a fund for the expansion of the Aptos ecosystem.
Frictionless Capital has raised $20 million, aiming to invest in the blockchain sector.
Figment Capital completes strategic round funding.
CDP Venture Capital launches an accelerator program Frontech Accelerator with a scale of 7 million euros.
Crypto venture capital Contango raises $5 million to invest in AI and blockchain crossover startups.
Venture capital firm AgileGTM establishes a $10 million B2B blockchain accelerator fund.
Asymmetry plans to raise $21 million for a new fund focusing on the blockchain field.
