Crypto VC Funding Skyrockets in November Fueled by Naver’s $10.3 Billion Mega-Deal

Venture capital isn't just dipping a toe back into crypto waters—it's diving headfirst. November's funding surge signals a tectonic shift in institutional sentiment, with one colossal deal rewriting the rulebook.

The $10.3 Billion Catalyst

Forget gradual recovery. A single, strategic move by a tech titan can supercharge an entire sector's financial engine overnight. This isn't about scattered seed rounds; it's about established giants placing billion-dollar bets on blockchain's infrastructure and utility.

Beyond the Headline Number

The real story isn't just the size of the check, but where it's headed. Capital is flowing toward foundational tech—scaling solutions, privacy protocols, and real-world asset tokenization—not just speculative tokens. Smart money builds the rails, then profits from the traffic.

A New Funding Paradigm

Gone are the days of funding based on whitepapers and hype. Due diligence is back, but it's sharper, focused on revenue models, regulatory pathways, and sustainable tokenomics. The bar is higher, and that's a bullish filter for the entire ecosystem.

The surge proves a simple, often-ignored truth in finance: when traditional markets get shaky, smart capital seeks asymmetric opportunities—and right now, those are being coded, not traded on the S&P. The old guard might call it risky; the builders call it the next internet.

Naver’s $10.3B Buy of Dunamu Becomes Crypto’s Biggest Deal

That outlier was Naver’s $10.3 billion all-stock acquisition of Dunamu, the operator of Upbit.

The deal, the largest financing event the crypto industry has seen, values Dunamu at about KRW 15.1 trillion and signals renewed appetite for scale through consolidation.

Dunamu reported revenue of KRW 1.19 trillion for the first nine months of the year, with Upbit accounting for nearly all of it, underscoring how trading platforms continue to anchor cash flows even as the market matures.

Strip away the Naver-Dunamu mega-deal and November looks more cautious. Capital clustered around fewer, larger checks while early-stage activity cooled.

By sector, DeFi (30.4%) and CeFi (12.5%) led deal counts, followed by AI (7.1%), RWA/DePIN (7.1%), and Tooling/Wallets (5.4%), suggesting investors are prioritizing infrastructure and finance-native use cases over consumer experiments.

Prediction-market operator Kalshi closed a $1 billion round led by Sequoia and CapitalG, vaulting to an $11 billion valuation, while talks swirled that rival Polymarket could seek a double-digit-billion price tag.

Payments heavyweight Ripple secured $500 million, lifting its valuation to $40 billion, with backing tied to Fortress and Citadel Securities alongside marquee crypto funds.

November VC Monthly Report: November 2025 recorded 57 crypto VC deals, down 28% month-over-month, while total funding surged 219% to USD 14.54 billion, mainly due to Naver’s USD 10.3 billion acquisition of Upbit operator Dunamu. Other major deals included Kalshi (USD 1B), Ripple… pic.twitter.com/rjbjEUCKyM

Kraken added $200 million at a $20 billion valuation after a $600 million raise earlier in the fall.

Market-infrastructure specialist Tharimmune lined up a $540 million private placement to hold Canton tokens for institutional workflows, while Bitcoin lender Lava raised $200 million to expand BTC-based instruments.

On the ecosystem side, L1 aspirant Monad pulled in $188 million via a public sale, wallet firm Exodus Movement struck a $175 million cash-and-BTC-financed acquisition for payments group W3C, and Lloyds agreed to buy Curve for roughly $158 million.

Custodian Paxos Trust Company capped the month by acquiring Fordefi in a deal topping $100 million.

Crypto VC Rebounds to $4.65B in Q3

As reported, crypto venture funding rebounded sharply in the third quarter, reaching $4.65 billion, the second-strongest quarter since the FTX collapse in late 2022.

The total marked a 290% jump from Q2 and came close to Q1’s $4.8 billion, according to data from Galaxy Digital.

Funding was heavily concentrated, with just seven deals accounting for half of all capital invested across 414 transactions.

The biggest raises went to established players, led by $1 billion for Revolut, $500 million for Kraken, and $250 million for Erebor, a US-based crypto bank.

Capital clustered around stablecoins, AI-linked crypto tools, infrastructure, and trading technology, while early-stage fundraising remained muted after nearly two years of cautious dealmaking.