Crypto VC Funding Plunges 22% in Q2 – But June’s Rally Hints at Hidden Bullish Signals
Crypto's venture capitalists hit the brakes hard last quarter—until the bulls staged a late-game comeback.
The Q2 Slump That Almost Wasn't
VCs slashed crypto investments by nearly a quarter despite June's last-minute surge, proving even institutional money can't resist a good FOMO play. The numbers don't lie: 22% fewer dollars flowed into blockchain startups compared to Q1, though that late-quarter rally saved the sector from total embarrassment.
June's Lazarus Act
Someone forgot to tell crypto investors the bear market memo. Funding roared back in the quarter's final weeks—just in time for VCs to justify their existence at summer yacht parties. Because nothing says 'conviction' like panic-buying at quarter-end.
The Bottom Line
Traders might call this 'accumulation.' The rest of us call it 'hedge funds window-dressing their portfolios.' Either way, crypto's death spiral just got a $2 trillion helium boost—and the suits are suddenly back at the table. Funny how that works.
Stand-out Q2 transactions
Large cheques remained selective in the second quarter. Twenty One Capital received $585 million, the largest funding round of the previous quarter.
Furthermore, Eigen Labsfrom Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z, which purchased additional EIGEN tokens.
Other significant funding rounds from the second quarter include Hypernative’s $40 million round and Symbiotic’s $29 million.
While the deal count slipped to multi-year lows in May, at just 62 rounds, the quarter’s median round size remained above $10 million, indicating that investors continued to fund later-stage and infrastructure projects.
Sector mix and geographic notes
DeFi infrastructure, restaking, and AI-linked middleware captured the largest tickets, mirroring the public market’s narrative rotation.
North American companies attracted the majority of the raises last quarter, primarily due to larger Series B and later rounds of funding. At the same time, early-stage activity in Asia and the Middle East edged higher in token-focused seed deals.
Despite the slower pace of funding registered in the previous quarter, the year-to-date total of roughly $10.3 billion already exceeds the full-year figure of $9.6 billion for 2024.
