Follow the Money: $7+ Billion Floods 95 Projects as DeFi Dominates and Corporate Giants Place Billion-Dollar Bets

Money talks—and right now it's shouting about decentralized finance and institutional adoption.

The Capital Tsunami

Over $7 billion poured into just 95 projects, signaling massive confidence in blockchain infrastructure. DeFi protocols captured the lion's share while traditional corporations finally stopped hesitating and started writing nine-figure checks.

Corporate Crypto Conversion

Major enterprises aren't just dipping toes anymore—they're diving headfirst with billion-dollar deployments. They've apparently discovered that blockchain does more than just power speculative assets (though the hedge funds still love that part).

The DeFi Dominance

Decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and yield farming platforms absorbed most of the capital influx. Traditional finance might still pretend they don't get it, but their investment committees clearly do.

Because nothing makes legacy finance move faster than seeing someone else make money without them.

The clear frontrunner in August’s funding race was, a heavyweight in digital assets and data center infrastructure. The firm secured a massivecredit facility to expand its Helios data center in Texas. The financing will fuel the first stage of reconstruction and capacity growth, with a focus on AI and high-performance computing (HPC) in partnership with CoreWeave. Galaxy has already committed $350 million of its own capital, with the remainder covered by the credit package. 

In second place was, the crypto exchange that raisedthrough its initial public offering (IPO). The largest stakes went to co-founder Brendan Blumer, who will hold 30.1% of shares, and board member Kokuei Yuan, who secured 26.7%. 

Meanwhile,, a  company building data center infrastructure for both Bitcoin mining and HPC, raised. The funds came through a private placement of convertible notes, maturing in 2031 at an interest rate of just 1% per year.

Together, these three blockbuster deals accounted for nearly half — precisely 46% — of all capital raised in August. Notably, all of them fell under corporate financing instruments. Yet, despite the weight of a few billion-dollar corporate moves, the bulk of activity still came from venture deals, which led by sheer volume of transactions.

Distribution of Investments by Category

In August, corporate investments emerged as the primary source of funding for crypto projects, accounting for more than 85% of the total volume tracked by Incrypted. In this segment alone, 25 projects announced raising a combined $6.26 billion.

Venture capital represented only about 10% of total investment. However, this category dominated in terms of deal count, with 65 projects securing more than $765 million.

The month also saw nine mergers and acquisitions, including Ripple Labs’ $200 million purchase of Rail, a company specializing in stablecoin payments. The financial details of the other M&A transactions were not disclosed. 

Additionally, three deals in the grants and accelerator category were recorded in August, totaling more than $1.7 million.

Token Sales

According to Incrypted’s estimates, around 50 token sales took place in August, through which projects collectively raised more than $51 million.

The largest amount was secured by Heaven, a platform for launching memecoins on the solana network. During its uncapped token sale, the team managed to raise $22 million, though $4.8 million was later refunded to users who contributed more than $77,700.

For a closer look at the month’s biggest token sale campaigns, see the infographic.

Information about token sales can be found in a dedicated section on our website, which compiles data on active and upcoming token sale campaigns. The team also runs a special Telegram channel, where the most important updates are published in real time. 

Weekly Dynamics

The largest influx of capital occurred during the third week of the month. Between August 16 and 23, 22 projects collectively raised around $2.48 billion. It’s worth noting that the majority of this total—$1.4 billion—came from the Galaxy Digital deal mentioned earlier. 

Between August 1 and 9, Incrypted tracked 27 investment deals totaling $1.69 billion. 

From August 9 to 16, there were 29 investment deals, 23 of which amounted to a total of $2.25 billion. During this week, six token sales took place — more than in the entire rest of August. 

In the final week of the month, 35 projects reported investment rounds. Of these, 23 disclosed funding details, raising a combined $820.5 million.

What’s in Investors’ Focus?

This month, investors concentrated primarily on blockchain service development and DeFi sectors. At the same time, CeFi and blockchain infrastructure projects also attracted notable interest.

Most Active Investors

According to CryptoRank, the most active investor in August was the venture arm of one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase, with eight investments. For more details, see the infographic.

Artificial Intelligence

August also saw a surge of investments in artificial intelligence startups. As is customary, we’ve selected the top five largest funding rounds in the AI sector to spotlight the most significant players and trends.

$314 Million — FieldAI. The startup, which develops systems to ensure the safe operation of robots in industrial environments, secured new funding that quadrupled its valuation to $2 billion, up from $500 million last year. Investors included Khosla Ventures, Nvidia’s NVentures, Bezos Expeditions, Canaan Partners, and Intel Capital. The funds will be used to scale FieldAI’s AI platform. 

$250 Million — EliseAI.  A developer of enterprise software automating customer service and operational processes for the housing and healthcare sectors, raised $250 million in a Series E round. The company’s valuation exceeded $2.2 billion, doubling over the past year. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Sapphire Ventures. The capital will be directed toward product development and doubling the workforce (over 300 employees) across New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago. 

$100 Million — Decart. The AI lab closed a Series B round at a valuation of $3.1 billion, up from $500 million last year. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Zeev Ventures participated, along with newcomer Aleph VC. 

$100 Million — Clay. New York-based startup, which automates business lead generation using AI, completed a funding round at a $3.1 billion valuation, up from $1.25 billion six months ago. The round was led by CapitalG (Alphabet’s investment arm), with participation from Meritech Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital. The funds will support product development and the expansion of its client base. 

$70 Million — Chai Discovery. An AI company that predicts and reprograms biochemical molecular interactions to accelerate the development of new therapies, announced a Series A round. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by Yosemite, DST Global Partners, SV Angel, Avenir, DCVC, and others. Current investors including Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Dimension, Neo, Lachy Groom, and Fred Ersam also participated. The funding will be used to advance a platform applying cutting-edge AI algorithms to create new pharmaceuticals. 

***

August was marked by major corporate deals, with the bulk of capital coming from such investments, and the largest funding rounds exceeding $1 billion. The peak of financing occurred in the middle of the month. Nevertheless, venture deals remained the leader in terms of the number of transactions.

The sectors that attracted the most investor interest were blockchain service development, DeFi, and CeFi.

We will continue to “follow the money,” tracking areas of interest for major capital, staying on top of investor sentiment, and identifying trends before they transform into broader narratives.

Сообщение Follow the Money: Over $7 Billion for 95 Projects, Spotlight on DeFi and Billion-Dollar Corporate Deals появились сначала на INCRYPTED.