Last year, the number of crypto VC investment deals plummeted by 60%. This year is expected to see a moderate recovery.

According to Mars Finance, the total amount of crypto venture capital in 2025 reached $18.9 billion, an increase from $13.8 billion in 2024, but the number of deals plummeted by 60% to approximately 1,200, with capital highly concentrated in later-stage projects. Digital Asset Vault (DAT) raised about $29 billion, attracting a large amount of institutional funding. Early-stage financing has significantly slowed down, mainly due to reduced available VC funds, institutional investors’ preference for AI projects, and regulatory clarity driving mature companies to expand rapidly. Several investors expect a mild recovery in early-stage funding in 2026, but the threshold remains high, with investors focusing more on fundamentals rather than narratives. Clearer regulation in the US is seen as a key catalyst. Investment hotspots are concentrated in stablecoins and payments, institutional-grade infrastructure, prediction markets, RWA tokenization, and DeFi. There are disagreements in the intersection of crypto and AI, with some believing that hype is ahead of actual applications. Token sales reemerged in 2025 but did not replace traditional VC, with a hybrid financing model expected to form. Overall, market discipline will continue, and capital allocation will become more rational.