Bitcoin DeFi Presents a Large Opportunity
Weekly Recap
Funding fell 27% from $282 million last week to $206 million this week across 34 deals. Triple-digit funding seems to be the new normal, as there has been a notable uptick in the private market in recent weeks. Despite the overall increase in activity, there has been a lack of CeFi-related projects in recent weeks, with just one deal in each of the last two weeks. Agora was the singular CeFi deal this week, which raised $12 million in a seed round led by DragonFly Capital. Agora’s first product is a fully collateralized and freely tradable stablecoin. Agora was co-founded by Nick VanEck (son of VanEck CEO), and Agora’s reserve fund will be managed by VanEck itself.
As private market activity is picking up, many companies are looking to raise large sums for new crypto funds. Over the past week, there have been reports of Paradigm looking to raise $750 million, Galaxy Digital and Hack VC each raising $100 million, and Hivemind Capital looking for $50 million. Additionally, Alliance raised $10 million from both Brevan Howard and Galaxy Digital and is seeking to raise an additional $80 million. The market is still far off from 2021 and 2022 peaks, but it is beginning to accelerate in that direction.
Funding by Category
Funding by Deal Stage
...Reports you may have missed
WEEKLY RECAP Despite liquid crypto prices rising, private market funding remains lackluster thus far in Q4. Aggregate funding fell 29% week-over-week, decreasing from $155 million to $109 million, while deal count fell by over 31% from 22 to 15. Infrastructure was the leading category from both a financing and deal count perspective and included our Deal of the Week, Noble. The largest deal was Monkey Tilt, which raised $30 million...
WEEKLY RECAP Total funding has rebounded from last week’s abnormally low amount, increasing 251% from $44 million to $154 million. Infrastructure was the leading category, raising $99 million across 13 deals. This week’s largest deal fell into the Infrastructure bucket; 0G Labs, a former Deal of The Week, raised $40 million in a Seed round, bringing its total funding to $75 million. From a deal stage perspective, funding was concentrated...
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly funding sharply declined, falling 81% from $181 million to $35 million, with total deal count dropping 31% from 26 to 18. The decreases can potentially be attributed to projects foregoing announcements in light of a week filled with U.S. election headlines. 77% of funding fell into the Infrastructure bucket, totaling $27 million across seven deals. Similarly, funding was concentrated in Pre-Seed and Seed deal stages, collectively comprising...
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly funding increased 65% from $103 million to $170 million despite the deal count falling 15% from 26 to 22. Eight companies raised $10 million or more this week, in contrast to just 10 companies combined in the last two weeks. The bulk of funding was concentrated in the Infrastructure category, with projects raising $112 million across 12 deals. DeFi was the second most funded category, with $48...
