Funding Surges on The Back of EigenLayer
Weekly Recap
Crypto funding surged 72% to $234 million from $136 million, while deal count rose 14% to 25 deals. Infrastructure was the clear winner this week, largely due to Eigen Labs' $100 million fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz (DotW). The $100 million round is tied for the largest deal in 2024. For three consecutive weeks, funding and deal counts have primarily been concentrated in Infrastructure and DeFi deals, which is interesting considering DeFi was one of the least funded categories throughout 2023. DeFi projects raised $17 million across seven deals, representing 7% of total funding and 28% of the deal count. Of the disclosed deal stages, seed rounds accounted for the largest portion of fundraising and deal count, at 17% and 36%, respectively.
Funding by Category
Funding by Deal Stage
Deal of the Week
Eigen Labs, the development company behind EigenLayer, raised $100 million from a16z in an undisclosed round. The deal is tied with Hashkey Group for the largest fundraise of 2024. EigenLayer is an Ethereum restaking protocol, allowing staked Ether to be reused to secure other protocols or networks.