Crypto VC deals drop in Q1, but funding more than doubles: PitchBook
Crypto venture capital deals in the first quarter of 2025 saw deal values jump even as the number of deals sank from the same quarter a year ago, says PitchBook.
The venture research firm said in its May 14 Crypto VC Trends report for Q1 that 405 deals were made in the quarter, down 39.5% from the 670 deals made in Q1 2024, but slightly up from the 372 made in Q4 last year.
However, the total value of deals in Q1 more than doubled from a year ago, jumping to $6 billion compared to $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2024 and doubling from $3 billion in Q4 2024.
PitchBook's senior crypto research analyst Robert Le said that despite macroeconomic turmoil over the quarter, 'capital continued to seek crypto's core utility rails.'
VCs poured nearly $2.55 billion across 16 deals into businesses like crypto asset managers, exchanges, and financial services at a rate that far surpassed any other segment.
Crypto infrastructure and development firms saw the next largest venture funding, fetching nearly $955 million across 30 deals.
Looking ahead, PitchBook's Le said Circle's pending initial public offering (IPO) 'represents the most important price-discovery event for crypto equity since Coinbase listed in 2021.'
If Circle is valued above the rumored $4 billion to $5 billion range, it could show venture investors that business models similar to Circle's are profitable and sustainable while also providing a clearer benchmark for future exits.
'A strong roadshow could therefore crowd in new late-stage capital and reset valuation expectations upward across the payments and infrastructure stack.'
Circle has raised $1.18 billion in VC funding to date, according to PitchBook, which estimates a 64% chance that it will go public in the future. 'Dollar-denominated settlement remains crypto's killer application'
Le noted that the market value of stablecoins grew 12% over the first quarter, from $202.3 billion to $227.1 billion, even as other cryptocurrencies saw their values fall or stagnate.
'In our view, this divergence underscores a growing consensus: Dollar-denominated settlement remains crypto's killer application, insulated—at least partially— from broader risk-off moves.'
Le said PitchBook expected that near-term venture investments could increase, 'especially in payment, remittance, and treasury-management startups that directly monetize stablecoin velocity.'
Le added that the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit in February — the largest in crypto history — may accelerate institutional demand for real-time proof-of-reserve tooling, improved custody solutions and middleware that simplifies key management.
'Startups addressing those vectors should find a more receptive funding environment despite the broader valuation reset,' he added.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-venture-funding-doubles-q1-deal-count-drops-pitchbook
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Crypto Insight
13 hours ago
- Crypto Insight
Sui DEX restarts, plots open-source move after massive exploit
Cetus Protocol, a Sui-native decentralized exchange that suffered a huge $220 million exploit in May, says it is now working on going open-source following its recent relaunch. An attacker exploited a pricing mechanism flaw to drain tokens from Cetus' major liquidity pools on May 22. The protocol managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds shortly after. Trade volume on Cetus had been trending upward before the attack, registering over $5 billion in April and another $5 billion in May, despite shutting down after May 22. Cetus liquidity pools replenished with loan and reserves In a June 7 Medium post, a day before its relaunch, the Cetus team said it's moving toward being fully open-sourced, with a new white bounty program, to 'encourage collective technical and security contributions.' As part of the relaunch, the team says it 'worked around the clock' and patched the software vulnerability, which allowed the hack, restored pool data to the correct pricing and conducted security audits on all code fixes and contract upgrades. Affected liquidity pools were replenished using a combination of $7 million in cash reserves, a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation and some of the recovered assets from the attacker. However, not all affected pools were fully restored, with the current recovery rate between 85% and 99%, depending on how much pool was drained during the attack, according to the Cetus team. Cetus sets aside tokens for compensation plan As part of a compensation plan for affected users, 15% of the protocol's native token supply, CETUS, is being set aside, with 5% available immediately and 10% linearly unlocked every month over the next year, starting June 10. The Cetus token is down over 12% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.11, according to CoinGecko. There are also plans to upgrade the protocol monitoring system and have additional rounds of security audits. Protocol is still chasing funds Cetus said legal action is still on the cards, with legal proceedings launched in 'multiple jurisdictions' and law enforcement agencies 'actively involved' as well. 'The attacker ignored our previous white hat offer and has begun attempting to launder assets — a futile and traceable act. We are highly confident that successful arrest and recovering the remaining assets is only a matter of time,' the team said. The day after the hack, Cetus offered a white hat bounty of up to $6 million to the exploiter if they returned the stolen 20,920 Ether, worth over $55 million, along with the $162 million in stolen funds frozen on the Sui blockchain. Source:
Crypto Insight
21 hours ago
- Crypto Insight
Bitcoin can liquidate $15B in shorts with 10% BTC price uptick — Data
Key points: Bitcoin is working on completing a 'successful' support retest as trader bets increase prior to the weekly candle close. BTC price volatility is expected as liquidity analysis shows that conditions favor a significant short squeeze. $100,000 still remains a likely target in the event of a fresh price dip. Bitcoin held $105,500 toward the June 8 weekly close amid hopes that the BTC price correction was over. Bitcoin liquidation risk rises as price coils at $105,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD cementing its rebound after a trip to $100,500 on June 5. Now almost back at its weekly open level, Bitcoin again inspired traders to bet on upside continuation and resumption of the bull run. 'On the Daily timeframe, Bitcoin is showcasing signs of breaking its two-week Downtrend (light blue) while also turning it into support earlier today,' popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital told X followers while uploading a chart with key levels. 'Daily Closing & retesting ~$106600 (black) would be even better to enable trend continuation.' BTC price action had already achieved a daily close above its 10-day simple moving average (SMA) — something that fellow trader SuperBro had said was a prerequisite to 'invalidate the bear case.' $BTC still needs to reclaim the 10 MA and H&S neckline on a closing basis to invalidate the bear case until then, this is not the place to get aggressive with longs, the time for that was the retest of the FVG and 50 MA, when you were so sure it was all over 😂 — Super฿ro (@SuperBitcoinBro) June 7, 2025 Trader Cas Abbe meanwhile looked to order book liquidity for cues over price direction. This was building both above and below spot price, leading Abbe to predict a magnet-style move to 'grab' it. 'BTC liquidation cluster is now signalling an upside move,' he summarized on X. 'If BTC pumps 10% from here, $15.11 billion in shorts will get liquidated. Meanwhile a 10% downside move will liquidate $9.58 billion in longs.' Abbe noted that negative funding rates pointed to 'big short positions' appearing over the weekend. 'I think BTC big move is coming next week, possibly pushing it above $109K-$110K,' he concluded. $104,400 now key weekly close level Some saw the potential for further support retests first. Updating X followers on his market forecast, popular trader CrypNuevo saw the logical place to build long BTC positions at $100,000. '100k is the strongest psychological support so, as explained on Sunday, it's the area where I'm building some longs with easy invalidation below it,' he wrote, referring to his previous aim of tagging the $100,000 mark. Rekt Capital meanwhile described the support retest after May's all-time highs on weekly timeframes as 'successful.' 'Can Bitcoin successfully confirm this retest with a Weekly Close above $104400 for what would be a 4th week in a row?' he queried. Source:
Crypto Insight
2 days ago
- Crypto Insight
Spot Ether ETFs 15-day inflow streak accumulates $837.5M inflows
US-based spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have just recorded a third consecutive trading week of inflows. If next week follows suit, the current inflow streak alone may surpass $1 billion in total inflows. On June 6, spot Ether ETFs posted $25.3 million inflows for the trading day, extending the streak to 15 consecutive inflow days, according to Farside data. Ether ETF inflow streak brings in a significant amount of net total The current inflow streak since May 16 has now brought in $837.5 million, roughly 25% of the total $3.32 billion in net inflows since spot Ether ETFs launched in July 2024. If the pattern continues into the coming week, an additional $162.5 million in inflows would push the streak's total to $1 billion. In contrast, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw its inflow streak break on May 29, with $346.8 million in outflows. Since then, flows have been volatile, with a mix between inflow and outflow days. Meanwhile, the spot price of Ether is up 31.23% over the past 30 days, trading at $2,490 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data. Cointelegraph recently reported that a multi-year gold fractal is making a strong case for an Ether price rally toward $6,000 in the coming months. Technical analyst Crypto Eagles said on June 3 that Ether appears to be repeating in the current 2024–2025 cycle, potentially setting the stage for a new all-time high. Ether's current all-time high of $4,878 was reached in November 2021, according to CoinGecko data. Some industry commentators believe that adding staking to spot Ether ETFs is necessary for a stronger performance in the long run. On May 31, Cointelegraph reported that the first Ethereum and Solana staking ETFs could debut in the United States within weeks following a recent filing by ETF provider REX Shares. ETF analyst James Seyffart said that, while the launch date is still unknown, the firm used 'regulatory workarounds to get these products to market.' Source:
