🔥 Historic Turning Point! $11.2B Raised—Not a Single Dollar Went to “Unlicensed” Projects! #加密初创上半年融资112亿美元
The 2026 H1 Crypto Startup Funding Report is out: a total of $11.2B across 377 funding rounds. What’s most shocking isn’t the amount itself, but the fundamental reversal in where the money is going—
All publicly disclosed funding flowed exclusively to regulated, licensed operators. None of it went to the “permissionless” experimental projects that once defined the crypto industry. NeosLegal’s founder put it plainly: “The permissionless era is over. Funds no longer chase permissionless; they chase regulated enterprises.”
Where did the money go?
· Payments & stablecoins: $3.7B, the top category
· Prediction markets: $2.0B, with Kalshi raising $1.0B and Polymarket receiving $600M from ICE
· Exchanges & trading platforms: $1.7B
Who’s investing? BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia, Morgan Stanley, and Intercontinental Exchange—all of it is capital injected only into licensed entities. Regulatory licenses are shifting from “compliance cost” to “scarce defensive assets.”
Impact on the market:
In the short term: a boost for the compliance track 📈 Licensed exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and regulated prediction platforms will benefit directly. Traditional finance money is accelerating into the sector, and the valuations of compliance leaders may be repriced.
In the long run: the industry landscape is being reshaped 🚀 Institutional capital is taking control of the market, and “licenses” are becoming a hard prerequisite for funding. Permissionless projects will face a tougher fundraising environment, as the industry moves from “wild growth” to a new era of “licensed operation.”
$BTC
$ETH
The 2026 H1 Crypto Startup Funding Report is out: a total of $11.2B across 377 funding rounds. What’s most shocking isn’t the amount itself, but the fundamental reversal in where the money is going—
All publicly disclosed funding flowed exclusively to regulated, licensed operators. None of it went to the “permissionless” experimental projects that once defined the crypto industry. NeosLegal’s founder put it plainly: “The permissionless era is over. Funds no longer chase permissionless; they chase regulated enterprises.”
Where did the money go?
· Payments & stablecoins: $3.7B, the top category
· Prediction markets: $2.0B, with Kalshi raising $1.0B and Polymarket receiving $600M from ICE
· Exchanges & trading platforms: $1.7B
Who’s investing? BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia, Morgan Stanley, and Intercontinental Exchange—all of it is capital injected only into licensed entities. Regulatory licenses are shifting from “compliance cost” to “scarce defensive assets.”
Impact on the market:
In the short term: a boost for the compliance track 📈 Licensed exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and regulated prediction platforms will benefit directly. Traditional finance money is accelerating into the sector, and the valuations of compliance leaders may be repriced.
In the long run: the industry landscape is being reshaped 🚀 Institutional capital is taking control of the market, and “licenses” are becoming a hard prerequisite for funding. Permissionless projects will face a tougher fundraising environment, as the industry moves from “wild growth” to a new era of “licensed operation.”
$BTC
$ETH