š Second-quarter crypto VC invested $5.68 billion, but only 5 new funds were formed for the whole quarter.
Galaxy Researchās report from September 16. In Q2, crypto and blockchain companies received $5.683 billion across 384 dealsāup 31% quarter-over-quarter in dollars, while the number of deals rose only 10%.
Most of the extra money came from larger single checks rather than an increase in the number of projects.
Late-stage rounds took about 78% of the funding. Early-stage rounds took 15%, and seed rounds 7%. Using a different algorithm, by deal count pre-seed accounted for 21% and late-stage rounds 26%. Early-stage projects are still getting deals, but each deal is smaller. The bigger money and the higher deal counts are not going to the same cohort of companies.
The activity is also concentrated by track. The big category covering trading, exchanges, investing, and lending consumed $3.523 billionānearly 60% in total. The remaining 40% is made up by infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs, and similar areas.
Geography is even more pronounced. U.S. companies captured 73.5% of capital, even though they accounted for only 39.1% of deal count.
Most striking is the new funds. In the entire second quarter, only 5 new funds were launched, raising about $3.9 billionāthe fewest quarterly launches since Q4 2019. Old funds are still spending. New money hasnāt come in.
The median deal size is $4.9 million, a historical high. Galaxy added one qualifier: only 16% of deals had valuation data available, and those skew toward late-stage rounds. Disclosure is too narrowāso you can treat this ānew highā as something to glance at.
For the first half, totals are $10.018 billion and 744 deals. What about Q1? $4.0 billion and 355 deals.
My take: this round looks more like old money is being kept aliveānot a new cycle. LPs havenāt returned. Existing funds are concentrating the remaining ammunition into companies that are already surviving. The money is going to the crowd that sells shovelsāexchanges, lending, market makers, and data. Thereās no real share yet at the new-protocol layer.
The fact that the U.S. took 73% doesnāt get blocked by that Senate gatekeeper either. It doesnāt get blocked. Projects still register in the U.S., and the payers are there.
Valuation tells the story even more clearly. Only 16% of deals can be checked for valuation data. In this round, no one seems willing to publicly say what price they paid.
On pricing: when I wrote this, five BTC reference prices fell between 77,978 and 78,051, with a 2.0% rise over 24 hours. ETH was 2,504 to 2,506, up 2.6%. On the 16th (U.S. Eastern time), the Fed raised rates by 25 bpsāthe first time in three years. Two days later, risk assets were clawing back.
Watch two things. First, whether the number of new funds in Q3 can return to double digitsāthatās the only hard indicator of LP confidence. Second, whether the late-stage round share can drop below 70%; if it does, that would mean early-stage projects can start getting funded again.
$BTC $ETH
#äøę¬čŖå½é ē¤¾åŗBaoluoåøåčµę¬ #å åÆ蓧åø #å åÆVC
Galaxy Researchās report from September 16. In Q2, crypto and blockchain companies received $5.683 billion across 384 dealsāup 31% quarter-over-quarter in dollars, while the number of deals rose only 10%.
Most of the extra money came from larger single checks rather than an increase in the number of projects.
Late-stage rounds took about 78% of the funding. Early-stage rounds took 15%, and seed rounds 7%. Using a different algorithm, by deal count pre-seed accounted for 21% and late-stage rounds 26%. Early-stage projects are still getting deals, but each deal is smaller. The bigger money and the higher deal counts are not going to the same cohort of companies.
The activity is also concentrated by track. The big category covering trading, exchanges, investing, and lending consumed $3.523 billionānearly 60% in total. The remaining 40% is made up by infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs, and similar areas.
Geography is even more pronounced. U.S. companies captured 73.5% of capital, even though they accounted for only 39.1% of deal count.
Most striking is the new funds. In the entire second quarter, only 5 new funds were launched, raising about $3.9 billionāthe fewest quarterly launches since Q4 2019. Old funds are still spending. New money hasnāt come in.
The median deal size is $4.9 million, a historical high. Galaxy added one qualifier: only 16% of deals had valuation data available, and those skew toward late-stage rounds. Disclosure is too narrowāso you can treat this ānew highā as something to glance at.
For the first half, totals are $10.018 billion and 744 deals. What about Q1? $4.0 billion and 355 deals.
My take: this round looks more like old money is being kept aliveānot a new cycle. LPs havenāt returned. Existing funds are concentrating the remaining ammunition into companies that are already surviving. The money is going to the crowd that sells shovelsāexchanges, lending, market makers, and data. Thereās no real share yet at the new-protocol layer.
The fact that the U.S. took 73% doesnāt get blocked by that Senate gatekeeper either. It doesnāt get blocked. Projects still register in the U.S., and the payers are there.
Valuation tells the story even more clearly. Only 16% of deals can be checked for valuation data. In this round, no one seems willing to publicly say what price they paid.
On pricing: when I wrote this, five BTC reference prices fell between 77,978 and 78,051, with a 2.0% rise over 24 hours. ETH was 2,504 to 2,506, up 2.6%. On the 16th (U.S. Eastern time), the Fed raised rates by 25 bpsāthe first time in three years. Two days later, risk assets were clawing back.
Watch two things. First, whether the number of new funds in Q3 can return to double digitsāthatās the only hard indicator of LP confidence. Second, whether the late-stage round share can drop below 70%; if it does, that would mean early-stage projects can start getting funded again.
$BTC $ETH
#äøę¬čŖå½é ē¤¾åŗBaoluoåøåčµę¬ #å åÆ蓧åø #å åÆVC
