Where Will Crypto VC Money Flow in 2025? Analyzing 6,700+ Funding Rounds
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Where Will Crypto VC Money Flow in 2025? Analyzing 6,700+ Funding Rounds
Prediction markets and RWA lead the way, NFTs cool down, stablecoins rise, and the industry bids farewell to wild growth.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Dudu Bitcoin
Compiled by: Saoirse, Foresight News
In 2025, the rebound in cryptocurrency funding has been as explosive as Dennis Rodman in his prime.
Total funding for the year reached $25 billion, making it the second-highest year on record, surpassed only by the frenzy of 2021.
But there's a key difference this year:
The current funding heat is actually more sustainable.
To figure out where the money is going, I spent weeks analyzing 6,723 funding rounds.
Winning Sectors: Prediction Markets, AI Storage & RWA
It's no surprise that prediction markets emerged as the biggest winners.
2025 was a banner year for prediction markets – they are the only sector in Web3 that has successfully attracted a mainstream consumer audience.
Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are locked in fierce competition, both vying aggressively for more top-tier partnerships.
Now, prediction markets are integrated into Google Search and major mainstream media outlets, further embedding themselves into the public sphere.
The fact that Real World Assets (RWA) and cybersecurity ranked among the top-funded sectors reinforces a core thesis: cryptocurrency is maturing and becoming more firmly established as a significant part of the financial system.
However, for entrepreneurs focused on NFT development, this year has been less favorable.
Seed Funding is Maturing
The era of launching a project with a small seed round is long gone. In the age of AI, the resources needed to develop a usable product have drastically decreased. This means founders can "bootstrap" (self-fund) for much longer, only needing to enter the funding market for support when they have something truly substantial to show.
Advice: Strive to Partner with Coinbase Ventures
I've seen too many so-called "VC connectors" – people who introduce founders to investors but take a cut. More importantly, these connectors mostly know third-tier investors, making the time investment for founders simply not worth it. So, aim to find someone who can connect you with top-tier firms like Coinbase Ventures, not niche funds like the "Soulja Boy Fund" (Note: Soulja Boy is a US rapper; his fund is small and has limited investment influence).
Cryptocurrency is Gradually Maturing
Looking at the biggest funding rounds this year, the trend is quite clear.
Of course, the crypto space still retains some of its "speculative vitality" (referring to the high-risk, high-speculation trends unique to crypto):
- Binance: Secured massive funding from the UAE to build a top-tier altcoin trading platform;
- Pump.fun: Set records for the number of meme coins issued per second;
- TON: Gained significant attention by leveraging Telegram's widespread adoption in crypto;
- Monad: Its L1 blockchain built massive community hype, but its subsequent TGE performance was disappointing.
Every industry cycle needs some "spice," but if you look beyond the short term, you can clearly see the maturing trend in crypto.
Two of the largest funding rounds this year came from prediction markets – Polymarket and Kalshi.
As mentioned earlier, 2025 was a banner year for prediction markets, the only Web3 sector to truly attract a mainstream consumer audience. Polymarket and Kalshi are still fiercely competing, aggressively pursuing more top-tier partnerships, and their services are now integrated into Google Search and major mainstream media.
The stablecoin sector also performed strongly in 2025:
- Bullish: Co-founded by Brendan Blumer, previously controversial for EOS, raised $1 billion in its IPO;
- Ripple: Successfully attracted Wall Street capital to build in the stablecoin space;
- Circle: Raised $1 billion through its IPO, after which its stock price saw a significant surge;
- Payment giant Stripe: Its launch of the L1 blockchain "Tempo" proves fintech companies are also actively entering the crypto space;
- Figure: Completed a billion-dollar IPO, also focused on stablecoin-related business.
Finally, cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Gemini also completed funding rounds, likely their final rounds before potential IPOs.
The total funding for the aforementioned 4 "speculative" projects was approximately $3.27 billion;
The prediction market sector raised a total of $3 billion;
And projects in more mature sectors within Web3 raised a total of $3.4 billion.
Cryptocurrency today is no longer confined to a single identity.
It is splitting into three parallel tracks:
- The Speculation & Culture track (e.g., meme coins, niche blockchains);
- The Information & Truth Markets track (centered on prediction markets);
- The Real Economy Financial Infrastructure track (e.g., stablecoins, RWA).
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@dudu_bitcoin
