2025 Blockchain Financing Panorama: Who's Pocketed Over $20 Billion?

Author: Zen, PANews

As capital shifts from broad deployment to targeted harvesting, the market enters a phase driven more by “quality” than “quantity.” In this silent reshuffle of 2025, centralized finance (CeFi) returns to the stage with massive funding rounds, the narrative of Web3 and AI integration steadily advances, infrastructure and DeFi remain the backbone, while once-glamorous Web3 gaming wanes.

PANews has compiled 839 disclosed funding events in the blockchain sector in 2025, following a capital flow of $23.7 billion, providing insight into investors’ choices and tracking the rise of the next high-value territory.

Overall Market Review: Doubling of Funding Scale Coexists with Decrease in Transaction Numbers

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, in 2025, the primary market disclosed 839 investment and financing events in the blockchain sector, with total funds exceeding $23.7 billion. In terms of the number of deals, the number of disclosed transactions in 2025 significantly decreased compared to 2024’s 1,259, a year-on-year decline of about 33.6%. However, in terms of funding scale, inflows into the market in 2025 surged well beyond 2024’s $9.3 billion.

Unlike the decline, caution, and rationality observed in the primary market during 2023-2024, 2025 overall showed a strong rebound. The total number and scale of financings in that year roughly reached half of the levels during the 2022 bull market—when there were 1,660 investment events totaling over $34.8 billion.

Although the overall market rebounded sharply, the trend in the primary market remained similar to 2023 and 2024, but more extreme—there were two major funding surges in 2025, each concentrated in March-May and October-November, respectively.

This pattern was mainly influenced by mega funding events: in March, Abu Dhabi MGX invested $2 billion in Binance for minority equity; in October, NYSE parent ICE made a strategic investment of $2 billion in Polymarket at a post-investment valuation of $5 billion. The prediction market Kalshi raised over $300 million in a new round, with a valuation of $5 billion; in November, Kalshi completed a $1 billion financing, boosting its valuation to $11 billion.

Additionally, from March to May, notable deals included Kraken acquiring NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, Ripple raising $1.25 billion to acquire Hidden Road, and Coinbase spending $2.9 billion to acquire Deribit, setting the largest deal record of 2025.

Subsequently, at the end of Q2 and during Q3, the market largely replicated the trends of the past two years, returning to calm. However, entering Q4, the primary market experienced its hottest month of 2025: October. That month saw a surge in both volume and value, with 87 disclosed investment events and inflows exceeding $3.9 billion. Excluding the impact of mega funding events that significantly boosted total funds, October also recorded the highest number of deals for the year.

After reaching a peak in October, as the secondary market gradually weakened and the bull market turned bearish, the number of disclosed funding transactions plummeted to 52 in November, the lowest monthly figure of 2025. However, large single deals announced that month, such as Kalshi’s $1 billion financing and Ripple’s $500 million strategic investment, kept the total funding scale high.

From an industry development perspective, the narratives favored by investors mainly focused on stablecoins, centralized finance, and infrastructure companies, with exchanges and prediction markets demonstrating particularly strong capital attraction.

Based on market hotspots and continuity, PANews broadly classifies projects into DeFi, Web3 gaming, infrastructure and tools, AI, centralized finance, and other Web3 applications including prediction markets, DePIN, social, DeSci, etc., and has compiled statistics on their funding activities.

Infrastructure & Tools: Significant Increase in Large-Scale Funding, Payment and Settlement Fields Favored

In 2025, the infrastructure and tools sector disclosed a total of 243 funding events, raising over $4.9 billion, with an average deal size of approximately $20.3 million.

Among all disclosed funding events in 2025, about 28.96% belonged to infrastructure & tools, roughly the same as 2024; however, the amount raised in this sector last year accounted for about 20.78% of the total, a significant decrease from 39.46% in 2024.

Nevertheless, infrastructure & tools still reported the most large-scale funding news, with 101 deals of $10 million or more, accounting for 41.56%, significantly higher than 27.82% in 2024; there were also 12 deals exceeding $100 million, double the number from last year.

In October 2025, blockchain payment infrastructure project Tempo completed a $500 million Series A funding round at a $5 billion valuation, led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, with Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, and others participating; in November, Ripple raised $500 million from institutional investors including Fortress Investment and Citadel Securities, reaching a valuation of $40 billion. These two deals were the largest in the sector last year, both in the infrastructure of crypto payments.

DeFi: Stable Fundamentals, End-of-Year Funding Rebounds Against the Trend

In 2025, DeFi remained one of the most focused verticals besides infrastructure. The sector disclosed 201 funding events throughout the year, with inflows exceeding $1.748 billion, accounting for 24.04% and 7.36% respectively. The first figure was roughly the same as 2024, while the latter was significantly lower than 2024’s 18.22%.

Among DeFi projects, 41 deals of $10 million or more were disclosed, accounting for 20.39%, up from 13.51% in 2024. However, these deals were still mostly concentrated in the millions of dollars range.

In November 2025, although overall primary market transaction numbers hit their lowest point, the DeFi sector “suddenly surged,” with project financing rising to 18 deals, exceeding the annual average of 16, and inflows reaching the highest record of the previous year, surpassing $445 million.

Additionally, in the top ten financings and mergers of 2025 within DeFi, three occurred in November: Bitcoin lending platform Lava raised $200 million, Paxos invested over $100 million in DeFi wallet startup Fordefi, and decentralized trading protocol Lighter secured $68 million.

Web3 Gaming: Sharp Decline in Popularity, Funding Scale and Number Halved

Web3 gaming continued to decline in 2025—this was known even before official statistics. The sector disclosed 57 investment events, raising $308 million, compared to 178 deals and $849 million in 2024. Transaction count dropped by 67.98%; funding scale decreased by 63.72%. From any perspective, Web3 gaming showed clear signs of decline.

Trend-wise, excluding the overall industry correction in May, the gaming sector gradually waned over time. By Q4, it hit its lowest point, with no gaming projects disclosed in December. If this trend continues, Web3 gaming in 2026 may be as difficult to categorize as NFT and social sectors in terms of scale.

Moreover, active investors in this sector are now mostly top-tier gaming VCs like Bitkraft Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, and Animoca Brands. Among them, Animoca Brands has invested in over 628 portfolio companies, about 200 of which are gaming projects.

Web3 + AI: Narrative Integration Steady Progress

With AI development, how to integrate it has become a key focus in the tech industry, and the fusion of AI with blockchain and cryptocurrencies is also trending upward. In 2025, the Web3+AI sector disclosed 111 funding events, totaling $884 million, with growth rates over 20%.

Due to statistical scope, considering many blockchain projects that only integrate AI features or applications rather than focusing solely on AI, the actual funding involved in this field may be even higher.

From the annual trend, Web3+AI is the most stable direction. During the market downturn in Q2 and Q3, it actually entered its “best period,” with the highest transaction and funding figures in July.

In terms of funding scale, AI projects receiving over $10 million accounted for 26.12% in 2025, significantly higher than 15.2% in 2024, showing steady growth. In August 2025, IVIX, an AI compliance platform combating crypto financial crimes, completed a $60 million Series B funding, setting a record for single deal size in this sector.

Centralized Finance: “Bountiful Year” with Mega Funding and High Valuations Becoming Norm

2025 was a “harvest year” for the centralized finance sector: 120 disclosed investment events with a total of $11.2 billion, doubling the first figure and nearly eightfold the second compared to 2024.

Centralized finance has always been the vertical with the highest average funding per deal in the industry. In 2025, it reached $93.37 million. This was mainly driven by large acquisitions like Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit and Binance’s mega funding event of $2 billion, which significantly boosted the total funding scale. Even excluding these large transactions, the sector performed well: 73 deals of $10 million or more, accounting for 60.83%, further increasing from 43.48% in 2024.

Furthermore, unlike 2024, when only Hashkey’s funding approached $100 million, in 2025, there were seven deals of billion-dollar scale. Notably, US-based Kraken secured two billion-dollar financings, and Citadel Securities made a single strategic investment of $200 million.

It is worth noting that South Korean tech giant Naver is acquiring the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, Dunamu, for $10.3 billion. This is a stock-for-stock merger expected to complete in June 2026, so it is not included in the 2025 statistics.

Others: Prediction Markets Lead Hot Topics

Other categories include prediction markets, DePIN, crypto mining, DAOs, DeSci, social platforms, and other blockchain applications. It should be noted that although prediction markets were undoubtedly the hottest topic in 2025, due to their lack of continuity and the fact that almost all funds are concentrated in the two giants Polymarket and Kalshi, they are temporarily categorized under others.

In 2025, this sector disclosed 107 funding events, raising a total of $4.376 billion. Among them, prediction markets alone accounted for $3.561 billion—Polymarket raised $2 billion in a single round, and Kalshi, starting mid-year, completed three rounds within a few months, raising $1.485 billion.

In terms of funding scale, besides prediction markets, crypto mining, DePIN projects, and consumer projects also secured large-scale financings. For example, US-based Bitcoin miner manufacturer Auradine completed $153 million in funding, with participation from StepStone Group, Samsung, Qualcomm, Premji Invest, and others.

Investment Institutions: Focus on Quality over Quantity, Homegrown Funds on the Rise

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, in 2025, a total of 36 crypto investment funds were launched, down from 47 in 2024; total scale reached $5.082 billion, surpassing $4.34 billion in 2024.

As the cycle turns and the waves wash away the sand, many crypto VCs are gradually fading out. In 2025, the industry continued to evolve toward “quality over quantity.” Among the VCs that launched crypto funds in 2025, 20 had raised over $100 million, accounting for 55.5%, double the proportion in 2024.

In October 2025, YZi Labs, originally Binance Labs, transformed into a homegrown fund with a $1 billion fund to support BNB ecosystem development, making it the largest fund in 2025.