Blockchain startups and crypto firms disclosed 839 funding deals in 2025, raising more than $23.7 billion. PANews said the deal count fell about 33.6% from 1,259 in 2024, yet total capital came in far above the $9.3 billion recorded a year earlier. Fewer rounds, much larger checks — that was the defining pattern.
The market’s busiest funding windows came in March to May and October to November. Several outsized transactions drove the yearly total higher. In March, Abu Dhabi’s MGX invested $2 billion in Binance for a minority stake. In October, ICE, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, made a $2 billion strategic investment in Polymarket at a $9 billion post-money valuation. Kalshi raised more than $300 million in October at a $5 billion valuation, then added a $1 billion round in November that pushed its valuation to $11 billion. M&A was also a major force: Kraken bought NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, and Coinbase set the year’s largest transaction with its $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit.
CeFi took the largest share as mega-deals returned
Centralized finance was the strongest category in 2025. The sector posted 120 disclosed deals and drew $11.2 billion, with deal count doubling from 2024 and capital rising nearly eightfold. Based on the disclosed figures, average deal size reached about $93.37 million, keeping CeFi at the top of the industry by funding intensity.
Large rounds defined the segment. CeFi recorded 73 deals worth at least $10 million, or 60.83% of the category total, and 7 rounds at the $100 million level. Alongside the Binance and Coinbase headline transactions, U.S. exchange Kraken secured two financings above $100 million during the year, while Citadel Securities made a single strategic investment worth $200 million.
Infrastructure stayed busy, with payments and settlement drawing capital
Infrastructure and tools remained the largest category by number of deals, with 243 financings and more than $4.9 billion raised. That represented about 28.96% of all disclosed transactions. Its share of total dollars was lower than in 2024, but large rounds became more common: 101 deals came in at $10 million or above, equal to 41.56% of the category, and 12 exceeded $100 million, double the prior year.
Payments and settlement stood out inside this segment. In October 2025, blockchain payments infrastructure project Tempo completed a $500 million Series A at a $5 billion valuation, led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks with participation from Sequoia and Ribbit Capital. In November, Ripple raised $500 million through institutional investors including Fortress Investment and Citadel Securities, in another transaction tied to crypto payments infrastructure.
DeFi held steady, then surged in November
DeFi recorded 201 funding events across the year and brought in more than $1.748 billion. By deal count, it remained one of the most active verticals outside infrastructure. By capital share, though, it accounted for only 7.36%, well below 18.22% in 2024. The gap shows that DeFi kept attracting steady support, but fewer very large checks landed there than in CeFi or infrastructure.
November was the standout month. While overall primary-market activity dropped to its yearly low, DeFi deal count rebounded to 18, above the annual average of 16, and monthly capital climbed to more than $445 million, the sector’s highest mark of the year. That month also produced three of the ten biggest DeFi financings and acquisitions in 2025: Bitcoin lending platform Lava raised $200 million, Paxos acquired DeFi wallet startup Fordefi for more than $100 million, and decentralized trading protocol Lighter secured $68 million.
Web3+AI advanced, while Web3 gaming kept shrinking
Web3+AI logged 111 disclosed deals in 2025 with total funding of $884 million, and both figures were up by more than 20%. PANews noted that the tally likely understates actual capital flowing into the theme because many blockchain projects integrate AI features without being classified as AI-native. Through the year, Web3+AI was also the most stable category. During the weaker second and third quarters, activity peaked instead, with both deal count and capital hitting yearly highs in July. In August, crypto financial crime compliance platform IVIX raised a $60 million Series B, the largest single round in the segment.
Web3 gaming moved in the opposite direction. The category disclosed only 57 deals and raised $308 million, down sharply from 178 deals and $849 million in 2024. That works out to a 67.98% drop in deal count and a 63.72% decline in capital. Activity kept fading into the fourth quarter, and no gaming project funding was disclosed in December.
Prediction markets lifted the “other applications” bucket
The catch-all category covering prediction markets, DePIN, crypto mining, DAO, DeSci, and social platforms posted 107 deals worth $4.376 billion. Prediction markets drove most of that total, with aggregate funding of $3.561 billion. Polymarket alone raised $2 billion, while Kalshi completed three rounds within a few months starting in mid-year, collecting $1.485 billion.
On the fund formation side, 36 crypto investment funds launched in 2025, down from 47 in 2024, but aggregate fund size rose to $5.082 billion from $4.34 billion. In October, YZi Labs — the family office that emerged from Binance Labs — set up a $1 billion fund to support the BNB ecosystem, the largest single fund announced during the year.