A panoramic view of blockchain financing in 2025: Where did the more than $20 billion flow into?

Author: Zen, PANews

As capital shifts from casting a wide net to focusing on key targets, the market is becoming driven by "quality" rather than "quantity." In the silent reshuffling of 2025, centralized finance (CeFi) returned to the center stage with massive funding, the narrative of Web3 and AI integration steadily progressed, infrastructure and DeFi remained the backbone, while the once-glorious Web3 games faded into obscurity.

PANews compiled statistics on 839 disclosed financing events in the primary market of the blockchain sector in 2025, following the flow of $23.7 billion in funds to provide insights into capital choices and track the rise of the next high-value sector.

Overall Market Review: Funding Scale Doubles While Deal Volume Shrinks

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, a total of 839 investment and financing events were disclosed in the primary market of the blockchain sector in 2025, with a total funding scale exceeding US$23.7 billion. In terms of the number of financing transactions, the number of transactions announced in 2025 decreased significantly compared to 1,259 in 2024, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 33.6%; however, in terms of funding scale, the inflow of funds into the investment and financing market in 2025 increased significantly, far exceeding the US$9.3 billion in 2024.

In contrast to the decline, caution, and rationality of the primary market during 2023 and 2024, 2025 showed a significant overall recovery trend. The total number and size of financing deals that year also reached roughly half the level of the bull market in 2022—a total of 1,660 investment and financing events, with a total amount exceeding US$34.8 billion.

Although the overall market has rebounded significantly, the trend of change in the primary market is still largely the same as that in 2023 and 2024, only more extreme. From the perspective of capital inflow, there will still be two periods of explosive growth in the first and second halves of 2025, concentrated in March-May and October-November respectively.

This situation is mainly due to the impact of large-scale financing events: In March, Abu Dhabi's MGX invested $2 billion in Binance, acquiring a minority stake; in October, ICE, the parent company of the NYSE, made a $2 billion strategic investment in Polymarket at a post-money valuation of $9 billion. Prediction market Kalshi raised over $300 million in its latest round of financing, valuing the company at $5 billion; in November, Kalshi completed another $1 billion financing round, increasing its valuation to $11 billion.

In addition, from March to May, Kraken acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, and Coinbase acquired Deribit for $2.9 billion, setting a record for the largest transaction in 2025.

Subsequently, during the second and third quarters of 2025, the market largely mirrored the trends of the previous two years, returning to calm. Entering the fourth quarter, the investment and financing market quickly ushered in October, the hottest month for the primary market in 2025. This month saw a surge in both volume and price, with 87 investment and financing events announced, attracting over $3.9 billion in inflows. Even excluding the impact of large-scale financing significantly increasing the total amount of funds, the number of financing transactions in this month was also the highest of the entire year.

After peaking in October, the market gradually weakened, turning from bull to bear, and the number of publicly disclosed financing deals plummeted to 52 in November, the lowest figure among all months in 2025. However, large-scale single-money financing events announced that month, such as Kalshi's completion of a $1 billion funding round and Ripple's $500 million strategic investment, boosted the overall financing scale, keeping the total monthly financing amount at a high level.

From the perspective of industry development, investment institutions' preferred narrative themes mainly focus on centralized finance and infrastructure companies involving stablecoins and payment concepts, while exchanges and prediction markets are the most prominent in terms of attracting funds.

Based on market trends and continuity, PANews broadly categorizes projects into DeFi, Web3 games, infrastructure and tools, AI, centralized finance, and other Web3 applications including prediction markets, DePIN, social networking, and DeSci, and has compiled statistics on investment and financing in each category.

Infrastructure & Tools: Large-scale financing accounts for a significant increase, with the payment and settlement sector showing particular interest.

In 2025, the infrastructure and tools sector saw 243 announced investment and financing events, raising over $4.9 billion, with an average financing amount of approximately $20.3 million.

Of all the funding events announced in 2025, approximately 28.96% were in the infrastructure & tools sector, roughly the same as in 2024; however, the amount raised in this sector last year accounted for approximately 20.78% of the total, a significant decrease from 39.46% in 2024.

However, the infrastructure & tools sector still announced the most large-scale financing news, with 101 investment and financing events at or above tens of millions of US dollars, accounting for 41.56%, significantly higher than 27.82% in 2024; while there were 12 events with a scale of hundreds of millions of US dollars, twice that of last year.

In October 2025, Tempo, a blockchain payment infrastructure project, completed a $500 million Series A funding round at a valuation of $5 billion, led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, with participation from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, and others. In November, Ripple raised $500 million through institutional investors such as Fortress Investment and Citadel Securities, bringing its valuation to $40 billion. These two deals were the largest funding rounds in the sector last year, both focusing on crypto payment infrastructure.

DeFi: Fundamentals remain stable, with year-end fundraising activity bucking the trend and rising.

In 2025, DeFi remained the most watched vertical sector besides infrastructure. The sector saw 201 investment and financing events throughout the year, with inflows exceeding $1.748 billion, accounting for 24.04% and 7.36% respectively. The former was roughly the same as in 2024, while the latter was significantly lower than 18.22% in 2024.

Among the disclosed funding announcements for DeFi projects, 41 deals, or 20.39%, involved funding in the tens of millions of US dollars, exceeding the 13.51% in 2024. However, in terms of distribution, these deals are still more concentrated in the millions of US dollars range.

In November 2025, although the overall number of transactions in the primary market reached its lowest point, the DeFi sector "suddenly rebounded." Not only did the number of project financings rebound to 18, exceeding the annual average of 16, but the inflow of funds also set a new record for the previous year, attracting over $445 million.

Furthermore, three of the top ten funding and M&A deals in the DeFi sector in 2025 occurred in November: Bitcoin lending platform Lava raised $200 million in new funding, Paxos acquired DeFi wallet startup Fordefi for over $100 million, and decentralized exchange protocol Lighter received $68 million in funding.

Web3 games: Popularity plummets, funding size and number both halved.

The Web3 gaming sector continued its slump in 2025—a result known even before official statistics were compiled. The sector saw 57 investment and financing events throughout the year, raising a total of $308 million, compared to 178 events and $849 million in 2024. In terms of the number of deals, Web3 games decreased by 67.98%; in terms of funding size, the decline was 63.72%. From any perspective, the Web3 gaming sector's decline is undeniable.

Judging from the trend, excluding the overall industry downturn in May, the gaming sector as a whole has been declining over time. By the fourth quarter, it had reached its lowest point, with no funding announcements for any gaming projects in December. If this trend continues, Web3 games, like NFTs and social media, may find themselves struggling to form a significant, dedicated category in statistical analyses by 2026.

Furthermore, the only active investment institutions in this sector are primarily top-tier gaming VCs such as Bitkraft Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, and Animoca Brands, all focused on the gaming industry. Among them, Web3 VC Animoca Brands has invested in over 628 companies, approximately 200 of which are gaming projects.

Web3 + AI: Steady Progress in Narrative Fusion

With the development of artificial intelligence, how to integrate it has become a crucial issue of concern for the technology industry, and the integration of AI with blockchain and cryptocurrency is also showing an upward trend. In 2025, the Web3+ AI sector disclosed 111 financing deals, with a total funding scale of 884 million, all representing growth of over 20%.

Due to issues with statistical methods, and considering that there are many blockchain projects that only integrate AI functions and applications rather than specializing in AI, the actual amount of funding involved in this field may be even greater.

Looking at the overall trend throughout the year, the Web3+AI sector was the most stable. During the market downturn in the second and third quarters, it actually entered its "best period," with both the number of transactions and the amount of funding reaching their peak in July.

In terms of funding, AI projects that received tens of millions of US dollars accounted for 26.12% in 2025, significantly exceeding 15.2% in 2024, showing a steady and progressive development trend. In August 2025, IVIX, an AI compliance platform for combating crypto financial crime, completed a $60 million Series B funding round, setting a record for the largest single funding round in this sector.

Centralized Finance: A "Bumper Year" Begins, with Huge Funding and High Valuations Becoming the Norm

2025 was a "bumper year" for the centralized finance sector: 120 investment and financing events were announced throughout the year, with a total funding scale of 11.2 billion yuan. Compared with 2024, the former doubled, while the latter increased by nearly eight times.

Centralized finance (CFS) has historically been the vertical sector with the highest average funding amount in the entire industry, reaching $93.37 million in 2025. This was mainly due to large-scale acquisitions such as Coinbase's $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit and Binance's massive $2 billion funding round, which significantly boosted the overall funding scale. Even ignoring these large transactions, the CFS sector as a whole still performed well: 73 funding rounds reached the tens of millions level, accounting for 60.83% of all funding rounds, a further increase from the already high 43.48% in 2024.

Furthermore, compared to Hashkey's funding round approaching $100 million in 2024, there were seven funding events in 2025 with funding amounts in the hundreds of millions. Among them, Kraken, a long-established US cryptocurrency exchange, secured funding of over $100 million twice, while Citadel Securities made a single strategic investment of up to $200 million.

It is worth mentioning that South Korean tech giant Naver is acquiring Dunamu, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, for $10.3 billion. The deal is an all-stock merger and is expected to be completed in June 2026, so it will not be included in the 2025 statistics at this time.

Other: Predicting market trends and leading hot topics

Other categories include prediction markets, DePIN, crypto mining, DAOs, DeSci, social platforms, and other blockchain applications. It should be noted that while prediction markets are undoubtedly the hottest topic in 2025, they are temporarily categorized under "Others" due to their lack of continuity and the fact that funding is almost entirely concentrated in the hands of the two giants, Polymarket and Kalshi.

In 2025, the sector saw 107 disclosed investment and financing events, raising a total of $4.376 billion. Among them, the prediction market raised a total of $3.561 billion—Polymarket raised $2 billion in a single round, while Kalshi caught up quickly, completing three rounds of financing within a few months starting in the middle of the year, raising a total of $1.485 billion.

In terms of funding size, besides prediction markets, crypto mining, DePIN projects, and consumer projects also secured significant funding. Notably, US Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer Auradine completed a $153 million funding round, with participation from StepStone Group, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Premji Invest, among others.

Investment institutions: Quality over quantity, family-run funds are jumping the gun.

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, a total of 36 crypto investment funds were launched in 2025, a decrease from 47 in 2024; the total size reached US$5.082 billion, exceeding the US$4.34 billion in 2024.

As cycles change and the market weeds out weaker players, many crypto VCs have gradually faded from the scene. In 2025, the investment landscape continued to evolve towards a focus on quality over quantity. Among the VCs that launched crypto investment funds in 2025, 20 raised over $100 million, accounting for 55.5%, double the number in 2024.

In October 2025, YZi Labs, formerly BinanceLabs and now a family-run company, established a $1 billion fund to support the development of the BNB ecosystem. This is the largest fund in terms of size in 2025.