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Crypto startups received $935 million from VC funds in April

May. 3, 2024

Infrastructure maintains its status as the dominant sector when it comes to receiving money from venture capital funds.

Crypto startups received $935 million from VC funds in April

Venture capital (VC) funds invested $935 million in crypto startups in April, according to data aggregator DefiLlama. The amount is 8% smaller than the total invested in March, which had the largest monthly fundraising since October 2022.

Investments in crypto startups focused on building blockchain infrastructure surpassed $730 million, representing 78% of all the amount raised last month. This is even more than the $655 million seen in March, the month with the largest infrastructure allocations in the first quarter.

Layer-1 blockchain Monad registered the largest fundraising round in the period, with $225 million received from players such as Paradigm, Electric Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.

Berachain is another layer-1 blockchain that received a significant amount of funding in April, totaling $100 million invested by Framework Ventures, Samsung Next, Arrington Capital, and many others.

Moreover, a $90 million private sale of OP tokens from Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Optimism to a16z on April 30 adds to the infrastructure investments.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector also received more funding from VCs in April, with $157 million captured last month surpassing March by $50 million. Ellipsis Labs received $20 million in a round led by Paradigm to build an on-chain liquidity primitive on Solana’s blockchain.

Another sector in crypto that received more attention from VCs in April is the Web3-focused applications sector, jumping from gathering $3 million in March to $19 million in April. The startup Legitimate led the investments with $4.3 million received last month to build its product aimed at bridging the physical and digital worlds.

Web3 gaming was the only sector in the blockchain industry that registered a smaller capital influx from VCs into its projects, sliding from $83 million to $24.7 million in April. Crypto gaming studio Avalon received $10 million from VCs, almost half of all the funding directed at this sector last month.

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