Crypto venture capital funding hits $1B for second straight month

Crypto venture capital funding has topped $1 billion for the second consecutive month this year.

April’s $1.02 billion in funding came across 161 investment rounds in April, marking a minor fall from the $1.09 billion recorded from 186 rounds in March, according to RootData.

However, it is the first time since October-November 2022 where the industry has recorded two straight funding months above $1 billion.

Among the most notable fundraises include a BlackRock-led $47 million investment into real-world asset tokenization firm Securitize, and a massive $225 million investment into Monad, a new so-called “Solana killer” layer-1 blockchain backed by Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures.

The teams behind blockchain infrastructure startup Auradine and Cosmos-based layer-1 blockchain Berachain also received $80 million and $100 million in funding.

Blockchain infrastructure firms received  the most venture capital funding in 2024 at $1.7 billion, while decentralized finance protocols come in second at $626 million.

Decentralized autonomous organizations were the least-funded, having only received $3 million so far in 2024.

Over $3.67 billion in funds have poured into the industry, across 604 funding rounds so far in 2024, which is on track to clear the $9.3 billion raised in 2023.

More than $100 billion in funding has now flowed into the blockchain industry across 5,195 funding rounds since June 2014, according to DeFiLlama.

Related: Crypto VC funding surged 53% in March, Optimism wins largest share

It comes as VC firms Pantera Capital and Paradigm are seeking $1 billion and $850 million for new cryptocurrency funds.

A $1 billion raise from Pantera Capital would be the largest for the cryptocurrency industry since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raised a record-setting $4.5 billion.

Interestingly, a16z said it raised $7.2 billion to invest in several technology sectors in May, including artificial intelligence and gaming — but elected not to top up its cryptocurrency-focused fund.

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