Cryptocurrency Investment Booms in the First Half of 2025: AI Becomes a New Favorite, Infrastructure Gains Favor

In the first half of 2025, Crypto Assets venture capital is reaching a turning point. After two years of capital tightening, funds are once again pouring in in large amounts. As of the end of June, the disclosed total financing for Crypto Assets has exceeded $37 billion, with over 150 transactions covering all stages from seed rounds to IPOs. Despite ongoing regulatory uncertainties and token price volatility, institutional and venture capital confidence in the industry has strongly returned.

Key Trends

• In the first half of 2025, the total financing amount for Crypto Assets exceeded 37 billion USD, making it one of the most active periods in recent years.
• Large financing has pushed the average transaction size to $248 million, indicating a recovery of market confidence in mature platforms.
• Funds are shifting from consumption applications to scaling solutions, compliance infrastructure, and cross-chain protocols.
• AI-related Crypto Assets have raised about $700 million, becoming an emerging hotspot.
• Top investment institutions dominate high valuation rounds, accounting for about 40%, significantly influencing the direction of industry development.

Financing Overview

From January to June 2025, crypto and blockchain startups disclosed financing of approximately $37.3 billion. The average transaction size was $248 million, significantly higher than in previous years, but influenced by some large financing rounds. The median transaction size was close to $50 million, reflecting that most financing still belongs to the mid-market.

Funds primarily flow towards infrastructure and scaling solutions, rather than being limited to consumer applications.

monthly and quarterly trends

March saw the strongest financing, estimated at 8 billion USD. The total for January-February was 9.4 billion USD, and it slowed down to 4.5 billion USD in April. There was a rebound in May-June, both exceeding 5 billion USD.

In Q1, the financing amount reached nearly 17.4 billion USD, and in Q2, it increased by 15.9 billion USD. Q1 was driven by early-year momentum, while Q2 had a broader financing scope, involving areas such as infrastructure expansion, custody solutions, and DeFi.

Investment rhythm shows that investors tend to lock in valuations at the beginning of the year, possibly to guard against further increases in token prices.

Industry Segmentation Analysis

• DeFi and financial infrastructure are the most favored, with financing exceeding 6.2 billion USD.
• Layer 1 and Layer 2 scaling solutions raised $3.3 billion in funding
• Custody, security, and compliance solutions raised over $1.2 billion
• Stablecoins and payment network financing of approximately $1.5 billion
• AI-Crypto integration project received approximately $700 million in investment
• Financing in the NFT and gaming sectors is sluggish, at about $600 million.

Overall, capital has shifted from consumer speculation to infrastructure, compliance, and ecosystem expansion.

Key Financing Cases

A certain trading platform's strategic financing of 2 billion USD in January sets the tone for the year, showing that mature platforms still have appeal. A certain payment company's 1.1 billion USD IPO became the largest exit case in the first half of the year, confirming that the stablecoin model is viable and profitable.

Other notable financings include TON's $400 million strategic financing, Phantom's $150 million Series C, and LayerZero's $150 million investment. These large financings account for a quarter of the total in the first half of the year.

It is worth noting that almost all large financing rounds involve top investment institutions, reflecting the continued concentration of mainstream venture capital in leading companies in the industry.