Crypto’s funding is on track to close the highly active first quarter, with funding rounds of up to $7.3 billion. According to Messari, 550 transactions have closed in the past quarter.
Cryptocurrency funds accelerated in March, expanding funds for the first quarter of 2025 to $7.3 billion. Cryptocurrency funds usually follow the expansion phase of bull markets. This time, major assets remained restrained, but VC trading continued.
According to Messari data, Crypto Funding has shut down $154 million in funds in the past week alone, but the entire quarter was on track to outperform the previous slower month.
Despite focusing on tokens in memes, new projects and platforms are still being built under all market conditions. After showing “low” indicators in January and February, investment activity switched to “high.” Based on CryptOrank data, the activity would be: 13% last month.
VC trading peaked in March, with private rounds and seed funds dominated. |Source: Cryptorank
The top 12 funds have a diverse investment portfolio, but they are all focused on AI funds. The project includes both the AI agent platform and the AI infrastructure. AI will take it 14% to 22% Tier 1 top VC fund.
The expansion of AI has also affected cryptocurrency funds. Over 30% of transactions have flowed into AI projects, making it the largest investment division. Over 22% of transactions went to developer tools. It has accounted for 18% of funds over the past month, and a new trend has emerged in payment services.
VC funds focus on AI projects and a new payment technology sector has emerged. |Source: Cryptorank
March was a particularly strong month for VC trading, as Cryptorank data revealed. By the end of the month, a total of 122 transactions had closed, raising a total of $48.4 billion. After a relatively slow two months, March stood out as a period of rapid trading.
Although recent growth comes from private rounds, seed rounds still account for around 30% of all funds. The most common rounds are $3 million to $10 million, followed by a smaller donation of $1 million to $3 million. These types of rounds account for around 60% of all funding activities. Approximately 6.28% of all transactions are over $50 million.
The Animoca brand leads in the most funding round
In the first quarter of 2025, Animoca Brands and OKX Ventures each had 14 funding rounds tied together. Coinbase Ventures has completed 13 funding rounds, and Amber Group has closed 10 VC deals.
Animoca Brands stood out as being the only fund trying to bring back the on-chain game. GameFi currently produces the majority of Animoca brand funding, with 177 transactions so far.
In March 2025, a total of 30 GameFi transactions were completed, with another 30 for blockchain services.
The Animoca brand completed its biggest round of its new GameFi project, Slingshot, in March. The fund led the private round with $16 million. Animoca Brands also supports NFT projects and remains one of the last supporters of this type of activity.
Despite the recent revival, VC funding is still down from 2021 levels. Quarterly funding easily surpassed $10 billion in the bull market in 2021. The current recovery has helped the market reach 50% of that level.
Token-based funding is slower
The first three months of 2025 caused token fatigue after the launch of thousands of meme tokens. So Token Launchpads saw a significant spill and significant loss of activity from most launches. The first three months of 2025 earned 700%, with Bybit only retaining a positive ROI, while other platforms recorded a big loss from the token launch.
Overall, private token sales account for just 2.8% of the VC round. Providing tokens to early VC supporters continues to be the red flag of the project as they have sold pressure for many years.
Token creation is more curated, with some new TGEs happening in the vinance ecosystem. Each Launchpad specializes in a variety of tokens. Gate.io is the leader in launching GameFi assets, with others focusing on Defi Tokens.
