According to Cryptorank data released on June 3, 2025, the Web3 industry completed 122 fundraising deals in May 2025, with a total fundraising amount of $1.92 billion.【1】Due to differences in Cryptorank’s statistical methodology, this figure differs from the sum of individually disclosed deals (around $4.83 billion). For consistency, all analysis in this report uses data from the original Cryptorank dashboard.
Compared to April 2025’s $2.92 billion across 95 deals, the May total declined by 35.35%, while the number of deals rebounded by 28.4%, indicating a slight resurgence in market activity. However, from a broader perspective, the peak months were December 2024 ($3.13 billion) and March 2025 ($5.08 billion). The March spike was largely driven by blockbuster deals like Abu Dhabi MGX’s $2 billion investment into Binance and Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader, marking a historic monthly high.
Despite the peak in March 2025, the number of fundraising rounds has been declining steadily since December 2024’s 168 deals, indicating larger deal sizes and a concentration of capital toward top-tier projects, further reinforcing the “Matthew Effect” in the Web3 space.
Entering Q2 2025, the fundraising climate has cooled significantly. After April’s decline to $2.92 billion, May dropped further to a six-month low of $1.92 billion, with deal activity failing to continue the recovery trend. This suggests that the Web3 market is entering a phase of rational correction, where fundamentals, compliance, and sustainable growth are becoming central to investment decisions. As a result, smaller projects face increasing pressure, and capital allocation is becoming more conservative, signaling a market shift towards a “quality-first, selective investment” era.
In May 2025, Web3 fundraising exhibited high capital concentration and institutional dominance. Funds flowed mainly into CeFi, blockchain services, and infrastructure. Traditional financial tools like M&A and PIPE were frequently used, signaling deeper integration with TradFi.【2】
CeFi leads the market with large-scale deals: CeFi remained the most capital-intensive sector in May. Four of the top five largest fundraising events were from CeFi.
Blockchain service platforms remain highly active:
These reflect the growing demand for enterprise-grade solutions in payments, asset management, and security, establishing a robust service matrix attractive to mid- to long-term capital.
According to data from the Cryptorank Dashboard, Web3 fundraising in May 2025 showed a structurally polarized pattern characterized by “CeFi dominance + support from service and scaling sectors + marginalization of sentiment-driven tracks.” Institutional capital allocations are increasingly concentrated in sectors with “low volatility, strong rigid demand, and high synergy,” indicating that the next market cycle is more likely to be initiated by infrastructure and TradFi-intersecting projects.
CeFi dominance: The CeFi sector secured a total of $1.29 billion in funding—almost three times the combined total of all other sectors—making it the absolute leader in monthly fundraising. This extreme concentration was largely due to the statistical impact of a $2.9 billion M&A deal involving Deribit, and it reflects the ongoing preference of traditional financial capital for mature, compliance-friendly, and integration-ready centralized crypto infrastructure.
Infrastructure & services remain attractive: Blockchain services ($273.53 million) and Layer 2 / scaling-related chain projects ($162.75 million) ranked second and third in total funding. Both sectors exhibit “tool + infrastructure” characteristics and serve as foundational pillars of the Web3 ecosystem. Despite a cooling market overall, they continue to attract significant capital.
DeFi steady but not dominant: DeFi raised $101.75 million—maintaining some heat but still far behind CeFi. This reflects a shift in market focus from early-stage hypergrowth to more regulated, professional, and institutionalized development. Meanwhile, the Blockchain Infrastructure sector attracted only $47.3 million, showing a more conservative stance and indicating that traditional infrastructure paths still require validation of sustainability and competitive edge.
Emerging tracks like Meme stay marginal: The Meme sector, newly categorized as an independent track, secured $30.8 million in funding. While this signals sustained interest in socially viral and community-driven areas, its capital size remains too small to challenge mainstream sectors.
GameFi and Social lag behind: GameFi raised only $17 million, while the Social sector attracted a mere $450,000. The near-zero financing of Web3 social apps suggests a narrowing market risk appetite, with capital increasingly favoring high-certainty, mature business models. Consumer-facing applications with strong innovation but unclear monetization face growing challenges.
Overall, the Web3 fundraising landscape in May 2025 highlights institutional and large-cap investor focus on compliance, foundational infrastructure, and TradFi integration. Investment strategies are becoming more conservative and pragmatic. Meanwhile, emerging verticals like Meme and AI Agents continue to receive experimental support but remain at the periphery of capital flows.
Based on data from 82 Web3 projects disclosed in May 2025, the size distribution of funding shows a “mid-range concentration with tapering at both ends,” indicating a market still in a cautious risk-on phase, especially for early-stage bets.
Web3 funding in May 2025 shows a preference for mid-sized rounds during the early stages of market recovery. While small deals still occur, they face selection pressure, and large projects draw capital thanks to their strategic certainty. This distribution reflects a maturing and more disciplined market where actual growth potential and business viability take center stage.
According to data from 57 Web3 projects with disclosed funding rounds in May 2025, the ecosystem demonstrates a structural pattern: active early-stage project participation, with funding disproportionately flowing to mid-to-late stage deals. This reflects a dual-track capital allocation strategy of “exploratory investing + strategic concentration.”
Web3 fundraising in May 2025 reveals a classic “K-shaped” structure. On one side, Seed and Strategic rounds remain active, indicating continued bets on early potential and ecosystem synergies. On the other, funds are clearly concentrating on mid-to-late stage projects with maturity and scalability. Overall, the capital style is becoming more rational and layered, reflecting a shift from speculative exuberance to mature investment behavior.
As of June 3, 2025, data from Cryptorank shows Alliance DAO leading all institutions with investments in six projects—mainly in the DeFi (dark blue) sector, while also covering blockchain infrastructure and on-chain services. Close behind are Selini Capital, Arbitrum Gaming, and Mirana Ventures, each investing in five projects. Coinbase Ventures and Animoca Brands were also active, each investing in four.
From the perspective of sector distribution, DeFi and blockchain services were the most institutionally favored sectors, appearing prominently across portfolios. For example, Alliance DAO, Selini Capital, and Mirana Ventures all made significant moves in chain infrastructure and DeFi—highlighting ongoing demand for foundational infrastructure and financial services on Web3.Meanwhile, some firms showed strong vertical focus: Arbitrum Gaming and Animoca Brands concentrated their bets in the GameFi sector, leveraging their strategic positioning and existing advantages in gaming.
Overview: Antix is an AI-powered platform focused on creating ultra-realistic and emotionally intelligent digital human avatars capable of mimicking everyday interactions. At its core is the AIGE (Adaptive Intelligence for Generative Expression) engine, which combines advanced AI with 3D tools to rapidly generate next-generation digital humans. Antix aims to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, empowering brands, creators, and consumers to connect in transformative ways through hyperrealistic digital personas, blending decentralized digital identity with the future of entertainment.【3】
On May 14, Antix announced the completion of an $8.2 million private funding round, supported by over 10,000 community investors. The goal is to bring hyperrealistic AI-driven digital human technology into blockchain space.【4】
Investors/Angel Backers: Over 10,000 individual community participants.
Highlights:
Overview: Turtle Club is an innovative virtual liquidity protocol that operates without smart contracts. It incentivizes liquidity providers (LPs) by tracking on-chain activity—such as providing liquidity and cross-protocol swaps—and distributing tokens from a shared treasury managed by TurtleDAO. The system operates off-chain, does not custody user funds, and reduces risk while maintaining user control.【5】
On May 12, Turtle Club announced a $6.2 million seed round led by THEIA to advance its on-chain liquidity distribution protocol.【6】
Investors: THEIA, SIG, Consensys, Susquehanna International Group, Laser Digital, Chorus One, and others.
Highlights:
Overview: T-Rex is a blockchain purpose-built for consumer applications, aiming to reshape Web3 engagement by seamlessly integrating with Web2 platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Its core product is a Chrome extension that rewards users for content engagement—such as watching videos or sharing content—via a proof-of-engagement (PoE) mechanism.【8】
On May 9, T-Rex announced a $17 million pre-seed funding round and the launch of an incubation fund to bring seamless rewards to online content consumers.【9】
Investors: Portal Ventures, North Island Ventures, Framework Ventures, Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, ArkStream Capital, Mindful Venture Capital, Hypersphere, SNZ, Arche Fund, and others.
Highlights:
Overview: VOYA Games is a Web3 gaming studio committed to creating games that are easy to pick up, fun-first, and empower players with meaningful autonomy. Its flagship title, Craft World, is a casual resource management game where players rebuild civilization alongside friendly dinosaurs after a meteor wipes out humanity. The game is currently in testnet and is expected to complete testing this summer.【10】
On May 21, VOYA Games announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, co-led by 1kx and Makers Fund. The funds will be used to support the development of the casual Web3 game Craft World. 【11】
Investors / Angel Investors: 1kx, Makers Fund, RockawayX, Jeff ‘Jihoz’ Zirlin (Co-founder of Sky Mavis), Sébastien Borget (COO of The Sandbox), among others.
Highlights:
Overview: KYD Labs is a Web3 live event ticketing solution platform built on Solana. It aims to empower artists and venues with full control over ticket sales, fan data, and revenue—effectively addressing revenue leakage caused by secondary market resales. The platform utilizes blockchain technology (including smart contracts and potentially NFTs) to enhance fan engagement and create new monetization opportunities for event organizers.【13】
On May 14, KYD Labs announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by a16z Crypto.【14】
Investors: a16z Crypto, Techstars, Finality Capital Partners, Ambush Capital, among others.
Highlights:
In May 2025, the Web3 industry recorded a total of 122 funding deals. Despite a 35.35% month-over-month decline in total capital raised to $1.92 billion, the market exhibited a highly concentrated and institution-led structure. Capital allocation was heavily skewed toward CeFi, blockchain services, and infrastructure—with CeFi leading the way with $1.29 billion in funding.
In terms of deal size, the market showed a “middle-heavy” distribution, with 32.9% of deals ranging from $3M to $10M, and fewer deals at both the low and high ends—indicating a convergence of risk appetite and a preference for mid-sized projects with proven potential. The distribution of funding stages also formed a “K-shaped” pattern: early-stage deals (seed and strategic rounds) accounted for 64.9% of the total number of deals, while mid-to-late-stage deals (Series A and B) captured 60.9% of the total capital raised.
Key projects such as Antix, Turtle Club, T-Rex, VOYA Games, and KYD Labs showcased innovation in areas like AI avatars, on-chain liquidity, Web2-to-Web3 user onboarding, and blockchain-based ticketing—signaling continued exploration of emerging technologies and use cases beyond traditional infrastructure and fintech. Overall, Web3 investing is maturing, with capital strategies becoming more rational and layered, and growing emphasis on regulatory compliance, clear business models, and real-world applicability.
References:
Gate Reach is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides readers with in-depth content, including technical analysis, trending insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasts, and macroeconomic policy analysis.
Disclaimer
Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such investment decisions.
According to Cryptorank data released on June 3, 2025, the Web3 industry completed 122 fundraising deals in May 2025, with a total fundraising amount of $1.92 billion.【1】Due to differences in Cryptorank’s statistical methodology, this figure differs from the sum of individually disclosed deals (around $4.83 billion). For consistency, all analysis in this report uses data from the original Cryptorank dashboard.
Compared to April 2025’s $2.92 billion across 95 deals, the May total declined by 35.35%, while the number of deals rebounded by 28.4%, indicating a slight resurgence in market activity. However, from a broader perspective, the peak months were December 2024 ($3.13 billion) and March 2025 ($5.08 billion). The March spike was largely driven by blockbuster deals like Abu Dhabi MGX’s $2 billion investment into Binance and Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader, marking a historic monthly high.
Despite the peak in March 2025, the number of fundraising rounds has been declining steadily since December 2024’s 168 deals, indicating larger deal sizes and a concentration of capital toward top-tier projects, further reinforcing the “Matthew Effect” in the Web3 space.
Entering Q2 2025, the fundraising climate has cooled significantly. After April’s decline to $2.92 billion, May dropped further to a six-month low of $1.92 billion, with deal activity failing to continue the recovery trend. This suggests that the Web3 market is entering a phase of rational correction, where fundamentals, compliance, and sustainable growth are becoming central to investment decisions. As a result, smaller projects face increasing pressure, and capital allocation is becoming more conservative, signaling a market shift towards a “quality-first, selective investment” era.
In May 2025, Web3 fundraising exhibited high capital concentration and institutional dominance. Funds flowed mainly into CeFi, blockchain services, and infrastructure. Traditional financial tools like M&A and PIPE were frequently used, signaling deeper integration with TradFi.【2】
CeFi leads the market with large-scale deals: CeFi remained the most capital-intensive sector in May. Four of the top five largest fundraising events were from CeFi.
Blockchain service platforms remain highly active:
These reflect the growing demand for enterprise-grade solutions in payments, asset management, and security, establishing a robust service matrix attractive to mid- to long-term capital.
According to data from the Cryptorank Dashboard, Web3 fundraising in May 2025 showed a structurally polarized pattern characterized by “CeFi dominance + support from service and scaling sectors + marginalization of sentiment-driven tracks.” Institutional capital allocations are increasingly concentrated in sectors with “low volatility, strong rigid demand, and high synergy,” indicating that the next market cycle is more likely to be initiated by infrastructure and TradFi-intersecting projects.
CeFi dominance: The CeFi sector secured a total of $1.29 billion in funding—almost three times the combined total of all other sectors—making it the absolute leader in monthly fundraising. This extreme concentration was largely due to the statistical impact of a $2.9 billion M&A deal involving Deribit, and it reflects the ongoing preference of traditional financial capital for mature, compliance-friendly, and integration-ready centralized crypto infrastructure.
Infrastructure & services remain attractive: Blockchain services ($273.53 million) and Layer 2 / scaling-related chain projects ($162.75 million) ranked second and third in total funding. Both sectors exhibit “tool + infrastructure” characteristics and serve as foundational pillars of the Web3 ecosystem. Despite a cooling market overall, they continue to attract significant capital.
DeFi steady but not dominant: DeFi raised $101.75 million—maintaining some heat but still far behind CeFi. This reflects a shift in market focus from early-stage hypergrowth to more regulated, professional, and institutionalized development. Meanwhile, the Blockchain Infrastructure sector attracted only $47.3 million, showing a more conservative stance and indicating that traditional infrastructure paths still require validation of sustainability and competitive edge.
Emerging tracks like Meme stay marginal: The Meme sector, newly categorized as an independent track, secured $30.8 million in funding. While this signals sustained interest in socially viral and community-driven areas, its capital size remains too small to challenge mainstream sectors.
GameFi and Social lag behind: GameFi raised only $17 million, while the Social sector attracted a mere $450,000. The near-zero financing of Web3 social apps suggests a narrowing market risk appetite, with capital increasingly favoring high-certainty, mature business models. Consumer-facing applications with strong innovation but unclear monetization face growing challenges.
Overall, the Web3 fundraising landscape in May 2025 highlights institutional and large-cap investor focus on compliance, foundational infrastructure, and TradFi integration. Investment strategies are becoming more conservative and pragmatic. Meanwhile, emerging verticals like Meme and AI Agents continue to receive experimental support but remain at the periphery of capital flows.
Based on data from 82 Web3 projects disclosed in May 2025, the size distribution of funding shows a “mid-range concentration with tapering at both ends,” indicating a market still in a cautious risk-on phase, especially for early-stage bets.
Web3 funding in May 2025 shows a preference for mid-sized rounds during the early stages of market recovery. While small deals still occur, they face selection pressure, and large projects draw capital thanks to their strategic certainty. This distribution reflects a maturing and more disciplined market where actual growth potential and business viability take center stage.
According to data from 57 Web3 projects with disclosed funding rounds in May 2025, the ecosystem demonstrates a structural pattern: active early-stage project participation, with funding disproportionately flowing to mid-to-late stage deals. This reflects a dual-track capital allocation strategy of “exploratory investing + strategic concentration.”
Web3 fundraising in May 2025 reveals a classic “K-shaped” structure. On one side, Seed and Strategic rounds remain active, indicating continued bets on early potential and ecosystem synergies. On the other, funds are clearly concentrating on mid-to-late stage projects with maturity and scalability. Overall, the capital style is becoming more rational and layered, reflecting a shift from speculative exuberance to mature investment behavior.
As of June 3, 2025, data from Cryptorank shows Alliance DAO leading all institutions with investments in six projects—mainly in the DeFi (dark blue) sector, while also covering blockchain infrastructure and on-chain services. Close behind are Selini Capital, Arbitrum Gaming, and Mirana Ventures, each investing in five projects. Coinbase Ventures and Animoca Brands were also active, each investing in four.
From the perspective of sector distribution, DeFi and blockchain services were the most institutionally favored sectors, appearing prominently across portfolios. For example, Alliance DAO, Selini Capital, and Mirana Ventures all made significant moves in chain infrastructure and DeFi—highlighting ongoing demand for foundational infrastructure and financial services on Web3.Meanwhile, some firms showed strong vertical focus: Arbitrum Gaming and Animoca Brands concentrated their bets in the GameFi sector, leveraging their strategic positioning and existing advantages in gaming.
Overview: Antix is an AI-powered platform focused on creating ultra-realistic and emotionally intelligent digital human avatars capable of mimicking everyday interactions. At its core is the AIGE (Adaptive Intelligence for Generative Expression) engine, which combines advanced AI with 3D tools to rapidly generate next-generation digital humans. Antix aims to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, empowering brands, creators, and consumers to connect in transformative ways through hyperrealistic digital personas, blending decentralized digital identity with the future of entertainment.【3】
On May 14, Antix announced the completion of an $8.2 million private funding round, supported by over 10,000 community investors. The goal is to bring hyperrealistic AI-driven digital human technology into blockchain space.【4】
Investors/Angel Backers: Over 10,000 individual community participants.
Highlights:
Overview: Turtle Club is an innovative virtual liquidity protocol that operates without smart contracts. It incentivizes liquidity providers (LPs) by tracking on-chain activity—such as providing liquidity and cross-protocol swaps—and distributing tokens from a shared treasury managed by TurtleDAO. The system operates off-chain, does not custody user funds, and reduces risk while maintaining user control.【5】
On May 12, Turtle Club announced a $6.2 million seed round led by THEIA to advance its on-chain liquidity distribution protocol.【6】
Investors: THEIA, SIG, Consensys, Susquehanna International Group, Laser Digital, Chorus One, and others.
Highlights:
Overview: T-Rex is a blockchain purpose-built for consumer applications, aiming to reshape Web3 engagement by seamlessly integrating with Web2 platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Its core product is a Chrome extension that rewards users for content engagement—such as watching videos or sharing content—via a proof-of-engagement (PoE) mechanism.【8】
On May 9, T-Rex announced a $17 million pre-seed funding round and the launch of an incubation fund to bring seamless rewards to online content consumers.【9】
Investors: Portal Ventures, North Island Ventures, Framework Ventures, Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, ArkStream Capital, Mindful Venture Capital, Hypersphere, SNZ, Arche Fund, and others.
Highlights:
Overview: VOYA Games is a Web3 gaming studio committed to creating games that are easy to pick up, fun-first, and empower players with meaningful autonomy. Its flagship title, Craft World, is a casual resource management game where players rebuild civilization alongside friendly dinosaurs after a meteor wipes out humanity. The game is currently in testnet and is expected to complete testing this summer.【10】
On May 21, VOYA Games announced the completion of a $5 million funding round, co-led by 1kx and Makers Fund. The funds will be used to support the development of the casual Web3 game Craft World. 【11】
Investors / Angel Investors: 1kx, Makers Fund, RockawayX, Jeff ‘Jihoz’ Zirlin (Co-founder of Sky Mavis), Sébastien Borget (COO of The Sandbox), among others.
Highlights:
Overview: KYD Labs is a Web3 live event ticketing solution platform built on Solana. It aims to empower artists and venues with full control over ticket sales, fan data, and revenue—effectively addressing revenue leakage caused by secondary market resales. The platform utilizes blockchain technology (including smart contracts and potentially NFTs) to enhance fan engagement and create new monetization opportunities for event organizers.【13】
On May 14, KYD Labs announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by a16z Crypto.【14】
Investors: a16z Crypto, Techstars, Finality Capital Partners, Ambush Capital, among others.
Highlights:
In May 2025, the Web3 industry recorded a total of 122 funding deals. Despite a 35.35% month-over-month decline in total capital raised to $1.92 billion, the market exhibited a highly concentrated and institution-led structure. Capital allocation was heavily skewed toward CeFi, blockchain services, and infrastructure—with CeFi leading the way with $1.29 billion in funding.
In terms of deal size, the market showed a “middle-heavy” distribution, with 32.9% of deals ranging from $3M to $10M, and fewer deals at both the low and high ends—indicating a convergence of risk appetite and a preference for mid-sized projects with proven potential. The distribution of funding stages also formed a “K-shaped” pattern: early-stage deals (seed and strategic rounds) accounted for 64.9% of the total number of deals, while mid-to-late-stage deals (Series A and B) captured 60.9% of the total capital raised.
Key projects such as Antix, Turtle Club, T-Rex, VOYA Games, and KYD Labs showcased innovation in areas like AI avatars, on-chain liquidity, Web2-to-Web3 user onboarding, and blockchain-based ticketing—signaling continued exploration of emerging technologies and use cases beyond traditional infrastructure and fintech. Overall, Web3 investing is maturing, with capital strategies becoming more rational and layered, and growing emphasis on regulatory compliance, clear business models, and real-world applicability.
References:
Gate Reach is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides readers with in-depth content, including technical analysis, trending insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasts, and macroeconomic policy analysis.
Disclaimer
Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such investment decisions.