Venture capital interest in cryptocurrency startups has been steadily growing, evident in the notable surge of investments observed in February.
According to CryptoBriefing, referencing DefiLlama data, cryptocurrency startups attracted a total of $485 million in funding last month. This figure represents a 5.3% increase from the previous month and stands as the highest investment volume within the last quarter.
Infrastructure-related startups claimed a significant share of this capital, with $387 million directed towards them. A standout investment came from a16z, injecting $100 million into EigenLayer during a private funding round – the most substantial venture capital allocation to a crypto startup in February.
EtherFi, a liquid staking platform, secured a notable $27 million in a series A round led by Bullish and CoinFund. Oobit, a payments platform, successfully concluded a series A funding round, receiving $25 million, with leadership from Tether and CMCC Global.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects attracted over $48 million in investments during the same period. Superform Labs, focused on developing a universal yield marketplace, secured $6.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital. Omega’s initiative to establish a DeFi ecosystem on top of Bitcoin received $6 million in a private round, featuring contributions from Borderless Capital and Blockchain.com.
Web3-focused applications garnered nearly $18 million in February, with Beoble, a web3 messaging app and social platform, receiving the largest investment of $7 million from entities including Samsung Next and Hashkey Capital.
The gaming sector also witnessed substantial investment, with $33 million allocated to new game studios. Helika, a gaming studio, raised $8 million in a series A round led by Pantera Capital. Noteworthy funding went to the web3 game Pixelmon, attracting $8 million from Animoca Ventures and Delphi Ventures.
Despite the dynamic activity in February, broader data from PitchBook in October suggests a slowdown in crypto market investments. In the third quarter of 2023, venture capitalists invested $2 billion in crypto, reflecting a 63% decrease from the same period in 2022. PitchBook analyst Robert Le attributes this decline to a reduction in the size of deals.