State of Crypto Fundraising: Q1 2024

Key Insights

• Fundraising volume decreased 23% QoQ, largely due to an outlier month of fundraising last November in Q4, which saw large raises by large bitcoin mining operations.
• Early-stage volume and deal count increased 73% and 53% QoQ, respectively, signaling a strong appetite for new dealsin the bull market.
• The largest deals this quarter by amount raised include Eigen Labs ($100 million), Hashkey Group ($100 million), Optimism ($89 million), Freechat ($80 million), and Zama ($73 million).

The number of deals grew by 45% in Q4, though the amount raised dropped by 23% QoQ, falling to just under $3 billion. Finance, networks, and infrastructure dominated deal flow, collectively accounting for more than 61% of quarterly fundraising volume. Additionally, the top three deals were each from one of these categories: finance (HashKey Group), infrastructure (Eigen Labs), and networks (Optimism). Top Q1 deals previously covered in our January and February fundraising reports include:

• Eigen Labs: $100 million Series B round exclusively funded by a16z crypto. Eigen Labs is behind the development of EigenLayer and EignenDA.