Crypto VC Funding Falls 74% in April to $659 Million, Lowest Since July 2024

Crypto venture capital funding fell sharply in April, hitting a near two-year low as investors pulled back from crypto start-ups and early-stage companies.

“Venture capital appetite for crypto is contracting sharply”

BanklessTimes

Multiple outlets tied the April figure to CryptoRank data, with Cointelegraph cited for “crypto-related VC investment totaled $659 million in April,” down 74% from March.

BanklessTimes

CoinDesk similarly said crypto VC funding “plunges to $659M in April, hits near two-year low,” and TradingView reported the same $659 million across “63 funding rounds in April.”

Cointelegraph’s breakdown, as relayed by Cointelegraph and other outlets, put April’s total at $659 million across 63 deals, versus March’s $2.6 billion across 84 deals.

The April total was described as the lowest monthly fundraising sum since July 2024, when crypto projects raised $622 million across 132 rounds, according to TradingView.

Bloomingbit and crypto.news both emphasized that the decline followed a peak in October 2025, when monthly VC investment reached $3.84 billion, with crypto.news adding that the market cap fell about 37% over the same period.

Across the reporting, the year-to-date total for 2026 was given as about $5.64 billion, with TradingView and crypto.news both using that figure.

While overall funding shrank, the sources consistently pointed to specific sectors attracting the most deal activity in April.

Cointelegraph’s sector breakdown said “Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols attracted the most deal activity in April, with 12 funding rounds,” and that “Blockchain services and artificial intelligence-linked crypto projects followed with eight rounds each.”

BitKE

Cointelegraph’s investor tally also identified GSR’s VC wing as the most active investor, stating it had “four investment rounds,” including a “$3.5 million seed round in DeFi protocol Legend Trade on Wednesday.”

The same investor list named other participants by deal count, including “Tether, Animoca Brands, landScape Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Kosmos Ventures” with “three deals each during the month.”

TradingView echoed the sector pattern, repeating that “Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols attracted the most deal activity in April, with 12 funding rounds,” and that “Blockchain services and artificial intelligence-linked crypto projects followed with eight rounds each.”

It also provided the same GSR-specific funding details: “a $3.5 million seed round in DeFi protocol Legend Trade on Wednesday,” “a $4 million seed round in DeFi protocol 3F on April 23,” and “a $1 million pre-seed round in Enhanced Finance on April 9.”

TradingView further listed Zurich-based L1 Digital (L1D) as second with “three investments,” including “a $5 million seed round in crypto exchange Exponent on Thursday,” “an $18 million strategic investment in infrastructure provider Squads on Wednesday,” and “a $7.5 million Series A investment into blockchain services company Oh on April 8.”

Even as the broader VC market contracted, CoinDesk reported that Dragonfly Capital closed a fourth fund of $650 million, describing it as “one of the largest crypto VC fundraising rounds in recent years despite a prolonged slowdown in the sector.”

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Bitget

Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi said the firm was focusing on “financial-use cases such as stablecoins, decentralized finance, and prediction markets,” while noting that “non-financial crypto has failed.”

CoinDesk quoted Qureshi’s framing of the moment, including his social-media post that called it “an odd period to celebrate,” and described “low morale and bear-market pessimism for crypto.”

The same report said Dragonfly had historically raised capital during downturns, citing “the 2018 ICO bust” and “just before Terra's collapse in 2022,” which Qureshi said “ultimately became the firm's best performers.”

CoinDesk also stated that in September the firm said it aimed to raise $500 million for its fourth fund targeting early-stage projects, and that Qureshi “had not yet identified any.”

The report placed the new fund in the context of token price declines, stating “Bitcoin has fallen about 46% from its all-time high of over $126,000 in October last year,” and that “the crypto bear market has erased more than $1.4 trillion in market capitalization.”

CoinDesk further described Qureshi’s thesis that crypto’s financial-use cases were “exploding,” while “other non-financial use cases are failing,” and it listed investments including “Polymarket, Ethena, Rain, and Mesh.”

The sources describe the same April funding slump but frame its meaning differently, and they do so with different emphases on timing, magnitude, and implications.

CoinDesk’s headline centered on Dragonfly’s $650 million fund “despite bear market pessimism,” while Cointelegraph and TradingView focused directly on the $659 million April total and the 74% month-on-month drop from March’s $2.6 billion.

CoinDesk

Cointelegraph’s article emphasized the sector distribution and named specific rounds, including “a $3.5 million seed round in DeFi protocol Legend Trade,” “a $4 million seed round in DeFi protocol 3F on April 23,” and “a $1 million pre-seed round in Enhanced Finance on April 9.”

In contrast, crypto.news and Yellow both highlighted the broader market context, with crypto.news stating that “monthly crypto VC flows have trended lower” since October 2025 and that “global crypto market capitalization has dropped roughly 37% over the same period.”

Yellow also tied the funding decline to a “divergence between dollars deployed and deal count,” while still repeating the same core numbers: “$659 million across 63 rounds,” “a 74% drop from March,” and “$5.64 billion” year-to-date.

BanklessTimes and Bitget both used slightly different framing and numbers, with BanklessTimes saying “fell to $660 million across just 62 deals” and Bitget describing “a staggering 75%” drop and “Just $660M raised across 62 deals.”

Even within the “lowest since” framing, TradingView said April was “the lowest monthly fundraising sum since July 2024,” while crypto.news said it “drags monthly flows back to 2024 lows” and “marked the lowest monthly total in 21 months since July 2024” as relayed by bloomingbit.

The sources connect April’s funding contraction to potential consequences for startups and the broader ecosystem, while also pointing to continued investment in specific areas.

“Summary - Cointelegraph reported that crypto-related VC investment totaled $659 million in April, down 74%% from March and the lowest level in 21 months”

bloomingbit

Cointelegraph’s reporting on April’s VC activity tied the slowdown to investor selectivity, noting that “DeFi protocols attracted the most deal activity in April, with 12 funding rounds,” and that GSR’s VC wing led with “four investment rounds.”

Cointelegraph

CoinDesk framed Dragonfly’s $650 million fund as a “largest bet to date” on the idea that “the crypto revolution is still in its early and exponential stages,” even as it acknowledged “bear-market pessimism.”

Cointelegraph and TradingView both placed April’s slump in a longer decline since October 2025, with TradingView saying monthly VC funding “has been declining since October 2025, when crypto projects raised $3.84 billion across 127 funding rounds,” and with crypto.news adding that the market cap fell “about 37%.”

Cointelegraph’s sector and investor details also suggested that capital was still flowing into particular categories, including “stablecoins, decentralized finance, and prediction markets” as Qureshi emphasized, and “real-world asset tokenization protocol Libeara” as part of GSR’s activity.

At the same time, Yellow and crypto.news both stressed that the funding environment was returning to earlier levels, with Yellow saying April was “the lowest monthly tally since July 2024” and crypto.news stating it “drags monthly flows back to 2024 levels.”

For the year-to-date picture, multiple outlets gave the same $5.64 billion figure, while Cryptonews.net added that Switzerland’s Crypto Valley raised “$728 million” in 2025, “up 37% from the previous year,” and that “Switzerland accounts for 47% of European venture capital in cryptocurrencies.”