Cryptocurrency project funding reached $1.2 billion in July, even as DeFi investment fell to its lowest quarterly level since late 2023.
summary
- Cryptocurrency startups raised $1.2 billion in July despite a sharp decline in deal activity.
- Coinbase Ventures led investor activity as exchanges, prediction markets, payments and artificial intelligence attracted significant funding.
- DeFi funding has declined for three straight quarters, with deal numbers reaching their lowest levels since 2020.
Cryptorank Data It shows that investors have completed approximately 25 funding rounds in July through July 20, keeping capital active despite a sharp decline in the number of announced deals.
Monthly fundraising has moved unevenly throughout 2026. According to CryptoRank, cryptocurrency companies raised $1.14 billion in January before the total fell to $896.3 million in February. Funding then rose to $2.2 billion in March, supported by nearly 85 deals, the highest monthly number seen on the six-month chart.
April saw the biggest reversal of the year. CryptoRank recorded $698.2 million for the month, while crypto.news earlier recorded a report The amount was set at $659 million through 63 financing rounds. The crypto.news figure represents a 74% decline from March’s roughly $2.6 billion and 84 trades, bringing monthly funding back to levels last seen in 2024.
Differences between the two APR totals may result from later updates to the database or different methods used to classify trades. However, the current chart of CryptoRank confirms the same trend: the amount raised and the number of completed rounds decreased sharply after March.
Funding rebounded to $3.89 billion in May, the highest monthly total in CryptoRank’s six-month view. Although the number of trades remained below the peak recorded in March, larger transactions pushed the total well above every other month as shown in the data set.
By June, fundraising had slowed to $1.44 billion as the number of monthly trades fell to around 60. CryptoRank’s partial July reading of $1.2 billion came with a further decline to around 25 rounds, suggesting that a smaller group of transactions accounted for much of the capital raised.
Major crypto investors continued to support select projects
Coinbase Ventures remained the most active fund in CryptoRank’s ranking for six months, participating in 33 investments and leading one of them. The data doesn’t provide the value of those transactions, but the number of deals puts Coinbase Ventures ahead of other funds tracked during this period.
Animoca Brands ranked second with 19 deals, followed by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z cryptocurrency with 18 deals, and Tether with 17 deals, according to CryptoRank. Becker Ventures, Castrum Capital, and Galaxy participated in 10 transactions, while GSR, YZi Labs, Y Combinator, and Circle Ventures each completed nine transactions.
Paradigm also remained active with eight investments, according to the same classification. Earlier in July, crypto.news I mentioned Paradigm has raised $1.2 billion for its fourth fund, giving the company new capital for investments in cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, robotics, software and hardware.
Co-founder Matt Huang and Managing Partner Alana Palmedo announced the tool on July 8th. Paradigm described the mandate as an expansion into other technology markets rather than a withdrawal from digital assets, and told investors that the company would continue to invest “first in cryptocurrencies.”
Across individual categories, exchanges attracted the most capital during CryptoRank’s six-month period, raising around $2.5 billion. Prediction markets followed with about $1.9 billion, while payments took in about $1.6 billion, and AI projects raised about $1.3 billion.
Blockchain companies raised nearly $767 million, according to the Cryptorank category, while infrastructure projects took in $533 million. Mining and computing companies attracted $433 million, followed by brokerage firms with $393 million, and real asset projects with $340 million.
Geographically, the US remained the most active jurisdiction for crypto venture capital with 249 projects over the past six months, CryptoRank data shows. The United Kingdom followed with 67 projects, while Singapore recorded 57 projects, China 32 and Japan 30. Canada accounted for 16 projects, compared to 14 projects in the United Arab Emirates and 12 projects in the Seychelles.
DeFi finance has fallen behind competing cryptocurrency sectors
DeFi projects raised approximately $654 million during the six-month period, placing the sector behind exchanges, prediction markets, payments, artificial intelligence, and blockchain in the CryptoRank category table. The total also shows that DeFi has continued to receive capital even as its position within the project market has weakened.
Quarterly data from CryptoRank shows that venture capital investment in DeFi has declined for three consecutive quarters. The latest quarterly amount fell to its lowest level since Q4 2023, while the number of DeFi funding rounds in Q2 2026 fell to its lowest level since 2020.
CryptoRank figures suggest that investors are becoming more selective when backing DeFi companies, with fewer projects securing funding despite continued activity elsewhere in the cryptocurrency market. At the same time, the concentration of funds in exchanges, prediction markets and payments shows where investors committed the largest amounts during the measured period.
The latest numbers leave the overall cryptocurrency market active but mixed. Monthly CryptoRank data shows that capital can still rise quickly when large deals close, while a declining number of deals and weak DeFi funding indicate intensifying competition among early-stage projects.
