Crypto dealbook: October funding reaches $436.9 million as Strive raises $208 million

Crypto ventures raised $436.9 million across 27 rounds in October, led by Strive’s $208 million deal, while API, payments and artificial intelligence drew the largest shares of capital.

October funding totaled $436.9 million across 27 investment rounds as of Oct. 18.

CryptoRank data covering Oct. 1 through Oct. 18 showed 27 rounds with aggregate funding of $436.9 million.

Crypto venture funding ended September at $680.5 million across 52 rounds, following $1.59 billion from 62 rounds in August.

Strive completed the week’s largest round at $208 million, accounting for about 89% of disclosed funding from Oct. 12 through Oct. 18.

Oct. 12 Efforce (undisclosed/M&A/TROOPS)

Oct. 13 Strive ($208 million/Post-IPO/investors undisclosed); Bluvo (undisclosed/M&A/Mesh); EFY Finance (undisclosed/seed/Tether)

Oct. 14 Zaria ($5.2 million/seed/Lightspeed and others)

Oct. 15 Fission ($10 million/Series A/Pantera Capital and others); Multiliquid ($8 million/seed/Polychain Capital and others); Spout Finance ($2 million/strategic/Anatoly Yakovenko and others); Farcaster (undisclosed/M&A/Network School); AIsa (undisclosed/extended seed/HIVEN and Tether)

Investment activity over the latest 30-day period fell 30% from the previous month, indicating a broader slowdown in dealmaking.

The period recorded 65 investment rounds, down 27.8% month over month. Total investment reached about $1.13 billion, a decline of 75.8%.

The typical round size ranged from $1 million to $3 million, while M&A was the most active stage. Payments were the main area of investment focus.

Over the past six months, API accounted for the largest investment share at 29.19%, followed by payments at 20.10%, artificial intelligence at 20.10%, data services at 15.31% and RWA at 15.31%.

The most active investors during the same period were Coinbase Ventures and YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), with 29 deals each, followed by Animoca Brands with 16, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto) with 15, Circle and SBI Holdings with 11 each, and Amber Group with nine.

This article is based on market data and analysis and does not constitute investment advice.