[Crypto Dealbook] October funding reaches $730.1 million as Strive takes 71% of weekly capital

Crypto venture funding has reached $730.1 million across 37 rounds in October. Strive led the week's disclosed deals with a $630 million raise, while API, payments and artificial intelligence topped the sector allocation figures.

October's cumulative funding total stands at $730.1 million from 37 rounds.

The October tally compares with $680.5 million across 52 rounds in September and $1.59 billion across 62 rounds in August.

Strive's $630 million post-IPO financing was the largest round for October 19–25, accounting for 71% of the week's disclosed funding.

October 19 AptPay: undisclosed amount, M&A, KORT Payments; Blocksight: undisclosed amount, M&A, OpenWorld; Lighthouse.storage: undisclosed amount, strategic investment, Kinetic Kollective (prev. CSP DAO), SMAPE Capital and Walrus Foundation.

October 20 Strive: $630 million, post-IPO, investors undisclosed; Mural: $15 million, Series A, led by Tether with other investors; HoneyB: $5 million, seed, led by Portal Ventures and PEER VC, with Anchorage Digital participating; Hylo: $1 million, strategic investment, led by Solana Ventures with other investors; Z.com EX: undisclosed amount, M&A, Bitget.

October 21 Whop: $200 million, Series D, led by Sequoia Capital with Shopify Ventures participating; Erebor: $30 million, undisclosed stage, Robinhood; Dataline: $10.6 million, seed, led by Lattice and Dispersion Capital with other investors; Peso: undisclosed amount, pre-seed, led by Tether.

October 22 Sonic: undisclosed amount, OTC purchase, investors undisclosed.

October 23 Zeal: undisclosed amount, M&A, ether.fi; SwapGlobal: undisclosed amount and stage, Kenzoll Capital, Marcel Boekhoorn and W Group.

October 24 BTCBOX: undisclosed amount, M&A, RedotPay.

The investment activity index for the latest 30-day period fell 32% from the previous month, indicating slower deal activity.

The period recorded 62 investment rounds, down 20.5% month over month. Total investment was approximately $1.76 billion, a decline of 38.4%.

Average round size was in the $1 million–$3 million range. M&A was the most active deal stage, while payments was the main investment focus.

Over the past six months, API held the largest sector share at 29.60%, followed by payments at 21.52%, artificial intelligence at 19.73%, developer tools at 14.80% and data services at 14.35%.

Coinbase Ventures led investor activity over the same period with 30 deals, followed by YZi Labs (Prev. Binance Labs) with 29, a16z Frontier with 15 and Animoca Brands with 13. Circle, Tether and SBI Holdings each recorded 11 deals.