Venture Capital Pours $527M into Crypto Startups.

Infrastructure sector dominates with over $420 million raised, highlighting significant VC interest.

Venture capital funds injected a substantial $527 million into crypto startups in July, marking a 14.5% increase year over year, according to DefiLlama data. The blockchain infrastructure sector emerged as the dominant player, securing $420.7 million, nearly 80% of the total capital raised.

Leading the infrastructure investments was Sentient, an AI protocol, which raised $85 million in a round led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures. Partior, a blockchain payment network, followed closely with $60 million from JPMorgan and Standard Chartered.

DeFi protocols also attracted significant investment, with $86 million raised. Notable among these was Lombard, a Bitcoin restaking protocol, which secured $16 million. Additionally, ZAP, a community-driven token distribution protocol, garnered $15 million from prominent figures such as Luca Netz, Sandeep Nailwal, and Alex Krüger.

The Layer-1 blockchain Monad's DeFi ecosystem also saw significant VC interest. Liquid staking protocols Kintsu and aPriori raised $4 million and $10 million, respectively, while Kuru secured $2 million for building a decentralized orderbook.

The blockchain gaming sector wrapped up July's funding with $20.5 million. Cambria, a Runescape-inspired game on the Blast network, received $2.5 million from Bitkraft and 1kx. Additionally, NPC Labs, a protocol building a blockchain ecosystem, received $18 million from Pantera Capital and Mantle Ecosystem Fund.

This surge in funding reflects a vibrant VC interest in crypto this year. From January to July 2022, crypto startups raised $4.22 billion, while this year saw nearly $5 billion raised in the same period.

photo source / Blockonome