VC funding for crypto startups soars to $634M in August

Venture capital (VC) funds invested $634 million in crypto startups in August — up 15% from July, based on DefiLlama data.

Projects focusing on blockchain infrastructure secured nearly $460 million in funding, accounting for 72% of the total raised by crypto startups last month.

PIP Labs conducted the most successful funding round among infrastructure projects, receiving $80 million to develop its intellectual property-focused blockchain network Story. The Series B round was led by a16z, with the participation of Polychain Capital and digital artist Cozomo de' Medici.

Bridge, a platform for stablecoin issuance and transactions, raised roughly $58 million in a private round led by Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, and Haun Ventures.

DeFi

The DeFi sector received nearly $129 million for its projects, roughly 50% more than the amount of capital received in July.

This significant increase was mainly driven by Morpho Labs, which secured $50 million from investors such as Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Variant Fund, and Pantera Capital. Morpho is a decentralized cross-chain lending application compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Duelnow, a decentralized sports-betting platform, raised $11 million in the second-largest DeFi-related funding round to foster its growth in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Gaming

The web3 gaming ecosystem saw VC money flow more than double between July and August, with more than $43 million raised last month.

Gameplay Galaxy, the developer of the biking game Trial Xtreme, raised $11 million in a Seed+ round last month. This is the most relevant blockchain gaming funding round of the period, with Blockchain Capital and Merit Circle participating.

The gamer-focused ecosystem Moonveil also captured considerable investment in the blockchain gaming ecosystem last month. Players such as HashKey Capital, The Spartan Group, and Animoca Ventures invested $9 million in the project.