Venture capital injects $527 million into crypto startups in July News ▸ US ▸ Bitcoin ▸ Investments
Venture capital injects $527 million into crypto startups in July
The infrastructure sector raised over $420 million, dominating nearly 80% of all capital raised last month.
1 min read
Updated: Aug. 6, 2024 at 10:59 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Venture capital funds (VC) invested $527 million into crypto startups in July, up 14.5% year over year, according to DefiLlama data.
The blockchain infrastructure sector raised $420.7 million last month, and its startups contributed the largest amount, representing nearly 80% of the total.
Artificial intelligence (AI) protocol Sentient secured $85 million in a round led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures, making it the most successful round among blockchain infrastructure projects.
Blockchain payment network Partior raised a significant amount of $60 million from traditional banking giants JPMorgan and Standard Chartered. Thus, only 2 out of 41 infrastructure-related funding rounds accounted for roughly 34% of the amount raised.
DeFi protocols received $86 million in investments in July. Bitcoin restaking protocol Lombard raised $16 million, registering the largest amount raised by a DeFi project last month.
ZAP, a community-driven protocol for token distribution based on Blast, raised $15 million from notorious crypto names such as Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, and economist Alex Krüger.
Notably, the DeFi ecosystem of Layer-1 blockchain Monad received significant attention from VCs in July. Kintsu and aPriori, both liquid staking protocols, raised $4 million and $10 million, respectively. Additionally, Kuru received $2 million to build a decentralized orderbook on top of Monad’s infrastructure.
The blockchain gaming ecosystem also captured capital from venture capital funds last month, wrapping up July’s funding rounds with $20.5 million raised.
Cambria, a Runescape-inspired game on Blast network, received $2.5 million from Bitkraft and 1kx.
Furthermore, Pantera Capital, Mantle Ecosystem Fund, and other high-profile names have allocated $18 million to NPC Labs, a protocol building a blockchain ecosystem.
VC interest in crypto is more vibrant this year compared to last year. From January to July last year, crypto startups raised $4.22 billion from funds, while this year, the same period saw crypto projects raise nearly $5 billion.
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Author 
Gino Matos
Gino Matos is a law school graduate and a seasoned journalist with six years of experience in the crypto industry. His expertise primarily focuses on the Brazilian blockchain ecosystem and developments in decentralized finance (DeFi).
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Blast
$0.00953
Blast is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution that uniquely offers native yield for both ETH and stablecoins.
Polygon Labs
Polygon Labs develops Ethereum scaling solutions for Polygon protocols.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co is a global leader in financial services, offering solutions to the world’s most important corporations, governments, and institutions in more than 100 countries.
Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital is an investment firm focused exclusively on ventures, tokens, and projects related to blockchain tech, digital currency, and crypto assets..
Sandeep Nailwal is the co-founder of the Polygon Network.
Alex Krüger is an economist, technical analyst, cryptocurrency trader and founder of Aike Capital.