2024 Web3 Investment and Financing Annual Report: Total Financing Exceeds 10 Billion USD, AI Sector Accounts for 30% of Billion-Level Financing

Author: aididiaojp.eth, Foresight News

According to Foresight Wiki statistics, a total of 979 investment and financing cases in the cryptocurrency industry have been recorded in 2024, including 354 cases in tools and infrastructure, 196 cases in the DeFi sector, 112 cases in asset management, and 137 cases in blockchain games and NFTs, with a disclosed total investment amount of approximately $11.583 billion. The total disclosed investment amount is flat compared to last year, while the number of financing cases in the DeFi sector has significantly increased, with a year-on-year growth of 37%.

In 2024, there were 17 financing cases exceeding $100 million, including 6 in the AI sector. The ten noteworthy projects are as follows:

• Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has raised $5 billion, reaching a valuation of $45 billion.
• Mixed reality startup Magic Leap recently received a $590 million investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, as Magic Leap enters the metaverse market.
• The "Network State" project Praxis announced the completion of $525 million in financing, with participation from GEM Digital and others. Praxis claims to be the world's first network state, an internet-native alliance aimed at accelerating technological progress and revitalizing Western civilization. Over 14,000 Praxians reside in 82 countries/regions.
• Monad Labs completed $225 million in financing, led by Paradigm. Monad Labs aims to enhance the performance of the Ethereum Virtual Machine by introducing parallel execution and superscalar pipeline technology through its parallel EVM Layer1 project Monad, addressing the low throughput issues of existing EVM-compatible blockchains.
• Bitcoin infrastructure development company Blockstream announced the completion of $210 million in convertible note financing, led by Fulgur Ventures. Blockstream will accelerate the adoption and development of its Layer2 technology, expand its mining business, and increase its Bitcoin reserves.
• Decentralized social protocol Farcaster completed $150 million in financing, led by Paradigm. Farcaster will focus primarily on daily active user growth and adding developer primitives such as channels and direct messaging to the protocol.
• Cryptocurrency investment platform Public completed $135 million in equity and debt financing, led by Accel. Public will enhance the AI capabilities of the Public platform.
• Digital asset management firm ParaFi Capital completed $120 million in financing, with participation from Theta Capital Management and others. ParaFi Capital plans to acquire stakes in other crypto funds focused on specific niches, strategies, or regions, aiming to build a portfolio of 30 to 50 such funds over the next 3 to 5 years.
• Layer1 public chain Berachain completed $100 million in Series B financing, led by Framework Ventures and others. Berachain claims that its current blockchain test version has processed 100 million transactions, and the platform aims to be compatible with applications based on the Ethereum blockchain.
• HashKey Group announced the completion of nearly $100 million in Series A financing at a valuation exceeding $1.2 billion. HashKey Group will deepen its full-ecosystem layout in the virtual asset industry, accelerate the diversification of licensed business products in Hong Kong, and promote the group's compliant and innovative development globally.

There were 100 financing cases in the tens of millions, with 22 cases disclosing financing amounts of $50 million and above. The ten noteworthy projects are as follows:

• The core contributor team of the on-chain IP protocol Story, PIP Labs, announced the completion of $80 million in Series B financing, led by a16z Crypto.
• The Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon completed $70 million in financing, led by Paradigm.
• Modular blockchain Eclipse completed $50 million in Series A financing, led by Placeholder and Hack VC. Eclipse has launched its mainnet and has released development and testnet versions of its protocol, with multiple DApps testing its infrastructure.
• DeFi lending protocol Morpho completed $50 million in strategic round financing, led by Ribbit Capital.
• Cryptography company Zama completed $73 million in Series A financing, led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs. Zama will continue to research and develop its FHE tools.
• Cryptocurrency market maker Flowdesk completed $50 million in Series B financing, with participation from Cathay Innovation, Ripple, Bpifrance, and others. This round of financing has valued Flowdesk at over $250 million. Flowdesk plans to use this round of financing to further expand its global business, focusing on expansion in Singapore and the United States, and to establish a new office in London.
• Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo announced the completion of $75 million in financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funds from this round will primarily be used to accelerate the development of its AI chat platform Poe, with most of the funds expected to be paid to the creators of bots on the platform through its creator monetization program.
• U.S. fintech company Figure Technologies completed $60 million in Series A financing, announcing the establishment of an independent company called Figure Markets, which will develop a platform for investors to trade various blockchain-native assets, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, and alternative investments. The new trading platform will use the Provenance blockchain.
• Cross-border payment and settlement blockchain company Partior completed $80 million in Series B financing, with Deutsche Bank participating.
• ZK proof startup Succinct Labs completed $55 million in a new round of financing, led by Paradigm.

In terms of institutions, ranked by the number of disclosed investments in 2024, the top ten institutions are OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Polychain Capital, Foresight Ventures, a16z, Big Brain Holdings, Robot Ventures, HashKey Capital, Hack VC, Spartan Group, Bankless Ventures, GSR Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CMS Holdings, and SevenX Ventures. The specific number of investments and amounts are as follows:

• OKX Ventures invested a total of 50 times, with 10 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Portal, ether.fi, Taiko, Myshell, CARV, Movement Labs, Cysic, Goplus Security, Solv Protocol, and Mocaverse.
• Animoca Brands invested a total of 48 times, with 15 projects in the tens of millions and above, including io.net, Polyhedra Network, peaq, XION, Monad, Puffer Finance, Shiba Inu, Lava, Humanity, Goplus Security, Bondex, Redacted Cartel, Balance, Mawari Network, Gelato, and Sapien.
• Polychain Capital invested a total of 37 times, with 17 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Aitlayer, Monkey Tilt, Eclipse, Polyhedra, dappOS, Berachain, Movement Labs, Botanix Labs, Babylon, ORA, Pi Squared, Lombard, Sahara AI, Story Protocol, Yellow Card, Bitfinity, and Hyperbolic.
• Foresight Ventures invested a total of 36 times, with 17 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Overworld, ether.fi, io.net, Morph, Myshell, Gomble Games, IoTeX, Avalon, Movement Labs, Avail, Fhenix, Sentient, Lombard, Sahara AI, Pin AI, Noble, and Lens Protocol.
• a16z invested a total of 35 times, with 18 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Ouora, Doppel, Espresso Systems, MyPriz, Kiosk, Farcaster, xAI, Neynar, Tapi, Morpho, Story Protocol, SSI, Balance, Pin AI, Exowatt, Azra Games, Opacity Network, and Vlayer.
• Big Brain Holdings invested a total of 34 times, with 11 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Overworld, Utila, Parallel, Gomble Games, Monad, Shiba Inu, Sonic, MegaETH, Essential, Solayer, and Hemi Labs.
• Robot Ventures invested a total of 34 times, with 11 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Backpack, Succinct Labs, Alpen Labs, Movement Labs, Nuffle Labs, Conduit, MegaETH, Sentient, Pi Squared, Celestia, and Delta.
• HashKey Capital invested a total of 33 times, with 13 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Overworld, Polyhedra Network, mystiko, Seeds Labs, Cysic, Avail, Goplus Security, Particle Network, ORA, Sentient, Huma Finance, Mento, and Nillion.
• Hack VC invested a total of 32 times, with 16 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Aitlayer, Monkey Tilt, io.net, Eclipse, Mezo, Berachain, Movement Labs, Fhenix, Sentient, Solayer, Pin AI, Variational, Gelato, Nillion, Exabits, and Spicenet.
• Spartan Group invested a total of 30 times, with 10 projects in the tens of millions and above, including Overworld, MetaCene, Morph, Peaq, Parallel, Centrifuge, Particle Network, Redacted Cartel, RedStone, and Essential.

In terms of cryptocurrency funds, a total of 23 cryptocurrency funds were announced in 2024, including:

• Uncorrelated Ventures raised a new fund of $315 million, with 20% allocated to support crypto startups.
• LayerZero partnered with a16z and others to launch the lzCatalyst program, incentivizing participating funds to invest $300 million in LayerZero integrated projects.
• Cryptocurrency venture capital Hack VC raised a new fund of $150 million, with about one-third already deployed.
• Immutable, King River Capital, and Polygon Labs plan to raise $100 million for a new Web3 gaming fund.
• Web3Port established a $100 million fund, the Web3Port Foundation.
• Bonfire Union, a venture capital under Mask Network, will launch its second fund, currently raising a total of $100 million.
• CMT Digital is raising $150 million for its fourth fund.
• Tiger Global's new venture capital fund completed $2.2 billion in fundraising, the smallest amount raised in nearly a decade.
• Hypersphere launched a $130 million liquidity fund, Atlas, and plans to raise an additional $75 million.
• Borderless Capital launched a $100 million DePIN fund.
• Former Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares founded Crucible Capital, planning to launch two new funds totaling $75 million.
• Solana accelerator Colosseum raised $60 million and has invested in 11 projects.
• Cryptomeria Capital plans to launch a $50 million Web3 venture capital fund.
• Pantera Capital completed $20 million in financing, intending to double its support for the TON blockchain ecosystem.
• VanEck launched a $30 million venture capital fund to support cryptocurrency and AI.
• Morph and Foresight Ventures jointly launched a $20 million ecosystem fund.
• Foresight Ventures, MEXC Ventures, and Mirana Ventures established a fund for the expansion of the Aptos ecosystem.
• Frictionless Capital has raised $20 million to invest in the blockchain sector.
• Figment Capital completed strategic round financing.
• CDP Venture Capital launched an accelerator program, Frontech Accelerator, with a scale of €7 million.
• Cryptocurrency venture capital Contango raised $5 million to invest in startups at the intersection of AI and blockchain.
• Venture capital firm AgileGTM established a $10 million B2B blockchain accelerator fund.
• Asymmetry plans to raise $21 million for a new fund focused on the blockchain sector.