AI

Analyst: Historical data shows that venture capital prefers AI over cryptocurrency

ChainCatcher news, CoinDesk analyst Sam Reynolds stated that according to Pitchbook data, venture capital financing in the U.S. cryptocurrency sector was approximately $861 million in the first quarter of 2025, while the AI industry attracted nearly $20 billion, with funding still clearly leaning towards artificial intelligence. Major financing in the AI sector includes: Databricks $15.3 billion, Anthropic $2 billion, totaling 795 transactions. The largest financing in the cryptocurrency industry was Abu Dhabi MGX's investment of $2 billion in Binance, with other financings including Mesh $82 million, Bitwise $70 million, and Sygnum Bank $58 million.Historical data shows that AI financing grew from $670 million in 2011 to $36 billion in 2020, with an overall growth rate far exceeding that of the cryptocurrency sector, where in 2021, a classification adjustment briefly caused cryptocurrency financing to surpass AI. Despite the dominance of AI funding, the cryptocurrency industry still obtains funds through unique mechanisms such as airdrops, which generated a total of $700 million from the top 11 airdrops from 2020 to 2024.According to Statista data, historical data shows that venture capital has generally favored artificial intelligence (AI) over cryptocurrencies, with funding for AI and machine learning continuing to grow and expand exponentially, increasing from $670 million in 2011 to $36 billion in 2020.
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