RootData 2025 Web3 Industry Annual Report

Author: RootData Research

01. Market & Financing

From Optimism to Correction, BTC Declines Behind Gold and Tech Stocks

In 2025, the cryptocurrency industry experienced a pivotal year influenced by multiple factors such as macroeconomics, geopolitics, and technological innovation, transitioning from extreme volatility to institutional transformation. Bitcoin's market value fell (-8%) in 2025, underperforming against gold (+53%) and NVDA (+30%), with an annual market value volatility of 63% (peaking at $2.62T and dropping to a low of $1.60T). Overall, investors in 2025 should be wary of geopolitical and hacking risks, prioritizing compliant and transparent crypto assets to capture long-term value.

At the beginning of the year, Trump's inauguration sparked a brief wave of optimism, leading to the launch of celebrity meme coins like $TRUMP, driving social trends and entertainment waves, but also exacerbating asset bubbles. The rise of the DAT concept became a model for corporate Bitcoin treasury management (e.g., MicroStrategy holding over 3% of supply). The "1011 crash" magnified the supply issues in the crypto space, with leveraged liquidations exceeding $19 billion, causing Bitcoin to drop from a peak of $126,000 to a low of around $90,000, impacted by tariffs and other macro shocks.

The compliance theme ran throughout the year: Circle successfully IPO'd, pushing stablecoins closer to traditional finance; institutions accelerated their entry, with JPMorgan exploring crypto trading products and Vanguard allowing retail purchases of BTC, positioning Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset. However, BTC reached an all-time high for the year but did not outperform gold and silver, exposing limitations under inflationary pressures.

DeFi's older protocols optimized governance: Aave/Uniswap improved risk adjustments and fee mechanisms to enhance sustainability; Ethereum's Pectra (May) and Fusaka (December) upgrades significantly improved scalability and security. AI integration shifted from meme/agent narratives to infrastructure and multi-agent applications, marking a transition from speculation to practicality.

Structural Divergence in Primary Financing Market: Large Financing Drives New Highs, but Early Projects Continue to Clear Out

Overview of Web3 Primary Market Financing

According to RootData statistics, the cryptocurrency primary market completed a total of $22.73 billion in financing (excluding Post-IPO and debt financing) in 2025, a 120.6% increase from 2024. The average financing amount reached $30.6 million, up 234.7% year-on-year. The median financing amount was $6.1 million, an increase of 46.5% year-on-year. In terms of the number of financing events, there were a total of 933 events throughout the year, a decrease of 40.3% from last year, averaging 77 events per month. Notably, merger and acquisition events reached 173, a 57.2% increase from 2024, setting a new historical high.

Overall, while the financing amount reached a three-year high, this growth does not indicate a comprehensive market recovery. The increase in financing scale throughout the year was primarily driven by large financings from a few leading projects like Polymarket and Binance, with capital highly concentrated in projects with strong certainty and high scalability.

At the same time, the number of financing projects continued to decline, reaching a five-year low, and the monthly financing event count showed a nearly unidirectional downward trend, indicating a continued deterioration in the financing environment for early and small to medium-sized projects. The structural characteristic of capital "converging to the head and shrinking at the tail" became increasingly evident, with the primary market still in a deep clearing phase, showing no widespread signs of cyclical recovery.

Financing Events Over $1 Billion

IPO Window Concentrated in Q3, November M&A Wave Signals Accelerated Industry Consolidation in 2026

Looking at the monthly timeline, 2025 exhibited a clear rhythm of "IPO concentration in Q3, M&A explosion in Q4," reflecting the strategic path of crypto companies "first listing for financing, then integrating and expanding":

• IPO/Post-IPO activities peaked from July to September, accounting for 72% of the year's total: July, August, and September saw peaks of $4.7 billion, $3.8 billion, and $4.27 billion, respectively, totaling $12.77 billion in Q3, during which BTC prices surged, and market KOL rounds and investment sentiment were high. In contrast, the first half of the year was relatively stable (approximately $4.67 billion from January to June), indicating that the IPO window concentrated in the second half of the year.
• M&A saw explosive growth in November, accounting for 59% of the year's total in a single month: November alone accounted for $10.7 billion (59% of the total $18.11 billion in M&A), triggered by South Korean search engine giant Naver's acquisition of Upbit's holding company Dunamu. In contrast, M&A steadily grew in the first half of the year (approximately $6.07 billion from January to June), with the November surge reflecting accelerated industry consolidation in 2026, as leading companies rapidly expanded market share through acquisitions.
• Private, public, and community rounds peaked at $500 million in July, coinciding with the IPO window.

IPO/Pre-IPO/ICO project teams completed large OTC trades in Q2-Q3 to pave the way for subsequent listings/market making/exits. Combined with OTC market data, the active institutional M&A/debt/strategic financing suggests that the consolidation trend will continue into the first half of 2026, with leading industry capital operations creating an ecological moat. Small to medium projects face the choice of "either being acquired or being eliminated," as the crypto market enters a "big fish eats small fish" consolidation cycle.

CeFi Leads Strongly with $27.12 Billion, Average Single Financing is 8.7 Times That of Infrastructure

In 2025, financing in the sector was extremely polarized, with CeFi capturing nearly half of the market, while Web3 native sectors became collectively marginalized:

• CeFi: $27.12 billion (160 deals, average single financing of $169.5 million), with a gap of 8.7 times compared to the average single financing of infrastructure, indicating that CeFi continued to absorb capital flows both inside and outside the market under the influence of ETF compliance and the U.S. "Big and Beautiful" bill, favoring cash flow-friendly CeFi and RWA.
• Infrastructure: $7.15 billion (369 deals, average single financing of $19.4 million), with the highest number of transactions (32.1%) but only accounting for 12.4% of the total financing, indicating that native funds in the market are still concentrated on early-stage infrastructure investments.
• DeFi: $6.19 billion (281 deals, average single financing of $22 million), stable but with slowing growth, positioned between CeFi and infrastructure.
• Tools & Information Services: $1.73 billion (87 deals), showing fatigue in investment enthusiasm and total amount.
• Marginalized Sectors: Gaming $247 million, NFT + DAO + Social Entertainment only $200 million (totaling $50 million).

The timeline distribution reveals CeFi's steady growth throughout the year, while infrastructure and DeFi entered a mature phase:

• CeFi maintained stable output, with total financing of $13.80 billion in H2 (50.9% of the second half), with financing windows throughout the year, unaffected by seasonal trends.
• Infrastructure and DeFi entered a mature phase: monthly averages of approximately $6 million and $5 million, respectively, with even distribution throughout the year and no significant peaks, making financing rhythms predictable.

Institutional Activity Dominates 2025, Traditional VC Rounds Shrink in Proportion

*Rootdata's website statistics do not include M&A/Post-IPO data, which may lead to discrepancies with this data

Market funds are concentrating towards institutionalization and scaling, with institutional activity outpacing traditional VC by a ratio of 8.4 times, with significant differentiation in various rounds:

Traditional Institutions/Exchanges/Strategic/Whale Markets (M&A/IPO/Debt/Strategic) totaled $42.7 billion, accounting for 74.3%.

• M&A: $18.11 billion (169 deals, average $107 million)
• IPO/Post-IPO/ICO: $17.72 billion (61 deals, average $290 million)
• Debt Financing: $4.02 billion (13 deals, average $309 million)

Crypto Native VCs (Seed to C Round) only accounted for $5.07 billion, or 8.8%.

• Seed Round: $1.54 billion (279 deals, average $5.5 million)
• A Round: $1.74 billion (94 deals, average $18.6 million)
• B Round and above: $1.82 billion (34 deals)

Early-stage investment in the industry continues to shrink, with the DAT boom catalyzing debt financing as a new path for large capital. Mining companies and DAT firms are expanding their main crypto assets like BTC/ETH strategies through bond financing, gaining recognition in traditional securities markets.

Crypto VC Landscape: Analysis of Top Institutions' Joint Investment Networks and Leading Investment Capabilities

Joint Investment and Leading Investment Situations of Top VCs

Throughout the year, VC investment shifted focus towards AI blockchain, DeFi, and institutional-level applications and infrastructure (mainly through M&A), rather than early-stage speculation. Key characteristics include:

• High Degree of Joint Investment: Coinbase Ventures jointly invested 40, 41, and 42 times with a16z, Dragonfly, Polychain, and Pantera, respectively, while Polychain and a16z jointly invested 29 times. This indicates that risk-sharing and resource-sharing have become mainstream, with top VCs preferring to form "alliances" to avoid single exposure. Late-stage investments in 2025 accounted for over 50%, with joint efforts aiding large rounds (e.g., infrastructure projects like Berachain and Tempo).
• Significant Differentiation in Leading Investment Capabilities: a16z led the most rounds (147), reflecting its strong position and high-confidence investment style. Emerging/specialized firms like Alliance and Maelstrom led few rounds (4), relying on joint efforts.
• Formation of Core Clusters: Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Dragonfly, and Pantera formed a tight network, often collaborating. A few giants dominate the flow, while smaller VCs (like YZi Labs and Founders Fund) enter quality deals through collaboration.

The dominance of leading institutions like a16z, Polychain, and Paradigm in leading investments further reinforces the trend of industry resources skewing towards a few specialized players. This aligns closely with the market's shift from meme speculation to practical value, as improved regulatory environments and institutional capital influx prompt VCs to abandon retail-style strategies in favor of deep collaboration to support DeFi optimization and AI agent applications. Ultimately, this professional alliance model not only buffers market volatility but also paves the way for an AI-DeFi innovation wave in 2026 under a backdrop of Federal Reserve easing, advancing the crypto ecosystem towards a more robust institutional phase.

02. Compliance & Transparency

The Transparency Revolution in the Crypto Industry: From Ideological Discussion to Systematic Practice Stage

In recent years, compliance and transparency have become the most prominent themes in the crypto industry. The industry has officially transitioned from early discussions on "why transparency is important" to the practical stage of "how to systematically achieve financial-grade transparency."

Since April 2025, RootData has taken the lead in rigorously verifying and publicly disclosing the core financing data of the platform on a monthly basis, having disclosed over 20 instances of false financing information, including well-known projects and institutions such as Balance, ACM+, and influencers related to Web3Port. This action not only exposes the long-standing issue of "false financing" in the industry but also provides investors with verifiable reference standards, significantly enhancing the credibility of financing information.

In unlocking data transparency, RootData has mobilized the community and professional researchers to tackle the industry's most stubborn data opacity issues through high-reward activities and USDT incentive mechanisms, successfully promoting the public and standardization of several key on-chain and off-chain data.

In terms of calendar event transparency, the platform fully leverages the power of community users, compelling project parties to timely and accurately disclose milestone progress and key events through collective supervision and feedback mechanisms, significantly reducing instances of "empty promises" and delays.

RootData's exchange rankings aim to collaborate with exchanges to build a compliant and trustworthy trading ecosystem

In the future, RootData will introduce more innovative measures focused on transparency, including deeper on-chain data verification tools, project governance information disclosure standards, and cross-platform information sharing mechanisms. We believe that only by establishing compliance and transparency as the foundation can the crypto industry truly gain mainstream recognition and achieve a leap from marginal innovation to global financial infrastructure.

Research on Exchange Leadership Adjustments: Strategic Shift from Regulatory Compliance to Global Expansion

The personnel changes in exchanges in 2025 mark the crypto industry's transition from "barbaric growth" to maturity, influenced by regulatory easing and market recovery. The reasons for these changes are primarily compliance policies and business expansion, rather than large-scale restructuring. Major platforms like Coinbase and OKX saw the most changes, indicating their consolidation of industry-leading positions.

• Strengthening Regulatory Compliance and Legal Roles: This was the most significant trend in 2025, influenced by changes in the global regulatory environment (e.g., the Trump administration easing crypto regulations, CFTC authority expansion, and new SEC regulations). OKX replaced its chief legal officer and appointed a vice president for global government relations; Coinbase appointed a global regulatory affairs director and general counsel; Binance's legal head departed. This indicates that exchanges prioritize hiring or adjusting compliance experts to address policy uncertainties and prepare for potential lawsuits or compliance audits.
• Geographical and Market Expansion Orientation: Several exchanges promoted internationalization through regional leadership appointments, particularly in North America and Latin America. Kraken appointed a general manager for North America, OKX established a CEO for its U.S. branch, and Bybit hired a country manager for Latin America. At the same time, the roles related to institutional business increased (e.g., Gemini's institutional business head, OKX's U.S. institutional head), indicating that exchanges are targeting high-value institutional clients.
• Marketing, Product, and Operational Optimization: Frequent changes related to marketing occurred, such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitget appointing chief marketing officers or vice presidents of marketing, aiming to enhance brand exposure and user growth. Internal promotions and acquisitions (e.g., Coinbase acquiring talent through Opyn) were also common, reflecting improved operational efficiency. The departure of Kraken's institutional executive, accompanied by layoffs, points to cost control and IPO preparations (planned for 2026).
• Leadership Stabilization and Diversification: The appointment of He Yi as co-CEO of Binance is a landmark event, possibly aimed at diversifying risk and strengthening the founding team's influence. Overall, there has been a slight increase in the representation of women and diversity in executive positions, such as Coinbase's COO Emilie Choi and CMO Catherine Ferdon.

Looking ahead to 2026, as potential policies are further implemented (e.g., full implementation of MiCA and U.S. market structure legislation), it is expected that compliance roles will continue to dominate changes.

03. Ecosystem & Sectors

CeFi Ecosystem Accounts for 61.6%, Crypto Market Splits into "TradFi" and "Crypto Native"

Financing in segmented sectors is concentrating towards the head, with 14 sectors exceeding $1 billion attracting $108.9 billion, where the top three CeFi/public companies/CEX monopolize 63.2% of the total financing, while 24 sectors exceeding $1 billion and below $100 million only attracted $7.3 billion, with an average financing gap of 25.6 times between the head and tail. Data shows that the influx of hot money continues to flow towards regulatory-friendly, cash-flow-clear TradFi projects, showing little concern for the financing difficulties of crypto-native innovations.

The acceleration of "TradFi" sees CeFi + CEX + digital asset services + asset management monopolizing $67.1 billion, which is 29 times that of DeFi. At the same time, the BTC reserve strategy of Strategy is being replicated, with mining companies shifting from "mining and selling coins" to "holding coins for listing," reconstructing valuation logic. Public companies ranked second with $18.9 billion, with 56 financings confirming the new trend of "Nasdaq exit > token exit," and the crypto IPO window is expected to synchronize with the securities bull market.

The prediction market is emerging as a dark horse, ranking seventh with $3.7 billion, rapidly capturing the market of compliant gambling + RWA under the catalyst of the "presidential election." Polymarket has proven the successful path of "on-chain + regulatory arbitrage."

RootData segmented sector financing data - 2025 greater than total financing $1B

Crypto-native sector innovations and financing are severely disconnected:

• DeFi ranked tenth with only $2.3 billion, a 16-fold gap from CeFi, and the divergence between TVL and financing shows that while DeFi's locked value remains high, VCs are no longer buying into "pure on-chain" and "nested" narratives.
• Layer 1 only attracted $1.2 billion, ranking twelfth, signaling the end of the public chain narrative.
• AI shows "high heat, low concentration": tagged at $1.0 billion, ranking fourteenth, but distributed across multiple tags, indicating that AI is primarily focused on "function enhancement," with investors still betting on yet-to-be-realized AI + X applications.
• Infrastructure, despite having 369 transactions (the highest frequency), only attracted $4.9 billion, ranking fifth, with a "high-frequency small amount" characteristic of an average of $19 million per transaction, indicating that early projects are still laying out but lack large follow-up financing.

"Cash Flow" Becomes the Dominant Narrative, Pragmatism Rises in Mid-Tier Sectors of $100 Million to $1 Billion

The "pragmatism" of mid-tier sectors with total financing between $100 million and $1 billion is noteworthy.

Financial Infrastructure:

• Credit Lending $0.87 billion, RWA $0.81 billion, DEX $0.38 billion, totaling $2.05 billion, with the on-chainization of traditional financial tools continuing to gain momentum alongside the supply of stablecoins on-chain.
• Meme surpassed Layer 2 ($0.16 billion) with $1.04 billion (Launchpad $0.52 billion + MEME $0.52 billion), showing that the crypto-native community's speculative demand outweighs technological innovation and anxiety over CeFi's entry. The celebrity coin wave triggered by Pump.fun and President Trump is worth pondering.
• Privacy & Security totaled $0.77 billion, with compliance demands driven by regulatory pressure supporting technologies like zk and MPC.

In summary, this indicates that the crypto industry is splitting into two parallel universes:

• Investment logic is shifting from "decentralization premium" to "compliance premium," from "technology narrative" to "cash flow narrative," and from "single token economy" to "equity + token dual benefits."
• TradFi-oriented CeFi/public companies dominate capital, while crypto-native DeFi/Layer 1/NFTs are relegated to "technical testing grounds," needing to continuously stitch together new concepts (like RWA, compliant DeFi, prediction markets, AI + Crypto) to secure ongoing financing.
• The pragmatic shift in mid-tier sectors suggests that investment in 2026 will further concentrate on "implementable, revenue-generating, and compliant" projects.

RootData 2025 segmented sector financing data - ($100M < total financing < $1B)

Catalyzed by the U.S. Election, the Prediction Market Sector Explodes

2025 segmented sector financing - Prediction Market

12 projects raised $3.69 billion, with Polymarket and Kalshi monopolizing 98.5% of the financing share.

• Polymarket: $2.15 billion, accounting for 58.3% of the total.
• Kalshi: $1.485 billion, accounting for 40.2% of the total.
• The top players form an absolute monopoly, with a clear gap:
• The third place TCC only raised $15 million, the fourth place Limitless $14 million, and the other eight projects raised less than $10 million.

According to Rootdata's comparison features:

• Polymarket, backed by General Catalyst, Polychain, and Blockchain Capital, has an FDV of $322.72 million and an RD growth index of 1,893 (+0.08%), ranking first.
• Kalshi, backed by Sequoia Capital, Capital G, and Coinbase Ventures, has undisclosed FDV and an RD growth index of 1,601 (-0.04%).
• Limitless, backed by 1confirmation, WAGMI Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures, has an FDV of $589.69K and an RD growth index of 666 (+5.74%), showing the fastest growth.

The prediction market has seen explosive trading volumes driven by the 2024 U.S. election, with Polymarket and Kalshi raising a combined $3.635 billion primarily occurring in 2024-2025. The prediction market, as a model of "compliant gambling + RWA," has gained mainstream capital recognition, with regulatory compliance serving as a moat:

• Polymarket (implicitly approved by U.S. regulators) and Kalshi (CFTC approved) hold absolute advantages.
• The sector's breakout effect provides trading/arbitrage liquidity for the crypto community.
• As the 2024 election concludes, prediction market trading volumes will return to normal, with binary options and competitive events in 2026 becoming "turnaround opportunities" for emerging players.

Currently, under the evident top effect, PM and Kalshi are also actively improving product experiences, market maker depth, and cross-platform integration, while founders of related ecological trading and data monitoring and analysis tools are eager to participate.

PerpDex Sector Financing Reaches $460 Million, Flying Tulip Dominates with $200 Million

2025 segmented sector financing - PerpDex

The perpetual DEX (PerpDex) sector has gained popularity, driven by Hyperliquid's success and CZ's Aster, with a total of 33 projects raising $460 million, showing a concentrated head shape:

• Flying Tulip: $200 million seed round (accounting for 43.2% of the total, 2.9 times that of the second place).
• The top five account for 70.6%: Flying Tulip $200 million, Lighter $68 million, Ostium $20 million, GRVT $19 million, and Roxom $17.9 million.
• Tail projects face financing difficulties: 75.8% of projects raised less than $10 million, with an average of $14 million vs. a median of $5 million.

According to Rootdata's comparison features, PerpDex's performance is severely disconnected from financing disclosure. From RootData's multi-dimensional comparative data, the RD growth index for Lighter is +1.15% over seven days, while Hyperliquid is -0.35%. The RD heat index for Lighter is 379 (+139.87%), far exceeding Hyperliquid's 195 (+18.90%), indicating that projects backed by VCs are beginning to catch up in market attention compared to purely community-driven projects.

• Lighter raised $89 million and has backing from Haun Ventures, Ribbit Capital, with fully disclosed financing information.
• Hyperliquid's financing is undisclosed, but it has generated $66.04 million (+20.48%) in revenue over the past 30 days, maintaining a leading trading volume in the market.
• Aster's financing amount is undisclosed but has support from YZi Labs and Binance founder CZ.

The PerpDex sector exhibits three major characteristics: "less financing, intense competition, and technological differentiation."

• Flying Tulip's exceptional financing may reflect market trust in DeFi pioneer Andre Cronje.
• Hyperliquid's lack of financing disclosure but standing out in the market indirectly confirms that "community-first + zero financing" may be feasible in the PerpDex sector.
• Over 90% of projects raised less than $20 million, indicating that the sector is still in its early stages, and the barrier effect of leading projects may further amplify in 2026.

As more VC-backed projects like Lighter accelerate product iterations, perpetual DEXs will differentiate into "community-driven high trading volume" and "institutionally subsidized high growth," requiring investors to pay attention to multi-dimensional indicators such as recent revenue and RD growth index to assess project potential.

The AI Sector Blooms with a Decentralized Competitive Landscape, Set to Distill the Genuine from the False

2025 segmented sector financing - Top 30 AI

In comparison to PerpDex, the concentration of the top five in the AI sector is only 28% vs. 70% in PerpDex. AI competition is more decentralized, with 88% of projects raising less than $20 million, and an average financing of $10 million > median of $6 million.

The AI sector shows diverse and vertical technological routes, with "a hundred flowers blooming" indicating that its business models have not yet been validated. Investors need to focus on the technical feasibility, token economic models, and practical application scenarios of projects, rather than judging value solely based on the "AI" label.

According to Rootdata's data combined with comparison features:

• Nous Research, driven by research, received the most financing.
• Kite AI raised $33 million, backed by General Catalyst and PayPal Ventures, focusing on AI + Layer 1 + payments.
• Surf raised $15 million, backed by Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures, with an RD growth index of 869 (+0.92%) and an RD heat index of 131 (+32.47%).
• usd.ai raised $13 million, backed by Framework Ventures and YZi Labs, but its RD growth index is 1,100 (-6.17%), possibly affected by market conditions.

"AI + X" has become mainstream, with few pure AI infrastructure projects. As Web2 giants like OpenAI and Google accelerate AI product iterations, Web3 AI projects face the question of whether "decentralized AI training/inference" can establish a premium. 88% of projects raised less than $20 million, with most financing rounds being "unknown," indicating a cautiously optimistic attitude from investors towards AI + Crypto. From the financing round distribution:

• Seed rounds dominate, with 22 projects in the $10-20 million range.
• 64 projects raised less than $10 million, showing a severe deviation in quantity.
• The $30-50 million range is concentrated with Yupp, Kite AI, Numerai, Billions, and 0G, all focused on AI infrastructure or decentralized training directions, reflecting VCs' continued commitment to "AI + crypto" infrastructure.
• World’s OTC financing stands out, possibly benefiting from Sam Altman's endorsement.

In summary, 2026 and beyond will be the year of "distilling the genuine from the false" in the AI sector, with projects that can prove the feasibility of "decentralized AI training/inference" token economics or achieve PMF standing out.

2025 Payment/RWA Sector Accelerates TradFi Integration, Figure Leads

2025 segmented sector financing - Payment/RWA

According to Rootdata's comparison features, the Payment/RWA sector shows a deep integration trend between TradFi and Crypto, with the top three financing recipients being:

• Figure: Highest financing of $987 million, with a total of $1.4 billion raised, supported by traditional tech venture capital and crypto-native VCs, focusing on blockchain financial services + CeFi + lending (CeFi) + real estate.
• Tempo: $500 million backed by well-known VCs like Greenoaks Capital and Sequoia Capital, with an RD heat index of 91 (+43.48%), indicating rapid market attention, possibly due to its Layer 1 attributes and CEO Matt's simultaneous roles as co-founder of Paradigm and board member of Stripe. Notably, Stripe acquired Bridge for $11 billion at the end of 2024 as its stablecoin issuance platform and payment API interface.
• RedotPay: $194 million backed by Goodwater Capital and Pantera Capital, focusing on wallet + payment digital packaging solutions, with an RD heat index of 108 leading the sector. Its founder Michael previously served as vice president of institutional banking at DBS Bank and vice president of energy and offshore business at HSBC.

The Payment/RWA sector exhibits characteristics of "TradFi giants dominating, active M&A integration, and regulatory compliance driving":

• The top five in Payment/RWA have a concentration of 57.5%, positioned between PerpDex and AI, maintaining both head effects and competitive vitality.
• The entry of traditional financial giants is evident: Traditional banks, electronic payment, and Web3 payment giants like Ripple, Stripe, and Paradigm are actively acquiring, indicating that the Payment/RWA sector has become the main battleground for traditional finance to embrace blockchain.
• M&A integration has become the mainstream exit path: Five of the top ten completed large financings through acquisitions, reflecting the development logic of the RWA/payment sector of "acquiring technology + integrating licenses."

In 2026, Payment/RWA will shift from "technology validation" to "scalable implementation," and projects without compliance licenses, TradFi resources, and large financings will face elimination. Investors in 2026 need to focus on projects' compliance progress, TradFi partnerships, and actual payment/asset on-chain scales, as pure technical concept projects will be marginalized.

04. Rankings

Top 50 VCs & Top 100 Project Rankings

RootData's Top 50 VCs ranking as of October 1, 2025

RootData's Top 100 Projects ranking as of October 1, 2025

As the industry's most transparent data barometer, the rankings are based on multi-dimensional indicators such as investment and financing activity, market reputation, and on-chain performance, deeply restoring the capital landscape and innovation high ground during the "institutional transformation" process. This ranking not only pays tribute to the annual outstanding contributors but also serves as a core reference for capturing deterministic value in the industry in 2026. For details, refer to https://rootdata.com/rootdatalist

About RootData

RootData is a Web3 asset data platform dedicated to making Web3 investment simpler, having recorded over 19,000 projects, 2,800 investment institutions, 18,000 individuals, and 9,200 financing events, presenting data in a highly visual and structured manner, becoming an essential data platform for over 3 million Web3 users to discover early alpha projects and make investment decisions.

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Disclaimer

This report is produced by RootData Research, and the information or opinions expressed in this report do not constitute investment strategies or advice for any individual. The materials, opinions, and speculations contained in this report reflect the judgment of RootData Research as of the date of publication, and past performance should not be used as a basis for future performance. At different times, RootData Research may issue reports that are inconsistent with the materials, opinions, and speculations contained in this report. RootData Research does not guarantee that the information contained in this report remains current, and reliance on the information in this material is at the reader's own discretion; this material is for reference only.