RootData

According to RootData's financing data statistics, in August, the crypto primary market disclosed 49 financing events, with a total financing amount of approximately $596 million, a month-on-month decrease of 74.2% compared to July's approximately $2.312 billion, and a year-on-year decrease of 35.5% compared to August 2025's approximately $924 million; the number of financing events saw a slight month-on-month increase of 2.1% compared to July's 48 events, but a year-on-year decrease of 42.4% compared to 85 events during the same period last year. (This data does not include questionable financing and excludes mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, post-IPO, and debt financing.)From the perspective of sectors, DeFi was the most active sector this month, completing 19 financings, but the disclosed amount was only about $73.1 million; the infrastructure sector completed 14 financings, with a disclosed amount of approximately $311 million, ranking first in terms of amount; CeFi completed 8 financings, with a disclosed amount of approximately $199 million. The top three projects by financing amount were Ripple ($275 million), RQD Clearing ($74 million), and Fasset ($68 million), with the top three projects totaling approximately $417 million, accounting for about 70.0% of the overall disclosed financing scale.In terms of RWA, RootData currently includes 529 RWA-related projects, of which 149 projects have financing records, with a financing coverage rate of approximately 28.2%. However, looking at August alone, there was only one RWA-related financing, Entropy, with a financing amount of $14 million, accounting for about 2.0% of this month's financing events and approximately 2.3% of the disclosed financing amount.In addition, 6 merger and acquisition events were disclosed in August, a significant decrease from July's 19 events; among them, 4 belong to CeFi, including BitGo's acquisition of NYDIG, Nasdaq's acquisition of LeveL Markets, Rain's acquisition of Ansa, and OpenFX's acquisition of Global Ledger. These were mainly concentrated in CeFi, payments, market infrastructure, and data analysis services.In terms of investment institutions, YZi Labs, MH Ventures, Mapleblock, Polychain, and others remain active. Overall, in August, financing market funds mainly flowed into payments, clearing, stablecoins, CeFi, and institutional-level infrastructure; RWA sector projects have sufficient reserves and high narrative heat, but monthly financing has not yet seen a simultaneous increase.

According to RootData, among 3,244 cryptocurrency projects with financing records spanning no more than four years and amounts that can be accounted for, 1,617 have a cumulative financing amount of no more than $5 million, accounting for 49.8%. The median financing for this batch of projects is $2.5 million, with about 96% recording only one round of financing.In terms of sectors, DeFi, infrastructure, and gaming projects together account for 59.2%, with small-scale financing mainly flowing to protocol development, underlying technology, and consumer applications. However, a quarter of the projects in the sample have already ceased operations, indicating that while lower regulatory thresholds can improve financing efficiency, they cannot replace product demand and sustainable operational capability.Institutional participation is also higher than the market's usual perception of "small projects": 92.9% of the sample has identifiable investor records, and 83.5% disclosed at least two investors. Among them, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, and Big Brain Holdings participated in 84, 69, and 67 projects, respectively.It is reported that the U.S. SEC officially proposed the "Regulation Crypto Assets" on August 18. The proposal aims to set up two tiers of issuance exemptions: projects can raise no more than $5 million in a single instance within four years; projects with greater financing needs can raise up to $75 million within each 12-month period, but must submit financial statements and fulfill ongoing reporting obligations. The proposal is currently in a 60-day public comment period and has not yet officially taken effect.

According to RootData, the total financing amount in the cryptocurrency industry in the first half of the year was $9.081 billion, with a total of 259 financing events; among them, the primary market financing amount (excluding IPO/Post IPO/M&A rounds) was $8.658 billion, a decrease of 26.1% compared to the same period last year, and the number of financing events decreased by 28.5% year-on-year.March and May were the two peaks for financing amounts in the first half of the year, with the number of financing events reaching 66 and 68 respectively; in June, the number of financing events fell back to 43, indicating that after entering the end of the second quarter, market funding activity has cooled down. Overall, large financing still significantly boosts monthly financing scale, but the enthusiasm for regular financing rounds has begun to shrink.In the first half of 2026, there were a total of 75 M&A transactions in the cryptocurrency industry, of which 16 disclosed specific amounts (totaling approximately $3.836 billion). M&A activities were mainly concentrated in the CeFi, tools and information services, DeFi, and infrastructure sectors. Representative M&A events include: Mastercard acquiring BVNK ($1.8 billion), Kraken acquiring Reap ($600 million), etc.Leading cryptocurrency venture capital firms still maintain a high frequency of investments, with Coinbase Ventures participating in 25 investments in the first half of 2026, ranking first; Animoca Brands participated in 20, while a16z and Tether participated in 14 each. In the past 12 months, Coinbase Ventures participated in a total of 68 investments, continuing to lead the industry, followed by Animoca Brands, Pantera Capital, YZi Labs, a16z, Tether, and GSR.From the perspective of sectors, DeFi, infrastructure, and CeFi were the three most active directions for financing in the first half of 2026. In the first half of the year, DeFi completed 129 financing events, infrastructure completed 116, and CeFi completed 69. AI, payments, prediction markets, and RWA were also key sub-sectors of capital focus, with AI-related financing at 59 events, payment-related projects at 46 events, and RWA-related projects at 28 events.Overall, the primary market for cryptocurrency in the first half of 2026 has not completely stagnated, but the market structure has changed: the total financing amount is still supported by a few large transactions, institutional investments are more concentrated, sector preferences are more pragmatic, and M&A has become an important means of industry consolidation. Funds are shifting towards structural allocations around infrastructure, DeFi, CeFi, payments, AI, and RWA.

According to RootData's financing data statistics, in June 2026, the crypto primary market disclosed a total of 42 financing and merger events, with a total financing amount of approximately $898 million, a month-on-month decrease of 60.5% and a year-on-year decrease of 67.3%. Additionally, there were 15 merger events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $305 million. Overall, funds continue to concentrate on infrastructure, DeFi, and CeFi, with institutional-level capital markets, on-chain credit, derivatives trading, and stablecoin payment/settlement becoming the main incremental directions.DeFi was the most active sector this month, completing 18 financing and merger events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $330 million. Morpho completed a $175 million financing, becoming the largest financing project in the DeFi sector this month; Fomo completed a $75 million Series B financing, indicating that on-chain trading and consumer-level entry points still have appeal.The infrastructure sector had a total of 13 events, with a disclosed amount of approximately $453 million, ranking first in terms of amount. Projects such as Digital Asset, Ornn, and Trace Finance received funding support around institutional-level capital markets, AI computing financialization, and stablecoin settlement infrastructure.CeFi completed a total of 12 events. Although there were not many non-merger financing events, mergers and institutional trading services performed outstandingly. SBI Holdings acquired the Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank for approximately $289 million, becoming the largest merger event this month; SignalPlus completed a $50 million Series B1 financing, and EDGE Markets completed a $29.2 million Series A financing, indicating that institutional-level trading, derivatives, and compliant financial services are still key areas for capital allocation.The top five projects this month totaled approximately $944 million, accounting for about 76% of the overall disclosed scale. The top three projects in terms of financing and merger amounts are: institutional-level blockchain infrastructure company [Digital Asset](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Digital Asset?k=MzYyMA== "Blockchain software and service provider") ($355 million), Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank ($289 million, merger), and on-chain credit protocol Morpho ($175 million).In terms of investment institutions, Coinbase Ventures, a16z, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, Paradigm, Animoca Brands, HashKey Capital, and others remain active, with top capital more inclined to bet on projects with clear institutional clients, compliance paths, and real use cases.