Rich by Coin

Venture capitalists and strategic funding for the cryptocurrency industry surged to about $49.75 billion in 2025, more than four times the year prior, with substantial capital funneled into centralized exchange reserve vaults, balance-sheet fortification, and infrastructure expansion. The surge in disclosed funding occurred alongside a decline in deal counts, signaling a shift toward fewer but larger transactions tied to exchange consolidation, custody, and reserve-backed strategies rather than early-stage experimentation. In December 2025, 58 disclosed investment projects were reported, up modestly from November, but total disclosed funding collapsed to $860 million, down 94% from the prior month’s unusually large tally. For the full year, 898 projects were disclosed, a 42.1% decline from 2024, while total disclosed financing rose about 433% year over year to $49.75 billion.

Several of the year’s largest deals were linked to exchanges and custody infrastructure. In the largest crypto-related deal on record, Naver completed an all-stock acquisition of Dunamu for approximately $10.3 billion, making Naver Financial the parent of the Upbit operator and underscoring the strategic importance of exchange profitability and custody scale. Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit expanded its footprint in institutional crypto options and reinforced its derivatives-led growth strategy. Reserve-accumulation remained a dominant theme, with a prominent investment strategy raising multi-billion-dollar financings in 2025 to expand its Bitcoin holdings, ending the year with more than 600,000 BTC.

Intercontinental Exchange invested $2 billion in Polymarket, gaining both equity exposure and a role as a global distributor of event-driven data. Abu Dhabi’s government-backed MGX invested $2 billion in Binance, marking the largest crypto-native investment conducted entirely using stablecoins. Kraken acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion to broaden regulated futures access, Galaxy Digital financed $1.4 billion to expand its Helios data center, and Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Sector allocation showed institutional focus on financial and infrastructure plays, with CeFi at 13.8%, DeFi 22.4%, AI 12.7%, and RWA/DePIN 7.3%, while NFT and GameFi accounted for 5.3%.