Abstract

• Based on Cryptorank data as of April 2, 2025, the Web3 industry completed a total of 137 funding rounds in March 2025, with a cumulative amount of $5.07 billion.
• Large-scale funding rounds exceeding $100 million accounted for a total of $4.147 billion, making up 81.79% of the total, indicating that capital is increasingly concentrated in a few large transactions, highlighting the growing Matthew effect in the market.
• The CeFi sector dominated with $4 billion in funding, far surpassing other sectors. Blockchain services and social sectors followed with $342 million and $293 million in funding, respectively.
• The market in March was still dominated by small to mid-sized funding rounds, continuing the trend of “early-stage diversified investments + concentrated bets on top projects.” Funding rounds below $10 million accounted for nearly 70%, while projects receiving over $50 million accounted for only 9.68%.
• The March funding landscape reflected a strategy of “broad layout + heavy bets,” with early-stage rounds making up the majority of funded projects, while Series A/B rounds attracted large investments, demonstrating strong capital recognition for mature projects.
• a16z CSX led as the most active investment firm in March, with 10 investment projects, focusing on blockchain services, public chains, and other infrastructure and tool-based applications.

Funding Overview

According to Cryptorank data as of April 2, 2025, the Web3 industry completed a total of 137 funding rounds in March 2025, with a cumulative amount reaching $5.07 billion. [1]

Compared to February 2025, the total funding amount surged by 348.67%, while the number of funding rounds slightly declined by 5.52%. Year-over-year, the total funding increased by 302.38%, whereas the number of funding rounds decreased by 21.71%.

Overall, this month’s funding amount reached its highest level since April 2022, primarily driven by large-scale funding rounds and major acquisition deals occurring for the first time. Notably, Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX injected $2 billion into Binance, while Kraken acquired the U.S. futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. These two transactions accounted for 69.03% of the total funding amount, serving as the key drivers behind this month’s funding surge.

Based on an analysis of the top 10 funding projects in March 2025, the following trends can be observed: [2]

• Mergers and Acquisitions Accelerate Market Consolidation: M&A activity was a key feature of this month’s funding landscape. Among the top 10 funding deals, the acquisitions of NinjaTrader and Napster totaled $1.77 billion, accounting for 33.66% of March’s total funding. This trend reflects the market’s demand for resource integration and market share expansion, contributing to the industry’s maturation and development.
• More Flexible Funding Methods: MoonPay raised funds through debt financing, while Walrus conducted a private token sale. These different approaches highlight how projects are strategically selecting the most suitable financing methods based on their growth stage and capital needs.
• Strategic Investments Driving Growth: Web3 projects are leveraging strategic investments and partnerships to expand their business and deepen market penetration. Examples include funding from Binance BNB and the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA). Beyond helping projects rapidly build market recognition and a user base, these investments signal increased participation from mainstream capital, boosting market confidence and accelerating global adoption and regulatory compliance.
• Continued Interest in Mature Web3 Projects: The post-listing funding rounds of Canaan and Metaplanet indicate that investor interest in established Web3 companies remains strong, as they continue to seek investments in larger-scale, more mature enterprises.

Overall, large-scale funding rounds exceeding $100 million totaled $4.147 billion in March, accounting for 81.79% of the total. Excluding these large deals, the remaining funding events collectively raised only $923 million, reinforcing the growing concentration of capital in a few high-value transactions and the increasing prominence of the Matthew effect in the market.

According to Cryptorank data, funding in March 2025 was primarily concentrated in the CeFi, blockchain services, social, and infrastructure sectors. Notably, funding in the social sector saw significant growth, potentially signaling a market recovery. Key observations include:

• CeFi and Blockchain Services Lead in Funding: The CeFi sector dominated with $4 billion in funding, far surpassing other sectors, while blockchain services followed with $342 million. This was mainly driven by increased involvement from traditional financial institutions in areas such as crypto custody, compliant trading platforms, and derivatives services (e.g., exchange acquisitions and bank-grade asset management products), reflecting continued market interest in centralized finance and blockchain services.
• Steady Growth in Infrastructure and Signs of Recovery in the Social Sector: The blockchain infrastructure sector secured $246.8 million in funding, indicating sustained market optimism for foundational technology innovations, particularly in modular architectures and cross-chain interoperability. Meanwhile, the social sector ranked third with $293 million, marking a strong rebound from the sluggish start of the year—up sharply from just $8.5 million in February—suggesting that investor confidence in this space may be recovering.
• Declining Investment Enthusiasm for DeFi and GameFi: The DeFi sector raised $93.08 million, while GameFi secured $69.05 million, reflecting a waning interest from investors in blockchain gaming and DeFi innovations. This could be due to the ongoing search for sustainable profitability models in these sectors.
• Diverging Trends in Application Layer Sectors: The social sector ranked third with $293 million in funding, while the NFT sector raised only $5 million, continuing its decline since 2023. This suggests that NFT market interest has significantly weakened, with capital shifting toward projects with practical applications. Beyond PFP (profile picture) NFTs, the NFT sector needs to explore more utility-driven innovations to attract market attention and funding.

Based on data from 93 disclosed funding rounds in March 2025, the market remained dominated by small to mid-sized funding rounds, continuing the trend of “early-stage diversified investments + concentrated bets on leading projects.” Nearly 70% of funding rounds were under $10 million, indicating that investors prefer to spread their capital across early-stage projects to minimize single-risk exposure. Among these, funding rounds between $3 million and $10 million were the most active, accounting for 36.56%, reflecting sustained interest in growth-stage projects.

In contrast, projects raising over $50 million accounted for only 9.68% of the total but significantly outpaced small and mid-sized rounds in terms of total capital raised. This suggests that capital is increasingly concentrated in mature enterprises, supporting teams with strong commercialization potential and industry influence. For example, Walrus, in the storage sector, secured a single funding round of $140 million.

Based on data from 71 disclosed funding rounds, seed rounds led with a 29.58% share, followed by strategic rounds (28.17%) and pre-seed rounds (19.72%). Together, these three categories accounted for 77.47% of the market, forming the core of investment activity.

Capital allocation, however, showed different characteristics: Series A rounds accounted for only 14.08% of the total projects but captured 33.73% of total funding, making them the biggest capital magnet. Series B rounds made up just 4.23% of projects but commanded 30.65% of total funding, with an average funding amount exceeding $50 million per project, demonstrating strong investor confidence in mature projects. While seed rounds had the highest number of projects, their total funding share was lower than that of Series A and B rounds, indicating that Web3 investment strategies still favor large-scale support for more established projects. Strategic rounds had a relatively high number of projects but accounted for only 8.97% of total funding, likely due to the nature of these investments, which often focus on strategic partnerships or ecosystem expansion rather than direct financial returns.

Overall, March’s funding landscape followed a “broad coverage + heavy bets” strategy, maintaining strong support for early-stage innovation while also showing significant confidence in projects with validated business models.

According to Cryptorank data as of April 2, 2025, a16z CSX led the rankings with 10 investments, making it the most active investment firm in March. It primarily focused on blockchain services, public chains, and other infrastructure-related technologies. Following closely behind, XDC Foundation, Plug and Play, Robot Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital also demonstrated high investment activity.

In terms of sector distribution, multiple firms had investments in blockchain services (black) and DeFi (blue), while some also ventured into blockchain infrastructure, GameFi, Social, and CeFi sectors. Investment strategies varied among firms—some adopted a broad approach by investing across multiple sectors, while others focused on specific niches, reflecting the diverse investment landscape within the Web3 space.

March Key Focus Financing Projects

Abound

Introduction: Abound is a remittance application spun off from Times Internet in 2023, primarily providing cross-border remittance services for non-resident Indians (NRI), focusing on the flow of funds between the US and India. Abound aims to simplify the cross-border remittance process through digital means, enhancing transaction speed and transparency.

On March 28, Abound completed a $14 million financing round, with investments from well-known institutions such as NEAR Foundation and Circle Ventures. This funding will further help Abound establish a competitive edge in the US-India cross-border payments sector. [3]

Investors: NEAR Foundation, Circle Ventures, and others. Additionally, Times Internet also participated in the investment.

Highlights:

1. Abound focuses on providing cross-border remittance services to the Indian diaspora in the US, using the new financing to expand its business scope, increase product offerings, and improve its technological infrastructure.
2. Abound plans to explore ways to offer users high-yield savings, India-centered investment opportunities, and cross-border credit solutions. Its predecessor, Times Club, allowed users to remit money to India, earn rewards, and receive cashback on services such as sports streaming, grocery shopping, and OTT subscriptions.

Walrus（WAL）

Introduction: A heavyweight new member has joined the Sui ecosystem — the decentralized storage protocol Walrus (WAL), making a strong debut with $140 million in funding and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $2 billion. Walrus is a decentralized storage and data availability protocol designed to provide secure and efficient storage solutions for large files and unstructured data. Developed by Mysten Labs, the team behind Sui, Walrus is built on the Sui blockchain and aims to revolutionize data management within decentralized networks. The Walrus mainnet officially launched on March 27. [4]

On March 20, Walrus completed $140 million in funding, with a current valuation of approximately $2 billion.

Investors: Standard Crypto led the investment, with participation from a16z Crypto, Electric Capital, and others including Comma3 Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Lvna Capital, Protagonist, Karatage, RW3 Ventures, and Raptor Group.

Highlights:

1. Utilizing erasure coding technology, Walrus divides data into smaller units and distributes them across multiple storage nodes, ensuring data recovery even if up to two-thirds of the nodes fail, thus guaranteeing high availability and reliability.
2. The RedStuff encoding algorithm is used, designed specifically for Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). Through simple operations (mainly XOR, or exclusive OR), the data is encoded into primary and secondary shards, which are distributed across storage nodes, with each node holding a unique combination.
3. Unlike existing storage protocols, Walrus uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism, meaning the $WAL token will play a key role in ensuring the long-term trustworthiness of the Walrus protocol.
4. By offering an efficient decentralized storage solution, Walrus alleviates the storage burden on the Sui network.

Mesh

Introduction: Mesh is a modern financial operating system that provides enterprise clients with the ability to transfer digital assets, process crypto payments, aggregate accounts, and facilitate registered securities trading, all within its platform. Mesh is committed to building an open, interconnected, and secure financial ecosystem. [5]

On March 11, Mesh completed a $82 million Series B funding round, with part of the funding settled in PYUSD, a stablecoin issued by PayPal, marking a first in venture capital.

Investors: The round was led by crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, with participation from Consensys (the parent company of MetaMask), QuantumLight Capital, Yolo Investments, Hike Ventures, Evolution VC, Opportuna, and AltaIR Capital.

Highlights:

1. Mesh is creating a more open, interconnected, and secure embedded financial ecosystem by integrating with over 300 platforms, including Robinhood, Coinbase, and MetaMask.
2. Its core products, Mesh Pay and transfer services, support direct payments from over 300 major exchanges and wallets, and businesses can receive payments in stablecoins to mitigate risk.

DoubleZero

Introduction: DoubleZero is a global foundational network based on the DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) track, optimized for blockchain and distributed systems. The protocol supports permissionless contributions via independent fiber optic links to create a dynamic and scalable low-level, high-performance global network. This decentralized network infrastructure layer helps systems like Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains overcome communication bottlenecks and achieve maximum performance as allowed by physical limitations. [6]

On March 5, DoubleZero Foundation completed a $28 million funding round at a $400 million valuation and plans to seek strategic investment at a $600 million valuation.

Investors/Angel Investors: Dragonfly, Multicoin Capital, Borderless Capital, Superscrypt, Standard Crypto, Wintermute, and others.

Highlights:

1. DoubleZero reduces the burden on validators by pre-filtering incoming spam and duplicate transactions using dedicated hardware, enabling blockchain systems to share filtering resources without requiring each validator to do so individually.
2. It enhances communication efficiency through clear message routing, tracking, and prioritization management.
3. A core technology feature of DoubleZero is its unique Two-Ring Architecture, where the Outer Ring connects to the public internet and uses hardware (e.g., FPGA) for attack protection, signature verification, and transaction filtering, while the Inner Ring processes these filtered flows via dedicated bandwidth lines and handles consensus building.

RedotPay

Introduction: RedotPay is a cryptocurrency payment platform designed to drive the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday transactions while simplifying blockchain transactions. The platform allows users to make purchases as easily as using fiat currency. Founded in April 2023, RedotPay offers crypto cards and payment solutions, aiming to create a borderless payment ecosystem that connects fiat and digital assets. [7]

On March 14, RedotPay secured $40 million in funding, led by Lightspeed.

Investors/Angel Investors: Led by Lightspeed, with follow-up investment from HSG, Galaxy Ventures, and participation from institutions like DST Global Partners, Accel, and Vertex Ventures (supported by Temasek).

Highlights:

1. RedotPay provides an alternative to traditional banking services, especially for the unbanked population, with over 3 million registered users.
2. The platform launched its own Visa physical card, which can be used for ATM withdrawals, and introduced virtual cards supporting digital payment services like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
3. It expanded blockchain integration by adding Solana and incorporating Ethereum’s Layer 2 solution, Arbitrum. The platform also partners with StraitX and Visa to support retail crypto payments in Singapore.
4. Through blockchain-based technological innovation, RedotPay has built a global settlement network that supports 40+ major cryptocurrencies and enables transactions to settle in seconds, offering cross-border payment services to merchants in over 200 countries.

Conclusion

This report summarizes the Web3 industry’s financing situation for March 2025. A total of 137 financing rounds were completed in the month, amounting to $5.07 billion, marking a significant increase compared to February. This surge was primarily driven by large-scale strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions, highlighting the high activity in the market. The CeFi sector performed particularly well, while investments in emerging fields also continued to grow, reflecting investors’ long-term confidence in the Web3 industry. Although the number of large-scale financing projects was relatively low, the high financing activity in early-stage projects indicates a strong recognition of innovation and growth potential in the market.


References：

1. Cryptorank , https://cryptorank.io/funding-analytics
2. Cryptorank, https://cryptorank.io/funding-rounds
3. Abound, https://www.joinabound.com/
4. Walrus, https://www.walrus.xyz/
5. MeshConnect, https://www.meshconnect.com/
6. DoubleZero, https://doublezero.xyz/
7. RedotPay, https://www.redotpay.com/

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