In July, venture capital funds (VC) poured $527 million into crypto startups, marking a 14.5% increase compared to last year, as per DefiLlama data.
The blockchain infrastructure sector attracted $420.7 million in funding last month, with startups contributing about 80% of the total.
Sentient, an AI protocol, raised $85 million led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures, the largest round for blockchain infrastructure projects.
Partior, a blockchain payment network, secured $60 million from traditional banking giants JPMorgan and Standard Chartered, with two funding rounds accounting for 34% of the total.
DeFi protocols received $86 million in investments in July, with Lombard’s $16 million funding round standing out as the largest for the month.
ZAP, a token distribution protocol based on Blast, raised $15 million from prominent names in the crypto industry.
Notably, Layer-1 blockchain Monad’s DeFi ecosystem attracted significant VC interest, with Kintsu, aPriori, and Kuru among the projects receiving funding.
In the blockchain gaming sector, venture capital funds invested $20.5 million in July, with Cambria, a game on the Blast network, receiving $2.5 million.
High-profile names like Pantera Capital and Mantle Ecosystem Fund allocated $18 million to NPC Labs, a blockchain ecosystem protocol.
This year has seen more vibrant VC interest in the crypto space, with funding for crypto startups increasing compared to last year.
