Galaxy Research reported on September 16 that venture investment in crypto and blockchain companies rose 31% from the first quarter, while the number of deals increased 10%.
- Crypto VC funding reached $5.683 billion in Q2 across 384 deals, up 31% from Q1.
- Later-stage companies received 78% of Q2 venture capital, while pre-seed deals represented 21% of transactions.
- Trading, exchange, investing, and lending startups attracted $3.523 billion, nearly three-fifths of Q2 venture capital.
- U.S.-headquartered companies received 73.5% of Q2 crypto venture capital across 39.1% of completed deals globally.
- Five crypto venture funds raised roughly $3.9 billion in Q2, the fewest funds since 2019.
The increase in capital was driven mainly by later-stage financing, with mature companies receiving most of the money deployed during the quarter.
The first half of 2026 produced $10.018 billion in crypto venture investment across 744 deals. If that pace continues through the rest of the year, annual investment would reach roughly $20.037 billion, slightly below the $20.3 billion recorded in 2025, according to Galaxy Research’s Q2 report.
Crypto VC funding has returned above most 2023-2024 levels
Q2’s $5.683 billion investment figure followed a weaker first quarter, when crypto and blockchain startups received around $4 billion across 355 deals. Galaxy’s Q1 report showed capital falling by about half quarter-over-quarter after a large later-stage financing surge in late 2025.
The Q2 rebound was larger in dollar terms than in transaction volume. Capital increased 31%, while deal count rose 10%, indicating that larger financings accounted for much of the quarterly increase. Galaxy said the rise was driven primarily by later-stage transactions.
Galaxy’s data shows that the relationship between bitcoin prices and crypto venture activity remains weaker than during the 2017 and 2021 cycles. Bitcoin reached new highs in late 2025 while venture activity moved unevenly, although both bitcoin and venture investment increased during Q2 2026.
Deal sizes reached a new high in the quarter. Galaxy reported a median crypto deal size of roughly $4.9 million, while noting that valuation information was available for only 16% of Q2 transactions and was heavily weighted toward later-stage companies.
Later-stage companies received most of the $5.68B
Later-stage startups received approximately 78% of the capital invested during Q2, leaving 22% for younger companies. By transaction count, pre-seed rounds accounted for 21% of completed deals, while later-stage investments represented 26%.
The distribution produced a large gap between the number of early-stage transactions and the amount of capital committed to mature companies. Galaxy’s figures show that early-stage businesses continued to attract deals, but larger financing rounds drove the majority of dollars invested.
Trading, exchange, investing and lending companies accounted for the largest category, receiving roughly $3.523 billion during the quarter. The category represented close to three-fifths of all crypto venture capital invested in Q2. DeFi followed with approximately $478 million.
Privacy and security, tokenization, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, Web3, gaming and payments were among the other categories tracked by Galaxy. By deal count, trading, exchange, investing and lending companies recorded 51 transactions, while DeFi and payments/rewards each recorded 40.
Web3, NFT, DAO, metaverse and gaming companies completed 37 deals, followed by tokenization with 36, enterprise blockchain with 34 and infrastructure with 32. More than 90% of the capital invested in the trading, exchange, investing and lending category went to later-stage companies.
The concentration of capital in mature companies comes as other areas continue to attract smaller rounds. crypto venture funding remained active during July even as DeFi investment fell to its lowest quarterly level since late 2023.
U.S. companies captured 73.5% of crypto venture capital
U.S.-headquartered companies captured 73.5% of the capital represented in Galaxy’s Q2 dataset. The United Kingdom followed with 4%, while France accounted for 3.2%.
The U.S. share was smaller when measured by transaction count. American companies represented 39.1% of the 384 deals, followed by the United Kingdom at 7% and Singapore at 5.7%.
The geographic concentration was higher than in Q1, when U.S.-based startups received 70.2% of capital and represented 43.5% of completed transactions, according to Galaxy’s earlier report.
Recent financing activity has included transactions involving exchanges, stablecoin payments and tokenized markets. Payward, the parent company of Kraken, was the largest disclosed crypto funding deal during the September 5-11 period after Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in the company.
Latitude raised $35 million in a Series A during the same week to develop stablecoin-based cross-border payment infrastructure, while Antarctic Exchange announced a $7 million financing tied to its derivatives trading platform.
Five new crypto funds raised roughly $3.9B
Fundraising for new crypto venture funds remained concentrated in Q2. Five new crypto-focused funds raised approximately $3.9 billion, according to Galaxy. The firm said the number of new funds was the lowest for a quarter since Q3 2019.
Galaxy cited macroeconomic conditions, investor interest in artificial intelligence, spot crypto exchange-traded products and digital asset treasury companies as factors competing for allocator capital. The report stated that “fund managers still face a difficult environment.”
The dollar amount raised was higher than the roughly $1.1 billion secured across eight new funds in Q1. Galaxy’s first-quarter report described Q1 as the lowest quarterly new-fund count since Q3 2020.
If first-half fundraising continues at the same pace, Galaxy estimates that crypto venture funds could raise around $10 billion during 2026, above the $8.75 billion raised in 2025. The average fund size reached approximately $377.98 million, while the median fund size stood near $80 million.
The fundraising figures come alongside continuing individual company financing. During September 5-11, five disclosed crypto funding deals totaled $151 million, according to crypto.news. Payward’s $100 million transaction accounted for roughly two-thirds of the weekly total.
During the first half of 2026, venture capitalists invested $10.018 billion across 744 crypto and blockchain deals, according to Galaxy. The firm’s next quarterly dataset will provide the next measurement of venture activity after the Q2 rebound.
