$5.68B Across 384 Deals: Galaxy Research Recorded Recovery in Crypto Venture Market in Q2

Published: September 17, 2026 – 08:08 UTC

Crypto startups raised $5.68 billion in Q2 after a weak previous quarter.
Among the sectors that attracted the most funding, analysts highlighted the Trading/Exchanges/Investing/Lending category, DeFi, and Payments/Rewards.
US companies accounted for 73.5% of total venture capital and 39.1% of deals.

In Q2 2026, venture investment in crypto and blockchain companies rebounded after a downturn at the start of the year. According to data from Galaxy Research, investors deployed $5.68 billion across 384 deals, up 31% quarter-on-quarter by capital invested and 10% by deal count.

The growth was driven mainly by large late-stage rounds, while the number of new crypto venture funds remained at a multi-year low.

In the first half of 2026, crypto companies raised more than $10 billion across 744 deals. If this pace holds through year-end, total investment could reach about $20.04 billion — slightly below $20.3 billion in 2025, but above the levels seen in most of 2023-2024.

Big Rounds Are Back

The key feature of Q2 was a shift in capital toward later funding stages. About 78% of all investment went to such companies, while earlier-stage startups received 22%.

*Venture fund investment in crypto by stage. Source:* *Galaxy Research*.

At the same time, the picture looked different by deal count. Pre-seed accounted for 21% of all transactions, while late-stage rounds made up 26%. Galaxy Research notes that the rising share of late-stage rounds may point to the gradual maturation of the crypto market and a growing number of companies that are already generating revenue.

The median deal size in Q2 reached $4.9 million, setting a new all-time high. However, the researchers caution that valuation statistics remain limited: relevant data is available for only 16% of the deals in the sample, and a significant share of the available valuations comes from late-stage rounds.

The rise in venture activity also came amid Bitcoin’s price recovery. At the same time, Galaxy Research notes that the link between the price of the leading cryptocurrency and investment in private crypto companies remains weaker than during the 2017 and 2021 cycles. In late 2025, bitcoin refreshed its highs, while venture activity remained uneven.

Trading and DeFi Attracted the Most

In Q2, the most capital went to companies in the Trading/Exchanges/Investments/Lending category — about $3.52 billion, or roughly three-fifths of total investment volume. The segment also led by deal count — 51.

*Crypto venture capital investment by category. Source:* *Galaxy Research*.

DeFi ranked second by funding volume, with about $478 million. Next came Privacy/Security, Tokenization, Artificial intelligence, Infrastructure, Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse/Gaming, and Payments/Rewards.

By deal count, the breakdown was far more diverse:

DeFi — 40 deals
Payments/Rewards — 40
Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse/Gaming — 37
Tokenization — 36
Enterprise Blockchain — 34
Infrastructure — 32

Galaxy Research notes that individual categories showed different levels of investment maturity. In particular, between 65% and 1,000% of the capital invested in Trading/Exchanges/Investments/Lending went to late-stage rounds.

*Venture capital investment in crypto by category and stage. Source:* *Galaxy Research*.

At the same time, the Enterprise Blockchain, DeFi, Privacy/Security, Tokenization, Mining, and Payments/Rewards categories maintained notable activity at the pre-seed and seed rounds.

The US Attracted Nearly Three Quarters of the Capital

The US continued to dominate the crypto venture sector. Companies headquartered in the US received 73.5% of invested capital and 39.1% of the 384 deals. By comparison, the UK accounted for 4% of capital and 7% of deals, while France accounted for 3.2% of capital. By number of transactions, Singapore ranked third with 5.7%.

At the same time, fundraising by crypto venture funds themselves remains challenging. In Q2, investors allocated about $3.9 billion to five new funds. This is the smallest number of new crypto funds in a quarter since Q3 2019.

Galaxy Research links the pressure on the fund segment to macroeconomic factors and the fallout from the 2022-2023 crisis. Additional competition for institutional capital is coming from AI, spot ETFs, and companies accumulating digital assets on their balance sheets.

Meanwhile, on an annualized basis, fundraising in the first half of the year is tracking at roughly $10 billion, which is higher than the $8.75 billion raised by crypto funds over all of 2025. The average size of a new fund in Q2 rose to about $378 million, while the median increased to $80 million.

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Source: Incrypted