Crypto Funding Increases Significantly in 2024 Quarter 1, Startups Gain $2.40 billion in 518 Deals

In Quarter 1 of 2024, crypto funding increased significantly, with startups receiving $2.40 billion in 518 deals. Investment capital increased by 40.3% and transaction volume increased by 44.7% compared to the previous quarter. Expect the volume and pace of investment to continue to increase throughout the year.
Infrastructure startups led the way in funding this quarter, with Ethereum staking platform EigenLayer ($100 million Series B) and fully homomorphic crypto (FHE) developer Zama ($73 million Series A) raising their largest rounds. The largest deal this quarter went to Together AI, the developer of an open-source, decentralized cloud platform for large-scale foundational models. The startup raised $106 million in early funding, led by Salesforce Ventures, at a pre-investment valuation of $1.10 billion.
The median pre-seed and seed valuations were $21.80 million, $72 million in the early stages, and $51.10 million in the later stages, up 85.5%, 148.3%, and 7.6% year-over-year, respectively. Deal size also reflects the rise in valuations, with the median pre-seed and seed stages at $2.70 million, $5 million in the early stages, and $5.80 million in the later stages, up 24.9%, up 25.0%, and down 9.7%, respectively, from the full year 2023.