Venture capital into crypto stayed subdued in November, extending a slowdown that has persisted through late 2025. Funding continued to concentrate in a small number of large rounds for established companies, while overall deal counts remained low.
Galaxy Digital data showed a similar pattern in Q3, when total funding rose to $4.65 billion but deal volumes lagged as capital flowed to larger, more mature firms. November followed that divergence: RootData recorded just 57 disclosed crypto funding rounds for the month, one of the weakest tallies of the year, even as headline raises such as Revolut’s $1 billion round and Kraken’s $800 million round captured attention.
RootData said most November deals clustered in centralized finance, decentralized finance and NFT–GameFi. Observers warn that the thin deal market can have long-term consequences. “Investing in tough times is when the best deals are made,” Sarah Austin, co-founder of real-world-asset gaming platform Titled, told Cointelegraph, noting that reduced activity could hamper industry development.
This VC Roundup spotlights three disclosed raises across decentralized perpetuals, onchain yield and Web3–AI.
Ostium — $24 million
Ostium, a decentralized perpetuals protocol founded by former Harvard classmates, raised $24 million to scale onchain perpetuals beyond crypto into stocks, commodities, indices and FX. The funds will be used to bolster smart contracts, pricing infrastructure and liquidity engines to handle higher volumes and to position Ostium as a perpetuals layer for real-world assets. Investors include General Catalyst, Jump Crypto, Susquehanna International Group and angel backers from Bridgewater, Two Sigma and Brevan Howard.
Axis — $5 million
Onchain revenue protocol Axis closed a $5 million private round led by Galaxy Ventures as it prepares to launch an onchain yield product giving exposure to Bitcoin, gold and the U.S. dollar. The round included participation from OKX Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, CMS Holdings and FalconX. Axis said it has already deployed $100 million of private capital through a beta platform to stress-test its protocol engine and will use the new funding to continue building transparent onchain yield infrastructure.
PoobahAI — $2 million
PoobahAI, a Texas startup offering a no-code platform for creating tokenized Web3 networks and AI agents, raised $2 million in seed funding to expand tools that let creators and businesses deploy onchain ecosystems and AI agents without coding. The raise, led by FourTwoAlpha, aims to accelerate adoption of AI–Web3 primitives that enable more autonomous, user-controlled applications.
Overall, November’s data underline a selective funding environment: significant capital remains available for proven teams and large projects, but overall deal flow is thin, and early-stage startups face a tougher fundraising landscape.
