Crypto fundraising is seeing ‘signs of recovery:’ PitchBook

Token launches could also see a comeback this fall, PitchBook’s Robert Le said

article-image

Mulad Images/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks

share

Are more token launches coming this fall?

“I think we’re in a new cycle,” PitchBook’s Robert Le told Blockworks.

“In the last six months to maybe even a year, we’ve been in the same cycle in terms of sentiment, increasing capital going into the space and more developers coming and building. So last quarter, I think, maybe there was a little bit of a lull,” he added.

Le’s feeling pretty positive about the fall, and he thinks it’s just a matter of time until projects start announcing more token launches. 

He’s already seen plans for the third and fourth quarters of this year, but there’s currently a “prisoner’s dilemma” where people are trying to figure out “how the market is going to move” so as to time their launches.

Read more: Don’t expect venture capital data to hit 2022 levels for several years: Analyst

“Everyone’s playing the waiting game to see,” he added. Projects would prefer if the market was moving up, but also want to be the first to launch their tokens. But there could be a “tipping point” where the launches happen regardless of an ideal market environment, or we enter a “full force” bull market.

The fourth quarter of last year into the first quarter of this year saw a decent chunk of token launches, but it’s since dried up. Even token unlocks aren’t bountiful, according to data from the Tie Terminal.

Source: Tie Terminal

The unlocking of $350 million worth of SUI is the biggest unlock over the last month into September, as shown above. 

Read more: Anatomy of a token launch

While Le thinks that we could be gearing up to see a bull market “sometime next year,” which he believes will happen regardless of who takes the White House, he believes the election won’t impact crypto.

Le analogized crypto to an “abused child” in search of love, and notes a candidate like Trump is the first one to give the industry such attention

In the end though, “governments don’t like crypto because it’s trying to supplant the traditional financial ecosystem or financial system. It won’t necessarily matter if one party over another supports crypto,” Le said. 

“I think the pragmatic way to interact with regulators and lawmakers is to work with both sides,” Le told Blockworks. “And I think the crypto industry needs to learn to do that.”

Had Trump been in office post-FTX, his administration would have had to crack down on the industry just as hard as the Biden administration and Securities and Exchange Commission’s Gary Gensler have, he added.

Venture capital activity

Speaking of 2022, we’re not anywhere near the venture capital activity that we saw back then, though things are looking up in comparison to last year. 

Source: Crypto VC Funds Report

“As of July 30, 2024, $2.2 billion has already been raised across 24 funds — a sum on track to surpass 2023’s total capital raised. The rebound can be attributed to the overall recovery of the crypto market, in which the total crypto market cap reached 93% of the previous cycle’s watermark in March 2024,” Le wrote in a report.

Per Tie Terminal data, August saw 167 raises totaling $981 million. DeFi projects led the charge, raising $210 million. And the data shows that gaming and metaverse segments are showing an uptick in activity, with $65 million raised last month.

Source: Tie Terminal

In a report released Friday, Le noted that the median fund size has jumped 76% to $41 million from $25 million last year, with a lot of those being midsized funds (we’re talking $100 million to $500 million). 

This shows that “these funds may represent a sweet spot for crypto investors — big enough to support a growing industry but not so large as to struggle with finding viable opportunities. In an industry still in its relative infancy, $1 billion funds face the challenge of needing to write checks worth $25 million to $50 million, which forces them into high valuations and larger bets in a market where startups of that scale are still scarce,” Le wrote. 

Source: Crypto VC Funds Report

Staying below 2022 levels may actually be a good thing, given that hype isn’t necessarily always a long-lasting thing. 

But while we’re seeing a rebound, “the crypto fundraising environment will stay tough as the market recovers,” Le wrote.

A modified version of this article first appeared in the daily Empire newsletter. Subscribe here so you don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Maple Finance has successfully navigated significant market challenges through its strategic pivot to secured lending (Maple v2) and the launch of its Syrup product. Syrup has become a primary growth driver, delivering sustainable, outperforming stablecoin yields and rapidly increasing TVL. The upcoming custody-first Bitcoin staking product (istBTC) presents another significant avenue for expansion. Crucially, Maple has achieved operational profitability, a key inflection point that, combined with a fully vested token and active buyback mechanism, strengthens its investment case. While valuation metrics suggest potential undervaluation relative to peers and growth, the primary forward-looking risk identified is the long-term sustainability of its current high-take-rate collateral staking revenue model.

article-image

LBTC and sBTC integrations unlock new DeFi yields for BTC holders

article-image

The Breakdown becomes your central hub for insightful, daily crypto macro analysis

article-image

What was a cool $500,000 would now be worth more than $7 million

article-image

Mersinger’s final day at the CFTC will be May 30

article-image

Squads CEO Stepan Simkin explained why the firm launched Altitude and how he’s thinking about stablecoins

article-image

Sponsored

Instead of endless wallet popups, users could connect once, set clear rules, and delegate permission to an app or to an AI agent.