Only 150 venture firms took part in crypto deals through July, the lowest monthly count since November 2020. Deal flow concentrated among a handful of established backers.
Alpha Score of 38 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, strong sentiment.
Only 150 unique venture capital firms participated in crypto funding rounds through July 28, according to CryptoRank data. That is the lowest monthly count since November 2020.
At the May 2022 peak, 1,177 investors were backing crypto startups. The current figure marks an 87% drop from that high.
Deal volumes fell too. In the first quarter of 2026, around $4 billion was deployed across 355 deals. That was roughly half the prior quarter's total.
The remaining activity is concentrated. Coinbase Ventures has been the most prolific investor, with 372 tracked deals. NGC Ventures also stayed consistently active.
Regulators in the US and Europe stepped up enforcement over the past two years. The SEC brought more cases against exchanges and token issuers, raising compliance costs for fund managers who invest in the sector.
Trading volumes on both centralized and decentralized exchanges shrank through 2024 and 2025. Lower volumes meant less fee revenue for crypto-native businesses, making their equity less attractive to venture backers.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates at elevated levels through most of the period. Traditional asset allocators could earn competitive returns in bonds and money-market funds without taking crypto risk.
The result: a sharply smaller pool of investors chasing a narrower set of deals. The two firms with the longest track record now command a larger share of the deal flow than at any point since the 2022 peak.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.