Venture capitalists have funnelled $23 billion into crypto companies so far in 2025, despite the $1.4 trillion November meltdown.
Indeed, the latest market freefall is making investors more selective rather than fearful, Shane Molidor, founder of crypto advisory firm Forgd, told DL News.
“The recent market downturn is likely to smother ongoing fundraising efforts for all but the highest quality companies,” Molidor said. “Cheque sizes are smaller and investors are performing stringent due diligence.”
But top operators are seemingly immune to the slump. “Blue-chip names, such as Kraken, Ripple, Polymarket, and a handful of others, have remained insulated,” he said.
“As capital consolidates around the strongest operators, those market leaders will widen their lead.”
Spencer Yang, managing partner at crypto-native advisory firm BlockSpaceForce, told DL News that macroeconomic headwinds are still weighing heavily on investor decisions.
“Because of the prolonged government shutdown, markets are struggling to interpret what the Fed is actually signaling,” Yang said.
“The US is still wrestling with a form of stagflation, and that lingering uncertainty is weighing on every risk asset class, crypto included… we’re seeing a clear risk-off shift.”
Even so, seven crypto firms raised more than $253 million this week, DefiLlama data shows, with big cheques coming from market titan Citadel Securities, Coinbase Ventures, and stablecoin giant Tether.
Here are the biggest raises this week.
Kraken, $200m
Crypto exchange Kraken secured $200 million in a strategic round from Citadel Securities, valuing the firm at $20 billion.
It follows a previously undisclosed $600 million raise in September at a $15 billion valuation from top institutional investors, including Jane Street, DRW, Oppenheimer, Tribe Capital, and Arjun Sethi’s family office.
The combined $800 million in fresh capital strengthens Kraken ahead of its targeted 2026 IPO.
The company plans to expand internationally and build new payment products. Kraken more than doubled year-over-year revenue to $648 million in the third quarter and recently bought futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.
Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito said the Wall Street behemoth is backing Kraken as it “helps shape the next chapter of digital innovation in markets.”
Obex, $37m
Stablecoin incubator Obex raised $37 million in a round led by Framework, LayerZero Labs, and Sky.
Stablecoin protocol Sky is also allocating a further $2.5 billion to projects incubated by Obex.
Based in San Francisco, Obex runs a 12-week programme to help teams build institutional-grade stablecoins that pursue “real-world” yield. Top graduates receive nine-figure allocations of USDS liquidity from Sky. Each project is designed to operate independently within the Sky ecosystem.
Obex is administered by Framework Ventures, known for early investments in major DeFi and stablecoin protocols.
BOB, $4.2m
Bitcoin-Ethereum hybrid layer 2 platform BOB raised $4.2 million through a community sale involving more than 2,000 participants. The raise brings total funding to $25 million across its seed and strategic rounds.
The sale allocated 2% of BOB’s token supply via CoinList and Gate’s launchpad, ahead of its upcoming token generation event. Previous backers include Castle Island Ventures, Ledger Cathay Capital, RockawayX, IOSG Ventures, Hypersphere, and Amber Group.
Co-founder Alexei Zamyatin said the sale marks BOB’s transition to community ownership, with the protocol aiming to unlock $700 billion of idle Bitcoin.
BOB has recently shipped a hybrid ZK rollup, a BitVM bridge on testnet, and BTC intents for cross-chain execution.
