Pantera, Coinbase pile on as crypto startups raise $176 million this week

Venture capitalists cut another $176 million in cheques for 16 crypto startups this week, bringing total investment to over $25 billion this year, according to DefiLlama data.

That’s well over twice the amount raised last year and far above analysts’ expectations.

This week’s top investors include Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and DCG, which are piling on despite crypto markets down $1 trillion from their October highs.

Investors are “turning away from hype and increasingly rewarding projects that have solid business models,” according to Sebastián Serrano, CEO of Ripo, an Argentinian crypto exchange.

Other key considerations are “strong product-market fit and robust revenue streams,” Serrano told DL News.

Here are the crypto companies that raised the most money in the second week of December.

LI.FI, $29 million

LI.FI positions itself as the connective tissue of the multi-chain economy, an infrastructure layer designed to make the movement of digital assets across blockchains seamless and largely invisible.

Founded in 2021, the company operates a liquidity aggregation protocol that unifies more than 10 cross-chain bridges and over 20 decentralised exchange aggregators through a single API and software development kit. Its smart routing system automatically optimises any-to-any token swaps for cost, speed and security, stripping away complexity for both developers and end users.

LI.Fi said the $29m will be used to expand infrastructure tailored to AI agents and stablecoins, and to support the planned launch in the first quarter of 2026 of an open intent and solver marketplace, a move aimed at improving the reliability of cross-chain composability at scale.

Real Finance, $29 million

Real Finance is building a purpose-built layer 1 blockchain on the Cosmos Tendermint framework, targeting institutions seeking compliant infrastructure for the tokenisation of real-world assets. The protocol is designed to bridge traditional and decentralised finance by offering a transparent, programmable environment for onchain assets that can meet regulatory expectations.

The company says this approach is intended to resolve what it describes as the real-world asset trilemma: balancing security, trustlessness and decentralisation. A recent $29m private funding round will be used to accelerate product development and expand operational capacity. In the near term, Real Finance is targeting the tokenisation. of $500m in assets, equivalent to roughly 2% of the global tokenised asset market.

TenX Protocols, $22 million

TenX Protocols is an infrastructure provider focused on institutional-grade staking, validator operations and digital asset treasury strategies across high-performance layer 1 networks including Solana, Sui and Sei

NEW: TenX Protocols (TSXV: TNX) has gone public after raising $24M.

The DAT company will hold positions in L1 networks — including Solana, Sui, and Sei — and participate in staking and validator activity, with proceeds directed toward token acquisition, staking, and expansion. pic.twitter.com/a0812zdlQl
— Sei (@SeiNetwork) December 12, 2025

The company generates recurring revenue by securing these networks and positioning itself as a gateway for public market investors seeking exposure to the growth of emerging blockchain ecosystems.

TenX this week went public on the Toronto Stock exchange — (TSXV: TNX) — after its latest $22 million raise.