Crypto startups raised approximately $176 million this week, with VCs showing a preference for "sustainable business models."

Despite the crypto market's pullback from its October highs and the loss of approximately $1 trillion in market capitalization, venture capital firms still poured about $176 million into the crypto sector this week, covering 16 startups. DefiLlama data shows that total funding in the crypto space so far in 2025 has exceeded $25 billion, significantly higher than the same period last year and far exceeding market expectations at the beginning of the year. Major investors this week included Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group (DCG). Several industry insiders pointed out that the logic of capital allocation is changing; investors are gradually moving away from projects that rely solely on market sentiment and narrative-driven approaches, and are paying more attention to clear product positioning, genuine demand, and sustainable revenue models. Sebastián Serrano, CEO of the Argentine crypto exchange Ripo, stated that projects with clear product-market fit and stable cash flow are more likely to receive funding in the current environment. Specifically, cross-chain infrastructure project LI.FI completed a $29 million funding round this week. Its protocol integrates multiple cross-chain bridges and decentralized trading aggregators, and plans to use the funds to expand infrastructure for AI agents and stablecoin scenarios, as well as advance its intent and solver market launch in Q1 2026. Real Finance also completed a $29 million private funding round. This project builds an institutional-grade L1 blockchain based on the Cosmos architecture, focusing on compliant real-world asset tokenization, aiming to bring approximately $500 million worth of assets onto the chain in the short term. Another key project, TenX Protocols, completed a $22 million funding round and has been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange. Its business covers staking, validator nodes, and digital asset treasury services for multiple high-performance public chains. The current funding structure reflects the market's continued interest in "infrastructure-type" and "institution-friendly" projects. Even with overall market pressure, capital is still willing to pay for projects with long-term competitiveness and clear business paths. (DL News)