Author: RootData Research
I. Total financing in Q1 2024 exceeded US$2.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%; total financing in the DeFi track increased by more than 150% month-on-month
BTC price trend in Q1 2024 and total financing in the Web3 industry
Top 3 tracks in terms of investment and financing amount in Q1 2024
II. The number of early financing projects in Q1 increased by 10.5% year-on-year, and there are still many unverified technologies and solutions in the market
Distribution of project financing amount in Q1 2024
Top 5 financing amount in Q1 2024
III. The total investment of the top ten institutions with the most investments in Q1 increased by 120% month-on-month. OKX Ventures invested 30 times and became the most active investment institution in Q1
IV. Web3 Characteristics and trend analysis of popular searches
Bitcoin, Solana, and Blast ecological projects are growing rapidly, and developer atmosphere and wealth effect are still important factors in attracting developers
Web3 investors' attention allocation is significantly affected by financing events, secondary sector rotation, and project TGE events
Project hot searches are correlated with project secondary prices, and public chains and DeFi projects are still the most searched asset types by users
Sam Altman topped the list of hot searches and clicks, and transaction clues based on popular figures are attracting more investors
The total financing amount of the Web3 industry reached US$2.545 billion in Q1 2024, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, the DeFi track was driven by popular sectors such as RWA and LSD, and the year-on-year and month-on-month financing amounts increased by more than 100%. The total inflow of funds into Bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded US$12.1 billion, pushing the price of Bitcoin to more than US$72,000, a record high.
The number of projects that received investment in Q1 2024 increased by 10.5% year-on-year, and infrastructure, DeFi and GameFi tracks attracted attention from the capital market. The total investment of the top ten institutions increased by 120% month-on-month, with OKX Ventures being the most active.
The allocation of Web3 investors' attention is mainly affected by factors such as large investments from well-known institutions, project TGE events, and airdrops. AI, RWA, LSD, DePIN and other sectors have fully rotated, and users have a higher demand for finding hot investment targets. A total of 113 projects were selected for the RootData Top20 project hot search weekly list, including 12 issued Token projects, showing that their search popularity in RootData and the secondary market showed a high correlation.
During Q1, investment targets such as the “Sam Altman concept” gained considerable market attention. Trading clues based on popular figures are attracting more attention from investors. As the Web3 industry becomes more mature and attracts more mainstream investors/entrepreneurs, trading opportunities for figures/events will continue to emerge.
1.1. BTC price trend and total financing amount of Web3 in Q1 2024
Source: RootData
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the trading and listing of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10. As of March 31, the total inflow of funds into Bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded US$12.1 billion, and the asset management scale reached US$58.341 billion. Mainly influenced by the strong buying of BTC spot ETF, the price of Bitcoin rose to more than $72,000, an increase of more than 60%, a record high, and the market value reached $1.40 trillion.
1.2, Top 3 tracks of investment and financing amount in Q1 2024
Source: RootData
With the outstanding performance of the Web3 secondary market, RootData statistics show that the Web3 primary market generated a total of 459 financing events in Q1, a year-on-year increase of 28.7%, and the total financing amount reached US$2.545 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, infrastructure, DeFi and CeFi are the three tracks with the largest amount of investment and financing in Q1.
The financing amount of the DeFi track increased by more than 100% year-on-year and month-on-month, and the year-on-year growth of the CeFi track reached 217.71%, although the month-on-month growth was smaller at only 1.67%. The reason why the DeFi track can see growth is related to the popularity of RWA, LSD and other sector projects since entering Q1, while the infrastructure track has seen a double decline year-on-year and month-on-month (-24.31% and -5.05% respectively), which is due to the lack of new narratives in the infrastructure track in Q1, and some fund managers have allocated part of their funds to the secondary market for the purpose of improving fund utilization in the short term.
2.1. Distribution of project financing amounts in Q1 2024
Source: RootData
From the perspective of the financing amount range, the number of projects in the middle and late stages of Q1 (>$10M) remained stable compared with the same period in Q1 2023, and the number of early-stage investments ($5M＜) increased by 16 projects year-on-year, indicating that the capital market may still be in the valuation correction stage, and that there are still many unverified technologies and solutions in the market.
According to RootData data, the top five projects in terms of financing amount in Q1 2024 received a total of more than US$400 million in financing. EigenLayer completed a $100 million financing led by a16z Crypto. The re-staking track is also one of the hottest trends in Q1 2024, with its TVL increasing by 1,100% in Q1, from $1 billion to $12 billion. After the Ethereum 2.0 consensus shifted to PoS (Proof of Stake), re-staking, as a variant of Staking, has attracted more and more investors and projects.
2.2. Top 5 Financing Amounts in Q1 2024
Source: RootData
Source: RootData
According to RootData data, the top ten investment institutions with the most investments in Q1 2024 participated in a total of 198 investments, an increase of 85% year-on-year and 120% month-on-month. Among these investments, infrastructure is the most popular track, with the top ten institutions investing 96 times in this track, accounting for 48% of their total investments in Q1. This figure increased by 300% month-on-month and 153% year-on-year.
It is worth mentioning that the top ten investment institutions in Q1 invested 40 times in the DeFi track, an increase of 54% year-on-year and month-on-month; the top ten institutions in Q1 invested 31 times in the GameFi track, an increase of 210% year-on-year and month-on-month. In comparison, CeFi and DAO tracks hardly received the favor of the top ten active investment institutions in Q1 2024, perhaps because of the compliance, commercialization challenges and capital exposure of these two tracks.
4.1 Bitcoin, Solana, Blast Ecosystem Projects are Growing Rapidly, Developer Atmosphere and Wealth Effect Are Still Important Factors to Attract Developers
The number of most L1/L2 projects showed a "V"-shaped trend. In February, the number of new projects dropped sharply, which may have been affected by the Spring Festival holiday in East Asia, and reached the peak of the first quarter in March.
Ethereum is still the preferred ecology for Web3 projects, and the ecology of Bitcoin, Solana, and Blast is growing rapidly. The Bitcoin ecology has developed from inscriptions to runes, and the narrative is still increasing. SOL rose by more than 129% in the first quarter, making Solana one of the most eye-catching public chains. 20 native projects in the Blast ecology have completed financing, which is ahead of other Layer2.
The number of some popular L1/L2 ecological projects that are not included is in the single digit, such as ZkSync, StarkNet, Aptos, Sui, Near, etc. This is due to the niche of technical language, the lack of effective guidance of the foundation or the short operation cycle of the main network.
4.2 Web3 investor attention allocation is significantly affected by financing events, secondary sector rotation, and project TGE events
The ranking of the RootData hot search list comprehensively considers the number of clicks, searches and collections of projects within the cycle, thereby reflecting the popularity trend of the project in the market. At present, the list has become one of the important references for the popularity of encrypted projects.
Most of the projects on the list have received large investments from well-known institutions. For example, EigenLayer completed a $100 million Series B financing on February 22, which was the largest single financing in the first quarter. io.net completed its Series A financing on March 5 with a valuation of $1 billion.
The outstanding performance of the secondary market has attracted the attention of investors to "old-fashioned" L1/L2 such as Solana and Metis. At the same time, the new public chains Aptos and Sui have also received value overflow from the rotation of L1/L2 sectors.
The project TGE event is one of the important factors in gaining market attention. Projects such as StarkNet, Manta, and ZetaChain announced airdrop plans in January.
The rotation of sectors such as AI, RWA, LSD, and DePIN has increased users' demand for finding popular investment targets, and the number of projects has exploded.
4.3 The hot searches for projects are correlated with the secondary prices of projects. Public chains and DeFi projects are still the most searched types by users.
RootData popular projects and their secondary market performance (partial) Source: RootData
RootData released 12 Top20 project hot search weekly lists in the first quarter, with a total of 113 projects selected. In general, the search volume is closely linked to the market, and the influencing factors mainly include narrative, project TGE events, market performance, etc.
Public chain and DeFi searches account for the largest proportion of asset types. New asset classes are most likely to attract investors' attention, such as Layer3, modular networks, and re-pledge agreements...
Among the 12 projects that have TGE, RootData search popularity is correlated with the secondary market, and even reflects forward-looking performance in the secondary market of projects such as Pyth Network, Manta Network, and Jupiter.
4.4 Sam Altman topped the list of hot searches and clicks, and trading clues based on popular figures are attracting more investors
Source: RootData
There are 12 people who always appear on the hot search list in the first quarter of 2024. The person with the highest search volume is Sam Altman, who is the founder and CEO of OpenAI and co-founder of Worldcoin. Following closely behind is Jack Lu, a partner of NGC Ventures and co-founder of several popular blockchain projects such as BounceBit, Bitune, Bounce, and Chainswap. In addition, Balaji Srinivasan, Jia Yaoqi, and Anatoly Yakovenko remain popular.
It is worth noting that during Q1, investment targets such as the "Sam Altman concept" appeared in the market and received considerable attention from the market, which is in line with the current trading structure of the Web3 industry dominated by retail investors. WLD, ARKM, and FET have become hot investment targets of the quarter. As the Web3 industry becomes more mature and attracts more mainstream investors/entrepreneurs to enter, trading opportunities for people/events will continue to emerge.
Source: RootData
When a project completes a TGE event, there are usually many personnel changes. Former LayerZero strategy director Irene Wu has joined Bain Capital Crypto as a venture partner; Sebastien, former head of zkSync DeFi, has left his position and become co-founder of zkSync modular blockchain Sophon.
RootData, founded by Pan Yubo and Quan Yu, is transforming Web3 navigation with its comprehensive database of over 13,000 projects and real-time data integration. Recently, they secured $1.25 million in funding and partnered with OKX Wallet to enhance user access and decision-making.
WeatherlyThe total financing amount in Q2 2024 reached US$2.75 billion, a year-on-year increase of 38.9%; the total financing amount in the social track surged by 650% month-on-month.
JinseFinanceAirdrop interaction is no longer a simple click operation. It takes a lot of time to study and accurately analyze the data.
JinseFinanceThe Web3 industry as a whole shows a strong recovery trend. Bitcoin's highest annual increase reached 160%. The return on investment leads the world's major asset classes. Bitcoin spot ETF has become a new entry channel for incremental funds.
JinseFinance