Crypto fundraising hits $1.76 billion in October, highest since November 2023

The total amount raised in the crypto industry in October 2024 saw a significant 96% month-over-month increase, reaching $1.76 billion.

According to Messari’s latest report, this is the highest level of fundraising activity since November 2023.

282 crypto offers in October

The report shows that the number of transactions in October increased by 25% compared to the previous month, reaching 282 transactions. Several notable fundraising rounds contributed to October’s strong performance, including a $525 million raise by Praxis and a $68 million raise for Infinite, a multi-chain platform.

This also includes Kraken receiving grants of 25 million OP tokens, worth around $100 million when the deal closed earlier this year, from the Optimism Foundation as part of the Kraken plans to launch a layer 2 called Ink using the Optimism blockchain’s OP Stack framework.

Other notable deals include $43 million raised by Azure Games and $33 million secured by Yellow Card, a cryptocurrency exchange.

Early-stage trading volume in the crypto industry increased 18% month-over-month in October 2024, reaching $396 million. Additionally, the number of transactions from this particular cohort was recorded at 72, which increased by around 13% from the previous month. This included a $43 million seed round for Azra Games, a $25 million raise for the Nillion Network, and a $14 million investment in Citrea, a decentralized finance project.

Mixed Crypto Fundraising in October

While crypto fundraising activity in the financial sector for the month saw a slight decrease in transaction volume of approximately 2% month-over-month, reaching $259 million, the number of transactions however, increased by 23% to reach 92 transactions.

Crypto exchanges accounted for 8 of the top 10 increases in the financial sector during this period, such as Kraken’s $100 million increase, Yellow Card’s $33 million increase, and Bitnomial’s $25 million increase . Other notable deals were made by Ellipsis Labs, which raised $21 million, and Bitfinex, which raised $21 million.

The infrastructure sector saw a significant increase in trading volume throughout October, growing 73% month-over-month to $92 million. However, the number of transactions decreased by 8% to 24 transactions. Glow, a decentralized computing and energy network, raised $30 million from investors including Framework and USV; and GEODNET also announced a deal, although details were not provided.