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Crypto VC Funding Doubled in 2025 as RWA Tokenization Took the Lead

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Crypto VC Funding Doubled in 2025 as RWA Tokenization Took the Lead

Cointelegraph Research provides a data-driven report on crypto VCs, highlighting capital flows, sector rotation and changes in investor behavior.

Cointelegraph Research’s latest report provides an outlook on the state of fundraising in the crypto market and the key VC trends of 2025. VC investments in Web3 startups doubled in 2025 from the year before, driven by institutional interest, particularly in the RWA sector, which raised more than $2.5 billion. There has also been a distinct increase in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and other large-scale corporate financing arrangements.

Download the free report to discover important industry highlights

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The state of crypto venture capital (VC) in 2026

In 2025, venture capital investment in crypto startups exceeded $8 billion in every quarter for the first time since 2022. Total funding in 2025 reached more than $34 billion, double the $17 billion recorded in 2024. Nevertheless, 2025 can still be considered a risk-off year, as investors favored bonds and safe-haven assets, such as precious metals, which posted exceptional performance that year, amid geopolitical uncertainty and elevated interest rates.

The reduced risk appetite of venture capital also changed perceptions of business models in crypto. In 2025, fund managers prioritized sustainable revenue models, organic user metrics and strong product market fit instead of projects with early traction and limited revenue visibility. This shift was corroborated by the move from pre-seed and seed rounds toward later financing stages. Seed-stage financing declined by 18%, while Series B funding increased by 90%. This indicates deeper investor involvement in projects and a stronger focus on ecosystem development rather than early-stage experimentation.

Download the full report to explore which startups and niches attracted most attention from VCs

The trending narrative: Real-world assets (RWA)

RWA tokenization has shifted from a narrative into a budding sector over the past three years. According to RWA.xyz data, tokenized real-world assets have surpassed a capitalization of $38 billion, up 744% from $4.5 billion in 2022. RWAs have emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments in the crypto market, second only to stablecoins. Despite this growth, the crypto RWA sector remains small relative to $156 trillion in fixed-income and $146 trillion global equities markets. This suggests substantial room for further expansion.

From the investment side, the first signs of this shift are present in the progression of annual funding figures. In 2025, VC funding for RWA tokenization projects exceeded $2.5 billion. 

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Download the full Cointelegraph Research report to explore deeper insights into the RWA sector

Fading narrative for Ethereum layer 2s and modular infrastructure projects

While overall VC interest in the crypto market increased throughout the year, certain narratives showed clear signs of decline. In 2022, Ethereum layer 2 projects raised more than $1.2 billion, followed by $387 million in 2023 and $587 million in 2024. In 2025, funding reached a low of $162 million, representing a 72%decline from 2024.

This was likely caused by the rapid proliferation of layer-2 blockchains, which has led to an increasingly saturated landscape and a decline in VC appetite for this technology. As the number of L2 chains quickly increased above 50, the demand for blockspace was saturated.

See which crypto sectors are losing VC interest in the latest report by Cointelegraph Research

We would like to thank Canton Foundation, CryptoRank, DWF Labs, Everest Ventures Group, Mercuryo, and RWA.xyz for contributing data, insights, and opinions to this report.

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as, legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. Cointelegraph does not endorse the content of this article nor any product mentioned herein. Readers should do their own research before taking any action related to any product or company mentioned and carry full responsibility for their decisions. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.

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Here are the five key takeaways from this week’s Fed meeting

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Here are the five key takeaways from this week's Fed meeting

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 18, 2026.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

1. Lots of uncertainty

While no one expected the Fed to cut — much less hike — at this meeting, the market always looks for clues about what’s next. Neither the post-meeting statement, the update on economic projections, nor Powell’s news conference provided much in that regard. The statement saw only minor tweaks, the “dot plot” saw a modest dovish shift, and Powell used some form of “uncertain” more than half a dozen times.

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2. The war is a problem

Forecasting the future and modeling policy at a time when the U.S. is at war with Iran is nearly impossible, Powell said. He faced repeated questions about the oil shock, and mostly emphasized how much it has muddied the waters for the Fed. “The thing I really want to emphasize is that nobody knows,” he said. “The economic effects could be bigger, they could be smaller, they could be much smaller or much bigger. We just don’t know.”

3. Cuts coming, but timing is highly uncertain

The dot plot still pointed to one more cut this year and another next year. But the grid looked more like a maze than a consensus, underlining just how little underlying consensus exists on the Federal Open Market Committee. For instance: In 2027, one official sees a hike, three see no change from the current level, four expect another cut, six see two more cuts, three forecast three cuts, one official sees four cuts, and a final participant — presumably Governor Stephen Miran — is at five.

4. Powell leaves door open to staying

Each news conference, Powell is questioned on whether he will stay on as governor after his term as chair ends. He again said he hasn’t made up his mind, which, of course, doesn’t eliminate the possibility. But he also said he isn’t going anywhere as long as the investigation into him continues, adding that he’ll also stay on as sort of a “chair pro tem” until someone, presumably former Governor Kevin Warsh, is confirmed as his successor.

5. Powell rejects ‘stagflation’

Don’t use the term “stagflation” around Powell. The chair rejected the notion that the U.S. economy, with its solid growth and low unemployment rate, is heading toward a 1970s nightmare, despite an anemic hiring rate and inflation above the Fed’s target for going on five years. “It’s a very difficult situation, but it’s nothing like what they faced in the 1970s and [I would] reserve ‘stagflation’ for that,” Powell said. “Maybe that’s just me.”

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They said it

“The Fed didn’t move today — but it didn’t need to. This is a central bank that’s comfortable waiting, watching, and staying flexible. One projected cut tells you everything: the Fed is not in a rush, and neither should investors be.” — Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group.

“Although the move was widely expected, it underscores the difficult path ahead for the Fed, which now faces pressure on both sides of its dual mandate to keep employment high and inflation muted. Complicating matters further is the fact that Fed leaders are often basing hugely important decisions on weeks- or months-old data that may not fully capture the magnitude of rapid economic shifts, raising the risk that decisions may come too late or be based on outdated assumptions.” — Indeed economist Felix Aidala.

“I expect given the volatile situation that the committee would like to try and do as little as possible so as to not rock the boat ahead of the new Fed chair taking over.” — Stephen Coltman, head of macro at 21shares.

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TradeXYZ Lands Official S&P 500 License for On-Chain Perpetual

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TradeXYZ Volume and Open Interest chart

The deal gives non-U.S. investors around-the-clock leveraged exposure to the world’s most-tracked equity benchmark on Hyperliquid.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has licensed the S&P 500 to TradeXYZ, enabling the launch of the first officially sanctioned perpetual futures contract based on the index.

This marks the first time eligible non-U.S. investors can gain leveraged exposure to the S&P 500 through an officially licensed, digitally native instrument designed for 24/7 trading on a decentralized platform. Unlike traditional S&P 500 futures, the contract carries no fixed expiry, allowing traders to hold long or short positions without rolling.

The S&P 500 sits at the center of a global trading ecosystem generating over $1 trillion in daily volume across linked exposures in exchange-traded futures, options, ETFs, and structured products, the company noted in a press release. The new perp extends that ecosystem on-chain using official SPDJI index data, a distinction TradeXYZ frames as critical for institutional-grade liquidity.

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“We believe digitally-native investors should demand the institutional-quality standards that define our indices, and we are thrilled to work with TradeXYZ to do so,” said Cameron Drinkwater, Chief Product & Operations Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

TradeXYZ’s Rapid Rise

TradeXYZ is the perpetuals arm of Unit, the Hyperliquid tokenization layer. The protocol’s XYZ100 market was the first HIP-3 deployment, tracking Nasdaq futures. Launched in October, TradeXYZ began its breakout at the end of November after Hyperliquid rolled out its “growth mode” upgrade, which reduced fees on HIP-3 permissionless perpetuals markets by over 90%, triggering a sharp spike in volumes.

The platform has since crossed $1 billion in open interest and routinely processes more than $1 billion in daily volume, according to DeFiLlama.

TradeXYZ Volume and Open Interest chart
TradeXYZ Volume and Open Interest

Less than a month after deploying XYZ100, the platform added tokenized NVDA and TSLA markets and has continued adding pairs weekly.

The HYPE token rallied roughly 3% to $42 following the announcement, placing it among today’s top gainers amid a broad market selloff.

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HYPE Chart
HYPE Chart

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Crypto News Today: Kiyosaki Predicts $750K Bitcoin and Pepeto Keeps Raising While BlockDAG Crashes After Launch

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Robert Kiyosaki just predicted Bitcoin at $750,000 in his latest post on X. The crypto news today is moving fast after the FOMC held rates at 3.50% to 3.75% and BTC pulled back from $76,000. But the real crypto news is in the presale market, where one early project keeps raising while another launched and crashed.

The Federal Reserve held rates unchanged on March 18, and the dot plot signaled limited cuts for 2026 according to CoinDesk.

BTC touched $76,000 before pulling back to $71,000 in the typical sell the news pattern that followed seven of eight FOMC meetings in 2025 according to CoinGecko. Strategy bought $1.57 billion worth of Bitcoin, its largest purchase of 2026. The crypto news today tells the same story it always tells after FOMC: retail panics, institutions load, and the recovery follows within weeks.

Crypto News Today and the Presale Projects That the Correction Is Separating From the Noise

Pepeto Is an Early Project Built for Trading, Risk Scoring, and Cross Chain Movement That Has Raised Over $8 Million

Pepeto is an early meme coin project that combines zero fee trading, cross chain transfers, and a risk scorer that flags dangerous tokens before your capital touches them. The project gives holders tools that remove friction from every trade and protect every transaction from the start. That matters during a correction like this one, when new investors panic and experienced wallets quietly load the projects that will define the next leg up.

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PepetoSwap, the bridge, and the risk scorer are all built and audited by SolidProof. This is not a roadmap promise. This is working infrastructure, and that separates Pepeto from projects still selling ideas. BlockDAG raised $452 million and launched on March 5, but crashed 68% from its $0.17 ATH to $0.054 within ten days, proving that money without trust leads to exit selling.

Pepeto on the other hand has PepetoSwap charging zero on every trade, a bridge moving tokens across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana for nothing, and the risk scorer running before a single listing has happened.

Priced at $0.000000186 and still in presale, Pepeto offers early holders access to the full ecosystem before the Binance listing arrives. The project has raised more than $8.1 million, built by the cofounder of the original Pepe coin with a former Binance expert on the dev team. A $2,000 position today buys over 10 billion tokens, and if Pepeto matches the $11 billion cap that Pepe reached with the same 420 trillion supply and zero products, that position becomes more than $300,000. That requires roughly 150x, a target Pepe surpassed within months. And Pepeto has three working products that Pepe never had, so the path to that target has a foundation underneath it.

IPO Genie Targets Private Markets at $0.0001310 With a Structured Listing Return

IPO Genie sits at $0.0001310 with a confirmed listing price of $0.0016, implying a structured 1,127% return from entry to listing.

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The project targets the $3 trillion gap between institutional deal flow and retail access. But bridging private markets to blockchain requires regulatory approvals that take years.

Mutuum Finance Offers DeFi Lending but Enters a Crowded Field Without Clear Differentiation

Mutuum Finance targets decentralized lending with variable rate pools and collateral management. The concept has merit, but the DeFi lending space already has Aave and Compound dominating TVL.

Without a technical edge or strong community, Mutuum faces the adoption wall that stalled dozens of lending protocols before it.

The Crypto News Today Will Fade but the Presale Entry You Take During the Correction Will Not

The crypto news today shows Pepeto quietly outpacing every other presale while the market watches the FOMC dip play out. The working exchange, the cross chain bridge, and the approaching Binance listing are pulling capital into Pepeto while other presales stall or crash.

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With the products built and the presale still open at $0.000000186, Pepeto is the early entry most likely to turn a small position into the kind of return that corrections are remembered for. Visit the Pepeto official website now, because six months from now the investors who acted during a Fear Index of 37 will be the ones the rest of the market wishes they had followed.

Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale

FAQs

What is the biggest crypto news today?

The Fed held rates at 3.50% to 3.75%, Kiyosaki predicted $750K Bitcoin, and BTC ETFs posted their longest inflow streak in five months.

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Is the crypto correction a good time to buy early projects?

FOMC corrections have recovered within weeks historically. Pepeto is still in presale with a Binance listing approaching.

What is Pepeto and why is it in the crypto news?

Pepeto has a zero fee exchange, cross chain bridge, and risk scorer, all audited by SolidProof with $8.1 million raised. Visit the Pepeto official website.

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The post Crypto News Today: Kiyosaki Predicts $750K Bitcoin and Pepeto Keeps Raising While BlockDAG Crashes After Launch appeared first on Blockonomi.

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American Bitcoin (ABTC) bitcoin stack rises to 6,889 BTC coins

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American Bitcoin (ABTC) bitcoin stack rises to 6,889 BTC coins

American Bitcoin (ABTC), a mining and treasury firm tied to the Trump family, now holds more bitcoin than Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital (GLXY).

The company owns 6,899 BTC, worth about $491 million, edging past Galaxy’s 6,894 BTC to become the 16th largest public holder of the asset, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net.

The shift highlights how newer entrants continue to climb the rankings as firms compete to build large bitcoin reserves. At the top remains Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) with 761,068 BTC. It is followed by Marathon Digital (MARA) and Jack Mallers’ Twenty One Capital. Other major holders include Bullish (BLSH), CoinDesk’s parent company, Coinbase (COIN) and Tesla (TSLA).

American Bitcoin’s rise also underscores the growing role of Trump-affiliated entities in the market. Trump Media & Technology (DJT), the company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump, holds 9,542 BTC.

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American Bitcoin, formed in March 2025 when Hut 8 (HUT) launched it as a majority-owned subsidiary focused on large-scale mining and holding bitcoin on its balance sheet. Hut 8 held an 80% stake at launch, with the remaining 20% owned by investors including Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Unlike some mining firms that have begun shifting resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, American Bitcoin has doubled down on mining. In March 2026, it bought 11,298 ASIC miners for its Drumheller, Alberta site. The machines are expected to lift its capacity by about 12% and add 3.05 exahashes per second, or roughly 0.3% of the global network’s computing power.

Bitcoin recently traded at $71,092, down 4% over the past day.

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Fairshake’s $10 million Illinois misfire marks first big hitch in crypto political surge

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Crypto PAC Fairshake leaps into first midterm Senate race with $5 million in Alabama

Losing a race is unusual for the crypto industry’s political action committee, Fairshake, which has recorded a dominant record in the past two congressional elections. But the Illinois primaries this week saw its biggest-ever setback, likely to conclude with a new member of the Senate next year being somebody the PAC spent more than $10 million trying to defeat.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won her Democratic primary, and her state’s Democrat lean means she’s likely to be its next senator after the November general election. One of Fairshake’s affiliates had devoted millions to purchase opposition advertising in that race and to support two of her opponents — representing more than 5% of the funds it’s said it had on-hand this year to devote to the congressional contests.

Not only did that money fail to win the outcome the group aimed for, but Stratton may eventually be a member of the 100-member Senate in which a single lawmaker can have a very potent influence, and she’ll be well aware of the industry’s efforts to oppose her. Crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto, which evaluates politicians and political candidates, graded Stratton with an “F” on digital assets issues, even though she doesn’t have a significant personal record on crypto policy apart from the state’s industry-opposed regulatory regime signed by her boss last year.

“If you support pro-crypto policies, we will show up big,” Fairshake spokesman Geoff Vetter said in a statement. “If you oppose crypto and American innovation, we will show up big. That message is now clear at both the state level and federal level.”

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The industry had mixed results in Illinois, supporting three pro-crypto candidates who won their primaries, and one other who didn’t. A person familiar with the PAC’s strategies said that it saw the loss as a one-off and that it was unlikely that other candidates it opposes down the road will have similar campaign resources they can tap.

Starting with the 2024 elections, Fairshake — primarily backed by Coinbase, a16z and Ripple — has targeted multiple Senate races in which it spent more than $10 million trying to influence the outcome. In its biggest spend in the last cycle, it devoted a towering $40 million to oppose former Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who as ex-chairman of the Senate Banking Committee stood in the way of crypto legislation. (Brown is trying for a comeback this year, though Fairshake hasn’t yet announced its plan for Brown’s challenge of Senator Jon Husted.)

La Shawn Ford, who won his Illinois 7th District congressional primary to potentially join the House of Representatives next year, was another of Fairshake’s targets in a race in which the PAC spent almost $2.5 million. He accused the PAC of pumping out misleading and defamatory accusations in its ads. While he may represent a future political opponent for the sector, Fairshake celebrated wins for Donna Miller, Melissa Bean and incumbent Representative Nikki Budzinski in other House races in that state.

In 2024, Fairshake and its affiliates supported 53 candidates who ended up in Congress, losing in just five races, though many of the favored candidates were clear frontrunners. The super PAC was widely seen as establishing an industry model for a campaign-finance strategy in which more than $100 million devoted to congressional races (often primaries in districts in which one party has a dominant position) can influence the outcomes for dozens of seats. Fairshake purposefully didn’t craft its political ads to reference its own main aim to foster crypto, but it instead made ads based on whatever was the biggest political vulnerability it saw in opponents or positive points it noted in allies.

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Fairshake has been very public about the $193 million war chest it started the campaign season with. The funds aren’t just an election tool. Crypto lobbyists and insiders have acknowledged that it also acts as a caution to sitting lawmakers weighing crypto legislation now moving through Congress. Members know that their decisions on crypto bills could bring either millions of dollars in support or opposition in their campaigns, often far exceeding the amount of money that congressional campaigns can raise from direct donors.

Fairshake doesn’t expect to win everything, but it does expect to win most of the races they get involved with, the person said, and it’ll make the point that opposing crypto innovation will be expensive for politicians.

Some candidates that Fairshake opposed in the past did go on to support crypto initiatives, but Stratton criticized the “MAGA-backed crypto bros” that opposed her. Her crypto intentions in the Senate, if she gets there, remain to be seen.

Read More: Crypto campaign PAC Fairshake marks first wins in 2026 U.S. congressional primaries

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Kalshi CEO Fires Back against Arizona Criminal Charges as ‘Total Overstep‘

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Kalshi CEO Fires Back against Arizona Criminal Charges as ‘Total Overstep‘

The prediction markets co-founder said that the company would “abide by court decisions“ but signaled that the charges were based partly on political bias and media attention.

Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of prediction markets platform Kalshi, has pushed back against criminal charges filed by Arizona authorities this week, claiming that they were a “total overstep” and “not about gambling.”

On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced charges against the companies behind Kalshi, alleging that the company operated an “illegal gambling business in Arizona without a license” and offered illegal election wagering. Mansour said in a Wednesday Bloomberg interview that Mayes was attempting to “subvert the judicial process” by filing charges without a court decision in Kalshi’s own lawsuit against Arizona authorities last week. 

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“We see this as a total overstep and we look forward to fighting it in court,” said Mansour.