- Investments in crypto companies on pace to pass $25 billion.
- Raises include Stripe’s blockchain project Tempo and Polymarket.
- This month saw raises for betting platforms and infrastructure.
Not even a $20 billion crypto market crash is stopping venture capital investors from piling into crypto startups.
That’s according to Mike Giampapa, general partner of Galaxy Ventures, who told DL News that “we don’t see the recent deleveraging event as having an impact on the VC fundraising environment.”
“While this was the largest notional crypto deleveraging event on record, we view it as a short-term microstructure-driven event more than a reflection of a fundamental shift in the market,” Giampapa said.
His comments come as 83 crypto companies raised $3.9 billion in October, according to DefiLlama data.
That brings the total funding for crypto companies to over $21 billion so far in 2025, almost doubling 2024’s total.
And analysts say investment into blockchain-based ventures is accelerating.
Giampapa as well as investors from places like Codebase expect that investors will plough over $25 billion into the industry in 2025.
Here are the crypto companies that raised the most money in October.
Polymarket, $2 billion
Polymarket, the decentralised prediction market platform, announced on October 7 that it secured a $2 billion strategic investment from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
The deal values Polymarket at $9 billion post-money and marks a landmark moment for the tokenisation of financial infrastructure.
Founded in 2020, Polymarket emerged from obscurity during the pandemic. Polymarket and its nearest competitor, Kalshi, saw their volumes soar in the run-up to the US presidential election. These days, sports markets make up the bulk of both platforms’ activities.
As of October 20, Kalshi and Polymarket had more than $1.3 billion in sports betting notional volume.
Tempo, $500 million
Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has raised $500 million in a Series A round led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital, valuing the project at $5 billion, Fortune reported.
With funding from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel, Tempo is now one of the most valuable blockchain projects in recent years.
Unlike Stripe’s prior crypto ventures, including acquisitions of Bridge and Privy, Tempo is a standalone blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin-based payments. Its design partners include OpenAI, Visa, and Shopify, and the network aims to rival incumbents like Ethereum, Solana, and Mastercard.
The investment into Tempo highlights how traditional financial players are increasingly investing and recruiting for blockchain projects of their own. In late August, Google announced plans to roll out GCUL, its own centralised blockchain to “create innovative payments services and financial markets products.”
These initiatives come amidst a growing stablecoin boom bolstered by US lawmakers having clubbed through the Genius Act, a stablecoin law, which has incentivised institutional players to tap into digital assets.
Kalshi, $300 million
Kalshi raised over $300 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, doubling its valuation to $5 billion just months after its previous round.
The prediction market’s backers include Paradigm, CapitalG, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, and Spark Capital.
In a statement shared with DL News earlier in October, Alex Immerman, partner on a16z’s Growth Fund, applauded the founders for taking “the difficult but more responsible route” of becoming regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
As of the week of October 20, Kalshi had over $1 billion in trading volume on its platform, according to Dune data.
The booming sports betting market is driving the success, according to Dustin Gouker, a sports betting consultant and predictions market analyst.
Users betting on Kalshi through Robinhood now account for a large chunk of Kalshi’s trading volume, Gouker told DL News in September.
You’re reading the latest installment of The Weekly Raise, our column covering fundraising deals across the crypto and DeFi spaces, powered by DefiLlama.
Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.
