Good evening, y’all! As promised, the Empire newsletter’s Katherine Ross is back — this time highlighting some work by Blockworks Research to catch you up on all things crypto VC funding. Let’s get into it:

Sluggish spending

Not only is summer just around the corner, but a new month means new data around venture capital spending. 

Fundraising totaled $594 million last month, per Blockworks Research data. 

As you can see, funding made up a very small slice of the overall pie, with M&A leading the month when it comes to money spent. A little over $2.9 billion went towards deals last month, of which most of that sum came from the $2.9 billion Coinbase-Deribit deal. 

Overall, funding was on the smaller side, especially in comparison to the last few months. Is that concerning? I personally don’t think so. Not unless it becomes a trend, and it would take a few more months in a row to establish that. 

There were roughly 61 raise announcements, again slightly lower than what we’ve previously seen, as depicted in the chart below. 

While momentum clearly slowed, it’s on par for the season. Taking a look at the activity from last May to now, it looks like both years have seen a dip. 

There’s nothing that’s changed sentiment-wise that seems concerning, which would lead me to believe the dip is seasonal. But we’re going to have to see how June looks. 

Per the TIE Terminal, it looks like the average venture capital round announced last month was the seed stage, with strategic rounds coming in second. 

Seed rounds tend to be smaller rounds, since they’re among the first rounds raised by projects so that could contribute to the overall sum. Strategic rounds can also be small, given that they’re generally a way for a start-up to not only access some capital but also support from investors. 

So not the most impressive month but, like I said, it’s not too concerning yet. The end of June will wrap up the second quarter, and we’ll be able to take that data and compare it to the performance from the first quarter. 

Pitchbook’s Robert Le previously told CNBC that he expects crypto funding to top $18 billion this year, and that number still looks like a real possibility as of now.

— Katherine Ross

P.S For more crypto funding news and trends to watch, give the Empire newsletter a subscribe. See ya in your inbox!

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