Crypto & Blockchain Venture Capital – Q1 2024, Galaxy Report

The new report from Galaxy shows that we are slowly emerging from crypto VC stagnation!

⚡️In Q1 2024, venture capitalists invested $2.49bn (+29% QoQ) into crypto and blockchain-focused companies across 603 deals (+68% QoQ).

This was the first rise in both capital invested and deal count in 3 quarters, perhaps signaling that Q4 2023 was the “bottom,” although a continuation of QoQ increases – and a more meaningful increase – would confirm that over the coming quarters.

VC Investment by Stage:

In Q1 2024, about 80% of the capital went to early-stage companies, while 20% went to later stage companies.

Investment by Category:

Companies and projects building in the “Infrastructure” category raised the largest share of crypto VC capital in Q1 2024 (24%), led by EigenLayer’s $100m fundraise.

What does the trend show?

Prior bull runs, such as 2017 and 2021, featured a high correlation between VC dollars invested and liquid crypto asset prices, but in 2023 and 2024, venture capital invested has remained well below prior levels while cryptos have rallied.

The venture stagnation is due to a number of factors, high rates environment dampening risk appetite, a remaining hangover in crypto appetite after the blowups of 2022, and perhaps also the lack of sufficient later stage companies capable of taking in large venture checks.

But the data we are seeing is giving expectations of a positive turnaround this quarter!

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🤝Crypto VC Pitching Session

⚡️May 13th, at 15:00 CEST, we will start a livestream where the hottest web3 startups will pitch seed and strategic rounds to crypto VCs and get funding!

🚀Meet our participants:

💎 Atomiq DeFi | BTC DeFi
First Project Incubated by Mintlayer developing a suite of Bitcoin dApps powered by Atomic Swaps.

💎 InvoiceMate | RWA
Decentralized invoice financing infrastructure transforming traditional invoices into tokenized RWAs.

💎 Kaisar | L1, DePIN
Ground-breaking layer-one blockchain, specifically designed and optimized for decentralized computing and AI.

💎 ChainAware | AI
Suite of AI products powered by AI infrastructure developed in-house targeting AdTech and Web3 compliance.

💎 Brass Synergy | SocialFi
Vetted decentralized talent ecosystem for vetted Web3 freelancers, professionals, and market participants.

Participating Investors:

👤Gate Labs |👤 CSP DAO | 👤WebWise VC | 👤 AQN Digital | 👤 TRIVE Digital | 👤 Marshland Capital | 👤 DIB Ventures |👤 GDA Capital | 👤 and many more investors watching live!

Watch on YouTube - subscribe to notifications 🔔 not to miss the live stream

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🔝 Level Up Your Pitch With 1-on-1 Guidance

One of the best ways to prepare for pitching to VCs: getting candid feedback from experts. That's why we recommend joining our Weekly Pitch Revision & Feedback Session ➡️ it'll be a game-changer for your next pitch.

🕜 The session is 30 minutes consultation with Alex Onischenko our Head VC Analyst and mentor according your pitch deck and pitching.

He'll share tips to refine your messaging and fundraising strategy🛸

It's like having a private coaching session with an industry pro! You'll quickly identify weaknesses, hone your story, and build pitch confidence!

⚡️Apply now to reserve your session with Alex here 👇 https://app.innmind.com/events/calendar

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🚀We're excited to announce the partnership between @Habibi_Hub and @InnMind🤝

Stay tuned for groundbreaking developments!

Habibi Hub have a greate news about launched Bitcoin Hub in Hong Kong🇭🇰 10.05.2024🔥

🔗https://lu.ma/bitcoinhub

Attending VCs (the list is growing):

Animoca Ventures, Hashkey Capital, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, C Capital, Mindfulness Capital, Criptonite Capital, Newtribe Capital, Maso Capital, Jasper Prime Capital, Galaxy Digital, Hailstone Labs, Autonomus Capital, Baboon VC, Alfatree Fund, BSQ Capital, CDH Fund, Initial Ventures and many more!

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Memecoins’ mass appeal makes it valuable to DEXs: Kain Warwick

«Memecoin trading can be hugely valuable to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) as it can attract flows from a mass of non-traditional DeFi traders»☄️

There’s an argument that memecoins are pure speculation, in my view speculation is good.
It’s valuable,

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, told Cointelegraph at MemeGlobal Sydney.

«Even if the investment is in a purely speculative instrument that has no utility, the ecosystem around it starts to form and that money flows through and the investment flows through into infrastructure, which I think is good.»

Warwick also said, Memecoins, NFTs and GameFi tap into more of a human emotion and cultural idea, which is much more interesting and accessible and addressable to the average person than DeFi.

There is something elegant in the simplicity of it!
There’s no yield or revenue or cash flow or anything.
It’s just: ‘Is this a dumb cool idea that I want to own, or is it not?’ That’s it!

What are your thoughts?
Are meme coins beneficial for crypto, or do you consider them harmful?😟

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🔝Web3 Marketing - How to dock to the untapped potential?

Martin Ploom, co-founder of ChainAware - AI-based сrypto user segmentation for 1:1 Marketing - shared with InnMind users his best techniques and practises in marketing.

In his article, he analyses 🔎 how Web3 marketing works today and what we can learn from Web2 marketing and implement it in web3 projects.

🎯 As result, he got 2x effectiveness improvement with the same budget.

⚡️Learn the case in details here 👇
https://blog.innmind.com/web3-marketing-how-to-dock-to-the-untapped-potential/

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🚀We are excited to start working with the incredibly promising DePIN project Nephele

Nephele is the new Layer-1 DePIN for 90% of web3 companies and individuals forced to use centralized Cloud data storage solutions.

💎Interested in partnership with Nephele or investment opportunities?
Contact our VC analyst - @ioannis_x

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Institutional capital is coming back into the sector⚡️

Pantera Capital is looking to raise more than $1 billion
for a new fund that offers investors exposure to a “full spectrum” of blockchain-based assets.

Slated for an April 2025 launch, the Pantera Fund V is set to serve as the firm’s ‘all-in-one’ fund, a slight change of tune from its existing Liquid Token Fund, Early Stage Token Fund, Bitcoin Fund and Venture Funds — which offer a more specific investment focus.

Startup equity, early-stage tokens, and liquid tokens are among the asset types that would be included in the Pantera Fund V, according to Pantera’s website.

A $1 billion raise would be the largest for the cryptocurrency industry since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz raised a record-setting $4.5 billion.

VC firm Paradigm is also reportedly negotiating a raise of up to $850 million for a new cryptocurrency fund, which — combined with Pantera — could signal that more institutional capital is coming back into the sector following a market rebound in 2023💫

The link to the article 🔗

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🤝 Crypto VC Pitching Session⚡️

Today, at 14:00 UTC, we start a livestream where the hottest web3 startups will pitch pre-seed, seed and strategic rounds to crypto VCs and get funding!

🔜 Climax AI | Consumer app, SocialFi

18+ content creation platform disrupting the adult entertainment industry using AI-driven innovation in a Web3 ecosystem.

🔜 Nexis | L1

L1 blockchain built for real-time data access for AI and Machine Learning + cross-chain liquidity and interoperability of smart contracts.

🔜 DigNow | AI, Data Analytics

a two-layer solution; the data warehouse aggregating on-chain and off-chain data and the ML model producing investment analysis.

🔜 zkCross | DeFi Infra

enables seamless liquidity transfers across Dapps & Blockchains with a single click.

🔜 DataLayer | L1

L1 blockchain that introduces local chains to provide dedicated block space to users, purposefully built for high-frequency, low-latency use cases like AI, DEPIN, and gaming.

Participating Investors:

👤WebWise VC |👤Paper Ventures | 👤London Real Ventures | 👤3x Capital | 👤Langrenus Fund | 👤Scytale Ventures | 👤Polkastarter |👤 and many more investors watching live!

Watch on YouTube - subscribe to notifications 🔔 not to miss the live stream

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🪐Please welcome the next VC participating in our Pitch Session:

Apostol Boujev, Investment Analyst at Scytale Ventures

Scytale Digital is one of the leading digital asset managers in Europe, investing in early-stage blockchain and crypto projects for its venture funds.

Don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 UTC🙏

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🪐Please welcome the next VC participating in our Pitch Session:

Dr. Ankur Pathak, Founding Principal at London Real Ventures

London Real Ventures is
the world's first media
powered Investment Firm.

The fund invests in promising Web3 projects, bringing immense value to its portfolio through media boost⚡️

🚀Excited to join our regular pitch sessions? Apply here

Don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 CEST🙏

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🪐Introducing the following VC participating in our upcoming Pitch Session:

Bernie Kong, co-founder of Langrenus Fund

Langrenus Fund is a boutique investment institute, leading in Web 3.0 Investment, SPAC Advisory, Capital Raise, and M&A for Emerging growth companies since 2019.

Investing in Web3 early stage, vertical agnostic (except GameFi, NFT and Metaverse)


🚀Excited to join our regular pitch sessions? Apply here

Don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 CEST🙏

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… Raise your hands 😂

Pavel Durov on Token2049 stage today.

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🪐We are excited to introduce the following VC participating in our upcoming Pitch Session:

Danish Chaudhry, GP & Co-Founder of Paper Ventures

Paper Ventures is a pioneering investment firm, focusing on the dynamic landscape of emerging technologies.

This highly experienced venture team, despite the recent launch of the fund, actively invests in promising Web3 early stage and smartly supports its portfolio!

🚀Excited to join our regular pitch sessions? Apply here

Also, don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 CEST🙏

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Hey there! We're excited to begin announcing the VC representatives for our Pitch Session on April 24th

💎Our first participant is Valeria Cheboksarova,
Partner at WebWise VC

WebWise is a Web3 and AI VC has been in this market since the last cycle with strong DeFi expertise & long-term investment thesis.

WebWise have impressive added value support for founders in pre-launch & post-launch promo of portfolio companies to over 150k engaged community from 100+ countries.

💎Excited to join our regular pitch sessions? Apply here

Also, don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 CEST🙏

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⚡️Meet in 1 hour at our Crypto VC Pitching Session

Watch on YouTube - subscribe to notifications 🔔 not to miss the live stream

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The Truth Behind Points & Token Farming

Airdrops began as simple endeavors where users completed basic tasks to receive free tokens. Early examples, like Uniswap’s ($UNI) airdrop, required minimal effort for substantial rewards.

However, as the market matured, airdrop criteria became more complex, with requirements like forced lockups and volume thresholds.

Today, airdrops often involve prolonged farming seasons and conditions that strategically lock up user funds to inflate metrics artificially.

Unfortunately, this hype-driven cycle often benefits projects and venture capitalists at the short term expense of average participants.

📌 For crypto startup founders, understanding user engagement through airdrops is crucial!

While airdrops can rapidly expand user bases, the quality of users varies significantly.

❗️Many are drawn by short-term gains, leading to high post-airdrop churn rates.

➕ Examples like Renzo, Tensor, EtherFi, and EigenLayer illustrate the challenges and inequities within airdrop mechanisms, often favoring whales and disproportionately benefiting certain tiers of participants.

To foster a loyal community, founders should implement strategies promoting sustained engagement and contribution.

⚡️Always align decisions with personal investment philosophies and risk tolerance!

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🤖 AI-based 1:1 targeting in Web3 Marketing

Usual marketing like "everyone gets the same message and visits the same shopping floor" works, but it's very costly.

💵 Primarily, it's very costly for young Web3 startups⛔️

However, more effective ways exist to convert clients and generate revenue: it is based on transferring the Web2 marketing approaches into the Web3 marketing:

🎯 use intention-based targeting to get visitors to the website

🎯 use 1:1 targeting on the website

Using this approach Martin Ploom, co-founder of ChainAware, got 2x effectiveness improvement with the same budget! 🔝

⚡️ Learn in detail these transformational marketing approaches here 👇
https://blog.innmind.com/web3-marketing-how-to-dock-to-the-untapped-potential/

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🔝 Top VCs Join EYWA's Seed Round

Let's start week with good news from one of startups in InnMind Network💎

EYWA, decentralized cross-chain interoperability protocol that makes it possible for cheap transfers of any data and assets between connected chains, has raised a total of $7 million! 😃🎉

Backers: Fenbushi Capital and GBV Capital. They joined the seed round alongside Big Brain Holdings, Marshland Capital Group, Mulana VC and others.

With Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov as our lead investor, the company is committed to revolutionizing cross-chain liquidity in the DeFi space.

✳️ This marks the end game for fragmented liquidity and the beginning of a new era in Web3 interoperability without sacrificing security.

▶️ Learn more ▶️ https://news.bitcoin.com/top-vcs-join-eywas-seed-round-led-by-curves-founder#google_vignette

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New Perk for InnMind community💎

3X Capital launches a comprehensive 8-week online program - Web3 Startup Analyst, after which you may have the opportunity to have an internship or get a job.

Dive into equity and token investments for startups and learn how to evaluate projects, master the art of preparing a deal memo and market evaluation, get a panoramic view of the Web3 VC landscape and more!

⚡️Use 3X10INNMIND promo code to get a special program discount!

💎Access

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📣Mastercard opens the call for FinTech companies

InnMind partner, Mastercard is aimed to overcome the challenging fundraising environment that fintechs have recently been facing.

🚀MasterCard launched ‘Mastercard For Fintechs’, the company’s new program designed to support fintechs across Western Europe.

The ‘Mastercard For Fintechs’ program offers exclusive access to Mastercard’s dedicated fintech learning platform​, participation in a series of fintech events across countries in Western Europe and the opportunity to compete for the chance to win €50k

The program also aims to support Web3 & blockchain FinTech solutions!

👇 Get more detail and apply here 👇
https://mastercard.com/mastercardforfintechs

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Lido Finance hits 1M validators, fueling the growth of DeFi

Lido, the largest liquid staking protocol, controls over 28.5% of all staked Eth, as liquid staking remains the largest DeFi protocol category.

Lido Finance has reached one million validators☄️ (announcement at X)

The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols surged from a low of $36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 to a peak of $97 billion in the first quarter of 2024⚡️

The growth in DeFi TVL, which increased by 65.6% quarter-on-quarter, was largely attributed to liquid staking protocols like Lido

Liquid staking is fueling the rise of DeFi🚀

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🪙 Behavioral Side of Total Supply and Price per Token

Meet the second part of series to learn more about Tokenomics from author & contributor Max Krasnov, CEO of Coinstruct.tech.

In the article, Max shares deep knowledge, insights and best practices on how to define token total supply and price per token, optimize emissions and allocations.

📌 FYI: After analyzing top 1000 projects by Market Cap, Coinstruct team found out the findings roughly seem to reject the “lower price is better” hypothesis.

The $<0.01 price per token range had statistically significantly worse returns than the ≥$10 - <$100 price range.

▶️ Get more in the article ▶️ https://blog.innmind.com/behavioral-side-of-total-supply-and-price-per-token/

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⚡️Welcome our Pitch Session’s special guest:

Hugo May, Head of Research at Polkastarter

Polkastarter is the leading decentralized fundraising platform built for cross-chain token pools and bids, offering a permissionless environment.

With Polkastarter, crypto projects can increase their reach, grow their communities and receive support from crypto's most well-versed experts.

Don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 UTC🙏

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🚩Scam of the month: ZKasino

Remember, any protocol, any team, could scam you.
And that's exactly what happened recently.

ZKasino team told users about their "unique" technologies and launched a liquidity program, where users were encouraged to deposit their ETH into a pool with a lock-up period, and in the future receive back both their locked ETH and ZKAS project tokens.

But things took a turn for the worse when, just a couple of days before the ZKAS listing, the terms were changed.

Under the new terms, users lose the ability to retrieve their ETH, and instead only receive ZKAS with a 5% unlock at TGE.

🤯

More controversy:

Venture capital firm Big Brain has added to the controversy as well, claiming in an April 21 X post that ZKasino “appears to be fraudulent” and it “never invested in ZKasino” but was offered a pro-rata token distribution that it had not received and “will not opt to receive.”

This came after ZKasino claimed in an X post in March to have closed a Series A investment round at a $350 million valuation with backing from crypto exchange MEXC and venture firm Big Brain Holdings, among others.

🤯

All listings were canceled. Users collectively lost 10,500 ETH, equivalent to $30 million, and the team simply withdrew these funds to Lido.

Any project can scam for one reason or another, so always remember to DYOR!

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🚀The wild west of Layer 2 solutions

Ethereum’s scalability journey seems as a never-ending story starting with the rise of crypto-kitties, followed by the breakthrough of DeFi and still being as the forefront challenge for Ethereum’s network.

Layer-2 chains and their plethora of implementations is being offered as a sustainable solution to the scalability issue of Ethereum, being faster, more cost-effective and better suitable for real world decentralized applications.

Currently, more than 30 L2 chains exist in the ecosystem, competing against each other in multiple fronts; user activity, TVL, project launches and many more. Of course, user activity is not mutually exclusive, however liquidity is!

🚰 Liquidity fragmentation across the many L2 chains is being identified as a gap in today’s web3 ecosystem, striving towards world wide adoption by eliminating friction and barriers for the users.

The challenges of liquidity fragmentation:

1️⃣ Potential increases in transaction costs and delays when interacting with multiple bridges
2️⃣ Using multiple cross-chains bridges increases the exposure to potential hacks
3️⃣ Increase complexity of DeFi yield strategies

The vibrant community of web3 with its innovative founders is already tackling the problem of liquidity fragmentation, creating applications that aim to break the isolated pools of liquidity in L2 chains, promoting the seamless exchange of assets with 1-click solutions!

🔥Have a great week ahead, stay safe and don't forget to buckle up!
The cryptoverse is on the rise🔥

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Happy Halving, Web3 fam 🥳 the Bitcoin block reward has halved!

After the halving, the BTC block reward was reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

What next? 😎

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💫Introducing the following VC participating in our upcoming Pitch Session:

Ivan Maltsev, General Partner at 3x Capital

3x Capital - is an investment and advisory firm focused on web3 startups.

Firm was established in 2021 by 3 partners: Dima, Taras and Ivan. As of now team has invested in 52 ventures and did 25 successful exits.

Noteworthy among our investments are prominent names such as Mina, Flow, Immutable X, Biconomy, Umee, Tevaera, and others.

🚀Excited to join our regular pitch sessions? Apply here

Don't forget to tune in to our Pitch Session live on YouTube on April 24th, 14:00 CEST🙏

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📊Supply-Side Tokenomics

InnMind official tokenomics partner, Coinstruct.tech shares deep insights about the supply-side tokenomics tactics.

🟡What are the right choices for vesting terms & cliffs, token distribution and token pricing?

🟡What FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) to target and how to overcome excessive inflation, but to fairly reward users and guarantee a solid ROI for investors?

Get the answers here ⏩ https://blog.innmind.com/supply-side-tokenomics-supply-distribution-optimization-for-price-performance-cost-efficiency/

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🚀Amazing opportunities by yard[hub]

🟠Dive into the Success of web3 Growth Camp's First Cohort:

· Investment: $50-100K investments secured by 3 program projects from yard[hub] and affiliated investors.
· Grants: Over $100K in grants facilitated by yard[hub].
· Exposure: Demo Day featured judges from top firms like Animoca Brands, Blockchain Founders Fund, HTX and more.
· Learning: 20+ workshops and talks by leaders from MasterCard, Sandbox, MoonPay, among others.
· Mentorship: 30+ personalized sessions with mentors.
· Networking: 50+ introductions made to VCs and key web3 players.
· Partner Benefits: $150k+ in partner benefits distributed to participants.

📈 About web3 Growth Camp:

12-week accelerator tailored for early-stage blockchain projects, culminating in a Demo Day with top web3 VCs. The unique zero-risk participation means you can try the first two modules (if you make it in, of course) without any obligations; a token and/or equity fee of up to 3% applies only if you continue beyond this trial period.

Why wait? The next big step for your project could start here, with no risks and all the potential rewards.

🔗 Explore more and apply here: https://app.innmind.com/viewServiceProvider/service-provider-yard[hub]-f5wcwbi6qasdlccar

🟠Enhance Your Startup's First Impression with a Free Pitch Deck Review!

A compelling pitch deck can make or break your opportunity to impress investors. So its crucially important to make it right as early as possible to aviod making hunderds of iterations on later stages.

To support this, Yard[hub] web3 Growth Camp offers a Free Pitch Deck Review for our startups on InnMind.

This isn't just about polishing your slides — it's about refining your vision to make sure it resonates with those who matter most.

Submit your pitch deck here for expert feedback through the form in yard[hub] expert profile on InnMind or get connected with the team directly!

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