Encryption venture capital market cools down, popular projects still attract funding.

The cryptocurrency venture capital market showed a lackluster trend in the second quarter of 2023, but some quality projects still secured considerable financing. Although venture capital firms had stated that bear markets are a good time for them to ramp up, in fact, recent startup investment activities of large institutions have also noticeably decreased.

Since the beginning of this year, the amount of fundraising for encryption venture capital has dropped significantly by 98% year-on-year. According to data, in the second quarter, encryption startups completed a total of 382 transactions, with a total financing amount of 2.34 billion USD. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of decline since the first quarter of 2022, when encryption startups received as much as 12.14 billion USD in investment.

This ongoing downward trend indicates that encryption startup investments have not yet bottomed out. The crackdown by U.S. regulators on certain internet-related assets may threaten the viability of financing tools such as "token warrants." As a result, venture capital firms and their investors are becoming more cautious when entering the encryption private placement market.

However, some high-quality encryption projects can still secure ample funding. Here are a few notable financing projects worth关注 recently:

Mythical Games

Financing amount: 37 million USD Industry: Gaming

Mythical Games is a comprehensive Web3 game studio that has developed multiple encryption games and supporting products. Its collaboration with the NFL on the game "NFL Rivals" ranks highly on the App Store sports game charts, demonstrating a strong market penetration. Mythical Games is expected to become one of the studios developing groundbreaking encryption games.

Taiko

Financing Amount: 22 million USD Industry: Layer 2 scaling solution

Taiko is developing a zkEVM Layer 2 rollup solution that is highly compatible with Ethereum. Its priority is to ensure compatibility with the Ethereum architecture rather than minimizing prover costs. This design philosophy will allow protocols on Ethereum to seamlessly migrate to Taiko without the need to modify code or deployment environments.

Maverick Protocol

Funding amount: 9 million USD Industry: DeFi

Maverick is an innovative AMM protocol deployed on Ethereum, zkSync, and BNB Chain. It offers four automated liquidity strategies that intelligently adjust liquidity based on preset parameters. Maverick adopts an in-bin concentrated liquidity design, providing a zero slippage environment for large trades. This design helps institutions provide liquidity for volatile asset portfolios while also making it easier for retail LPs to profit.

Despite the overall market downturn, the successful financing of these projects indicates that high-quality encryption innovations can still attract investors' attention. As the industry continues to evolve, we can expect to see more groundbreaking projects emerge.