Crypto funding in August wasn’t as good as the numbers may lead you to believe

Crypto and blockchain startups haven’t been having a good time raising funds for quite a while now, given the overall slowdown in funding, a stronger focus on due diligence, and concerns over the macroeconomic environment and regulations in the U.S.

At first glance, August seemed to bring some relief to startups in the space, with venture capitalists investing $819 million across 91 companies, per fresh data from PitchBook. That was about 51% more than the $542.8 million that companies in the space raised in July.

However, August only looks good because of the huge $400 million round raised by “Shariah-compliant” digital asset exchange Haqqex, and the $100 million round raised by crypto custodian BitGo. Without these two rounds, we’d actually have seen a dip in investment last month compared to July.

Things look a bit worse when you compare last month’s totals to the same time last year, when $1.74 billion was raised — that’s a 53% decline, the data showed.

This isn’t a new trend, either. Venture capital investors haven’t been as excited about the digital asset industry since about Q1 2022 — by the second quarter, investments into the space had dropped for five consecutive quarters.

August’s good numbers might not be able to stem the bleeding, though. To date, web3 startups have raised $1.38 billion in the third quarter, which means that in order for funding in the space to surpass second-quarter levels, startups would need to raise an additional $960 million in September. Looking back at how things have been for the past two months, that seems quite unlikely.