Venture capital is consolidating into larger, higher-conviction bets, with infrastructure projects leading the way, according to Outlier Ventures
Aug 30, 2025, 6:00 p.m.
Web3 startups raised $9.6 billion in venture funding during the second quarter of 2025, making it the second-largest quarter on record, even as the number of deals fell to multi-year lows, according to a new report by Outlier Ventures.
The research by the London-based venture capital firm could present a maturing market in which investors are putting more money into fewer projects.
The findings suggest that Web3 fundraising is evolving from hype-driven activity toward targeted, durability-focused investment, with investors favoring foundational infrastructure and proven teams over volume.
Only 306 deals were disclosed in the quarter, the lowest since mid-2023, but the median deal size rose across every stage. Outlier said this reflects a shift from broad, speculative investing to strategic, high-conviction allocations.
Series A funding, which had slowed sharply during the bear market, staged a comeback. The median Series A round grew to $17.6 million, with 27 deals totaling $420 million, the largest since 2022. Seed funding also picked up, with a median size of $6.6 million.
Token fundraising painted a split picture. Private token sales raised $410 million across just 15 deals—their strongest showing since 2021, while public token sales slumped 83% to $134 million, underscoring waning appetite for retail-focused offerings.
Sectors such as cryptocurrency infrastructure, mining and validation, and compute networks saw the largest rounds, with medians ranging between $70 million and $112 million. Consumer-facing sectors, such as marketplaces, trailed significantly.
“Capital is consolidating around the projects that can provide the rails for the next phase of adoption,” Outlier wrote, adding that infrastructure-first bets are viewed as “indispensable” to Web3’s long-term growth.
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