April Financing Report of the Web3 Industry: Capital Concentrates on Mature Projects, Medium and Large Projects Become Market Makers

Financing Overview

According to the data, the Web3 industry completed a total of 94 financing rounds in April 2025, with a total amount reaching 2.37 billion USD. Both the scale and number of financing have declined, indicating a significant cooling of the market.

Compared to the $5.08 billion and 140 transactions in March, the total financing amount has decreased by more than 53% month-on-month, and the number of financing deals has also fallen below 100, reaching a new low in nearly a year.

This phenomenon may be driven by the following factors: short-term wait-and-see sentiment after the concentrated release of funds in the first quarter; market correction or tightening regulatory expectations; and some financing shifting towards more concealed private placements or strategic orientation stages. It is worth noting that although the total amount of financing remains high, the number of financing deals has shown a downward trend since March, indicating that funds are accelerating towards a few capital-intensive projects, making it more difficult for small and medium-sized projects to secure financing, and the "Matthew effect" within the industry is gradually becoming apparent.

Characteristics of the Liquidity Qualification Bureau

The Web3 financing in April 2025 presents the following characteristics:

1. CeFi Leads Strongly: Centralized finance takes the top spot with a total financing amount of $1.15 billion, accounting for nearly half of the total financing for the month.

2. Stable Basic Services: The total financing amount for blockchain service tracks is $602 million, showing the market's continued interest in infrastructure and tool-type projects.

3. Defensive technologies are favored: DeFi and Social sectors attracted $215 million and $169 million in financing respectively, maintaining a certain level of activity.

4. Prudent investment in innovative sectors: Chain projects and GameFi only received $9.12 million and $1.95 million, respectively, placing them at a low in financing this month.

Financing Scale Distribution

In April, the financing scale exhibited a structural characteristic of "central region dominance + leading segment proportion + small amounts cooling off:"

• Projects with a financing scale between 3 million and 10 million USD account for as much as 30.3%, making it the most significant financing range.

• The number of projects with a financing scale exceeding 10 million USD accounts for 47%.

• Projects with a financing scale of less than 1 million dollars account for only 6.1%, highlighting the higher difficulty of financing for small-scale projects.

Overall, the Web3 financing ecosystem has shifted from "scattershot support" to "structured betting," with capital resources rapidly leaning towards projects with clear development paths and strong integration capabilities.

Distribution of Financing Rounds

From the perspective of the number of financing rounds and the proportion of financing amounts:

• Seed round ( Seed ) projects account for the highest proportion, reaching 41.4%.

• However, in terms of the proportion of financing amounts, funds are clearly inclined towards mid-to-late stage projects: Although there are few Series C projects, their ability to attract capital is the strongest, with a total financing amount of $205 million, accounting for 23.7% of the total financing amount.

• The amounts for Series A and Series B financing are 177 million and 159 million USD respectively, each accounting for over 18%.

This phenomenon of "light projects with heavy funding" becoming concentrated in the mid to later stages reflects investors' current preference for projects that are more stable, possess commercialization capabilities, and have growth validation, with a relatively lower risk tolerance for early-stage projects.

Active Investment Institutions

Coinbase Ventures tops the list with investments in 10 projects, clearly leading other institutions. 1kx, a16z CSX, and MH Ventures follow closely behind, with the number of investments ranging between 5 and 6.

From the distribution of investment tracks among various institutions:

• Coinbase Ventures has made significant investments in the fields of DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, and CeFi.

• 1kx is more focused on DeFi and blockchain infrastructure

• a16z CSX is active in the DeFi and blockchain services sectors.

Key Financing Projects

ZAR

ZAR is a digital dollar wallet designed to empower local merchants around the world to act as exchange points for cash and digital dollars. On April 30, ZAR announced the completion of a $7 million funding round led by Dragonfly Capital and VanEck Ventures.

Main Highlights:

1. The platform has not officially launched yet, but it has attracted around 100,000 users queuing to register, with over 7,000 merchants from 20 countries expressing their willingness to cooperate.

2. Launch the stablecoin ZAR pegged to the South African Rand, focusing on regions with unstable currencies and weak banking infrastructure, such as Sub-Saharan Africa.

3. Users can make payments globally using ZAR's virtual or physical debit cards, supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Pencil Finance

Pencil Finance is a decentralized lending protocol dedicated to bringing real-world student loan financing on-chain. On April 30, Pencil Finance announced the completion of a $10 million liquidity pool financing.

Main highlights:

1. Education loans on-chain, creating a new track for EduFi.

2. Risk-weighted structure design to match different risk preferences.

CAP

CAP is a stablecoin engine designed to break the closed-loop dependence of the endogenous incentive model, providing users with a truly sustainable yield path. On April 7th, Cap announced the completion of a $11 million financing.

Main Highlights:

1. A new type of stablecoin protocol built on MegaETH, which does not rely on traditional DeFi incentive methods such as token issuance.

2. Users do not need to have complex financial knowledge to obtain a "foolproof" earning experience through CAP.

3. In addition to cUSD, CAP will also launch stablecoins pegged to BTC and ETH, expanding the entry to diverse assets.

Camp Network

Camp Network is an innovative Layer-1 blockchain focused on proprietary intellectual property ( IP ). On April 29, Camp Network announced the completion of a $25 million Series A funding round, with a valuation as high as $400 million.

Main Highlights:

1. Emphasize off-chain data integration capabilities and developer friendliness.

2. Completely decentralized data storage and authentication mechanism.

3. Collaborated with top platforms such as Figma, CoinList, and WalletConnect.

Blackbird Labs

Blackbird is a Web3 loyalty and payment company focused on connecting restaurants with customers. On April 8, Blackbird Labs announced the completion of a $50 million Series B funding.

Main highlights:

1. Eliminate unnecessary intermediaries in the catering industry through the blockchain platform Flynet.

2. A tokenized points system has been built that is universal across restaurants.

3. Launch Blackbird Club, a tiered loyalty program.

Summary

In April 2025, the Web3 financing market showed signs of cooling down, but the direction and preferences of capital have changed significantly, concentrating on more mature, integrative, and compliant areas. Traditional financing methods are regaining dominance, with large amounts of capital flowing more towards mid-to-late stage and leading projects. Although early-stage innovations are still occurring, capital selection for startup projects has become stricter. Notably, some star projects have exhibited innovative potential in niche areas such as stablecoins, educational finance, IP infrastructure, and crypto dining applications, indicating that the Web3 ecosystem is still continuously exploring new growth points and application scenarios.