November 2025 Investment Landscape
Crypto venture capital activity in November 2025 experienced a slowdown, with the number of publicly disclosed investment deals dropping to 57 projects. This figure represents a 28% decrease compared to the 79 deals recorded in October and a significant decline of 41% from the 96 projects funded in November 2024, according to data from RootData.
Despite the contraction in deal volume, the total funding amount surged dramatically to $14.54 billion. This represents a 219% increase from October's $4.556 billion. The sharp rise in funding is primarily attributed to a single, monumental transaction: Naver's acquisition of Upbit operator Dunamu for $10.3 billion, marking the largest financing event ever recorded in the cryptocurrency space.
Crypto VC Deal Volume Across Sectors
The decline in crypto VC activity observed in November 2025 continues a downward trend in deal volume that has been evident over the past year. The 57 announced transactions for November 2025 were nearly 41% below the 96 deals recorded during the same period in 2024.
It is important to note that monthly funding totals can fluctuate, as not all financings are reported in a given month. The volume for November, at 57 deals, represented a 28% month-over-month drop from October's 79 deals.
In terms of sector distribution, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects attracted the largest share of investment deals, accounting for 30.4% of all disclosed crypto venture capital transactions in November and emerging as the most active category.
Centralized finance infrastructure, which includes exchanges, lending platforms, and other centralized cryptocurrency services, followed closely with 12.5% of the deals. AI-centered crypto projects, alongside Real World Assets (RWA) and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) efforts, each constituted 7.1% of the total investment volume.
Projects focused on tool and wallet development secured 5.4% of the deals, while Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain infrastructure projects saw a lower engagement, representing only 1.8% of investments. NFT and GameFi projects collectively accounted for 1.8% of the deals.
Naver's $10.3 Billion Upbit Acquisition Dominates Funding
Naver has finalized an agreement to acquire Upbit operator Dunamu in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $10.3 billion. This deal places the value of Naver Financial at roughly 4.9 trillion won and Dunamu at approximately 15.1 trillion won. Through this share swap, Naver Finance will become the wholly-owned parent company of Dunamu.
For the first nine months of 2025, Dunamu reported a consolidated revenue increase of 22% year-over-year, reaching 1.19 trillion won. Trading platform operations, including Upbit, were responsible for approximately 97.9% of the total revenue generated during this period.
The acquisition of Dunamu significantly overshadows all other crypto VC deals in November, accounting for an impressive 70.8% of the month's total funding. Excluding the Upbit transaction, November's funding would have amounted to approximately $4.24 billion.
Kalshi Raises $1 Billion at $11 Billion Valuation
Kalshi, a prediction market platform, successfully raised $1 billion in November, elevating its total valuation to $11 billion. Sequoia and CapitalG returned as lead investors, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Anthos Capital, and Neo. According to reports, Kalshi's primary competitor, Polymarket, is reportedly in discussions with investors to secure capital at a valuation ranging between $12 billion and $15 billion.
DRW Holdings and Liberty City Ventures have entered into a subscription agreement for a private placement of approximately $540 million through the publicly traded entity Tharimmune Inc. Tharimmune will be responsible for storing the Canton token from the Canton public blockchain for use in financial transaction scenarios. DRW and Liberty City Ventures had previously contributed to Digital Asset's $135 million fundraising round in June.
Ripple and Kraken Secure Major Crypto VC Rounds
Ripple concluded a $500 million funding round in November, valuing the company at $40 billion. Fortress Investment Group and entities affiliated with Citadel Securities were among the lead investors in this round, joined by Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and managed funds by Marshall Wace.
Citadel Securities invested $200 million in Kraken, establishing a strategic partnership and assigning the company a post-money valuation of $20 billion. The exchange had previously raised $600 million at a $15 billion valuation in September. The combined total of these two funding rounds amounts to $800 million.
Strategic Acquisitions Shape November Activity
Singh's Monad raised $188 million through a public sale on Coinbase. This sale offered 7.5% of the MON token supply at a rate of 0.025 USDC per token, which would have positioned the ETH-compatible Layer 1 blockchain at a fully diluted valuation of $2.5 billion.
Exodus Movement, a U.S.-listed crypto wallet company, announced the acquisition of W3C Corp for $175 million. This acquisition includes the crypto card and payments businesses Baanx and Monavate. The transaction is being financed through the company's existing cash reserves and a BTC-collateralized financing arrangement provided by Galaxy Digital. The deal is anticipated to close in 2026, pending the satisfaction of customary approvals.
Lloyds Banking Group, the United Kingdom's largest retail bank, has signed an acquisition agreement valued at 120 million pounds with digital wallet provider Curve. Curve had previously raised over 250 million pounds cumulatively.
Paxos Trust Company has acquired crypto wallet startup Fordefi Inc. in a deal valued at over $100 million. The acquisition price surpasses the $83 million valuation Fordefi received following its most recent funding round last year.