Venture capital funding in crypto industry stagnating, focus shifting to blockchain infrastructure and AI

Venture capital funding in the crypto industry is stagnating, with firms like Titled struggling to close new funds. Despite this, blockchain infrastructure remains a key area for investment, along with AI, DePIN, tokenization, and payments. High-profile funding deals in June reflect this interest, especially in DeFi and trading platforms.

Cryptocurrency exchange Rails secured $20 million in venture funding from Kraken, Slow Ventures, Quantstamp, and others. Rails aims to combine centralized exchange utility with decentralized market advantages. Slow Ventures described Rails as a hybrid perpetual exchange for professional traders.

Stablecoin payment service provider Beam closed a $7 million funding round led by Castle Ventures. Beam offers stablecoin payment rails for fintechs and banks, currently live on Visa Direct and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow system. The stablecoin market has surpassed $250 billion, with Beam’s total funding now at $14 million.

Frachtis, a $20 million pre-seed fund launched by Xavier Meegan, supports startup founders in building decentralized AI, infrastructure, and consumer applications. Meegan, formerly of Chorus One, has already backed eight projects in DeFi and AI protocols.

Inference Labs raised $6.3 million to develop a cryptographic trust layer for AI agents using zero-knowledge proofs. The company’s Proof of Inference method validates AI outputs and has launched a testnet with plans for a mainnet release in Q3. Gradient Network secured $10 million in seed funding from Pantera and Multicoin Capital to expand its decentralized AI infrastructure.

OKX and Story launched a $10 million ecosystem fund to support startups innovating in intellectual property. The funding will be distributed through the IP token to back real-world IP assets, AI, and programmable IP applications. Story’s developer, PIP Labs, raised $80 million in a Series B round last August.

Yupp closed a $33 million seed round led by a16z Crypto to build an AI evaluation platform powered by blockchain. Users can compare AI model outputs and earn cryptocurrency rewards. Blueprint Finance raised $9.5 million to expand its DeFi infrastructure products, following the launch of Concrete and Glow Finance.

Units Network secured a $10 million investment from Nimbus Capital to address scalability and decentralization challenges in the Web3 space. The funding will expand validator capacity, enhance crosschain liquidity rails, and advance Units Network’s AI roadmap.

Read more at Cointelegraph: Rails, Yupp, Beam, Frachtis, More