2025 was one of the most aggressive fundraising years in crypto history 📊 In the past year, more than $25B flowed into nearly 7,000 crypto projects. That makes 2025 the second-largest fundraising year ever, only behind 2021. After aggregating data and spending time on research, I saw a few clear insights that stood out. These are strong signals for narratives worth front-running in 2026 👇 1/ Prediction Markets took the lead 2025 was the breakout year for prediction markets, one of the rare Web3 narratives that actually reached mainstream users. @Polymarket and @Kalshi are quietly competing for tier-1 partnerships, while other players like @trylimitless continue to gain traction. Prediction Markets also ranked among the most searched Web3 keywords on Google in 2025, which says a lot about demand beyond crypto native users. AI, RWA, and Cybersecurity follow closely behind. These sectors are well-positioned for 2026 as AI agents mature and traditional financial institutions accelerate tokenized asset adoption. RWA alone is projected to reach $50B in total value by 2026. 2/ Seed rounds matter less than before With AI and automated tools lowering the barrier to building products, teams are increasingly skipping seed rounds and focusing on shipping products with real users. Valuations are now being earned at later stages, instead of being driven by early ideas and angel narratives. One narrative worth watching in 2026 is “Builder Code”, middleware products built on top of major platforms such as: @BasedOneX, @phantom, @pvp_dot_trade, @liquidtrading. 3/ Coinbase Ventures stays the most active fund @cbventures invested in 84 projects throughout 2025, leading all funds, followed by @animocabrands and @yzilabs. Their strongest focus areas remain DeFi and Blockchain Services, which makes sense given their revenue potential and real utility. 4/ Degen sectors are still getting funded Despite market maturity, degen narratives continue to attract capital: > @binance received significant funding from UAE entities to expand its altcoin casino ambitions > @Pumpfun broke records for meme launches per second > @ton_blockchain gained traction thanks to Telegram’s dominance > @monad built a massive community ahead of... a disappointing TGE Stablecoins also saw renewed capital inflows after @Circle’s successful IPO: > @Bullish raised $1B post-IPO > @Ripple attracted Wall Street interest via stablecoin initiatives > @stripe launched its own L1, @tempo > @Figure completed a nine-figure IPO, another stablecoin-driven case > @krakenfx and @Gemini raised additional rounds, possibly pre-IPO 2025 was about capital flowing into Web3 infrastructure, sp I believe 2026 will reward sectors with real revenue and real users: ICM + Perp DEXs + RWA + Payments.

Capital chased infrastructure. 2026 rewards revenue, users, and real adoption.