Crypto VC Funding Surges in November on Naver’s $10.3B Deal
Crypto enterprise capital confirmed a break up persona in November 2025: deal exercise slowed, however the cash flowing into the sector ballooned.
Key Takeaways:
- Crypto VC offers fell sharply in November, however whole funding jumped to $14 billion because of one mega-acquisition.
- Naver’s $10.3 billion buy of Dunamu accounted for a lot of the month’s capital.
- Outside the blockbuster, buyers centered on DeFi, AI, and infrastructure.
Data from RootData shows 57 disclosed crypto VC offers, down 28% from October and 41% from a 12 months earlier.
However, whole funding leapt to $14.54 billion, a 219% bounce month over month, dominated by a single blockbuster transaction.
That outlier was Naver’s $10.3 billion all-stock acquisition of Dunamu, the operator of Upbit.
The deal, the most important financing occasion the crypto trade has seen, values Dunamu at about KRW 15.1 trillion and indicators renewed urge for food for scale via consolidation.
Dunamu reported income of KRW 1.19 trillion for the primary 9 months of the 12 months, with Upbit accounting for practically all of it, underscoring how buying and selling platforms proceed to anchor money flows even because the market matures.
Strip away the Naver-Dunamu mega-deal and November appears to be like extra cautious. Capital clustered round fewer, bigger checks whereas early-stage exercise cooled.
By sector, DeFi (30.4%) and CeFi (12.5%) led deal counts, adopted by AI (7.1%), RWA/DePIN (7.1%), and Tooling/Wallets (5.4%), suggesting buyers are prioritizing infrastructure and finance-native use circumstances over shopper experiments.
Prediction-market operator Kalshi closed a $1 billion round led by Sequoia and CapitalG, vaulting to an $11 billion valuation, whereas talks swirled that rival Polymarket may search a double-digit-billion price ticket.
Payments heavyweight Ripple secured $500 million, lifting its valuation to $40 billion, with backing tied to Fortress and Citadel Securities alongside marquee crypto funds.
Kraken added $200 million at a $20 billion valuation after a $600 million elevate earlier in the autumn.
Market-infrastructure specialist Tharimmune lined up a $540 million non-public placement to carry Canton tokens for institutional workflows, whereas Bitcoin lender Lava raised $200 million to broaden BTC-based devices.
On the ecosystem facet, L1 aspirant Monad pulled in $188 million through a public sale, pockets agency Exodus Movement struck a $175 million cash-and-BTC-financed acquisition for funds group W3C, and Lloyds agreed to purchase Curve for roughly $158 million.
Custodian Paxos Trust Company capped the month by buying Fordefi in a deal topping $100 million.
Crypto VC Rebounds to $4.65B in Q3
As reported, crypto enterprise funding rebounded sharply in the third quarter, reaching $4.65 billion, the second-strongest quarter because the FTX collapse in late 2022.
The whole marked a 290% bounce from Q2 and got here near Q1’s $4.8 billion, in line with knowledge from Galaxy Digital.
Funding was closely concentrated, with simply seven offers accounting for half of all capital invested throughout 414 transactions.
The largest raises went to established gamers, led by $1 billion for Revolut, $500 million for Kraken, and $250 million for Erebor, a US-based crypto financial institution.
Capital clustered round stablecoins, AI-linked crypto instruments, infrastructure, and buying and selling expertise, whereas early-stage fundraising remained muted after practically two years of cautious dealmaking.
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