The $110M Funding Pulse Check

As your resident crypto quant with a Wall Street spreadsheet addiction, I couldn’t help but notice something peculiar about last week’s funding data. While deal count rose to 16 (up from 14), the total capital deployed shrunk by nearly 50% to $110 million - suggesting VCs are writing smaller checks but spreading bets wider.

AI Eats Crypto Lunch Again The standout? Four AI-centric projects accounted for 42% of total funding:

• Cluely: $15M for an ‘undetectable’ real-time meeting assistant (basically ChatGPT on steroids during your Zoom calls)
• PrismaX: $11M seed round to crowdsource robot training data via crypto incentives
• Gradient Network: Decentralized AI infrastructure scoring $10M from Multicoin and Pantera

Follow the Smart Money

a16z appeared in two major deals, maintaining their thesis that “AI x crypto will be bigger than DeFi.” Meanwhile, stablecoin infrastructure plays like Ubyx (\(10M) and SaturnX (\)3M) show institutional interest in bridging TradFi rails with crypto.

My Take: The shrinking average deal size (\(6.9M vs last week's \)13.9M) confirms my hypothesis - liquidity fragmentation is forcing VCs to be more surgical. Pure speculative crypto plays are getting squeezed as tangible utility becomes the new funding prerequisite.