Crypto fundraising hits $860M as CeFi leads

TLDR

Crypto projects raised about $860 million in April, with centralized exchanges pulling in most of the money and early bets spreading into prediction markets and AI.

1. The primary crypto market saw about $860 million across 55 deals, with CeFi capturing roughly $606 million and two exchanges alone taking around two thirds of the total.
2. Infrastructure and DeFi drew smaller tickets but more deals, while prediction markets and AI projects attracted a growing number of early stage rounds.
3. The pattern points to investors favoring centralized platforms and core rails now, while quietly seeding onchain prediction and AI projects that could shape the next cycle.

Deep Dive

1. CeFi Raises Dominate April

RootData data shows the crypto primary market recorded about $860 million in disclosed fundraising in April 2026 across 55 deals and 5 M&A events, a slight dip from Marchs 62 events but still steady activity.

Centralized finance (CeFi) led by far, raising about $606 million across just 8 deals, according to April fundraising data. Infrastructure took roughly $105 million over 14 deals, and DeFi about $90 million over 19 deals.

Two exchanges did most of the heavy lifting: Vietnamese CEX CAEX reportedly raised $380 million and Kraken secured a $200 million strategic investment from Deutsche Bank, so those two rounds alone accounted for around $580 million, or about 67% of all disclosed capital.

2. Infra, DeFi, Prediction, And AI

While CeFi dominated in dollar terms, infrastructure was the busiest category by deal count, with 14 deals focused on tooling and rails that other applications depend on. A notable example is Layer 1 project Pharos Network, which closed a $44 million Series A, underscoring continued interest in new base layers.

DeFi pulled in around $90 million across 19 deals, suggesting a broad but smaller ticket set of experiments rather than mega raises. On top of that, RootData highlights that eight prediction focused projects drew seed and angel rounds, and meme flavored project PUMPCADE raised multiple small checks, pointing to a more distributed prediction ecosystem rather than a single flagship raise.

AI related crypto projects also featured, including funding for AI agents, decentralized model verification, and AI driven content platforms, indicating an ongoing overlap between crypto and AI experimentation within this fundraising mix.

3. Why This Pattern Matters

A separate wave of venture capital, such as a16zs new $2.2 billion Crypto Fund 5 and Haun Ventures $1 billion fund targeting stablecoins, tokenization, and infrastructure, shows that large investors still have significant dry powder earmarked for crypto even as AI dominates overall venture flows. These funds explicitly highlight stablecoins, perpetual futures, prediction markets, and tokenized assets as focus areas in recent announcements.

Taken together, Aprils $860 million primary raises plus fresh multi billion dollar funds suggest a barbell: big checks for regulated, centralized platforms on one side, and a long tail of infra, prediction, and AI experiments on the other. Future RootData style snapshots will show whether capital stays concentrated in CeFi or broadens into DeFi and onchain projects as these funds deploy.

Conclusion

Crypto fundraising of about $860 million in April reflects a market where centralized exchanges still attract most of the near term capital, while infrastructure, DeFi, prediction markets, and AI projects quietly accumulate smaller but numerous checks. The balance between these two poles will help determine whether the next phase of the cycle is led by big CeFi platforms, onchain prediction and AI experiments, or a mix of both.