Web3 fundraising in September 2025 was flying but not quite soaring. $7.2b raised across 160 deals, the highest total since the spring surge. However, with the notable exception of Flying Tulip at seed stage, late-stage capital investment dominated the agenda just as it had done in the previous two months.
Author: Robert Osborne | X | LinkedIn | Substack
Market Overview: Strong but top-heavy
Figure 1: Web3 capital deployed and deal count across all stages, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised (Disclosed): $7.2b
- Disclosed Deals: 106
- Total Deals: 160
At first glance, September looks like a roaring return of risk appetite. But, with the one exception of Flying Tulip, most of the capital investment was deployed in later stage companies. This is a continuation of a trend that we observed in our most recent quarterly market reports and falls in line with the VC insights that we gleaned from Token2049 Singapore. September 2025 gives another sign that while early-stage dealmaking remains active, the real money is hunting maturity and liquidity.
Market Highlight: Flying Tulip ($200m, Seed, $1b valuation)
Flying Tulip raised $200m at a unicorn valuation at seed stage. The platform aims to unify spot, perps, lending, and structured yield into a single onchain exchange with a hybrid AMM/order book model, cross-chain deposits, and volatility-adjusted lending. More commentary on Flying Tulip below.
New Crypto/Web3 Venture Funds: Smaller Bites
Figure 2: Number of Web3 venture capital funds launched and capital raised, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
New Funds in September 2025:
- Onigiri Capital – $50m: Targeting early-stage infra and fintech across Asia.
- Archetype Fund III – $100m: A focused play on modularity, developer tooling, and consumer protocols.
September 2025 saw a cooling in fund formation. Only two new vehicles launched, both relatively small and highly thematic. The trend points to selectivity rather than slowdown: VCs are still raising, but around sharper, more targeted theses.
Pre-Seed Rounds: A downward trend of 9 Months
Figure 3: Capital deployed and deal count at pre-seed stage, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised: $9.8m
- Disclosed Deals: 5
- Median Round Size: $1.9m
Pre-seed funding continued to slump this month, both in deal count and capital raised. The stage remains sluggish, with few big-name investors participating. For founders at this level, capital is scarce but those who do raise are doing it with tight narratives and technical conviction.
Pre-Seed Highlight: Melee Markets ($3.5m)
Built on Solana, Melee Markets lets users speculate on influencers, events, and trending topics, a cross between prediction markets and social trading. With Variant and DBA backing, it’s a clever attempt to capture attention flow as an asset class.
Seed Rounds: Tulipmania
Figure 4: Capital deployed and deal count at seed stage, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised: $359m
- Disclosed Deals: 26
Seed-stage funding saw a notable boost on paper but that’s entirely thanks to Flying Tulip’s $200m round. Without it, the category would have been roughly in line with previous months.
More importantly, Flying Tulip’s structure wasn’t a typical raise. Its on-chain redemption right gives investors capital security and yield exposure without sacrificing upside. The project isn’t spending its raise; it’s earning on it using DeFi yield to fund growth, incentives, and buybacks. It’s a DeFi-native twist on capital efficiency that could influence how future protocols fund themselves.
Whilst Flying Tulip’s investors do have the right to remove these funds at any point, it is a significant capital investment from web3 venture capitalists in what otherwise would have been invested in other early-stage projects through more illiquid instruments: namely, SAFEs and/or SAFTs. This is another manifestation of the current trend by Web3 investors for more liquid asset exposure.
Series A: Stabilising
Figure 5: Capital deployed and deal count at Series A stage, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised: $177m
- Disclosed Deals: 10
- Median Round Size: $17.7m
After August’s sharp drop, Series A activity recovered slightly in September, but it wasn’t a breakout month. Deal volume and capital deployed landed right around the 2025 average. Investors remain selective, backing later-stage traction rather than chasing early momentum.
Series A Highlight: Digital Entertainment Asset ($38m)
Singapore-based Digital Entertainment Asset raised $38m to build Web3 gaming, ESG, and advertising platforms with real-world payouts. Backed by SBI Holdings and ASICS Ventures, it reflects Asia’s continued interest in combining blockchain with mainstream consumer industries.
Private Token Sales: Big Money, Bigger Names
Figure 6: Capital deployed and deal count for private token sales, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised: $180m
- Disclosed Deals: 2
Private token activity stayed concentrated, with one mega-raise doing (almost) all of the work. The pattern from recent months continues: fewer token rounds, larger checks, and exchange-driven plays soaking up the liquidity.
Highlight: Crypto.com ($178m)
Crypto.com raised a massive $178m, reportedly in partnership with Trump Media. The exchange continues its push for global accessibility and mass-market crypto spending tools. Whether this is a brand pivot or just a PR move, it’s… certainly memorable.
Public Token Sales: Bitcoin’s Yield Moment
Figure 7: Capital deployed and deal count for public token sales, January 2020 – September 2025. Source: Messari, Outlier Ventures.
- Total Capital Raised: $126.2m
- Disclosed Deals: 16
Public token sales remained lively, driven by two narratives with traction: Bitcoin yield (BTCFi) and AI agents. It’s a reminder that the public markets still chase narratives.
Highlight: Lombard ($94.7m)
Lombard is bringing Bitcoin into DeFi, introducing LBTC, a yield-bearing, cross-chain, liquid BTC asset designed to unify Bitcoin liquidity across ecosystems. It’s part of the growing “BTCFi” trend, where Bitcoin is finally learning how to earn.
Conclusion
Late-stage projects and token raises drove September 2025 deals, while early-stage activity stayed cold. Flying Tulip’s novel structure offered a glimpse of what future fundraising might look like, but for now it’s a one-off experiment rather than a new norm.
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