- Buy Crypto
- Markets
- Futures
- Spot
- Copy Trade
Earn- More
Galaxy 2024 Q4 Crypto Venture Report: $3.5B Invested; VC Landscape Still Challenging
Original Article Title: Crypto & Blockchain Venture Capital – Q4 2024
Original Article Authors: Alex Thorn, Gabe Parker, Galaxy
Original Article Translation: Luffy, Foresight News
Introduction
2024 was a landmark year for the cryptocurrency market. At the beginning of the year, a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) was launched, and in November, the U.S. saw its most crypto-friendly president and Congress ever, bringing a perfect end to the year. In 2024, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency circulating market increased by $1.6 trillion, an 88% year-on-year growth, reaching $3.4 trillion by the end of the year. Bitcoin alone saw its market cap increase by $1 trillion, nearing $2 trillion by the year-end. The development of the cryptocurrency market in 2024 was driven by Bitcoin's sharp rise on one hand and influenced by Memecoins and AI-related cryptocurrencies on the other. For most of the year, Memecoins were all the rage, with most on-chain activity happening on the Solana blockchain. In the latter half of the year, AI agent cryptocurrencies became a new focus.
In 2024, venture capital (VC) in the cryptocurrency sector remained challenging. Mainstream hotspots like Bitcoin, Memecoins, and AI agents were not very VC-friendly. Memecoins could be launched with just a few clicks, and Memecoin and AI agent-related cryptocurrencies operated almost entirely on-chain, leveraging existing infrastructure primitives. Previous hot areas of the market cycle, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, the metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), either failed to attract significant market attention or had been fully built out, requiring less funding and facing fiercer competition for new startups. Most businesses related to the cryptocurrency market infrastructure have already been built out, entering the later stages of development. With anticipated regulatory changes from the next U.S. government, these areas may face competition from traditional financial service intermediaries. There are signs that some new hotspots are emerging and could be significant drivers of new capital inflows, but they are mostly immature or even nascent: prominent among them are stablecoins, tokenization, the convergence of DeFi and Traditional Finance (TradFi), and the intersection of cryptocurrency with AI.
Macroeconomic and broader market forces also pose challenges. The high-interest rate environment continues to pressure the venture capital industry, with fund allocators being less willing to take on higher risks. This phenomenon squeezes the entire VC industry, and the cryptocurrency VC sector, due to its higher risk profile, may be more severely affected. At the same time, most large diversified VC firms still maintain a cautious stance on the sector, perhaps still haunted by the closures of several prominent VC-backed companies in 2022.
Therefore, despite significant opportunities on the horizon, whether through the revival of existing primitives and narratives or the emergence of new phenomena, cryptocurrency venture capital remains highly competitive and relatively subdued compared to the fervor of 2021 and 2022. While both transaction volume and investment amounts have increased, the number of new funds has stagnated, and funding allocated to venture capital funds has decreased, creating an especially competitive environment that is more founder-friendly in valuation negotiations. Overall, venture capital activity remains well below the levels seen in the previous market cycle.
However, the institutionalization of Bitcoin and digital assets continues to rise, stablecoin growth, and the potential eventual convergence of DeFi and TradFi in a new regulatory environment may pave the way for innovation. We anticipate that venture capital activity and attention may see a significant rebound by 2025.
Key Highlights
· By the fourth quarter of 2024, venture capital investment in cryptocurrency startups amounted to $3.5 billion (a 46% increase quarter-over-quarter) across 416 transactions (a 13% decrease quarter-over-quarter).
· Throughout 2024, venture capital firms invested $11.5 billion in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups through 2,153 transactions. Early-stage deals attracted the most capital investment (60%), with later-stage deals accounting for 40% of the investment capital, a significant increase from the 15% in the third quarter.
· The median valuation of venture capital transactions increased in the second and third quarters, with cryptocurrency deals valuing faster than the general venture capital industry, but remained stable quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter.
· Stablecoin companies raised the most funds, with Tether securing $600 million in funding from Cantor Fitzgerald, followed by infrastructure and Web3 startups. Web3, DeFi, and infrastructure companies had the highest number of transactions.
· In the fourth quarter of 2024, U.S.-based startups received the most investment capital (46%), while the investment share of Hong Kong-based companies increased to 17%. In terms of transaction volume, the U.S. accounted for 36%, followed by Singapore (9%) and the UK (8%).
· In terms of fundraising, allocators' interest in cryptocurrency-focused venture capital funds decreased to $1 billion, involving 20 new funds.
· By 2024, at least 10 cryptocurrency venture capital funds will have raised over $1 billion.
Venture Capital Landscape
Transaction Volume and Investment Amount
In Q4 2024, venture capitalists invested $3.5 billion in startups focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain (a 46% increase from the previous quarter) across 416 transactions (a 13% decrease from the previous quarter).
Throughout 2024, venture capitalists invested $11.5 billion in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups through 2,153 transactions.
Investment Amount and Bitcoin Price
Over the past few cycles, there has been a long-term correlation between Bitcoin's price and investment amount in cryptocurrency startups. However, in the past year, this correlation has not been as evident. Since January 2023, Bitcoin's price has surged, but venture capital activity has not kept pace. The waning interest of fund allocators in cryptocurrency venture capital and overall venture capital, coupled with the cryptocurrency market's preference for the Bitcoin narrative, overlooking many of the hot narratives of 2021, partly explains this divergence.
Investment by Stage
In Q4 2024, 60% of venture capital went to early-stage companies, and 40% to later-stage companies. In 2024, venture capital firms raised new funds, and funds focused on the cryptocurrency space may still have available capital left over from large fundraises a few years ago. Since Q3, the proportion of funding going to later-stage companies has increased, partially attributed to reports of Tether receiving a $600 million financing from Cantor Fitzgerald.
Seed-stage transactions' share has slightly increased, maintaining a healthy trend compared to previous cycles. We track the share of seed-stage transactions to measure the level of entrepreneurial activity.
Valuations and Deal Sizes
In 2023, venture-backed cryptocurrency company valuations saw a significant decline, dropping to the lowest levels since Q4 2020. However, as Bitcoin hit an all-time high in Q2 2024, valuations and deal sizes started to rebound. In Q2 and Q3 2024, valuations reached their highest levels since 2022. The rise in cryptocurrency transaction volume and valuations in 2024 aligns with a similar trend in the overall venture capital sector, but the cryptocurrency space's rebound has been more robust. The median pre-money valuation for Q4 2024 transactions was $24 million, with an average deal size of $4.5 million.
Investment by Category
In the fourth quarter of 2024, companies and projects in the "Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse/Gaming" category received the largest share of venture capital funding (20.75%), totaling $7.713 billion. The three largest transactions in this category were Praxis, Azra Games, and Lens, with funding amounts of $5.25 billion, $42.7 million, and $31 million, respectively. DeFi maintained its dominance in the total cryptocurrency venture capital amount, largely due to the $600 million transaction between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, with the latter acquiring a 5% stake in the company (the stablecoin issuer is attributed to our broad DeFi category). Although this transaction was not a traditional venture capital structured transaction, we have included it in the statistics. Excluding this Tether transaction, the DeFi category would fall to the 7th position in the fourth quarter's ranking based on investment amount.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, cryptocurrency startups building Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse and infrastructure products saw a quarter-over-quarter increase of 44.3% and 33.5%, respectively, in the total cryptocurrency venture capital amount for the quarter. Capital allocation as a percentage of total deployed capital increased, mainly due to significant quarter-over-quarter decreases in capital allocation to Layer 1 and crypto AI startups, which decreased by 85% and 55%, respectively, since the third quarter of 2024.
Further subdividing the above larger categories, cryptocurrency projects building stablecoins received the largest share of investment in the fourth quarter of 2024 (17.5%), with a total of $6.49 billion raised in the 9 tracked transactions. However, Tether's $600 million transaction accounted for a significant portion of the total investment in stablecoin companies in the fourth quarter of 2024. In the fourth quarter of 2024, cryptocurrency startups developing infrastructure ranked second in venture capital funding received, raising a total of $5.92 billion in the 53 tracked transactions. The three largest cryptocurrency infrastructure transactions were Blockstream, Constellation, and Cassava Network, with funding amounts of $210 million, $100 million, and $90 million, respectively. Following closely behind cryptocurrency infrastructure, Web3 startups and exchanges received funding from cryptocurrency venture capital firms, ranking third and fourth with a total of $5.876 billion and $2 billion, respectively. Notably, Praxis was the largest Web3 transaction in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the second-largest overall transaction, raising as much as $5.25 billion to build an "Internet-native city."
In terms of transaction volume, the Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse/Game category leads with a 22% transaction share (92 transactions), including 37 game transactions and 31 Web3 transactions. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Infrastructure and Transaction/Exchange/Investment/Lending categories had 77 and 43 transactions, respectively.
Projects and companies providing crypto infrastructure ranked second in transaction volume, accounting for 18.3% of the total transactions (77 transactions), representing an 11% increase compared to the previous period. Following crypto infrastructure, projects and companies building transaction/exchange/investment/lending products ranked third in transaction volume, representing 10.2% of total transactions (43 transactions). It is worth noting that cryptocurrency companies building wallets and payment/reward products saw the highest percentage increase in transaction volume, reaching 111% and 78%, respectively. Despite the large percentage increase, wallet and payment/reward startups only accounted for 22 and 13 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Upon further subdividing the above larger categories, projects and companies building crypto infrastructure had the highest transaction volume in all subcategories (53 transactions). Game and Web3-related cryptocurrency companies followed closely, completing 37 and 31 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2024, a ranking similar to that of the third quarter of 2024.
Investments by Stage and Category
By breaking down investment amounts and transaction volume by category and stage, one can gain a clearer understanding of which types of companies within each category are raising funds. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the majority of funding in the Web3/DAO/NFT/Metaverse, Layer 2, and Layer 1 fields flowed to early-stage companies and projects. In contrast, cryptocurrency venture capital funding in DeFi, Transaction/Exchange/Investment/Lending, and Mining fields saw a significant portion flowing to late-stage companies.
Analyzing the distribution of investment funds across different stages within each category can reveal the relative maturity of various investment opportunities.
Similar to the cryptocurrency venture capital landscape in the third quarter of 2024, a significant portion of transactions in the fourth quarter of 2024 involved early-stage companies. The cryptocurrency venture capital transactions tracked in the fourth quarter of 2024 included 171 early-stage transactions and 58 late-stage transactions.
Studying the transaction breakdown of each stage in every category helps understand the different development stages of each investable category.
Investment Segmentation by Geographic Location
In the fourth quarter of 2024, 36.7% of transactions involved companies headquartered in the United States, with Singapore at 9% in second place, the UK at 8.1%, Switzerland at 5.5%, and the UAE at 3.6%.
Companies headquartered in the United States received 46.2% of all venture capital, a decrease of 17 percentage points compared to the previous period. In contrast, startups based in Hong Kong saw a significant increase in venture capital funding share, reaching 17.4%. The UK accounted for 6.8%, Canada 6%, and Singapore 5.4%.
Investment Segmentation by Company Founding Year
Companies and projects founded in 2019 received the largest share of funding, while those founded in 2024 had the highest number of transactions.
Venture Capital Fundraising Landscape
Raising funds for cryptocurrency venture capital funds remains challenging. The macro environment in 2022 and 2023, along with the volatility of the cryptocurrency market, caused some allocators to no longer commit to cryptocurrency venture capital at the same scale as in 2021 and early 2022. At the beginning of 2024, investors widely believed that interest rates would drop significantly in 2024, although rate cuts did not materialize until the second half of the year. Since the third quarter of 2023, the total funds allocated to venture capital funds have been declining, despite an increase in the number of new funds throughout 2024.
2024 was the weakest year for cryptocurrency venture capital fundraising since 2020, with 79 new funds collectively raising $5.1 billion, far below the frenzy levels of 2021-2022.
While the number of new funds saw a slight year-over-year increase, the decline in allocator interest also led to a reduction in the size of funds raised by venture capital firms, with the median and average fund sizes of 2024 dropping to the lowest levels since 2017.
In 2024, at least 10 cryptocurrency venture capital funds actively investing in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups raised over $1 billion in new fund capital.
Summary
· Market sentiment is improving, and investment activity is increasing, but still far below previous cycle peaks. Although the cryptocurrency circulating market has significantly recovered from the end of 2022 to early 2023, venture capital activity remains well below the previous bull market. During the bull markets of 2017 and 2021, venture capital activity closely correlated with cryptocurrency circulating prices. However, in the past two years, despite cryptocurrency price rebounds, venture capital activity has remained subdued. The stagnation in venture capital is due to various factors, including a "barbell market" where Bitcoin dominates the stage, and new marginal net activity is mainly from Memecoins, projects in this category face difficulties in fundraising and sustainability. Market enthusiasm for projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency is rising, and anticipated regulatory changes may bring opportunities to the stablecoin, DeFi, and asset tokenization sectors.
· Early-stage investment transactions continue to dominate. Despite the many obstacles facing venture capital, the focus on early-stage transactions is a positive sign for the long-term health of the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Late-stage investments made progress in the fourth quarter, primarily due to Cantor Fitzgerald's $600 million investment in Tether. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs can still find investors willing to invest in innovative ideas. We believe that in 2025, projects and companies related to stablecoins, artificial intelligence, DeFi, tokenization, Layer 2, and Bitcoin-related products are poised to perform well.
· Exchange-traded products (ETPs) for spot trading may pressure venture capital funds and startups. In the United States, some asset allocators have made significant investments in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded open-end index funds, indicating that large-scale investors (pensions, endowments, hedge funds, etc.) may prefer to enter the space through these large-scale, liquid instruments rather than opting for early-stage venture capital. Interest in spot Ether exchange-traded open-end index funds is also on the rise. If this trend continues or new exchange-traded open-end index funds covering other Layer 1 blockchains are launched, investment demand for areas like DeFi or Web3 may flow to these exchange-traded open-end index funds rather than the venture capital sector.
· Fund managers continue to face a challenging environment. While the number of new funds in 2024 saw a slight year-on-year increase, the total capital allocated to cryptocurrency venture capital funds was slightly lower than in 2023. The macro environment continues to present hurdles for fund allocators, but significant changes in the regulatory environment may rekindle interest from fund allocators in the crypto space.
· The United States still holds a dominant position in the cryptocurrency startup ecosystem. Despite an extremely complex and often hostile regulatory framework, companies and projects headquartered in the U.S. still account for the majority in terms of completed deals and total investment amount. The incoming administration and Congress are expected to be the most crypto-friendly in U.S. history, and we anticipate that the U.S.'s dominant position will further strengthen, especially if certain regulatory matters, such as stablecoin frameworks and market structure legislation, are implemented as expected. This will enable traditional U.S. financial services firms to truly enter the crypto space.
You may also like
a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment
Pharos, deeply integrated with AntChain, is about to launch. How can we get involved?
The End and Rebirth of NFTs: How the Meme Coin Craze Ended the PFP Era?
Key Market Intelligence on May 14th, how much did you miss out on?
1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?｜100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
How to Get Rich in Crypto Without Relying on Luck? Financial Veteran Raoul Pal's Macro Insights and Investment Path
Stablecoins Driving Global B2B Payment Innovation: How to Break Through Workflow Bottlenecks and Unlock Trillion-Dollar Market Potential?
These startups are building cutting-edge AI models without the need for a data center
Science Equity Movement: DeSci's Trillion-Dollar Knowledge Economy Reconstruction Revolution
Sentient In-Depth Research Report: Secures $85 Million in Funding to Build a Decentralized AGI New Paradigm
April 30th Market Key Intelligence, How Much Did You Miss?
Interview with Virtuals Co-Founder empty: AI Startups Don't Need a Lot of Funding, Crypto is One of the Answers
a16z Leads $25M Investment, 0xMiden to Run a Privacy Chain on Your Phone
Sui Q1 Advanced Report: The Rise of BTCfi Infrastructure, the Boom of Lending Protocols, and the Future of Rollup-Based Scalability
Gate.io MemeBox has officially integrated with the Solana ecosystem, providing lightning-fast on-chain asset trading.
Key Market Information Discrepancy on April 30th - A Must-Read! | Alpha Morning Report
Taking Stock of the Top 10 Emerging Launchpad Platforms: Who Will Succeed in Disrupting Pump.fun?
April 29th Market Key Insights, How Much Did You Miss?
a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment
Pharos, deeply integrated with AntChain, is about to launch. How can we get involved?
The End and Rebirth of NFTs: How the Meme Coin Craze Ended the PFP Era?
Key Market Intelligence on May 14th, how much did you miss out on?
1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?｜100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
App