RootData December encryption market data summary: BTC surged to a new high at the end of the year, and the investment and financing market showed a recovery trend

Organized by: Biscuit & Elvin, RootData

In December 2024, BTC hit a new high of US$106,000, and the overall price fluctuated at a high level of US$92,000-100,000. Investment and financing data in the encryption field have picked up, with the total financing amount reaching US$741 million, a month-on-month increase of 62.8%. The number of financings was 102, similar to the data in the previous two months. The average financing amount this month was $11.769 million, and the median financing amount was $4.1 million.

Financing trends in the crypto field in the past 2 years

In this article, we will focus on specific financing data, active investors, hot search projects and other aspects to present the changing trends of the encryption market.

1. Financing data

The largest financing event this month came from [Avalanche](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Avalanche?k=MjUw "Decentralized blockchain") , which completed an OTC financing of US$250 million, led by Dragonfly, Galaxy Digital, and ParaFi Capital. Other popular projects that have completed financing include encrypted banking services and payment solution BVNK , decentralized open social graph Lens Protocol , global virtual asset service provider Klickl , modular public chain Plume Network , blockchain asset securities company Prometheum , etc.

In terms of financing amount and rounds, US$1-3 million is the financing range with the largest proportion. Seed round is still the most popular financing round, but the proportion has declined. A total of 17 projects have completed seed round financing . Well-known projects include artificial intelligence L1 blockchain ChainOpera AI (USD 17 million), decentralized AI infrastructure Exabits (USD 15 million), cryptocurrency credit card KAST (USD 10 million), and ZK verification network Fiamma (USD 4 million).

In addition, 15 mergers and acquisitions occurred in December, which is higher than the monthly average (10), indicating that encryption industry leaders are accelerating integration and layout. Yuga Labs acquired the token proof protocol tokenproof ; Synthetix acquired the leveraged token platform TLX ; NFTGo acquired the crypto portfolio management project Mest ; Gate.io announced the acquisition of the crypto asset exchange Coin Master , officially entering the Japanese market.

2. Active investors

Animoca Brands has been the venture capital institution with the highest investment frequency in November and December. The institution made 5 investments last month and 8 times this month. Its investment records include decentralized privacy protection solution FLock , social trading platform XYRO , and Web3 native Social marketing platform Bounty Bay , decentralized lending protocol Neptune , PoA blockchain Haven1 , AI computing power economic layer GAIB , etc.

The activity is closely followed by Faction , Borderless Capital , [GSR](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/GSR?k=NDA3OQ== "Crypto trading firms and liquidity providers") , [Presto](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Presto%20Labs?k=MTIzMjQ= "Algorithmic Trading and Financial Services Firm") , Big Brain Holdings , and Blockchange , all with more than 4 attempts.

In addition, Sreeram Kannan , Michael Heinrich , Zaki Manian , and Smokey were the most active Web3 angel investors in December, each investing in at least 3 projects.

In terms of fundraising for new crypto funds, December showed more positive signals. MicroStrategy’s model was recognized by the market . Specific events include:

• Sora Ventures launches a $150 million fund that uses Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset to optimize financial strategies and enhance shareholder value.

• Bitcoin mining company [MARA](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/MARA?k=Mzg3OA== "African Crypto Platform") disclosed that it raised US$1.925 billion through convertible notes in November and December and purchased 15,574 BTC at an average price of US$98,529.

• Former Google engineer Casey Caruso founded venture capital fund Topology Ventures and has raised $75 million. The fund will invest in cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, decentralized networks, neurotechnology, aerospace and robotics.

• Semler Scientific has raised an additional US$50 million. The company has purchased 2,084 BTC at a price of US$168.6 million, with an average price of approximately US$81,000.

• Venture capital fund Swish Ventures has completed US$60 million in fundraising and will invest in Web3, AI and other fields. The fund plans to back 10 companies and will invest $5 million to $7 million in each deal.

• Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms announced that it plans to raise $500 million through the issuance of convertible senior notes. The net proceeds from this offering will be used to purchase additional BTC and be used for general corporate purposes.

• Crypto venture capital Dattice is raising funds for its third fund, an SEC filing did not specify the size of the fund.

• Bitcoin mining company IREN announced that it plans to raise US$400 million through the issuance of convertible bonds (coupon rate 3.25%, conversion premium 30%).

3. Popular projects

The RootData popularity value is weighted and calculated by normalizing data such as platform search volume, click volume, user votes, and Twitter popularity index. The most popular projects in December include:

Fuel

Fuel is an operating system built specifically for Ethereum Rollups. Fuel allows Rollups to solve PSI (parallelization, state-minimized execution, interoperability) problems without making any sacrifices.

[vana](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/vana?k=MTE4MjA= "AI digital identity generation application")

Vana is an AI identity generation application that allows users to create a digital persona and supports use in different applications. At the same time, the digital persona is private and can only be controlled by the created user and its authorized account.

[Plume Network](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Plume%20Network?k=MTA0ODA= "RWA platform")

Plume is a fully integrated modular chain focused on RWAfi. They built the first modular, composable RWA-focused EVM-compatible chain designed to simplify onboarding all types of assets and streamline capital onboarding with native infrastructure and unified RWAfi-specific functionality across the chain.

[Nexus](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Nexus?k=MTE3NDI= "Massively parallelized proof-of-proof mining network")

Nexus Network is a massively parallel proof-of-proof mining network. It is a world-class instantiation of the Nexus zkVM, designed to run at one trillion CPU cycles per second, assuming sufficient computing power is attached to it.

[Magic Eden](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Magic%20Eden?k=MjU3MQ== "Cross-chain NFT market")

Magic Eden is a cross-chain NFT marketplace built on a user-friendly platform powered by market-leading minting and trading solutions. Magic Eden brings dynamic cultural moments to the blockchain, enabling users to create, discover and collect unique NFTs.

[XION](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/XION?k=MjYyMg== "Walletless chain abstraction L1")

XION is a Layer 1 blockchain designed for consumer applications, providing a seamless user experience tailored to everyday users. Through its innovative Chain Abstraction infrastructure, XION simplifies complex cryptographic interactions and provides protocol-level account abstraction, gasless transactions, signature abstraction, cross-device usage, fiat pricing and more.

[Hyperliquid](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Hyperliquid?k=ODM5NA== "High performance L1 platform")

Hyperliquid is a high-performance L1 platform. The vision is an open financial system that is entirely on-chain, with user-built applications connected with high-performance native components, all without compromising the end-user experience.

[Thena](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Thena?k=NjQzNA== "Native liquidity layer on the BNB chain")

Thena is an automated market maker based on BNB Chian that draws inspiration from Solidly to create a simpler liquidity acquisition process for new and existing protocols through capital-efficient liquidity bootstrapping.

[Movement](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Movement?k=OTMxMg== "Modular Move blockchain framework")

Movement is a modular framework for building and deploying Move-based infrastructure, applications, and blockchains in any distributed environment. The team is building a set of products and services that enable non-Move protocols to take advantage of the power of the Move programming language without writing a single line of Move code.

[Virtuals Protocol](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Virtuals%20Protocol?k=NDQwNA== "Decentralized AI factory")

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized factory that manufactures various artificial intelligence characters (that can react through text, voice and movement) for different virtual worlds such as games or online spaces. Virtual Protocol provides incentives for the decentralized creation and monetization of AI characters for every virtual interaction (game, metaverse, online interaction, or otherwise).

[Blade Games](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Blade%20Games?k=NzgzOQ== "Decentralized on-chain game ecology")

Blade Games is an on-chain game + AI agent ecosystem built around the zkVM stack, which is building artificial intelligence agents that run in games, where users can play, train, and create their own on-chain economy.

[BIO Protocol](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/BIO%20Protocol?k=MTM0NTc= "DeSci’s financial layer")

The BIO protocol is DeSci's financial layer, designed to accelerate the flow of capital and talent into on-chain science. bioDAO can raise funds using the BIO protocol's auction contracts and direct the funds to research programs, IP assets, and other biotechnology organizations.

[Balance](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Balance?k=MTQzMDM= "Web3 experience infrastructure")

Balance is a Web3 experience infrastructure built by the Epal team for large-scale user adoption, and is committed to providing Web2 users with a smooth Web3 transition experience. Balance leverages its user traffic pool to bring changes to multiple industries, especially the social and gaming industries, by combining blockchain and AI technologies.

[Nodepay](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Nodepay?k=MTI0NzY= "Decentralized bandwidth network infrastructure")

Nodepay is a network infrastructure that provides decentralized bandwidth for artificial intelligence training. By connecting to the Nodepay network, users will be able to sell unused internet to artificial intelligence companies, enabling efficient transfer of public training data, labels, model sharing and remote distributed training.

[Usual](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Usual?k=MTE5NTI= "RWA Stablecoin Protocol")

Usual is a stablecoin protocol that launches USD, a permissionless and fully compliant stablecoin backed 1:1 by real world assets (RWA). USUAL is a governance token that allows the community to guide the network. future development. Usual solves the current stablecoin market issues by redistributing profits to the community, rewarding token holders with actual revenue generated by RWA.

[Eclipse](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Eclipse?k=MTk4Mw== "Customizable modular rollups")

Eclipse is a customizable rollup provider compatible with multiple layer 1 blockchains. The platform enables developers to deploy their own rollups powered by the Solana operating system, using any chain for security or data storage.

[Kaito](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Kaito?k=NTU3Ng== "Digital asset research platform powered by AI")

kaito is an AI-powered digital asset research platform that hopes to revolutionize cryptocurrency research and investment through AI. Kaito's MetaSearch is designed to enable users to search the entire crypto space through platforms such as Twitter, Discord, governance forums, Mirror, Medium and more with a one-click product.

[ChainOpera](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/ChainOpera?k=MTQ0NTQ= "L1 layer blockchain AI Agent operating system")

ChainOpera AI provides L1 blockchain and protocols for co-ownership and co-creation of decentralized AI APPs and Agents, powered by the Federated AI operating system and platform.

[FLock](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/FLock?k=NjM4MA== "Web3 Data Privacy Solution for Artificial Intelligence")

FLock aims to build a decentralized privacy protection solution for artificial intelligence. FLock proposed a research initiative called Federated Learning Blocks (FLocks for short), which uses blockchain as a coordination platform between data holders to conduct machine learning while the data remains local and private.

[Berachain](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Berachain?k=MjgxMA== "High performance EVM compatible blockchain")

Berachain is a high-performance EVM-compatible blockchain built on Proof of Liquidity consensus. Proof of Liquidity is a novel consensus mechanism designed to coordinate network incentives and create strong synergies between Berachain validators and the project ecosystem.

4. Project dynamics

In December, RootData also recorded events such as the mainnet launch of many projects and the issuance of new coins, helping users understand important project dynamics in the market and grasp earlier alpha opportunities.

Source:RootData project news

Projects that launched tokens in December include (ordered by date from most recent to most distant):

Source:RootData Quotes

Due to space limitations, the above is partial mainnet and token information. For more complete and timely data information, please visit the RootData official website ( https://www.rootdata.com/zh/ ).