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Crypto funding 2021: 726 rounds, $6.58B, Q4 took 34%

By NAUT Research · · 9 min read

$6.58B Crypto funding 2021 disclosed by 716 of 726 venture rounds NAUT dates to 2021, read 14 November 2026. Logos: Solana, BitDAO, Avalanche, Decentralized Social (prev. Bitclout), 1inch, Axie Infinity, Mythical Games, Canton Network, Arbitrum, Helium.

NAUT tracks 726 crypto funding 2021 rounds of the venture type (seed, private, strategic, Series A to D and plain funding rounds) at 625 crypto companies, dated 1 January to 31 December 2021. The 716 rounds that disclosed an amount raised $6.58B at a median of $2.9M, and the fourth quarter alone took $2.26B of it, 34%.

Data as of 14 November 2026, from NAUT's funding records. The scope is every round on a live NAUT project row dated in 2021 by its close date, or its announce date where no close date is stored: 1,452 rows. 726 of them are token sales and other non-venture types (IDO, IEO, ICO and the like) and stay out, which leaves the 726 rounds counted here. 85 companies hold 2 or more of them, 186 rounds between them. The 10 largest rounds were put to news reports: 9 matched a report, and 1, the Canton Network row, did not match a report by that name. The other 716 rounds were not put through that check, so their figures are NAUT's record as stored. Every dollar figure is the whole round's size.

Crypto funding 2021 by quarter: how much was raised?

Crypto startups raised $6.58B across the 716 sized rounds of 2021 on NAUT's record, and the money grew through the year: $828.6M in Q1, then about $1.75B in each of Q2 and Q3, then $2.26B in Q4.

Quarter Rounds Sized Disclosed Median
Q1 131 129 $828.6M $2.2M
Q2 192 190 $1,747.0M $3M
Q3 152 150 $1,744.3M $2.73M
Q4 251 247 $2,256.6M $3.1M
2021 726 716 $6,576.5M $2.9M

Sized counts the rounds with an amount on NAUT's record, and the median is of those. Rounds with a backer on NAUT: 114 in Q1, 182 in Q2, 131 in Q3 and 221 in Q4, 648 in all.

  • Q4 was the busiest quarter on both counts. It holds 251 of the 726 rounds and $2.26B of the $6.58B.
  • June was the largest month by dollars, $976.0M across 58 rounds, with Solana's $314M round on 9 June the biggest single deal of the year.
  • November had the most rounds, 86, followed by December with 83 and October with 82.
  • Most rounds were small. 486 of the 716 sized rounds were under $5M, and 14 were $100M or more.

Which were the 10 largest crypto funding 2021 rounds, and who led them?

The 10 largest rounds of 2021 on NAUT's record raised $1.80B together, 27% of the year's disclosed total. Ranked by amount, with the lead named in the cited report:

# Company Raised Lead in the cited report
1 $314M ,
2 $230M Not in the checked line
3 $230M ,
4 $200M Not in the checked line
5 $175M
6 $152M
7 $150M
8 $120M Not checked
9 $120M
10 $111M , per The Block

The date and round type on NAUT's record, and what the news check found:

# Company Date and round Report check
1 9 Jun, funding round Matched: $314.15M private token sale
2 16 Jun, funding round Matched: private token sale
3 16 Sep, funding round Matched: token sale
4 21 Sep, funding round Matched: DESO token sale
5 1 Dec, Series B Matched
6 5 Oct, Series B Matched: raised by Sky Mavis
7 5 Nov, Series C Matched: report dated 4 Nov
8 21 Apr, Series D No report by this name
9 31 Aug, Series A and B Matched: Offchain Labs
10 10 Aug, funding round Matched: token sale

How much did the 10 largest rounds raise?

Largest crypto rounds of 2021 on NAUT's record, $M
  1. Solana$314M
  2. BitDAO$230M
  3. Avalanche$230M
  4. Decentralized Social$200M
  5. 1inch$175M
  6. Axie Infinity$152M
  7. Mythical Games$150M
  8. Canton Network$120M
  9. Arbitrum$120M
  10. Helium$111M

Solana's $314M is the only 2021 round above $300M on NAUT's record, and every round in the top 10 is at least $111M against a year median of $2.9M.

Which stages took the crypto funding 2021 money?

Seed rounds were the most common stage, 235 of 726, while rounds stored under the plain Funding Round type with no stage took the most money, $2.24B. Ranked by round count:

Stage Rounds Disclosed Median
Seed 235 $723.3M $2.2M
No stage stated 179 $2,244.2M $3.75M
Private 150 $761.4M $2M
Strategic 73 $397.0M $3M
Series A 55 $810.7M $9M
Series B 16 $1,169.0M $63M
Pre-seed 11 $13.9M $1M
Series C 3 $265.0M $65M
Series D 2 $181.0M $90.5M
Pre-Series A 2 $11.1M $5.55M

The stage groups fold NAUT's spellings together (Seed Round, Seed and Private Rounds and plain Seed all count as seed), and the medians are NAUT's record of the sized rounds in each group. 16 Series B rounds raised $1.17B, more than all 235 seed rounds put together.

Who backed the most crypto rounds in 2021?

AU21 Capital appears on the most 2021 rounds in NAUT's data, 129, at 129 companies. Crypto venture capital in 2021 was spread wide across crypto investors: 648 of the 726 rounds list at least 1 backer on NAUT's record, across 555 backer firms. Ranked by rounds on NAUT's record:

Backer Rounds Backed Median Q4
129 129 $2.05M 40
91 91 $2.1M 36
78 78 $3M 23
72 70 $2.7M 14
67 66 $3.55M 18
63 63 $2.7M 14
60 59 $2.28M 13
59 58 $3M 16
56 50 $6M 20
56 56 $2.4M 25
54 54 $2M 19
54 54 $2.35M 37

Backed is the count of distinct companies; Q4 is the backer's rounds in October to December.

2021 crypto rounds per backer on NAUT's record
  1. AU21 Capital129
  2. X21 Digital91
  3. LD Capital78
  4. NGC Ventures72
  5. CMS Holdings67
  6. GBV Capital63
  7. Spark Digital Capital60
  8. Genblock Capital59
  9. Alameda Research56
  10. ExNetwork Capital56

A count here is the number of 2021 rounds where NAUT lists the firm as a backer, whether it led or joined. Most of these firms sat in small rounds: 10 of the 12 have a median round of $3M or less. Alameda Research and CMS Holdings both backed Solana's $314M round on NAUT's record, and Coinbase Ventures shows 41 rounds at a median of $10M, the highest median of the firms named in this section.

What this tells a BD team

  • The 2021 cohort is wide and mostly small. 625 companies raised, and 486 of the 716 sized rounds were under $5M, the size most of these backers wrote into.
  • Repeat backers are a route in. AU21 Capital sits on 129 rounds and X21 Digital on 91, so 1 warm intro at a fund can open a long list of portfolio teams.
  • Q4 2021 was the deepest cohort, 251 rounds, and ZBS Capital put 37 of its 54 rounds there.
How a BD team can work the 2021 list
  1. Pick a backerStart with 1 firm from the table, such as LD Capital on 78 rounds at 78 companies.
  2. Pull its portfolioThe API's fund call returns its portfolio rows with company and date, so you can keep the 2021 ones.
  3. Sort by sizeRounds of $100M or more are 14 of 716; the $2M to $3M seed teams are the long tail.
  4. Find the decision makerOpen each company's NAUT page and pick the person who owns your deal.

What this tells a founder raising now

  • Seed medians were small. Seed rounds on NAUT's record had a median of $2.2M in 2021 and Series A rounds a median of $9M.
  • Lead names often sit in the press report. The cited reports name a lead for 7 of the 10 largest rounds, so read the report before you treat a backer list as a cap table.
  • Big-round leads repeat. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led or co-led 4 of the 10 largest rounds by the cited reports, Polychain Capital 2.
How a founder can use the 2021 record
  1. Find your peersFilter the 726 rounds to your stage: 235 seed, 55 Series A, 16 Series B.
  2. List their backersNote which firms recur, such as CMS Holdings on 67 rounds.
  3. Check the leadRead the round's report: 7 of the 10 largest name a lead there.
  4. Reach the partnerOpen the fund's NAUT page and find the person who covers your sector.

How to reach the decision makers

Every company and fund in this article links to its NAUT page. Company pages are at naut.so/projects/<slug> and fund pages at naut.so/investors/<slug>, and each person page says which channels NAUT has on file. Start from the fund if you want many companies at once, or from the company if you have 1 target.

Related reading on NAUT: Crypto funding statistics 2026: 327 rounds, $11.45B, 30 numbers and How to find the lead investor: 3 ways, tested on 20 rounds.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes: GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/au21-capital, sent with Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY, returns 1 fund with its team and portfolio rows (company, roundType, amountUsd, announceDate, isLead), and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/solana returns 1 company with its team. Each data call costs 5 credits, and the Essential plan is $49 a month for 3,000 credits (API docs, pricing); this article dates a round by its close date where NAUT stores one, so a filter on announceDate can count a few rounds differently. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan: start a 7-day trial.

Crypto funding 2021 FAQ

How much did crypto startups raise in 2021?

NAUT tracks 726 venture-type crypto rounds dated to 2021 at 625 companies, and the 716 that disclosed an amount raised $6.58B at a median of $2.9M (data as of 14 November 2026). Q4 2021 was the largest quarter, 251 rounds and $2.26B.

What was the largest crypto funding round of 2021?

Solana's $314M round on 9 June 2021 is the largest 2021 round on NAUT's record; The Block reported it as a $314.15M private token sale led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital. BitDAO and Avalanche follow at $230M each.

Which investors backed the most crypto rounds in 2021?

On NAUT's record, AU21 Capital backed 129 of the 726 rounds of 2021, X21 Digital 91 and LD Capital 78. These count rounds where the firm is a listed backer, mostly seed and private rounds at a median of $2M to $3M.

Where can I find the teams and backers of the 2021 crypto rounds on NAUT?

Each of the 625 companies behind the 726 rounds of 2021 sits on a live NAUT project page, the 555 backer firms link to NAUT fund pages, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/<fund-slug> returns a fund with its portfolio rows. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan: start a 7-day trial.

Sources

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