May 2026 Crypto Funding Brief

Welcome to our Monthly Crypto Funding Brief. Each month, we bring you the latest activities in the fundraising landscape. This newsletter aims to keep you informed about key developments, significant fundraises, active investors, and upcoming token unlocks, helping you stay ahead in the dynamic world of investments.

In this edition: 

• Largest Venture Funding Rounds
• Most Active Investors
• Distribution of Fundraises by Sector
• Digital Asset Treasury Funding Rounds
• Distribution of Fundraises by Stage
• M&A Activity
• Notable Fundraise Filings
• Token Unlocks for May 2026 / June 2026

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Monthly Fundraising Highlights

In May 2026, 89 crypto companies raised a combined $3.08B across 93 rounds. That is about $1.22B more than April even though the deal count fell by 16, so the month came down to fewer but larger raises. Of those 89 companies, eight accounted for roughly $734.9M through debt, PIPE, IPOs, or post-IPO equity rather than venture rounds.

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Largest Venture Funding Rounds‍

The largest venture round this month was Kalshi's $1.2B Series F, led by Coatue. Kalshi operates a federally regulated prediction market, and the raise comes at a moment of rapid growth and heightened controversy for these platforms.

Combined monthly volume across Kalshi and Polymarket, the two largest prediction market platforms, reached roughly $24B in April 2026, up from just under $5B in September 2025.

Kalshi has also been expanding into more traditional financial markets, most recently with the CFTC's approval of a bitcoin perpetual futures contract on the platform. At the same time, numerous reports of market manipulation and insider trading have surfaced in prediction markets, creating regulatory uncertainty for the industry.

Most Active Investors

The top five investors made a total of 22 investments this month. Their investments spanned multiple sectors, including Artificial Intelligence, Business Service Providers, DeFi, Decentralized Social, Exchanges, Infrastructure Provider, Layer 1, Media, Payments, Real-World Assets (RWAs), and Trading Services.

Distribution of Fundraises by Sector

In May, Payments companies led in total deals with 13 companies raising $251.9M across 13 rounds. Measured by capital, the Betting & Prediction Markets sector led decisively, with 3 companies raising a combined $1.2B.

Digital Asset Treasury Funding Rounds

In May, 3 Digital Asset Treasury companies raised $34.7M across 4 rounds. Notably, Capital B raised $19.2M across 2 rounds in May, using the funds to purchase an additional 192 bitcoins. Capital B is currently ranked as the 25th largest holder among publicly traded companies holding bitcoin.

Distribution of Fundraises by Stage

In May, strategic rounds led deal activity with 23 companies raising a combined $179.2M, making strategic the most active round type in four of the past six months. The largest individual strategic raise was SignalPlus's $40M round on May 20, 2026, led by HashKey Capital, followed closely by wallet provider Luffa's $39.8M raise.

M&A Activity

Crypto M&A rebounded in May 2026 with 15 transactions, a large increase from April's total of 4 deals. However, May was still below the six-month average of 17 deals.

Bullish led the month with its $4.2B acquisition of Equiniti, followed by Payward (the parent company of digital asset exchange Kraken) with a $600M deal for payments company Reap. Additionally, MoonPay closed three acquisitions in May including DFlow, Dawn Labs, and Decent.

Notable Fundraise Filings

Funds that reported the most recent fundraises through Form D or D/A filings.

Token Unlocks: May 2026 and June 2026

This chart highlights major token unlocks exclusively for investors in May 2026 and June 2026. Notably, LayerZero unlocked $17.79 million on May 18, 2026 and will unlock an additional $15.39 million on June 20, 2026. Meanwhile, SUI unlocked a combined total of $17.93 million on May 3, 2026. These figures specifically exclude other token allocation categories such as team member distributions, airdrops, or other non-investor allocations.