- Coinbase’s venture arm says Q2 is a ‘builders market’ despite quieter trading.
- Tokenisation, exchanges, next-gen DeFi and AI agents top the agenda.
At a glance, things look grim for crypto startups.
Investors poured just under $5 billion into innovating industry players in the first three months of 2026, a 15% drop from the capital injected in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from DefiLlama.
Add to that that the overall crypto market is still down some 40% from its October all-time high value, the industry is sacking hundreds of employees and blaming it on artificial intelligence, and decentralised finance projects are shutting down, and it’s clear things look gloomy for entrepreneurs.
However, the industry will come out…
