October Crypto Funding Rose to $1.65B, Led by Kalshi

Crypto venture funding reached $1.65 billion in October, more than doubling from September, while prediction-market platform Kalshi captured 61% of the month's venture funding, according to crypto-focused media outlet Odaily.

Odaily reported on November 9 that Kalshi had raised $1 billion in a Series G round in October. Without that round, every other project raised a combined $651 million, below September's $665 million industry total. The headline increase therefore came from one outsized round rather than a rise in financing across the broader crypto market.

Where the capital went

Excluding the two largest deals leaves $451 million of October funding, nearly unchanged from $455 million in September. In practical terms, the market outside those two transactions did not materially accelerate.

The deal count also remained restrained. October produced 46 deals, up from 44 in September but only about 40% of the 116 recorded in the same month a year earlier. Investors completed more transactions than in September, yet remained far below last year's pace.

Odaily counted 155 institutions across October's deals, 16% more than in September. Tether participated in four transactions and Sequoia Capital in three, making them the most active investors by deal count. Concentration remained pronounced: the top 10 deals attracted 91% of all funding.

Seed and pre-seed investment rose 8% from September to $123 million across 20 deals. Payments and real-world assets together drew $479 million, about 29% of the monthly venture total, although capital within both sectors remained concentrated.

• Payments: Twelve deals raised a combined $342 million. Whop accounted for $200 million, nearly three-fifths of the sector total.
• Real-world assets: Funding reached $137 million. Spiko raised $90 million and Meanwhile $37.5 million, together accounting for about 93% of the sector total.

What does this change for operators and allocators?

For prediction-market operators and their backers, Kalshi's round changes the near-term fundraising reference point: one Series G now exceeds what the rest of the market raised in October. That does not establish demand for rival platforms, but it raises the capital scale against which future rounds will be judged.

For payment and real-world-asset companies, October's figures demonstrate continued institutional appetite for those categories. The narrow sector concentration shows the limitation, however: further funding rounds will need participation beyond a small number of large transactions to demonstrate broader demand.

For allocators, the rise in participating institutions should not be read as broad capital dispersion. Funding increased 148% from September to October, but the total number of deals remained 70 below the same month last year, and the top 10 transactions controlled more than nine-tenths of the money.

The industry also disclosed 13 mergers and acquisitions during October, although transaction values were not public in every case. That activity confirms dealmaking beyond venture fundraising, but the incomplete disclosure limits any reliable assessment of transaction size.

The next monthly funding report will show whether capital broadens beyond the top 10 or remains anchored by a few oversized rounds, with Kalshi's $1 billion Series G now serving as the scale test for prediction-market fundraises.