According to research conducted by Binance, a total of $1.78 billion was raised by the top ten Web3 projects in 2023, representing a significant decrease in venture capital investment compared to the $5.87 billion raised in 2022, a 70% decrease.Most of the major funding occurred in the second half of the year, with 6 out of the top 10 largest funding rounds taking place during this period. Among them, Bitcoin mining service provider Phoenix Group and non-custodial payment infrastructure company Ramp led the way with funding rounds of $370 million and $300 million, respectively.The research results show that Web3 projects attracted a total of $9 billion in investment, with infrastructure projects accounting for 36.5%, while centralized finance (cefi) and decentralized finance (defi) platforms accounted for 13.3% and 8.6%, respectively. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) received the least capital investment, accounting for only 0.47% of the total.

According to a report released by Binance Research on January 5th, interest in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasing recently, as evidenced by Google search trends and the rise in AI token prices.By 2023, funding for AI-related Web3 projects will surge to $298 million, surpassing the total funding for AI projects from 2016 to 2022 ($148.5 million).By 2023, the top five AI tokens by market capitalization have performed well, with gains of 200% to 650%, significantly outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Singapore-based company Cumulus Encrypted Storage System (Cess) has raised $8 million in Series A funding from a group of investors including Web3 Foundation, Polkadot Ecology Research Institute and Singchain Investment. Cess provides a blockchain-powered decentralized storage and content delivery network infrastructure for Web3, which allows users to share data and conduct value transactions while ensuring data sovereignty and user privacy. The company plans to use the funds to provide decentralized data services for Web3, including use cases such as Metaverse, NFT, DeFi, streaming media, social media, gaming and RWA. Cess incentivizes participation through transparent and fair incentive mechanisms, allowing anyone to become a candidate consensus miner and preventing large nodes from monopolizing the network.

According to RootData, the total financing amount of the cryptocurrency market in December 2023 was $909 million, which is a 6.5% decrease from $973 million in December 2022 and a 25.6% decrease from $1.222 billion in November 2023. In addition, the number of financings in December 2023 was 98, an increase of 5.3% year-on-year.

London-based blockchain company Fade Treasury has secured $3.2 million in seed funding, led by OP Crypto Ventures and featuring participation from Arrington Capital, Big Brain Holdings, and Merit Circle. The funds will be used to expand operations and development efforts for the company's "liquid vault" solution, which allows cryptocurrency holders to securely diversify their assets, generate yield, maintain governance and retain ownership of their tokens. The solution is designed to mitigate risk in DeFi and incentivises users to trade the liquid vault token $TRSY. The Fyde Treasury Protocol launched on Ethereum in December 2023.

Tap Protocol, a blockchain startup under Trac Systems, has raised $4.2 million in a funding round led by Sora Ventures. The capital raised will be used to further develop the company's initiatives, particularly in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Tap Protocol focuses on leveraging the capabilities of the Bitcoin blockchain through the Ordinals system, and the funding will be instrumental in fostering innovation and contributing to the broader ecosystem of applications built on the Bitcoin blockchain. The company aims to refine its infrastructure, enhance user experience, and explore novel applications within the Bitcoin ecosystem, including tokenization, gamification, and Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

According to DealStreetAsia, Indian Angel Network, an Indian venture capital firm, announced that its second fund, "IAN Alpha Fund," has raised an initial funding of $42 million, with participation from SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India), SRI Fund, and IAN Fund I.The fund will focus on investing in areas such as financial technology, deep tech, Web3, metaverse, and Industry 4.0.

UAE fintech startup Flow48 announced completion of $25 million pre-A round financing, with participation from Blockchain Founders Fund, Speedinvest, Daphni, 212, Unpopular Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, TLG and some angel investors. It is reported that this round of financing includes equity and debt financing.Flow48 provides data-driven real-time fintech solutions and helps small and medium-sized enterprises focus on ESG principles. Investors may provide support in the "advanced fintech ecosystem", with Blockchain Founders Fund's investment portfolio including Web3 API platform Uniblock, Web3 domain and TLD provider Freename, privacy protection protocol zkPas, and more.

Flow48, a UAE-based fintech, has raised $25 million in Pre-Series A funding with the aim of introducing revenue-based financing (RBF) to the SME space in the MENA region. The round includes equity and debt, and investors include 212 VC, Speedinvest, Daphni, Blockchain Founders Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, TLG, and angel investors such as Scott Sandell from NEA. Founder Idriss Al Rifai believes that his experience of solving 'last mile' issues in the Middle East will be useful in the RBF arena, as the level of information and data in the region is different from that in the US and Europe. The MENA region is projected to grow by 5.4% in 2022, and the e-commerce market in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt is expected to grow by over 50% to $33.3 billion in the next three years, according to Bain.

Sock, a San Francisco-based company, has raised $2.8m in seed funding for its self-custodial crypto investment app. The app aims to help users build wealth through crypto investment and offers complete control over finances, including automated orders to minimize losses and take profit automatically. The funding will be used to cover operating costs, hire more technical and UX talent, and fund the go-to-market campaign. Despite being in the early stages since its launch last week, the company has seen promising growth and engagement from its community, with positive feedback received particularly in the App and Play stores. The company plans to respond to feedback and release a major app update before the end of the year.