February Crypto Financing Reaches $883 Million: The Era of VCs Casting Wide Nets Is Over; You Need Revenue to Get Funding

Bear market still sees VC activity, but the standards have changed— the era of “fundraising through narratives and PPTs” is over.

Author: DLNews

Translation: Deep潮 TechFlow

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Deep潮 Guide: In a bear market, VC activity continues, but the standards have shifted— the era of “raising funds with just narratives and PPTs” has ended. This article uses data from DefiLlama and quotes from top-tier VCs to clearly present the new logic of the 2026 crypto primary market: stablecoins, AI Agents, and institutional compliance tools are the three major hotspots, and the re-emergence of names like Andre Cronje and Tether is also noteworthy.

According to DefiLlama data, despite the market downturn, risk investment firms still injected $883 million into crypto startups in February.

This figure is down 13% from the same period last year—last year, startups raised over $1 billion during the crypto bull market.

Today, VC firms are still writing checks but are becoming more cautious.

“Last year, you could raise funds just with a narrative and a PPT,” said Andrei Grachev, managing partner at crypto VC firm DWF Labs, to DL News.

“This year, investors want revenue, users, and reasons to believe the product can survive the bear cycle,” he said. “The era of casting a wide net and luck is over.”

Grachev states that the bear market “always brings opportunities,” and some of DWF Labs’ best-performing investments were made during the downturn.

He highlights three core themes driving VC investment in 2026: stablecoins and payment infrastructure, AI Agents, and institutional tools like compliance and fund management.

“It’s not sexy, but this is the pipeline that any institutional capital before touching any token must flow through.”

Below are some of the biggest financings in February.

Flying Tulip, $206 million

Founded by DeFi veteran architect Andre Cronje, Flying Tulip raised $206 million this month through a token sale to build its integrated financial tech stack.

The platform combines spot trading, lending, and perpetual derivatives with its native stablecoin ftUSD, positioning itself as a vertically integrated liquidity hub.

A core innovation is the ftPUT structure, which grants token holders perpetual redemption rights to anchor the bottom value of the FT token.

Capital is allocated to relatively conservative yield-generating venues like Aave and Lido, aiming to produce sustainable native returns.

This funding indicates that DeFi models combining structural downside protection with exchange-level financial tools are highly favored by investors.

Whop, $200 million

Digital goods social commerce platform Whop received a $200 million strategic investment from stablecoin giant Tether, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. The platform connects thousands of creators with over 18 million users, facilitating sales of software, online courses, and subscription communities.

The core of this deal is the integration of Tether’s Wallet Development Kit, enabling self-custody settlement of USDT and the newly launched USAT stablecoin.

Whop states that by reducing reliance on traditional banking rails, the company aims to accelerate payments within the global creator economy, especially in emerging markets.

This funding will support expansion in Europe and Asia and provide capital for AI-driven business tools.

Anchorage Digital, $100 million

U.S.’s first federally regulated digital asset bank, Anchorage Digital, received a $100 million strategic equity investment from Tether, boosting its valuation to $4.2 billion.

This investment deepens the partnership—under this framework, Anchorage acts as the regulated issuer of Tether’s compliant USD stablecoin USAT.

Anchorage offers institutional-grade custody, staking, governance, and settlement infrastructure, serving as a bridge between traditional capital markets and blockchain-native finance.