2025 Cryptocurrency Development Report: CeFi Financing Surges to $23.58 Billion as Traditional Finance Deepens Its Role in Crypto

Key Takeaways:The CeFi (Centralized Finance) sector led 2025 crypto fundraising with $23.58 billion, far surpassing other segments.IPO, Post-IPO, and ICO rounds accounted for 47% of total funding, or $16.06 billion.ETFs, DATs, and coin-to-equity models are reshaping crypto financing, while AI × Crypto surpassed 5% of funding, signaling rapid integration of artificial intelligence in blockchain ventures.At the Silicon Valley 101 × RootData Annual Summit, RootData Chief Product Manager Ye Wang unveiled the 2025 Cryptocurrency Development Research Report, highlighting how the structure of crypto financing has shifted dramatically over the past year.The report revealed that the CeFi track dominated overall market financing, raising $23.58 billion, with a single-round high of $173 million—around 11 times more than the infrastructure sector. Analysts view this as a sign of growing participation from traditional financial institutions, which are increasingly embedding themselves in the digital-asset ecosystem through exchanges, custody, and yield-generation platforms.Meanwhile, IPO/Post-IPO/ICO funding rounds contributed $16.06 billion, or nearly 47% of total market financing, indicating the maturing capital pathways between private and public markets.The report also underlined the rise of ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) and DATs (Decentralized Asset Trusts), which are rewriting the rules of crypto capital formation. “Coin-to-equity” models—where tokenized assets are directly tied to equity or corporate valuation—led mega-rounds totaling $13.93 billion, reflecting new hybrid structures between traditional equity and blockchain tokens.Another key highlight was the AI × Crypto segment, which now accounts for more than 5% of global crypto financing. RootData identified this area as a core growth engine for both venture capital and innovation, driven by synergies between machine learning, blockchain infrastructure, and decentralized data economies.