Southeast Asia’s blockchain startups have raised 680 million USD across 25 rounds in 2026, more than double the 319 million USD they collected all of last year — but the headline number hides a sharper story about concentration. One deal, Crypto.com’s 400 million USD Series D backed by Citadel Securities in July, supplied nearly 60% of the entire regional total, while deal count collapsed from 46 rounds in 2025 to just 25.
The figures come from a new report by market intelligence platform Tracxn, and they describe a market where capital is up 113% year over year, but the number of companies receiving it has fallen by nearly half. Strip out the Crypto.com round, and the remaining 24 deals brought in roughly 280 million USD — less than one mature exchange raised on its own.
## Long way from the 2022 peak
The regional funding cycle tells a story of boom, bust and an uneven recovery. According to Tracxn, annual investment dropped from a record 2.2 billion USD across 206 rounds in 2022 to 386 million USD in 2023, recovered to 804 million USD in 2024, then slid back to 319 million USD in 2025.
This year’s 680 million USD has already surpassed the 2025 total, but it remains about 69% below the 2022 record in dollar terms — and deal volume has fallen more than eightfold from the 206 rounds completed at the top. In other words, the region has more capital than last year flowing to far fewer companies.
Crypto financial services captured most of the available money, raising 498 million USD through 19 rounds, up 48.4% from the corresponding period last year. Tokenization platforms ranked second with 114 million USD, while platforms used to develop decentralized applications received 77 million USD. Tracxn’s sector classifications indicate investors favored exchanges, payments companies and financial infrastructure over less established blockchain projects.
That preference mirrors institutional activity elsewhere. In the United States, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation has been developing a tokenization service with more than 50 financial firms, while JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo have been working on tokenized deposit infrastructure. Established financial companies are putting capital into many of the same business areas receiving investment in Southeast Asia — settlement, tokenized assets and blockchain-based payments.
## 87% of funded startups stuck below Series A
Tracxn tracks 3,957 blockchain companies across Southeast Asia. Of those, 1,323 have received some form of equity investment — but only 167 have reached Series A or a later stage. Just 50 companies have advanced to Series B, 14 have completed a Series C, and only four have reached Series D or beyond, including Crypto.com following its 400 million USD financing.
The math leaves roughly 87% of equity-funded companies below Series A. Even among businesses that attracted investors, only about 13% have progressed to a stage where larger institutional rounds usually become available. The concentration is stark: Crypto.com’s round was larger than the combined 280 million USD raised through every other reported deal in 2026.
Southeast Asia has still produced six blockchain unicorns, according to Tracxn, including digital asset bank Sygnum, Thai exchange Bitkub, blockchain gaming company Sky Mavis and crypto financial services firm Amber Group. Sygnum reached a valuation above 1 billion USD after raising 58 million USD in early 2025 and operates from Switzerland and Singapore, providing regulated custody, trading and tokenization products to institutions.
## Singapore towers over the region
Singapore accounts for 82.5% of the region’s 6.2 billion USD in historical blockchain funding. Jakarta ranks as the next-largest center but holds only about 3% of cumulative investment, roughly 186 million USD — a vast gap between the city-state and every other market in the region.
Recent corporate activity has reinforced Singapore’s position. Coinbase announced in July that it plans to grow its Singapore workforce from about 150 employees to roughly 200 by the end of 2026, citing institutional demand and tokenization as focus areas.
Singapore’s regulatory structure has supported that development. The Monetary Authority of Singapore introduced frameworks for tokenized fixed-income products and investment funds in November 2024 under Project Guardian, an initiative involving more than 40 financial institutions, industry groups and policymakers across seven jurisdictions. By the time those frameworks were announced, Project Guardian had completed more than 15 trials involving six currencies, and MAS had formed the Guardian Wholesale Network with Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Schroders and UOB to support commercial uses of tokenized assets.
## Exits favor acquisitions over IPOs
Exit activity across the region has leaned heavily toward acquisitions rather than public listings. Tracxn counted 43 acquisitions in Southeast Asia’s blockchain industry against only four initial public offerings.
Among 2026 transactions, Japan’s SBI Holdings completed its acquisition of Singapore exchange Coinhako after receiving MAS approval in July, a deal that included a capital injection and share purchases from existing investors, though SBI did not disclose the stake size, amount or valuation. Coinhako, founded in 2014, holds a Major Payment Institution licence and will serve as a regulated base for stablecoins, tokenized products and cross-border trading between Japan and Southeast Asia. Tracxn also listed Bybit’s purchase of Indonesian platform NOBI among the year’s acquisitions.
For a region that once funded 206 blockchain startups a year, the new equilibrium is narrower: fewer bets, larger checks, and a clear tilt toward licensed financial infrastructure centered on Singapore. The speculative long tail of the last cycle has not returned — and the money that has come back wants compliance, custody and cash flows.
As of 14:45 UTC on September 6, Bitcoin traded near 79,685 USD, Ethereum near 2,482 USD and Solana near 106 USD.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
680m headline, then you read one series d from crypto.com is 400m of it. strip that out and 24 deals split maybe 280m
and deal count went 46 down to 25. capital up, companies funded nearly halved. thats concentration, not growth
Citadel Securities backing the crypto.com round is the quiet headline here. Tradfi money picking one winner and ignoring the rest of the region
citadel backing crypto.com is wall street hedging the exchange layer. zero of that 400m reaches founders building in hanoi or jakarta
citadel gets the exchange layer, founders get ice. 280m across 24 rounds for all of SEA is a rounding error now
Tracxn counting one series D as 60 percent of the region is how you get a doubling that feels like nothing on the ground.
strip the one mega round out and its what, 280m across 24 deals. doubling headline, contraction on the ground
25 rounds for all of southeast asia is brutal. half the accelerators in singapore quietly pivoted to ai bootcamps this year
680m headline and one citadel backed round is 400 of it. actual seed scene here in vietnam is still ice cold, ask anyone who pitched in hanoi this year
same in jakarta. nobody outside exchange infra sees a dollar of that 680m, seed rounds here are dead walks
same in manila. pitched four funds this year, all of them tracking and none of them wiring
can confirm jakarta, our entire 2024 accelerator cohort has zero closed seed rounds now. the doubling headline reads like satire from the ground
Same story in KL. Founders doing bridge rounds at flat valuations and calling it momentum. The 680m headline does nothing for anyone at seed.
46 rounds down to 25. thats the only number in this report that matters
Round count is the real gauge. Strip Citadel’s 400m and all of southeast asia raised less than one late-stage US round this year.
citadel 400m out of 680m total and deal count halved to 25. growth round for one exchange, ice age for everyone actually building in the region
round count is the honest metric. 680m sounds like a boom until you see 24 deals carry 280m outside the citadel round
^ try raising a series a in bangkok rn. investors only want exchange infra or nothing
25 rounds with 60% of the total in one deal means the median raise is embarrassingly small. consolidation story wearing a growth costume
deal count is the metric and it halved while capital doubled. classic barbell, one citadel sized round and dust for the other 24
barbell is exactly right. citadel takes 400m and the other 24 deals fight over maybe 280m combined, which is under 12m per deal before follow-ons eat their share. doubling headline, one balance sheet
46 to 25 and the 25 includes one 400m round. my startup in hanoi did three investor calls this quarter, all curiosity, zero term sheets
zero term sheets is the norm now. we repitched our hcmc seed deck with an ai angle just to get second meetings, the 680m headline changes nothing at our stage
the ai angle repitch is universal now. we did the same pivot in saigon and got exactly one second meeting out of it
three calls and zero term sheets matches the tracxn data honestly. outside the citadel 400m the median round in this region has to be tiny. hoping next years report is less of a barbell
citadel backing a crypto.com series d says more about where tradfi wants exposure than anything about regional deal flow
singapore accelerators pivoting to ai bootcamps while the headline screams doubling. tracxn data is fine, the gap is in the interpretation on the ground