原文作者：RootData Research
原文来源：chaincatcher
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1. The total financing in Q1 of 2024 will exceed US$2.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%; The total amount of DeFi track financing increased by more than 150% month-on-month
- 2024 Q1 BTC price trend and total financing in the Web3 industry
- Top 3 in Q1 investment and financing amount in 2024
2. The number of early-stage financing projects in Q1 increased by 10.5% year-on-year, and there are still many unproven technologies and solutions in the market
- Distribution of project financing amount in Q1 2024
- Top 5 in Q1 financing amount in 2024
3. The total investment of the top 10 institutions in Q1 increased by 120% month-on-month, and OKX Ventures became the most active investment institution in Q1 with 30 sales
4. Analysis of the characteristics and trends of popular Web3 searches
- Bitcoin, Solana, and Blast ecosystem projects are growing rapidly, and developer atmosphere and wealth effect are still important factors to attract developers
- The distribution of Web3 investors' attention is significantly affected by financing events, secondary sector rotations, and project TGE events
- There is a correlation between the hot search of the project and the secondary price of the project, and the public chain and DeFi projects are still the most searched asset types by users
- Sam Altman topped the list of hot searches and clicks, and trading leads based on popular people are being noticed by more investors
summary
The total financing of the Web3 industry will reach US$2.545 billion in Q1 2024, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%, of which the DeFi track is driven by popular sectors such as RWA and LSD, with both year-on-year and month-on-month financing increasing by more than 100%. Bitcoin spot ETF inflows totaled more than $12.1 billion, pushing the price of Bitcoin above $72,000, a record high.
In Q1 2024, the number of projects invested increased by 10.5% year-on-year, and the infrastructure, DeFi and GameFi tracks attracted the attention of the capital market. The total investment of the top 10 institutions increased by 120% quarter-on-quarter, with OKX Ventures being the most active.
The distribution of Web3 investors' attention is mainly affected by factors such as large investments by well-known institutions, project TGE events, and airdrops. A total of 113 projects were selected into the RootData Top 20 project hot search weekly list, of which 12 issued Token projects showed a high correlation between the RootData search popularity and the secondary market.
During Q1, investment targets such as "Sam Altman Concept" appeared in the market and gained great attention from the market, and trading clues based on popular figures are being paid attention to by more investors, and as the Web3 industry becomes more mature and attracts more mainstream investors/entrepreneurs to enter, trading opportunities for people/events will continue to appear.
1. The total financing in Q1 of 2024 will exceed US$2.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%; The total amount of DeFi track financing increased by more than 150% month-on-month
1.1. 2024 Q1 BTC price trend and total Web3 financing
Source：RootData
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the trading and listing of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs on January 10, and as of March 31, the total inflow of bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded $12.1 billion, with assets under management reaching $58.341 billion. Bitcoin prices rose above $72,000, a record high of more than 60%, and hit a market capitalization of $1.40 trillion, largely driven by strong buying of BTC spot ETFs.
1.2. Top 3 tracks in Q1 investment and financing amount in 2024
Source：RootData
With the outstanding performance of the Web3 secondary market, RootData statistics show that a total of 459 financing events were generated in Q1 of the Web3 primary market, a year-on-year increase of 28.7%, and the total financing reached US$2.545 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, infrastructure, DeFi and CeFi were the three tracks with the largest amount of investment and financing completed in Q1.
The DeFi track has increased by more than 100% year-on-year and month-on-month, with the year-on-year growth of the CeFi track reaching 217.71%, although the month-on-month growth is only 1.67%. The reason why the DeFi track can grow is related to the popularity of RWA, LSD and other sector projects since entering Q1, while the infrastructure track has seen a year-on-year and month-on-month decline (-24.31% and -5.05% respectively), which is related to the lack of a new narrative in the Q1 infrastructure track, and some fund managers have allocated part of the funds to the secondary market for the sake of short-term improvement of capital utilization.
2. The number of early-stage financing projects in Q1 increased by 10.5% year-on-year, and there are still many unproven technologies and solutions in the market
2.1. Distribution of project financing amount in Q1 2024
Source：RootData
From the perspective of the range of financing amounts, the number of mid-to-late stage investment and financing (>$10M) in Q1 remained stable year-on-year in Q1 2023, and the number of early-stage investment ($5M< increased by 16 projects year-on-year, indicating that the capital market may still be in the valuation correction stage, and also indicating that there are still many unproven technologies and solutions in the market.
According to RootData data, the top five projects in Q1 2024 have received a total of more than $400 million in financing. EigenLayer closed a $100 million funding round led by a16z Crypto, and the re-staking track is also one of the hottest trends in Q1 2024, with its TVL increasing by 1,100% in Q1, from $1 billion to $12 billion. After the Ethereum 2.0 consensus was transformed to PoS (Proof of Stake), re-staking, as a variant of staking, attracted more and more investors and projects to pour in.
2.2. Top 5 in Q1 financing amount in 2024
Source：RootData
3. The total investment of the top 10 institutions in Q1 increased by 120% month-on-month, and OKX Ventures became the most active investment institution in Q1 with 30 sales
Source：RootData
According to RootData data, the top 10 investment institutions with the largest number of investments in Q1 2024 participated in a total of 198 investments, an increase of 85% year-on-year and 120% month-on-month. Among these investments, infrastructure is the most popular track, with the top 10 institutions making 96 sales on the track, accounting for 48% of their total investments in Q1. This figure is up 300% month-on-month and 153% year-on-year.
It is worth mentioning that the top 10 investment institutions in Q1 made a total of 40 shots in the DeFi track, an increase of 54% year-on-year and month-on-month; A total of 31 of the top 10 institutions in Q1 made a sale in the GameFi track, an increase of 210% year-on-year and month-on-month. In contrast, the CeFi and DAO tracks are almost not favored by the top 10 active investment institutions in Q1 2024, which may be related to the compliance, commercialization challenges and capital exposure of these two tracks.
4. Analysis of the characteristics and trends of popular Web3 searches
4.1 Bitcoin, Solana, and Blast ecosystem projects are growing rapidly, and developer atmosphere and wealth effect are still important factors to attract developers
Most L1/L2 projects showed a "V" shaped trend, with the number of new projects plummeting in February, likely due to the impact of the Lunar New Year holiday in East Asia, before reaching the peak of Q1 in March.
Ethereum is still the preferred ecosystem for Web3 projects, and the Bitcoin, Solana, and Blast ecosystems are growing rapidly. The Bitcoin ecosystem has developed from inscriptions to runes, and the narrative is still increasing. SOL grew by more than 129% in the first quarter, making Solana one of the most eye-catching public chains. 20 native projects in the Blast ecosystem have completed financing, which is ahead of other Layer 2 projects.
Some of the popular L1/L2 ecosystem projects that are not listed are in the single digits, such as ZkSync, StarkNet, Aptos, Sui, Near, etc., due to the small technical language, the lack of effective guidance from the foundation, or the short operation cycle of the mainnet.
4.2 The allocation of attention of Web3 investors is significantly affected by financing events, secondary sector rotations, and project TGE events
The ranking of RootData's hot search list comprehensively considers the number of clicks, searches, and favorites of the project in the cycle, so as to reflect the hot trend of the project in the market. At present, the list has become one of the important references for the popularity of crypto projects.
Most of the projects on the list have received large investments from well-known institutions, such as EigenLayer, which completed a $100 million Series B financing on February 22, which is the largest single financing in the first quarter. io.net closed its Series A funding round at a valuation of $1 billion on March 5.
The performance of the secondary market is eye-catching, which makes "old" L1/L2 such as Solana and Metis attract the attention of investors. At the same time, the second-level public chains Aptos and Sui have also received the value overflow of L1/L2 plate rotation.
Project TGE events are one of the important factors to gain market attention. Projects such as StarkNet, Manta, and ZetaChain announced airdrop plans in January.
The rotation of AI, RWA, LSD, DePIN and other sectors has increased the demand of users to find popular investment targets, and the number of projects has exploded.
4.3 There is a correlation between the hot search of the project and the secondary price of the project, and the public chain and DeFi projects are still the most searched types by users.
RootData热门项目与其二级行情表现(部分) Source:RootData
In the first quarter, RootData released a total of 12 issues of the Top 20 Project Hot Search Weekly List, and a total of 113 projects were selected for the list. In general, the search volume and the market are closely linked, and the influencing factors mainly include narrative, project TGE events, market performance, etc.
Public chains and DeFi searches are the asset types that account for the largest proportions. New asset classes are the easiest to get investors' attention, such as Layer 3, modular networks, re-staking protocols...
Among the 12 projects with TGE, the search popularity of RootData is correlated with the secondary market, and even the secondary market performance of Pyth Network, Manta Network, Jupiter and other projects is forward-looking.
4.4 Sam Altman topped the list of hot searches and clicks, and trading clues based on popular figures are being paid more attention by investors
Source：RootData
2024年第一季度始终出现在热搜榜单的有12人,搜索量最高的人物是Sam Altman,他是OpenAI创始人兼CEO、Worldcoin联合创始人。 紧随其后的是Jack Lu, 他是NGC Ventures合伙人,也是BounceBit、Bitune、Bounce、Chainswap等多𰵊热门区块链项目的联合创始人。 此外,Balaji Srinivasan、Jia Yaoqi、Anatoly Yakovenko人气高居不下。
It is worth noting that during Q1, investment targets such as the "Sam Altman concept" appeared in the market and received great attention from the market, which is in line with the current trading structure of the Web3 industry, which is dominated by retail investors, and WLD, ARKM, and FET have become popular investment targets in the quarter. As the Web3 industry becomes more mature and attracts more mainstream investors/entrepreneurs, trading opportunities for people/events will continue to emerge.
Source：RootData
When a project completes a TGE event, there is usually a lot of personnel change. Irene Wu, former head of strategy at LayerZero, has joined Bain Capital Crypto as a venture partner, and Sebastien, former head of deFi at zkSync, has left his role to become co-founder of Sophon, a modular blockchain at zkSync.