Crypto Funding Digest: June 16-22 Analysis by a Wall Street Crypto Queen

AI Dominates While Pure Crypto Plays Fade

Another week, another set of funding rounds that prove VCs can’t resist shiny objects. The headline? AI-crossed-with-blockchain projects grabbed 60% of the $110M total, while traditional DeFi startups got crumbs. As someone who’s evaluated hundreds of whitepapers, I’ll admit even I raised an eyebrow at Cluely’s “undetectable AI assistant” that monitors your screen during meetings (privacy advocates, commence screaming).

Top Deals Worth Your Attention

1. Cluely ($15M) - a16z-backed surveillance-as-a-service… sorry, “real-time meeting augmentation”
2. PrismaX ($11M seed) - Decentralized robot vision data (finally solving how my Roomba avoids dog toys)
3. Units Network ($10M) - Modular blockchain with another AI launchpad (because we needed one more)

The irony? Projects mentioning “AI” in their pitch deck averaged $9.2M per round vs. $4.3M for crypto-native plays. My technical analysis suggests this isn’t just hype – institutional money is betting big on programmable assets intersecting with machine learning.

Stablecoin Infrastructure Heating Up

Buried in the data: 3 of the top 5 deals involved stablecoin interoperability, including:

• Ubyx ($10M): Ex-Citi bankers building bank-to-stablecoin rails
• XFX ($9.1M): Institutional cross-border settlements
• SaturnX (\(3M): Already profitable with \)250M processed in emerging markets

This aligns with my Q3 prediction: Regulated crypto-fiat bridges will outperform speculative DeFi as TradFi players enter the space.

The Curious Case of a16z’s Spray-and-Pray Strategy

The venture giant appeared in 3 major deals this week across AI assistants, robotics data, and Web3 gaming. Either they’ve cracked diversification math better than my Python models, or someone’s playing buzzword bingo with limited partners’ money.

Survival Outlook for Funded Projects

Using my proprietary valuation framework (factor weighting: team > tokenomics > timing):

The takeaway? Follow the infrastructure builders – they’re actually solving problems rather than inventing them.

Disclosure: My firm holds positions in Multicoin Capital funds mentioned in this report.