April 2025 Web3 Investment Trends: Funding Rounds and Project Highlights

Why Investors Can’t Ignore Web3?

Web3 marks a fundamental shift in how the internet works — moving value, ownership, and governance away from centralized platforms toward user-driven networks. This decentralized ecosystem is anchored in blockchain technology, smart contracts, and crypto.

Staying informed about Web3 funding is vital: it highlights emerging trends and reveals which sectors are attracting strategic capital — often shaping the long-term direction of the digital economy. 

April 2025 brought a wave of investor interest in Web3, with high-potential startups securing tens of millions in funding — an indicator of where the smart money is heading in the decentralized space.

April 2025: Spotlight on Web3 Investment Trends

Several verticals attracted significant funding last month, revealing where investors see long-term opportunity.

Decentralized Social Networks

People want to own their data. They want to be rewarded for the content they generate. That desire is now driving a new wave of funding into decentralized social networks — platforms designed to return power to the users and rethink value distribution.

Towns Protocol

Towns is a decentralized social network that secured $10M in Series B funding from a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Benchmark. It’s building a blockchain-powered social layer by integrating key Web3 features, giving users privacy, data control, and direct interactions without third parties.

DeFi and Stablecoins

As volatility intensifies, capital is flowing into protocols that offer predictability and autonomy.

DeFi and stablecoins are no longer experimental. They’re the financial rails of Web3, enabling yield generation, liquidity, and financial access beyond traditional systems.

Here are a few DeFi initiatives attracting attention:

CAP Labs 

CAP Labs is building the backbone of a new stablecoin economy. With $8 million in funding from Franklin Templeton and Triton Capital, the company plans to roll out its Cap engine by year’s end.

Its core offering? A platform that lets users earn passive income by restaking through protocols like EigenLayer — seamlessly integrating crypto-native innovation with legacy financial wisdom.

Meanwhile 

Meanwhile, a rising crypto startup, just raised $40 million in Series A funding, with Framework Ventures and Fulgur Ventures leading the round.Its core product? Life insurance paid in Bitcoin. Users make monthly payments in BTC, and beneficiaries receive payouts in the same currency.

With this funding, Meanwhile is eyeing global growth and aims to fine-tune its offering for different regulatory environments.CEO Zach Townsend believes Bitcoin offers strong protection against inflation — a key reason the company chose it as the foundation for long-term financial planning.

AI and Automation in Web3 Security

The growth of decentralized platforms brings an urgent need for scalable security.

VCs are supporting startups that integrate AI into smart contract auditing, enabling faster threat identification, reduced human error, and greater network reliability.

Octane Security

Octane Security raised $6.75 million in a seed funding round that included participation from Archetype and Winklevoss Capital — the venture firm founded by the Gemini exchange’s co-founders, the Winklevoss twins.The round also included backing from Gemini Frontier Fund, Circle, Druid Ventures, and other key players.

The startup is developing an AI-driven solution for fast, automated security checks of blockchain applications. The capital will help speed up the launch and expand platform features.

DePIN and Web3 Infrastructure Growth

DePINs (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) are rising in popularity. They enable users to monetize unused assets by contributing them to decentralized systems and earning rewards in return.

Solix 

Solix, a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) initiative backed by the Eclip Foundation, secured $29.5 million in fresh funding. The platform lets users turn unused internet bandwidth into revenue, rewarding them for helping power distributed Web3 infrastructure. The investment will support major roadmap goals, from scaling the network to introducing new Web3-native features.

Top 5 Web3 Projects to Watch This Month

Web3 is evolving at breakneck speed, with fresh startups surfacing every month. Yet only a handful push boundaries and truly stand out. These are the projects shaping the future.

Blackbird Labs

Blackbird Labs is building blockchain-powered tools tailored for the restaurant world. Based in the U.S., the company secured $50 million in April 2025 during a Series B funding round led by Spark Capital. The list of backers reads like a who's who of Web3 and fintech: Coinbase, a16z crypto, Union Square Ventures, and Amex Ventures. Since launching in 2022, Blackbird has raised a total of $85 million.

Blackbird turns dining out into a Web3 experience. Users earn FLY tokens each time they check in at a partner restaurant — and there are now over 600 of them in New York, San Francisco, and Charleston. Tokens can be used to pay for meals or make purchases directly on-site.

The infrastructure is built on Flynet, Blackbird’s own blockchain, which launched in February 2025 and operates on the Base L2 network. The recent investment round included both equity and token warrants, giving investors a future claim on project tokens. Founder Ben Leventhal believes Flynet could become a foundation for other developers to build on.

Wunder.Social

In April 2025, Wunder.Social raised $50 million from Rollman Management to launch a blockchain-based social network focused on identity integrity. The platform will rely on blockchain tools to verify users and eliminate fake accounts and bots. Its business model includes ad revenue sharing, giving users a direct financial stake and the ability to fund personal or public-interest initiatives.

BugsCoin

BugsCoin drew in $12 million in Series A funding, with backing from Becker Ventures, Castrum Capital, BullPerks, DuckDAO, and Maxx Capital. The round came shortly after a separate strategic investment by BullPerks on April 7 — signaling growing institutional confidence in the project.

BugsCoin is building a new kind of Web3 learning experience. The platform lets users sharpen their trading skills in a risk-free environment that mirrors real market conditions. With simulated capital and a built-in BGSC token reward system, BugsCoin makes learning about finance both safe and rewarding.

DecentralGPT

DecentralGPT introduces the globe’s inaugural decentralized infrastructure for large language models (LLMs), leveraging the DeepBrainChain network. Its goal? Replace centralized AI platforms with a Web3-native solution. By April 2025, the project raised $3 million in a Series A round led by AGICrypto Capital, alongside investors such as BTR Capital, DePINX, and angel backers. The platform’s focus: enabling transparent, censorship-proof, and scalable LLM development and deployment.

Firefish

With Firefish, Bitcoin becomes a key to fast, trust-minimized credit. This non-custodial lending protocol allows users to borrow instantly against their BTC, while removing reliance on intermediaries. Its architecture is built to enforce trustlessness at the protocol level. In April 2025, Firefish secured $1.8 million in seed funding from Miton C, Braiins, and other strategic partners. The project charts a path toward truly decentralized finance — one loan at a time.

What 2025 Holds for Web3?

The future of Web3 isn’t about hype anymore. It's about purpose. In 2025, investors are putting their money into platforms that offer clear, practical benefits — not just promises.

We're witnessing a merging of physical and digital realities. From blockchain loyalty programs at your local café to trustless social platforms, Web3 is grounding itself in everyday life.

What separates lasting projects from the rest?

• Transparency as default,
• Security by design,
• User sovereignty over their data.