PANews reported on April 2nd that, according to Octopus' analysis on its X platform, in the first quarter of 2026, venture capital firms invested over $10 million in 53 projects in the crypto space. The funding distribution was as follows: prediction markets raised $1.67 billion in 3 deals, payments raised $679 million in 9 deals, trading raised $418 million in 6 deals, and DeFi raised $337 million in 8 deals. Excluding the over $1 billion Kalshi funding in prediction markets, payments became the sector with the most funding. Overall VC funding decreased by 12% year-over-year, but capital is flowing into more substantial areas.