Crypto startup leaderboard: 2026 year to date
Which crypto startups on Recent Funding lead in 2026 on four sourced measures (capital raised this year, smart-account follows, developer activity, and team size), with sample sizes, every figure linked to its source, and what the lists cannot tell you.
Which crypto startups had the best 2026 so far? There is no single right answer, so this post ranks Recent Funding's crypto companies on four separate measures. Each one is public and has a source you can check:
- Capital raised in 2026: the sum of the company's funding rounds announced from January 1 to September 26, 2026.
- Smart-account follows: how many investor and founder accounts that Frontrun VC tracks follow the company on X.
- Developer activity: distinct people committing to the company's public GitHub in the last 90 days.
- Team size: people listed on the company's own team page.
There is no combined score. Each list ranks only the companies that have data for that measure, and each list shows its sample size. The four samples are very different in size, and a score that blended them would hide how thin some of them are. A short momentum view at the end counts how many top-25 lists each company makes, and shows the ranks behind that count.
All figures come from the Recent Funding snapshot of September 26, 2026, which has 553 crypto companies. The same rankings are live in the app and the API.
How to read these lists
- Ranks share ties. Two companies with the same value get the same rank, and the next rank is skipped (1, 2, 2, 4). A top-25 list can have more than 25 rows when there is a tie at 25.
- Only companies with data are ranked. A company missing from a list may have no data, not a low value.
- Every value links to its source. Amounts link to the article or listing they came from. Follow counts link to Frontrun VC, developer counts to the GitHub account that was read, and team counts to the page that was counted.
- "Crypto" means Recent Funding's crypto flag. It includes established companies such as exchanges and stablecoin issuers, not only early-stage startups.
Capital raised in 2026
156 crypto companies have at least one 2026 round with an amount and a source link, 156 rounds in all. Rounds with an amount but no source link are left out of every total. The number of such rounds in this snapshot is 0.
| # | Company | Industry | Raised in 2026 | Rounds | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Polymarket | trading-markets | $1B | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 2 |  Elliptic | ai | $120M | unknown, | CoinDesk |
| 3 | OOpenRouter | infra-devtools | $113M | series-b+, | dropstab.com |
| 4 |  Circle Internet Group | payments-stablecoins | $100M | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 4 |  Payward | trading-markets | $100M | series-b+, | dropstab.com |
| 6 |  RQD* Clearing | fintech | $74M | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 7 |  Fun | payments-stablecoins | $72M | series-a, | FinTech Global |
| 8 | TTRM Labs | security-privacy | $70M | series-b+, | Pulse 2.0 |
| 9 | FFasset | payments-stablecoins | $68M | series-b+, | dropstab.com |
| 10 |  FinTax | fintech | $40M | seed, | coincarp.com |
| 10 |  USD.AI | payments-stablecoins | $40M | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 12 | HHIFI | defi | $37M | series-a, | The Block |
| 13 |  Tazapay | payments-stablecoins | $36M | series-b+, | x.com |
| 14 |  Latitude | payments-stablecoins | $35M | series-a, | x.com |
| 14 |  Sapiom | ai-agents | $35M | series-a, | x.com |
| 16 |  Cari Network | defi | $32.5M | unknown, | cari.com |
| 17 |  Evernorth | fintech | $30M | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 18 | FForward Industries | fintech | $25M | unknown, | pluang.com |
| 18 |  OpenReserve | fintech | $25M | seed, | dropstab.com |
| 20 |  Orbio | infra-devtools | $21M | series-a, | Tech.eu |
| 21 |  Fin.com | payments-stablecoins | $20M | seed, | dropstab.com |
| 21 | OOpinion Labs | other | $20M | unknown, | Ventureburn |
| 23 |  Hivemind Digital Group | ai | $17M | unknown, | dropstab.com |
| 23 | QQIZ Security | security-privacy | $17M | seed, | dropstab.com |
| 25 | Ddtcpay | payments-stablecoins | $15M | series-a, | crypto-fundraising.info |
| 25 |  SimpleChain | infra-devtools | $15M | seed, | dropstab.com |
Polymarket leads by a wide margin with $1B, from its Dropstab listing. Elliptic ($120M) and OpenRouter ($113M) follow. Before quoting these figures, keep in mind:
- Each total is effectively one round. The number of companies with more than one 2026 round on record is 0. Recent Funding usually records a company's latest round, so a company that raised twice this year may be undercounted.
- Large figures need a second look. An earlier review of Recent Funding's data found valuations and acquisition prices stored as raises. Strategic investments by corporates also count as rounds in the sources. Open the source link before you rely on a nine- or ten-figure amount.
- Not all of these are startups. Circle Internet Group is a public company and Payward is Kraken's parent. They are in the dataset because crypto fundraising trackers list their rounds.
- Announced, not closed. The date is when the round was reported, which can be weeks after it closed.
Smart-account follows
Frontrun VC tracks a set of investor and founder accounts on X and reports how many of them follow a company. Only 13 crypto companies have that count, so this is the thinnest list here.
| # | Company | Industry | Smart follows | New follows (7d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USD.AI | payments-stablecoins | 64 | n/a |
| 2 | Sapiom | ai-agents | 51 | n/a |
| 3 | Orbio | infra-devtools | 38 | n/a |
| 4 |  River Markets | trading-markets | 24 | n/a |
| 5 |  MNX | infra-devtools | 20 | n/a |
| 6 |  Sugar | fintech | 18 | n/a |
| 7 |  Tenor | defi | 17 | n/a |
| 8 |  BlockRunAI | defi | 15 | n/a |
| 9 |  EQX Labs | trading-markets | 11 | n/a |
| 9 |  Nesa | ai | 11 | n/a |
| 11 |  Vangrid | infra-devtools | 10 | n/a |
| 12 |  Yotta Labs | infra-devtools | 9 | n/a |
| 13 |  nightowlai_ | ai-agents | 6 | n/a |
USD.AI has the most (64), followed by Sapiom (51) and Orbio (38). The count is today's value, not the number of follows gained in 2026. Frontrun also reports new follows in the last seven days, but the number of crypto companies with that figure is 1, too few to rank. Where a company has no Frontrun post on record, the link goes to Frontrun VC's site.
Developer activity
The count is distinct human commit authors in the last 90 days, across the five most recently pushed repositories of the company's GitHub account. 101 crypto companies have a count.
| # | Company | Industry | Active devs (90d) | GitHub | Org name matches company |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Dagon | trading-markets | 23 | inkwell-finance | no |
| 2 | BlockRunAI | defi | 14 | BlockRunAI | yes |
| 3 |  Beefy Finance | other | 11 | beefyfinance | yes |
| 4 |  Instadapp | defi | 9 | Instadapp | yes |
| 4 |  ParaSwap | other | 9 | VeloraDEX | no |
| 4 |  StreamingFast | other | 9 | streamingfast | yes |
| 7 |  Ark Labs | infra-devtools | 8 | ArkLabsHQ | yes |
| 7 | HHolonym | other | 8 | holonym-foundation | yes |
| 9 |  Galxe | other | 7 | Galxe | yes |
| 9 |  Openfort | fintech | 7 | openfort-xyz | yes |
| 9 |  Phi Wallet | payments-stablecoins | 7 | twbs | no |
| 9 | SSphinx | other | 7 | stakwork | no |
| 13 | Sapiom | ai-agents | 6 | sapiom | yes |
| 13 |  Twyne | defi | 6 | 0xTwyne | yes |
| 15 |  Actual AI | ai | 5 | actual-software | yes |
| 15 |  Beldex | payments-stablecoins | 5 | Beldex-Coin | yes |
| 15 |  Ondo Finance | other | 5 | ondoprotocol | yes |
| 15 |  Quip Network | other | 5 | QuipNetwork | yes |
| 19 |  Acala | defi | 4 | AcalaNetwork | yes |
| 19 |  Axis Robotics | robotics-hardware | 4 | AxisAIOrg | yes |
| 19 |  Indexing Co | payments-stablecoins | 4 | indexing-co | yes |
| 19 |  Lighthouse | other | 4 | lighthouse-web3 | yes |
| 19 |  Lit Protocol | other | 4 | LIT-Protocol | yes |
| 19 |  Lync | gaming | 4 | LYNC-WORLD | yes |
| 19 |  Numbers | other | 4 | numbersprotocol | yes |
| 19 |  Pieverse | other | 4 | Pieverse-Eng | yes |
| 19 |  Zoneless | payments-stablecoins | 4 | zonelessdev | yes |
Read the GitHub columns before the number. The enrichment script takes the GitHub account linked from the company's site (or already on its record), and sometimes that is a framework, a blockchain, or an auditor rather than the company. An earlier version of this table ranked CryptoMines first with 35 developers and Anodos second with 33, but those counts came from base (the Base network's organization) and XRPLF (the XRP Ledger Foundation). Our data hygiene checks caught them, and they were removed along with counts read from auditors' and dependencies' accounts; the enrichment now prefers the account that matches the company and skips auditors and chain organizations. In 4 of the rows above, the account name still doesn't match the company's name, website, or X handle. Some of those are the company's own account under another name (ParaSwap's is now VeloraDEX), so open the link. The count only sees public code, so a team that works in private repositories shows few or none. Team size and developer activity at crypto startups explains the method.
Team size
The count is distinct LinkedIn profile links on the company's own team or about page. 48 crypto companies have one.
| # | Company | Industry | Team page count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  SpoutFi | other | 19 |
| 1 |  Wanaka Farm | other | 19 |
| 3 |  Ospree | infra-devtools | 16 |
| 4 | Cari Network | defi | 15 |
| 4 | Quip Network | other | 15 |
| 6 |  LINK | payments-stablecoins | 13 |
| 7 |  Allo | other | 12 |
| 7 | Ondo Finance | other | 12 |
| 9 | Actual AI | ai | 11 |
| 9 | RQD* Clearing | fintech | 11 |
| 11 |  Cambrian Network | infra-devtools | 10 |
| 11 |  Filedgr | infra-devtools | 10 |
| 11 |  M1X Global | defi | 10 |
| 11 |  Ramp | trading-markets | 10 |
| 11 |  t54 | infra-devtools | 10 |
| 16 |  Jutsu | ai | 9 |
| 16 |  TVL Capital | defi | 9 |
| 18 |  BLOX | payments-stablecoins | 8 |
| 18 |  Bundle | consumer-social | 8 |
| 20 | PPalisade | infra-devtools | 7 |
| 21 | AAlt.DRX | other | 6 |
| 22 | Phi Wallet | payments-stablecoins | 5 |
| 22 |  Spice | payments-stablecoins | 5 |
| 22 |  Super Protocol | other | 5 |
| 25 |  Cordant | fintech | 4 |
| 25 | FFrii Pay | payments-stablecoins | 4 |
| 25 | PPeccala | trading-markets | 4 |
| 25 |  PYOR | other | 4 |
| 25 |  ShopAgentic | ai-agents | 4 |
| 25 |  Soil | payments-stablecoins | 4 |
| 25 |  Whitebridge.Network | other | 4 |
SpoutFi and Wanaka Farm share first place with 19 people each. A team page can list advisors and investors, and can leave out engineers, so treat this as the size a company chooses to show.
Momentum: companies on more than one list
A company is counted once for each list where it ranks in the top 25. Here is every company that makes at least two lists, with its rank on each list (a dash means it is not in that top 25).
| Company | Lists | Raised YTD | Smart follows | Active devs | Team size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sapiom | 3 of 4 | #14 | #2 | #13 | – |
| BlockRunAI | 2 of 4 | – | #8 | #2 | – |
| USD.AI | 2 of 4 | #10 | #1 | – | – |
| RQD* Clearing | 2 of 4 | #6 | – | – | #9 |
| Quip Network | 2 of 4 | – | – | #15 | #4 |
| Cari Network | 2 of 4 | #16 | – | – | #4 |
| Ondo Finance | 2 of 4 | – | – | #15 | #7 |
| Orbio | 2 of 4 | #20 | #3 | – | – |
| Actual AI | 2 of 4 | – | – | #15 | #9 |
| Phi Wallet | 2 of 4 | – | – | #9 | #22 |
10 companies make two or more lists. Only Sapiom makes three. The smart-follows list has fewer than 25 companies, so every company with a Frontrun count is in its "top 25" automatically. The developer ranks carry the caveats above: Phi Wallet's was read from twbs, the Bootstrap project, so its second list is doubtful. Treat this view as a pointer to companies worth a closer look, not as a ranking of success.
What these lists don't show
- Token prices. Many crypto companies have a token, and "year-to-date gains" often means its price change. Recent Funding doesn't publish token prices yet. The free price APIs we reviewed (CoinGecko, DefiLlama, and CoinMarketCap) either don't license commercial display on their free tiers or forbid passing derived data on through another API, which is how Recent Funding serves its data.
- Companies that failed or went quiet. Recent Funding lists companies it has discovered and still considers active. Records found to be duplicates, people, or non-startups are hidden. So the lists describe surviving, visible companies, and they say nothing about how often crypto startups succeed.
- Revenue, users, or returns. None of the four measures is a business outcome. Capital raised is money in, not value created. Follows, commits, and team pages are activity signals.
- Change over time. Only capital raised is tied to 2026. The other three are the latest values, not gains made during the year.
Get the data
The leaderboard endpoint returns the same rankings, with a sample size and a source link on every row:
curl "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/leaderboard?metric=raised_ytd&year=2026&limit=25"
curl "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/leaderboard?metric=smart_follows"
curl "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/leaderboard?metric=active_devs&limit=50"
curl "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/leaderboard?metric=team_size&limit=50"For raised_ytd, each entry includes the rounds that were summed, each with its source_url. The API docs list every parameter and field. If you publish these rankings, link each figure to its source, as this post does.