Crypto startup leaderboard: 2026 year to date
The crypto startups that raised the most capital in 2026 so far, with the sample size and every amount linked to its source.
Which crypto startups raised the most in 2026 so far? As of October 9, 2026, Polymarket leads Recent Funding's ranking by a wide margin, followed by Gauntlet ($125M). The ranking is capital raised in 2026: the sum of each company's sourced rounds announced from January 1 to October 9, 2026, across 105 of the 1790 crypto companies in the snapshot.
Only rounds with an amount and a source link count (109 rounds). Ties share a rank, and every amount links to its source (how we source and verify).
Capital raised in 2026
| # | Company | Industry | Raised in 2026 | Rounds | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | trading-markets | $1B | series-b+, | qz.com | |
| 2 | defi | $125M | series-b+, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 3 | security-privacy | $120M | series-b+, | CoinDesk | |
| 3 | robotics-hardware | $120M | $60M series-a, $60M series-b+, | Pulse 2.0, techcrunch.com | |
| 5 | $110M | series-b+, | app.dealroom.co | ||
| 6 | payments-stablecoins | $100M | series-b+, | bloomberg.com | |
| 7 | security-privacy | $82M | $50M unknown, $32M series-b+, | bloomberg.com, fundraisingfox.com | |
| 8 | payments-stablecoins | $75M | series-b+, | prnewswire.com | |
| 9 | security-privacy | $70M | series-b+, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 10 | trading-markets | $49.7M | series-a, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 11 | fintech | $40M | seed, | coincarp.com | |
| 11 | defi | $40M | seed, | ffnews.com | |
| 13 | defi | $37M | series-a, | The Block | |
| 14 | defi | $32.5M | unknown, | cari.com | |
| 15 | payments-stablecoins | $28M | $8M unknown, $20M series-a, | x.com | |
| 16 | security-privacy | $25M | seed, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 17 | trading-markets | $21M | series-a, | theblock.co | |
| 18 | defi | $20M | unknown, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 18 |  Opinion Labs | trading-markets | $20M | series-a, | Ventureburn |
| 20 | $19M | series-a, | pulse2.com | ||
| 21 | fintech | $18.5M | seed, | x.com | |
| 22 |  XFX | payments-stablecoins | $17M | series-a, | fundraisingfox.com |
| 23 | defi | $16.25M | seed, | Yahoo Finance | |
| 24 | infra-devtools | $15M | unknown, | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 24 | payments-stablecoins | $15M | series-a, | crypto-fundraising.info | |
| 24 | defi | $15M | seed, | ainvest.com |
Polymarket's row counts its April round; the round reported at the end of August is left out until a source the checks can read states its amount.
Before you quote it
Most totals are one round: only 4 of the ranked companies have more than one 2026 round on record, so an early-stage company that raised twice may be undercounted. Open the source before relying on a nine- or ten-figure amount, since valuations and corporate strategic investments sometimes appear as raises. Not every company is a startup: Payward is Kraken's parent. Dates are announcements, not closings, and the ranking says nothing about token prices, failed companies or revenue.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RF_KEY" "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/leaderboard?metric=raised_ytd&year=2026&limit=25"Each entry includes the rounds summed, each with its source_url; see the API docs. The last 90 days are in crypto startups that raised in the last 90 days.
Related on Recent Funding
- Startup funding data: the last 30 days in charts
- Recently funded startups, updated daily
- Money flow: raises, acquisitions and new funds
- Categories ranked by capital raised
- Why use Recent Funding to track crypto startups
- Startup funding this week: the startups that raised, Oct 26–Nov 2, 2026
- AI investors: the VC firms and accelerators backing the most AI startups
- Recent Funding API docs: every endpoint behind this post; a free API key takes just an email