DeFi Takes the Reins

Funding saw a sharp decrease this week as we progress through the final month of the year. This week's fundraising total was $57 million compared to $198 million last week. DeFi was the bright spot in the lackluster week, representing 37% of all fundraising. A trend is emerging around decentralized trading platforms. Perennial, a cash-settled derivatives protocol, and Panoptic, a perpetual options protocol, represented two of the three DeFi deals this week.

Nearly half of the deals this week were Seed round investments, with Pre-Seed and Strategic rounds being tied for the next most popula...