The cryptocurrency landscape has ridden a roller coaster in recent years, particularly in its political perception. Despite once dismissing cryptocurrency as a “scam” and “not money” during his first term, President-elect Donald Trump has emerged as an unexpected advocate for the digital currency space.
As he prepares for his second term, Trump has not only embraced crypto but has also pledged to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet”—backing his words with action by accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrency.
This shift in political sentiment comes at a crucial time for an industry that has accumulated over $100B in startup funding since May 2014. With influential figures like Elon Musk having a seat at the table, the cryptocurrency sector’s future appears increasingly promising.
While crypto isn’t inherently a partisan issue, the new administration’s favorable stance has undoubtedly contributed to the momentum over the last few months. As we look ahead to 2025, we’ve identified 10 of the most promising early-stage crypto startups (Seed – Series B) that are poised to drive innovation in fintech and success in the coming year.
This startup offers an intent-driven Eigenlayer AVS designed to power private, autonomous transactions across various applications. These include: DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. By introducing features like scheduled and recurring payments, stop-loss orders, and streaming rewards, we are redefining what decentralized applications can achieve.
Powered by an event-driven execution model, Ava Protocol enables cross-chain transactions triggered by signals such as time, price fluctuations, or smart contract updates. Developers can effortlessly automate and schedule functions across blockchains, including Ethereum, ensuring seamless, reliable execution while maintaining complete privacy.
Under the leadership of CEO Toby Gilbert and CTO Knut Vinger, Coinweb is positioned as the first general-purpose layer-2 platform delivering unified interoperability while addressing transactional and computational bottlenecks. The platform is designed to enhance horizontal scalability without compromising the security and decentralized integrity of the underlying blockchains.
Coinweb eliminates the need for bridges or extra consensus layers, resolving common cross-chain issues. Leveraging the WebAssembly runtime environment ensures seamless deployment across blockchains and enables parallel execution of smart contracts. Two DeFi projects, OnRamp and Blockfort, serve as proof-of-concept innovations.
Fordefi provides an MPC wallet platform and Web3 gateway, enabling institutions to securely interact with dApps across multiple blockchains. As the first institutional MPC wallet and security platform built specifically for decentralized finance, Fordefi offers advanced features such as MPC key management, customizable DeFi policy controls, real-time smart contract insights, transaction simulations, and proactive risk alerts to ensure a seamless and secure experience. With that said, it comes as no surprise that Fordefi has raised a total of $28M in funding over two rounds.
The company offers a seamless platform designed to meet the needs of institutional investors, providing the transparency, security, and compliance required for trading digital assets with confidence. Founded by a team of experienced traders and engineers with backgrounds in both traditional and digital asset markets, Haruko aims to bridge the gap between institutions and the rapidly evolving blockchain space. By combining deep trading expertise with technical innovation, Haruko is committed to delivering intuitive, reliable, and robust services that empower institutions to navigate the digital asset landscape effortlessly.
The company notably raised $5 million in funding to redefine digital asset derivatives trading. It was built by a team of seasoned financial technologists hailing from some of the world’s most elite asset management firms, such as Arcesium, Tradeweb, and AWS.
The initial seed round should bolster the company’s robust, institutional-grade infrastructure—a crucial advantage in the competitive landscape of cryptocurrency and financial services. By prioritizing advancements in digital asset derivatives trading, Kemet Trading is positioning itself to meet the evolving needs of the FinTech sector and capitalize on emerging trends in trading platforms.
The startup is on a fast growth trajectory, having recently secured a $3.4M investment to boost its NFT infrastructure. Furthermore, the company facilitated secondary deals or partial exits for early investors — a move typically associated with an increase in valuation and heightened demand for its shares. These developments indicate that Mintify is successfully attracting fresh capital while delivering returns to its original backers, signaling robust growth and financial stability.
Founded in 2018, the startup currently enables secure crypto trading without exposing coins to risk. Operating from a controllable wallet, Portal ensures that users maintain complete control over their assets during transactions. In their mission to usher in an era of custody-less cross-chain transactions, Portal has managed to raise $42.5M to date.
The company offers a scalable wallet infrastructure designed for crypto developers to manage private keys with ease. Its comprehensive product suite empowers developers to create and manage wallets or facilitate cryptographic transactions across multiple blockchains, all while maintaining robust security standards. As of now, the private key infrastructure provider has raised an impressive total of $37M in funding over three rounds.
