Seed Funding for Privacy-First L2s Hits Record Highs
Despite broader market cooling, zero-knowledge infrastructure remains the sector's most reliably funded category.
Seed rounds for privacy-oriented layer-two networks reached their highest quarterly total on record, even as generalist crypto funding fell for the third straight quarter.
Investors describe a barbell: infrastructure with defensible cryptography on one side, consumer applications with demonstrated revenue on the other. Everything in between is struggling to raise.
Founders warn that proving-cost curves still determine viability. Several teams have delayed mainnet launches until hardware acceleration reduces per-transaction costs to a level retail users will tolerate.
- venture capital
- zero knowledge
- layer 2
- privacy
About the author
Daniel Reis — Daniel Reis tracks venture funding, protocol governance and decentralised finance infrastructure. Before journalism he spent four years as a smart-contract auditor, which shapes a reporting habit of reading the code alongside the announcement.
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Corrections to this report: corrections desk. Nothing in this article is investment advice.