The post VCs pour $5. 1B into crypto firms while Bitcoin’s ‘Uptober’ whiffed appeared com. October closed roughly 4% down for Bitcoin, yet venture funding hit $5. 1 billion in the same month, the second-strongest month since 2022. According to CryptoRank data, three mega-deals account for most of it, as October defied its own seasonal mythology. Bitcoin fell 3. 7% during a month traders have nicknamed “Uptober” for its historical winning streak, breaking a pattern that had held since 2019. Yet venture capitalists deployed $5. 1 billion into crypto startups during the same 31 days, marking the second-strongest monthly total since 2022 and the best VC performance of 2025 aside from March. The divergence between spot market weakness and venture market strength creates a puzzle, where either builders see something that traders have missed, or a handful of enormous checks have distorted the signal. The concentration tells most of the story. Three transactions account for roughly $2. 8 billion of October’s total of $5. 1 billion: Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) strategic investment of up to $2 billion in Polymarket, Tempo’s $500 million Series A round led by Stripe and Paradigm, and Kalshi’s $300 million Series D round. CryptoRank’s monthly data shows 180 disclosed funding rounds in October, indicating that the top three transactions account for 54% of the total capital deployed across fewer than 2% of deals. The median round size is likely in the single-digit millions. Removing Polymarket, Tempo, and Kalshi from the calculation would shift the narrative from “best month in years” to “steady but unspectacular continuation of 2024’s modest pace.” The “venture rebound” narrative depends heavily on whether people count a strategic acquisition play by the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company and two infrastructure bets as representative of broader builder confidence or as outliers that happened to close in the same reporting window. October 2025’s $5. 1 billion in crypto venture funding marked the second-highest monthly total since 2022, surpassing.