TON Drops $400M and Takes the Crown as Crypto Valley Bags Nearly Half of Europe's Blockchain VC

Switzerland's Crypto Valley had a banner year in 2025, raising $728 million across 31 deals—a 37% jump from $531 million in 2024. The region also captured a jaw-dropping 47% of all European blockchain venture funding, according to a new report from CV VC. Apparently, while the rest of Europe was busy arguing about regulatory frameworks, Crypto Valley was busy printing receipts.

One deal did most of the heavy lifting. TON (The Open Network) contributed a massive $400 million to Crypto Valley's 2025 total, dwarfing the rest. Other notable rounds included Sygnum Bank at $58 million, stablecoin platform M0 at $40 million, Impossible Cloud Network at $34 million, and CratD2C at $30 million. TON basically walked into the room, dropped $400M on the table, and said "sorry, the rest of you are just here for moral support."

Blockchain networks attracted the lion's share of funding at 62%, followed by infrastructure at 14%, centralized financial services at 10%, and DeFi applications at 10%. Apparently, builders still believe the future runs on L1s, while the rest of us are just trying to survive on our DeFi degen farms.

But here's the kicker: deal count actually fell while capital deployed climbed. Globally, blockchain funding rose 30% to $15.5 billion across 986 deals, yet deal volume dropped 32%. Crypto Valley followed the same pattern—fewer transactions, bigger checks. Turns out VCs finally learned that writing one fat check is easier than writing 10 small ones. Who knew.

"Nearly half of all European blockchain investment is now flowing into Crypto Valley," said Mathias Ruch, founder and CEO of CV VC, calling it a sign of a "maturing ecosystem." Translation: the money is getting more concentrated, the valuations are getting spicier, and somewhere in Zug, a lawyer is opening a second bottle of wine.

The region now hosts 1,766 active blockchain companies, up 134% since 2020. Zug-based companies accounted for 20 of the 31 deals and 88% of disclosed capital, while Zurich followed with five deals. Zug: because when you need to launder your blockchain dreams, you do it somewhere with alpine views and zero tax drama.

Despite the funding surge, Crypto Valley's unicorn count dipped from 17 to 10. Six token projects fell below the $1 billion threshold due to late-year market weakness, and 21Shares exited after its acquisition by FalconX. Apparently, the unicorns didn't get the memo that Crypto Valley was having a glow-up. RIP to the projects that went from $1B to "ask me again in the next bull run."

Europe's top crypto companies now include Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Hedera, Toncoin, Polkadot, Near Protocol, Internet Computer, Copper, and Sygnum Bank. The usual suspects, the L1 gang, and the banks pretending they understand DeFi while quietly acquiring promising startups.