Meme coins made just 9% of May’s $134M fundraising total, real winners were substance-led

This post features highlights from Outset PR’s new report on crypto fundraising trends. Data from May 2025 shows that the presale market is no longer driven by sensationalism. While meme coins remained loud, utility and infrastructure projects quietly secured capital.  

Powered by our internal presale tracker and shared exclusively with BeInCrypto, the report continues to explore crypto’s early-stage fundraising landscape. 

In the previous write-up, we focused on the capital dynamics behind meme-based economies. This time, our methodology expands to cover four additional categories: wallet/infrastructure, DeFi, AI, and GameFi projects – all using Barnacle SEO as their primary presale strategy. 

Over half of the year’s top weekly fundraising spikes across all sectors hit in May 2025. Yet while the analyzed sectors shared the same peak window, the report says each followed its own distinct tempo to get there.

Key takeaways

Presale volume reached $134.7M in May, but it didn’t go where most people were looking. By incorporating sector tagging, we made consistent cross-category comparisons to uncover how crypto fundraising actually played out – with some results that may surprise you.

• Infrastructure and utility-driven projects dominated investor trust, while DeFi campaigns gained strong mid-month traction.
• AI-themed fundraising momentum steadily increased, eventually overshadowing meme coin capital participation.
• Compared to other sectors, GameFi saw the lowest investor consistency.

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Finding 1: Three markets, 90% of all funds raised

Infrastructure and crypto wallet platforms collected over $81.7M in fundraising, thanks to their utility-first messaging. Most had been active before May, but the steady growth of their campaigns reflects long-term investor conviction.

DeFi projects raised $22.5M, with the majority of campaigns focused on governance, staking, and liquidity mining. 

Meanwhile, AI startups raised $16.7M, supported by clear use cases and technically grounded narratives.

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Finding 2: Hype doesn’t mean real capital concentration

Despite emerging as the hottest crypto trend earlier this year, meme coins pulled in just $12.7M. Most capital rotated between existing projects, with new launches struggling to draw investor attention.

In GameFi, fundraising was highly event-driven – tied to demo launches or NFT drops – and quickly fell off after those moments passed. The sector brought in the least volume by far: only $1.2M in total. 

In May, projects that delivered clarity, structure, and strong narratives captured the lion’s share. The rest competed for attention without sustained momentum or long-term appeal. This shift is a clear confirmation of what we at Outset PR have long believed – in Web3 communications, substance is the new gold.