Crypto projects have raised $1.42 billion through public token sales in 2026, according to CryptoRank data. The number looks healthy on the surface. Dig into the quarterly breakdown and the picture turns ugly fast.
Ethereum leads all ecosystems with $334 million raised. BNB Chain follows with $288 million, Base secured $269 million, Solana contributed $241 million and Sonic added $206 million. Those five chains account for roughly $1.34 billion—94 percent of all public token sale fundraising in 2026. Capital is consolidating, and it is consolidating fast.
The quarterly trend is what should have every launchpad investor paying attention. Q2 2026 recorded just $58 million raised, an 85 percent drop from Q1. That makes it the weakest fundraising quarter for ICOs, IDOs and IEOs in five years, CryptoRank data shows. Q1 2026 itself was already soft—approximately $390 million across 105 sales—but Q2 fell off a cliff.
The month-by-month breakdown within Q2 confirms the collapse. April saw $15 million across 20 sales. May brought $41 million from 13 sales. June, still in progress, has recorded $2 million from four sales—the lowest monthly deal count since December 2020.
Compare that to where this market was 18 months ago. Jan. 2025 alone pulled $654 million. Q1 2025 totaled nearly $850 million across 429 sales. Since that peak, quarterly fundraising volume has shed more than 93 percent in dollar terms.
Zoom out to the full cycle and public token sales have collectively raised more than $4 billion between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026. IDOs dominated throughout, accounting for nearly 75 percent of all public sales. IEOs made up 18 percent and ICOs represented 7 percent.
On the launchpad side, Coinlist stands as the largest by capital raised, handling $1.37 billion. Fjord Foundry follows with $975 million and Echo secured $201 million. Gate Launchpad and DAO Maker also rank among the top five platforms for public token distributions.
Private venture capital slowed in parallel. Private investors deployed $4 billion across 355 deals in Q1 2026, a 50 percent drop from the prior quarter, according to a May report by Galaxy Digital. Galaxy said the decline stemmed primarily from a lack of large late-stage funding rounds that defined late 2025. Some large private raises continue: Digital Asset Holdings secured $355 million in a new round led by Andreessen Horowitz, following a prior $300 million raise.
CryptoRank's figures show capital is available—it is just moving away from public launches and concentrating in private rounds and a smaller number of companies. The reason retail appetite has dried up is straightforward: many projects funded between April and June 2025, during the market rebound, ended that year trading below their fundraising valuations. That track record is now priced into demand.
