CryptoRank tracked 3,757 crypto projects that had disclosed Pre-Seed or Seed financing to observe whether these projects would subsequently enter Series A financing, issue traceable tokens, or achieve both accomplishments at the same time. The results show that token issuance has become a more common public milestone than Series A financing.
The token distribution ratio is higher than that of Series A financing.
As of August 27, 2026, the CryptoRank database has recorded a total of 5,990 financing transactions, covering 4,431 projects. Among these, the core sample consists of 3,757 projects that have disclosed Pre-Seed, Extended Pre - Seed, Seed, or Extended Seed financing at least once.
In this batch of projects, only 588 projects subsequently disclosed Series A financing, accounting for 15.7%. The median time from early-stage financing to Series A financing is 15 months.
In contrast, there were 1,152 projects that issued tokens, accounting for 30.7%. Among them, 974 projects completed token issuance without disclosing any Series A financing; 178 projects completed both token issuance and Series A financing; and another 410 projects entered the Series A financing round but did not have traceable tokens.
CryptoRank mentioned that Acala Network, Celestia, and Ondo Finance are all projects that have completed both of these advancements simultaneously.
Subsequent financing rounds become more selective
This statistics also shows that as the financing rounds progress further, the number of projects decreases, but the probability of continuing to raise funds after passing the previous stage increases.
Data shows that among the projects that entered Round A, 22.5% continued on to Round B; the proportion of those that moved from Round B to Round C was 26.2%; and the proportion of those that progressed from Round C to Round D or later stages was 31.9%.
The time interval between rounds is relatively stable: the median time from Round A to Round B is 16 months, from Round B to Round C is 14 months, and from Round C to Round D or later stages is 13 months.
After 2020, the paths will clearly diverge.
Looking at the year when a project first enters the market, the relationship between financing and token issuance varies significantly across different cycles.
In 2018 and 2019, more than half of the projects that made it into the sample phase eventually reached the A-round, with the token issuance ratio remaining at around 30%. By 2020, this balance began to change: 41% of the projects entered the A-round, and 47.7% of the projects issued tokens.
The changes are more evident in the 2021 samples. Among the projects that received financing for the first time that year, only 16.7% progressed to Series A financing, but 53.3% completed token issuance.
CryptoRank believes that this change is related to the market cycle, as well as the length of time available for the project to grow in the future. For projects that entered the sample set in 2025 and 2026, due to the shorter observation period, it is not yet possible to make direct comparisons with earlier years.
