CryptoRank tracked 3,757 cryptocurrency projects that disclosed Pre-Seed or Seed funding to monitor whether they subsequently progressed to Series A funding, launched a traceable token, or achieved both milestones. The results show that token launch has become a more common public milestone than Series A funding.
The token issuance ratio exceeds that of the Series A round.
As of August 27, 2026, the CryptoRank database includes 5,990 funding records covering 4,431 projects. Of these, the core sample consists of 3,757 projects that have disclosed at least one Pre-Seed, Extended Pre-Seed, Seed, or Extended Seed funding round.
Of these projects, only 588 disclosed Series A funding afterward, accounting for 15.7%. The median time from early-stage financing to Series A is 15 months.
In comparison, 1,152 projects that issued tokens accounted for 30.7%. Among them, 974 projects completed token issuance without disclosing their Series A funding; 178 projects completed both token issuance and Series A funding simultaneously; and another 410 projects entered Series A but had no traceable tokens.
CryptoRank notes that Acala Network, Celestia, and Ondo Finance are among the projects that have achieved both of these milestones.
Subsequent funding rounds are becoming more selective.
This statistic also shows that as funding rounds progress, the number of projects decreases, but the likelihood of securing further funding after passing the previous stage increases.
Data shows that 22.5% of projects that entered Series A progressed to Series B; 26.2% of those that entered Series B moved on to Series C; and 31.9% of those that reached Series C advanced to Series D or later stages.
The time intervals between rounds are 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.
Paths clearly diverged after 2020.
Looking at the year projects first entered the market, the relationship between fundraising and token issuance varies significantly across cycles.
Of the projects that entered the sample in 2018 and 2019, more than half eventually reached Series A, while the token issuance rate remained around 30%. By 2020, this balance began to shift: 41% of projects reached Series A, while 47.7% issued tokens.
The changes are more pronounced in the 2021 sample. Among projects that secured their first round of funding that year, only 16.7% progressed to Series A, while 53.3% completed token issuance.
CryptoRank believes this change is related to the market cycle and the amount of time remaining for project growth. For projects entering the sample in 2025 and 2026, the observation period is too short to allow direct comparison with earlier years.