On August 18, the U.S. SEC formally proposed Regulation Crypto Assets. The proposal outlines two issuance exemptions: Projects may raise up to $5M in total over a four-year period; Projects with larger funding needs may raise up to $75M in any 12-month period, subject to financial statement filings and ongoing reporting obligations. The proposal is currently in a 60-day public comment period and has not yet taken effect. According to RootData, among 3,244 crypto projects with financing records spanning no more than four years and calculable amounts, 1,617 projects (49.8%) have cumulative funding of $5M or less. The median funding amount is $2.5M, and about 96% recorded only a single funding round. DeFi, infrastructure, and gaming projects together account for 59.2% of the sample. Smaller raises mainly flow into protocol development, underlying technology, and consumer applications. However, one-quarter of these projects have already ceased operations, indicating that lower regulatory barriers can improve financing efficiency but cannot replace product demand or sustained operational capability. Institutional participation is higher than commonly assumed for smaller projects: 92.9% have identifiable investors, and 83.5% disclose at least two. Animoca Brands (@animocabrands), Shima Capital (@shimacapital), and Big Brain Holdings (@BigBrainVC) participated in 84, 69, and 67 projects respectively.