With venture capital firms boosting their exposure to crypto this year, seven out of ten all-time biggest cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related early-stage venture capital investments took place in 2021, according to a recent report by financial data and software company PitchBook.
The report, which PitchBook provided to Cryptonews.com, values crypto and blockchain-related investments by global venture capital firms at some USD 29.4bn this year, with 1,686 reported deals.
This represented almost a fivefold increase compared with 2020 when venture capital firms injected a total of USD 6.6bn into such businesses under 793 deals, as indicated by data from the financial data and software company.
PitchBook’s data suggests that 2021 was a record-breaking year in terms of venture capital investments in the sector, exceeding the previous record year of 2018 when crypto and blockchain firms secured some USD 8.2bn from the world’s venture capital firms in 1,200 deals.
In its report, PitchBook provides insight into the following seven major early-stage deals that were carried out this year, among others:
- the July funding round by crypto derivatives exchange FTX which generated some USD 1bn;
- the November funding round by crypto lender Celsius Network (CEL) that brought USD 750m;
- the November funding round by software developer Forte which injected some USD 725m into the business;
- the November funding round by fintech firm MoonPay which generated USD 555m for the company;
- FTX’s earlier funding round from last October which provided the business with USD 420.69m to support its growth;
- the November funding round by crypto exchange Bullish Global that injected USD 400m into the company;
- the USD 350m funding round by non-fungible token (NFT) platform Dapper Labs that took place last March.
Meanwhile, as reported, PitchBook found that VC funds’ investing nearly USD 30bn into crypto in 2021, exceeds not only the amount recorded in the previous record year of 2018 – and almost fourfold, but also represents more funds injected into the industry than in all the previous years combined.
Source: Cryptonews
