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Top Crypto Funding Stories of 2022

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Top Crypto Funding Stories of 2022

Source: news.google.com

2022 was a breakout year for crypto venture capital, as investors poured tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite the overwhelmingly bearish trend in asset prices. Is the VC-dominated crypto funding model good for the industry? Only time will tell.

Cointelegraph Research is still in the process of tallying up all the funding figures for the year, but 2022 easily outperformed all other years in terms of total capital raised and deals completed. VC inflows topped $14 billion in each of the first two quarters before receding to just under $5 billion in the third quarter, which is still an impressive tally given industry-wide contagion. triggered by the flash crashes of Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, Genesis, BlockFi, and FTX, among others.

Against this background, we have compiled a list of some of the biggest funding stories of 2022.

Haun Ventures: Raises $1.5 Billion

In March, crypto investor and Coinbase board member Katie Haun raised $1.5 billion for two Web3-focused investment funds. The newly launched Haun Ventures set up a $500 million seed stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund to invest in “every layer of the Web3 technology stack.” In launching her new fund, Katie Haun recruited former executives from Airbnb, Coinbase and Google’s tech incubator Jigsaw.

Web3 has been a major focal point for venture capital for the past 12 months. Although Web3 companies are said to be working on the next version of the decentralized internet, the concept remains vague and the industry behind it is still in its infancy.

Related: Investors Chase Web3 As Blockchain Industry Grows Despite Bear Market

Huobi Global: Launches $1B Fund

In June, cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global launched a $1 billion investment fund focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 projects. Dubbed Ivy Blocks, the new fund was designed to identify and invest in “promising blockchain projects” in a variety of crypto sub-sectors. Specifically, Huobi Global will focus on providing “liquidity investments” to help get DeFi projects off the ground.

The DeFi sector fell flat with the rest of the cryptocurrency market in 2022, but unlike centralized exchanges, the sector was largely resistant to contagion.

From over $180 billion to $39 billion, the total value locked in DeFi has been created during the bear market. Source: DeFi Flame.

NBA Top Shot creator: $725 million fund

Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, has launched a $725 million fund to support the development of its Flow blockchain. The fund received backing from a variety of investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Spartan Group, and CoinFund. In addition to supporting the development community already built on Flow, the fund is used to attract developers from other blockchains like Ethereum.

Although Dapper Labs has produced some of the largest non-fungible token (NFT) collections in recent years, sales have lagged behind other Tier 1 ecosystems due to weaker network effects and a smaller collection of decentralized applications.

Dragonfly Capital: Launches a $650 million fund

Crypto VC Dragonfly Capital closed its third round of funding in April, raising $650 million to surpass its previous two rounds of $100 million and $200 million. The funding initiative, which was supported by Tiger Global, Sequoia China, KKR and Invesco, surpassed the $500 million the company initially declared as part of its Form D filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Joined. Dragonfly said the funds would be used to invest in DeFi, metaverse and blockchain gaming startups.

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Fireblocks: Raises $550 million

Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks saw its valuation rise in January after it closed a $550 million Series E funding round. The latest round brought Fireblocks’ cumulative funding to $799 million since 2019, as venture capitalists continued to back institutional infrastructure solutions. Some of Fireblocks’ most prominent clients include Bank of New York Melon, Galaxy Digital, and CoinShares. It also served the now-defunct BlockFi and Three Arrows Capital.

Binance Labs: Allocates $500M For Web3 Development

Blockchain incubation and late-stage growth featured prominently in Binance Labs’ $500 million fund, which launched in June. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the funds would support project founders leading Web3 adoption in the DeFi, NFT, gaming, metaverse, and social sub-sectors. At the time of its launch, the Binance Labs fund was already supporting 14 projects in the social finance and DeFi sub-sectors.

Yuga Labs: round of financing of 450 million dollars

Although the NFT market peaked in 2021, venture capitalists are confident in the continued growth of digital collectibles. In March, Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs closed a $450 million funding round at a $4 billion valuation. His endorsers included Andreessen Horowitz, Animoca Brands, MoonPay and, you guessed it, FTX.

Few sub-sectors moved as strongly or as fast as NFTs during the previous bull market. While this success earned Yuga Labs a sizable investment round in March, NFT-focused companies will struggle to maintain their valuations going forward. As ConsenSys reported, NFT prices have fallen more than many other crypto assets, possibly indicating that new use cases need to emerge to prevent the industry from fading into obscurity.

Related: Fidelity plans to market NFTs and financial services in the metaverse

Polígono: investment round of 450 million dollars

Sequoia Capital India and 40 other venture funds invested $450 million in the Polygon layer 2 scaling solution. The company said it would use the funds to expand its scaling solutions to accommodate the eventual widespread adoption of Web3 applications. According to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ethereum will not provide enough scalability to support a future Web3, even after its highly anticipated merge takes place.

Polygon’s funding round closed in February, a few months before the implosion of the Terra ecosystem triggered the first contagion across the cryptocurrency sector. Layer 2 protocols still have a bright future as the cryptocurrency industry moves past scandal-plagued 2022 and attention returns to development.

Multicoin Capital: $430 million for a new startup fund

With the crypto contagion in full swing, Multicoin Capital announced in July that it had launched a $430 million fund to support early-stage companies. The company said it would allocate between $500,000 and $25 million to crypto startups and is prepared to invest up to $100 million in larger projects. Multicoin indicated that its latest funding initiative would prioritize projects with “proof of physical work” or protocols that have created real incentives for decentralization.

Framework Ventures: $400 million raised

In April, crypto VC Framework Ventures launched “FVIII,” a $400 million fund dedicated to Web3, blockchain gaming, and DeFi. Half of the funds will go to blockchain gaming projects, Framework Ventures said.

The focus on gaming may have been catalyzed by the success of Axie Infinity, a popular play-to-win game with millions of unique users. The growth of metaverse and NFT technology could also be a positive driver for the blockchain gaming industry.

Related: Pantera Plans to Raise $1.25 Billion for Second Blockchain Fund: Report

Ava Labs: $350 million in new funding

Ava Labs, the developer of the Avalanche blockchain, raised $350 million in April at a valuation of $5.25 billion. At the time of the surge, Avalanche was one of the most popular blockchains in terms of TVL, or total value locked. Of course, that is no longer the case after crypto and DeFi entered a deep bear market.

Avalanche’s TVL currently sits below $800 million after peaking at $12.2 billion in December 2021, according to DeFi Llama.

Close protocol: round of financing of 350 million dollars

In April, Tiger Global and FTX Ventures led Near Protocol’s $350 million funding round. At the time, it was one of the largest capital raises for any decentralized application platform. Proceeds went towards supporting the growth of the Near ecosystem, including increasing the number of regional hubs around the world. It nearly ended 2022 as the 35th largest crypto project by market capitalization.

Binance.US: $200 million seed round

American crypto exchange Binance.US attracted notable investors including VanEck and Circle Ventures by raising $200 million at a pre-market valuation of $4.5 billion. Binance.US said the funding would go towards expanding the features and operations of its products in the United States. The company appears to have made some progress, having recently rolled out mobile payments for US-based customers. The exchange also plans to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital for just over $1 billion.