Although the cryptocurrency market saw poor performance during the first two quarters of 2022, a recently published funding report authored by Messari researchers noted that $30.3 billion was raised by projects and startups; the $30.3 billion raised in 1,199 funding rounds exceeds all the funding blockchain startups and projects got last year.
H1 Crypto Ecosystem Funding Report Shows Capital Continues to Flow Despite Crypto Winter
The H1 2022 Fundraising Report released by
18} reveals that large amounts of capital are being injected into certain blockchain projects and startups within the crypto industry Messariand Messari Holding Inc. . released a
reportshowing that centralized finance (cefi) outpaced decentralized finance (defi), with cefi earning more than $10.2 billion in the first half of the year, according to Dove Metrics, a subsidiary of Messari
Defi managed to raise $1.8 billion, while Web3 and the Non-Fundable Token (NFT) project and related companies raised $8.6 billion in the first six months of the year. With $9.7 billion injected into the blockchain and crypto infrastructure sector, Web3 and NFT raised the third largest amount of capital, while the Web3-NFT sector experienced the most funding rounds with 530 rounds in the first two quarters.
DeFi’s biggest month was June, when many DeFi projects and businesses raised $624 million.” Despite DeFi’s maturity, seed rounds continue to dominate,” Messari researchers explained in the report. The month with the most funding in infrastructure was February, the month with the most in cefi was January, and the month with the most in the Web3-NFT sector was April.
In terms of funding, compared to alternative smart contract blockchains such as Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot, Ethereum-based defi projects and startups received the most rounds and the highest dollar amount received. Ethereum-based defi projects received 54 deals in Q1 and 61 deals in Q2; in Q1, Ethereum-based defi projects raised $387 million, while projects from alternative blockchains received $300 million in Q1 2022 raised $9 million.
In the second quarter, ETH-based defi raised $890 million and alternative chain-based projects raised about $193 million.Messari’s researchers said that in the Web3-NFT sector, early-stage funds rule the roost and games noted that the game ate up most of the NFT funds. Also, the Web3-NFT industry once again showed the dominance of Ethereum compared to alternative smart contract platform networks.
Cefi, infrastructure and Web3 sectors are mature
As far as centralized finance is concerned, cefi “will continue to mature,” Messari’s report says.” Highlighting that “funding rounds of $10 million or more account for 50% of activity,” Messari’s latest H1 Fundraising Report, authored by international professional services firm Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) and recently published as the “Fourth Annual Global Crypto Hedge Fund Report 2022” follows. Insights from
50} PWC’s recent crypto studyshows that the number of hedge funds injecting capital into cryptocurrency and blockchain projects has increased over the last year PWC researchers estimate that 21% of hedge funds have participated in a financing round tied to crypto estimated, but this year’s participation rate has risen to 38%.
Messari’s funding report details that many sectors are “maturing,” as Series A funding rounds and beyond accounted for more than 40% of H1 crypto infrastructure-only rounds. web3 Series A and beyond rounds will account for more than 40% of H1 2022 funding Investors listed in Messari’s funding report include FTX, Mechanism Capital, Pantera Capital, Sequoia Capital, Gumi Cryptos, Dragonfly Capital, Dragonfly Ventures, 7 Seven Six, and Slow Ventures, 7 Seven Six, and about a dozen and a half others.
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Charts via report authored by Dove Metrics and Messari Holding Inc.