Venture funding for crypto-related companies totaled $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 — a 2.5% increase from the third quarter — according to a report from PitchBook. It marks the first time venture capital (VC) investments in crypto startups have risen since March 2022.
PitchBook highlighted that the major crypto ventures securing funding primarily center around financial and technological solutions. These include tokenizing real-world assets on the blockchain, such as real estate and stocks, and building decentralized computing infrastructure.
Some prominent fundraises in the quarter involved crypto exchanges Swan Bitcoin and Blockchain.com, which secured $165 million and $100 million, respectively.
The most significant deal of the quarter involved a $225 million investment in Wormhole, an open-source blockchain development platform. Supported by Coinbase Ventures, Jump Trading and ParaFi Capital, the company acquired a valuation of $2.5 billion.
The increased interest in crypto from financial institutions can be attributed to the launch of the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States in January, according to PitchBook’s report.
In the first quarter of 2023, crypto firms secured $2.6 billion in 353 investment rounds, according to PitchBook’s Q1 Crypto Report. The report showed an 11% decline in deal value from the previous quarter and a 12.2% decrease in total deals. Furthermore, the quarter marked the lowest capital investment in the space since 2020.
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