The second half of 2022 told a drastically different story for crypto than its epic of 2021, marked by enormous valuations and deal sizes. In June, the entire market capitalization across all cryptocurrencies diminished by two-thirds, dropping from its $3 trillion November 2021 high to below $1 trillion.
Too much leverage and too little liquidity in the crypto and blockchain sectors created a perfect storm, causing an excessive buildup of loans to speculators reminiscent of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. And ultimately, this leveraged environment led to the historic collapse of multiple crypto firms, including FTX, Alameda Research, Terra, Celsius, Voyager Digital, and Three Arrows Capital. These failures resulted in the loss of tens of billions of dollars from both retail and institutional participants, highlighting the need for tighter regulatory frameworks in the space.
Additionally, the current macroeconomic environment has posed challenges for crypto and blockchain. In response to the tightening of monetary and fiscal policies, many investors have found themselves with a decreased appetitive for high-risk investment strategies. According to PitchBook’s Q4 2022 Crypto Report, VC activity in crypto dropped to $2.5 billon—the lowest amount of capital invested since Q4 2020.
However, despite these setbacks, crypto enthusiast founders and investors remain, with many willing to play the long game for their beloved ideologies and technologies. Here we explore some of the top investors in blockchain and crypto along with some of their recent deals in the current macroeconomic environment.
Top blockchain and cryptocurrency investors by deal count
Coinbase Ventures
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Blockchain and crypto deals: 340
Last deal date in crypto and blockchain: February 2023
Coinbase Ventures is a VC firm founded in 2018 by the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. It specializes in early-stage VC deals and operates almost exclusively in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. Some of the firm’s recent investments include crypto investment platform Alongside and NFT platform Anima.
NGC Ventures
HQ: Singapore
Blockchain and crypto deals: 258
Last deal date: February 2023
NGC Ventures was founded in 2017 and serves as both an investor and incubator to blockchain and cryptocurrency projects around the world. With $400 million of assets under management, many of the companies they support—like Parami Protocol and ReSource Finance—focus on utilizing blockchain’s potential for decentralization, with use cases such as decentralized finance and decentralized computing.
AU21 Capital
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Blockchain and crypto deals: 257
Last deal date in crypto and blockchain: December 2022
AU21 Capital is a venture capital firm that prefers seed, early-stage and later-stage investments in companies expanding the frontiers of blockchain technology. Some of the firm’s recent investments include next generation blockchain platform ChainPort and DeFi platform Vegaswap.
Digital Currency Group
HQ: New York, NY
Blockchain and crypto deals: 253
Last deal date in crypto and block chain: December 2022
Founded in 2015, Digital Currency Group is a VC firm that primarily invests in cryptocurrency, fintech and blockchain companies. The firm’s median round amount is $5 million and prefers making seed stage, early-stage VC and later-stage VC investments. Their recent investments include virtual currency trading platform Genesis Global Trading and decentralized crypto loan developer AlloyX.
Shima Capital
HQ: San Francisco, California
Blockchain and crypto deals: 229
Last deal date: February 2023
Founded in 2021, Shima Capital is a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in early-stage cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. In February 2023, the firm participated the seed round for blockchain interoperability platform, Orb Labs.
Pantera Capital
HQ: Menlo Park, CA
Blockchain and crypto deals: 200
Last deal date: January 2023
Founded in 2013, Pantera Capital is a hedge fund with an interest in both blockchain-based ventures and different forms of crypto and digital currency. It primarily targets early-stage VC and seed round deals, and its median round amount is $10 million. The firm’s recent investments include Sender Wallet and Jumbo Exchange.
LD Capital
HQ: Beijing, China
Blockchain and crypto deals: 197
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: September 2022
LD Capital focuses on seed, early-stage and later-stage investments in blockchain securities, equity investment and trading companies. Some of the firm’s recent investments include gaming platform Metaverse Magna and crypto intelligence platform Defy Trends.
Fenbushi Capital
HQ: Shanghai, China
Blockchain and crypto deals: 188
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: January 2023
Founded in 2015, Fenbushi Capital is a VC firm with a focus on blockchain-based companies. Their investments include companies like Fold, which create new uses for Bitcoin, and ventures like Multiverse Labs, which leverage blockchain to improve resource sharing and app integration.
Binance Labs
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Blockchain and crypto deals: 167
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: December 2022
Binance Labs is an accelerator that identifies, invests, and empowers blockchain and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and communities, providing funding to projects that help grow the wider blockchain ecosystem. Some of the accelerator’s recent investments include blockchain security platform GoPlus Security and crypto hardware wallet NGRAVE.
Andreessen Horowitz
HQ: Menlo Park, CA
Blockchain and crypto deals: 166
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: February 2023
Founded in 2009, Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital investment firm that invests across all stages and a variety of sectors, such as fintech, blockchain, SaaS, cybersecurity and more. Some of the firm’s recent investments in the crypto and blockchain space include Ripple, a blockchain platform designed to help financial institutions send money across borders, and web3 content platform Shibuya.
Polychain Capital
HQ: San Francisco, California
Blockchain and crypto deals: 164
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: January 2023
Founded in 2016, Polychain Capital is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California that seeks investments in blockchain and crypto technologies. Some of the firm’s recent investments include De-Fi platform Finterest and crypto trading platform Kollider.
GBV Capital
HQ: Cayman Islands
Blockchain and crypto deals: 163
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: February 2023
Founded in 2020, GBV Capital is a venture capital firm based in the Cayman Islands that prefers to invest in seed-stage, early-stage, and later-stage companies operating in the blockchain and web3 sectors. Some of the firm’s recent investments include web3 digital marketplace Collector and crypto gaming platform TimeShuffle.
Signum Capital
HQ: Singapore
Blockchain and crypto deals: 162
Last deal date in crypto or blockchain: February 2023
Founded by a group of crypto enthusiasts in 2017, Signum Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on companies in the Web3, blockchain and decentralized finance sectors. In November 2022, Signum led the seed round for Vinci, the developer of an NFT-backed De-Fi protocol designed for boosting liquidity and hedging volatility.
More about blockchain and cryptocurrency
Explore VC activity in growing blockchain and cryptocurrency segments like DeFi and Web3Read our Emerging Tech Crypto Launch Report
Learn more about VC activity in blockchain gaming
Read our blog post diving into the blockchain gaming
Learn how current macroeconomic conditions are likely to affect blockchain and other verticals
Read our analyst note Emerging Tech Braces for Impact: How Market Turmoil Is Impacting Key Technology Verticals
Explore how blockchain is being leveraged in healthcare
Read our blog post Creating industry solutions with blockchain healthcare interoperability
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