Crypto VC Investments Drop 26% in First Half of 2022
Investments totaled $9.3 billion versus the $12.5 billion in last year’s period, but the number of deals increased.
Jul 15, 2022 at 2:43 p.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 4:22 p.m. UTC
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Venture capital (VC) investments in crypto companies were down 26% in the first half of the year, a period hit by cryptocurrency price drops, the collapse of the terraUSD stablecoin and liquidity crises faced by crypto lender Celsius and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
- Investments in crypto companies totaled $9.3 billion in the first six months of 2022, down from the record $12.5 billion in the first half of last year, according to Crunchbase data.
- Deal flow actually increased year-over-year from 456 deals to 534 deals, indicating that smaller deal sizes helped drive the lower overall investments.
- Second quarter deals totaled more than $4.2 billion, roughly flat compared to the same period last year and only down $1 billion from the first quarter.
- Venture capital investments are down across multiple industries due to the global bear market. Overall VC deals in the U.S. were down 22% year-over-year to $123.1 billion in the first half of the year, according to GlobalData.
- Crypto investments faced particularly difficult comparisons due to their strength last year, which included a record $6.1 billion in investments during the fourth quarter.
- The broader pullback didn’t stop Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) from launching a record-breaking $4.5 billion crypto fund in May.
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Brandy covered crypto-related venture capital deals for CoinDesk.