Massive investments show in which direction the crypto industry is moving
The investments in crypto startups and scale-ups are unbelievable. 2021 will be an absolute record year and will set the course for the entire industry in the next few years. Because this year it will be decided which infrastructure, which miners, which platforms and which DApps (decentralized applications) will prevail in the future.
If you look at the list of the largest funding rounds, it becomes clear how the industry will continue to develop. On the one hand, there is the core area around Bitcoin and the associated business models such as mining and trading, which remains highly relevant. In addition, the major trends that will shape the future of blockchain and in which the Austrian neobroker Bitpanda will also be at the forefront internationally have crystallized in 2021.
But first of all, here is the current list of the largest investments in the crypto industry:
| Investment | valuation | Investors | Vertical | origin | |
| FTX.com | $ 900 million | $ 18 billion | Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo, SoftBank, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Third Point, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter, BOND, NEA, Coinbase Ventures, Willoughby Capital, 40North, Senator Investment Group, Sino Global Capital, Multicoin, VanEck, Hudson River Trading, Circle | Exchange | Hong Kong |
| Sorare | $ 680 million | $ 4.3 million | Softbank, Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP, Liontree, Benchmark, Accel, Headline | NFT-based fantasy sports | Paris, FRA |
| Genesis digital assets | $ 556 million (Series B: 431, Series C: 125) |
Paradigm, New York Digital Investment Group, FTX, Ribbit Capital, Electric Capital, Kingsway Capital | Crypto mining | London, UK | |
| Bitpanda | $ 443 million
(Series C: 263 Series B: 180) |
$ 4.1 billion | Valar Ventures, partner of DST Global | Neobroker | Vienna, AUT |
| Circle | $ 440 million | $ 4.5 billion | Digital Currency Group, Fidelity Management, FTX | Stablecoins | Boston, USA |
| Blockchain.com | $ 420 million
(Series B: 120 Series C: 300) |
$ 5.2 billion | DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital, Google Ventures | Crypto wallet / broker | London, UK |
| Ledger | $ 380 million | $ 1.5 billion | 10T Holdings, Cathay Innovation, Draper Esprit, Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, DCG, Korelya Capital, Wicklow Capital | Crypto Wallet (Hardware) | Paris, France |
| BlockFi | $ 350 million | $ 3 billion | Valar Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity, Akuna Capital, SoFi, Coinbase Ventures | Crypto Lending | New York, USA |
| Solana Labs | $ 314 million | tba. | Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Alameda Research, Blockchange Ventures, CMS Holdings, Coinfund, CoinShares, Collab Currency, Memetic Capital | Blockchain | San Francisco, USA |
| Fireblocks | $ 310 million | $ 2.2 billion | Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC, SCB 10X | Infrastructure | New York, USA |
| Dapper Labs | $ 555 million (305 + 250) |
$ 2.6 billion | Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, GV, and Version One Ventures, Bond, GIC, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, Shawn Mendes, Will Smith | NFT | Vancouver, Canada |
| Bullish | $ 300 million
(+ crypto assets) |
tba. | Peter Thiel (Thiel Capital and Founders Fund), Alan Howard, Louis Bacon (Moore Capital), Richard Li (Pacific Century Group), Christian Angermayer (Apeiron Investment Group, Cryptology Asset Group), Galaxy Digital, Nomura | Exchange | tba. |
| Paxos | $ 300 million | $ 2.4 billion | Oak HC / FT Declaration Partners, PayPal Ventures, Mithril Capital, Senator Investment Group, Liberty City Ventures, WestCap, Bank of America, Founders Fund, Coinbase Ventures, FTX | Blockchain Infra | New York, USA |
| Bitso | $ 250 million | $ 2.2 billion | Tiger Global, Coatue, Paradigm, BOND, Valor Capital Group, QED, Pantera Capital, Kaszek | Exchange | Mexico City, MEX |
| BitDAO | $ 230 million (+ crypto assets) | tba. | Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, Alan Howard (Spartan Group), Jump Capital, Fenbushi or Kain Warwick (Synthetix) | DeFi | tba. |
| Avalanche | $ 230 million | tba. | Polychain, Three Arrows Capital, R / Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab + Currency, Lvna Capital | Smart contracts | New York / Miami, USA |
| Block stream | $ 210 million | $ 3.2 billion | Baillie Gifford, iFinex, Real Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Digital Garage, Future Perfect Ventures, Horizons Ventures, East Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, Seven Seas Partners | Mining | Montreal, Canada |
| Figure Technologies | $ 200 million | $ 3.2 billion | Morgan Creek Capital, 10T Holdings, Digital Currency Group, Digital Capital Mgt, DST Global | Mortgage | San Francisco, USA |
| BitClout | $ 200 million | tba. | Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia, Social Capital, TQ Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Polychain Capital, Pantera Capital, Arrington Capital, Blockchange Ventures, Distributed Global, Blockchain.com Ventures, Hack Ventures, Alexis Ohanian | Social network | Osaka, JPN |
| Forte | $ 185 million | $ 1 billion | Griffin Gaming Partners | Gaming | San Francisco, USA |
| Block daemon | $ 155 million | $ 1.3 billion | Softbank, Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital | Blockchain Infrastructure | Los Angeles, USA |
| helium | $ 111 million | tba. | Andreessen Horowitz, Alameda Research, Ribbit Capital, 10T Holdings, and Multicoin Capital | Decentralized Wireless Network | San Francisco, USA |
| TaxBit | $ 100 million | $ 1.5 billion | Insight Partners | Crypto Tax Service | Salt Lake City, USA |
| Matrix port | $ 100 million | $ 1 billion | DST Global, C Ventures, K3 Ventures, Tiger Global, Qiming Ventures Partners, IDG Capital, Dragonfly Capital | Neobank | Singapore |
| Amber Group | $ 100 million | $ 1 billion | China Renaissance Group, Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, Tru Arrow Partners, A&T Capital, Sky9 Capital, DCM Ventures, Gobi Partners, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com | Crypto gateway | Hong Kong, HK |
| OpenSea | $ 100 million | $ 1.5 billion | Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Dylan Field, Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, Tobi Lutke | NFT marketplace | New York, USA |
| Chainalysis | $ 100 million | $ 4.2 billion | Coatue, 9Yards Capital, Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter, Blackstone, GIC, Pictet, Sequoia Heritage, SVB Capital | Blockchain Analytics | New York, USA |
| ConsenSys | $ 65 million | tba. | JP Morgan, Mastercard, UBS, Protocol Labs (Filecoin), Maker Foundation (MakerDAO), Fenbushi, The LAO and Alameda Research | Ethereum Infra | New York, USA |
This list clearly shows which trends the major investors (Softbank, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Coinbase, Coatue, Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, etc.) are betting on. These are:
1. The Exchanges market is being reshuffled
Anyone who has followed the ranking of the largest crypto exchanges in terms of trading volume over the last few months will have seen: FTX (formerly Blockfolio) by founder Sam Bankman-Fried has shaken up the scene and is grabbing more and more volumes. With 18 billion dollars, very, very well-known investors rate the exchange, which is constantly pushing its profile through sports and gaming sponsorship. At the same time, FTX and Bankman-Fried or his Alameda Research are building an ever larger ecosystem with their own investments (including in Genesis Digital Assets, Paxos, Circle, Solana). FTX may end up being Coinbase and Binance’s big challenger.
After FTX, there is Bullish Global, a project by Peter Thiel and the block.one creators, another very ambitious project of a new crypto exchange that has not shown anything yet, but is now on the stock exchange with nine billion dollars want to evaluate. The market seems huge, the daily trading volume of crypto echanges globally is 70 billion dollars and more.
At the same time, the market leader Binance is shaking more and more. Regulators around the globe have shot at the giant, and Binance is gradually having to shut down more and more questionable products and services to come to terms with the authorities. It is quite possible that Binance will soon buy another player to strengthen its own compliance. In any case, the Exchanges market will mix up well.
