10 “huge” rounds of fundraising in the crypto world in 2021
Crypto and blockchain startups are constantly setting new funding records. 10 of the 12 largest rounds of funding ever closed by companies in the emerging market, totaling $ 3.9 billion came in 2021. Almost half of that funding was raised in just four large rounds in the past two months .
The latest boom came from the FTX exchange with the largest deal in crypto industry history at $ 900 million last July, double the digital infrastructure provider’s record. The round also doubled the net worth of the world’s richest crypto billionaire and FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, from $ 8.3 billion to $ 16.2 billion.
At the top of the list of the richest investors in the US on July 29th is Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, which has supported 111 industrial startups, followed by 79 from Coinbase Ventures, 74 from Pantera Capital, 68 from Blockchain Capital, 58 from Andreessen Horowitz and 51 from Polychain Capital.
New York’s top crypto / blockchain investors
With the cryptocurrency market on the rise again, there will inevitably be more large rounds of funding.
Meanwhile, here are the 12 biggest fundraisers in crypto history (excluding funds raised by companies primarily in the non-crypto industry):
FTX: $ 900 million
- Contract date: July 20, 2021
- Round VC: RED series
- Notable investors: Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Third Point, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures, Softbank, Sino Global Capital, Circle
- Post-deal valuation: $ 18 billion
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 1.2 billion
FTX is a relative newcomer to crypto exchanges – it launches in May 2019. However, despite its late birth, it still stands out from industry giants like Binance and Coinbase by providing traders with advanced features and sophisticated investment products, including options, futures and leveraged tokens. FTX has an average daily trading volume of over USD 10 billion; has increased sales this year by 10 times and since a Series A financing round by 75 times.
Circle: $ 440 million
- Contract date: May 28, 2021
- Notable Investors: Fidelity Management and Research Company, Marshall Wace, Digital Currency Group, FTX, Breyer Capital
- Post-Deal Rating: N / A
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 3 billion
Circle is a payments and treasury infrastructure provider best known as one of the main developers of stablecoin USDC, which has grown more than 3,400% this year. On July 8, Circle announced that it would go public through a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp, which would bring the company’s valuation to $ 4.5 billion.
Bitmain: $ 422 million
- Contract date: August 7, 2018
- VC round: Series B1
- Notable Investors: Crimson Capital China, Bluebell (Asia), Jumbo Sheen Group, Lioness Capital, Palace Investment Company, Pavilion Capital
- Post-deal valuation: $ 15 billion
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 12 billion
Bitmain is the world’s leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware. The company also operates Antpool, one of the top mining pools that accounts for 13% of the BTC hash rate. Shortly after raising $ 422 million, the Beijing-based company filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2018, but the offer failed amid the Bitcoin crash and the market closed.
Ledger: $ 380 million
- Agreement date: June 10, 2021
- Round VC: OVER series
- Notable Investors: 10T Holdings, Cathay Innovation, Draper Esprit, Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, DCG.
- Post-deal valuation: $ 1.5 billion
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 287.1 million
Ledger manufactures hardware wallets, specialized devices for storing digital assets. To date, it has sold over 3 million hardware wallets in 190 countries and has over 1.5 million monthly users on Ledger Live. The company has integrated with platforms such as Coinify, a payment platform and cryptocurrency exchange. Changelly, a cryptocurrency exchange; and Compound, a decentralized crypto credit and lending platform.
BlockFi: $ 350 million
- Agreement date: March 11, 2021
- VC round: EASY series
- Notable Investors: Bain Capital Ventures, Partner of DST Global, Pomp Investments, Tiger Global, Susquehanna Government Products
- Post-deal valuation: $ 3 billion
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 435 million
BlockFi, founded in 2017 and based in New Jersey, is currently one of the leading providers of crypto lending. Its products cover a wide range of categories including crypto-backed mortgages and interest-bearing accounts that allow investors to earn interest on crypto holdings. Rumors of a possible BlockFi IPO began last July after reports of job vacancies that included helping the company on the stock exchange. Last month, regulators from Texas, New Jersey and Alabama began raising concerns about the legality of the company’s offering for BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIA).
Solana Labs: $ 314 million
- Agreement date: June 9, 2021
- VC round: privately open for sale
- Notable investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Alameda Research, Blockchange Ventures, CMS Holdings.
- Post-Deal Rating: N / A
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
Solana claims to offer better scalability and higher speed than Ethereum. According to data from blockchair, the network can process more than 1,000 transactions per second (TPS) compared to Ethereum’s 14 TPS. Solana has enabled over 19 billion on-chain conversions to date and is home to a number of decentralized products including Serum, a decentralized exchange founded by billionaire FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Fire Blocks: $ 310 million
- Contract date: July 27, 2021
- VC round: EASY series
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, SCB 10X (a joint venture subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank), Coatue, Stripes, Spark Capital, DRW VC
- Post-deal valuation: $ 2 billion
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
Fireblocks is a New York-based crypto custodian that provides an enterprise-class platform for moving, storing, and dispensing digital assets. A key differentiator of Fireblocks’ custody service is the use of a new form of wallet security known as Multiparty Computing (MPC), which allows multiple parties – each keeping their own data private – to evaluate a computation without ever revealing any private Data held by each party. Since its inception in 2019, Fireblocks has secured over 1 trillion digital assets.
Dapper Labs: $ 305 million
- Trading day: March 30, 2021
- VC round: 5th round
- Notable investors: Coatue Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant
- Post-deal valuation: $ 2.6 billion
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
Dapper Labs is a Vancouver-based startup best known for developing NBA Top Shot, an NFT marketplace for basketball highlights or “moments”. The project, which exceeded $ 500 million in trading volume, is largely responsible for the NFT explosion. Previously, Dapper Labs developed a popular Ethereum game with spawnable collectibles called CryptoKitties.
Bullish: $ 300 million
- Contract date: May 11, 2021
- VC round: Round 1
- Notable investors: Peter Thiels Thiel Capital and Founders Fund, Alan Howard, Galaxy Digital, Nomura.
- Post-Deal Rating: N / A
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
In May, Block.one, the company behind the open source software EOSIO, founded an independent subsidiary focused on launching Bullish, a new blockchain-based cryptocurrency exchange. The company has raised over $ 10 billion in cash and digital assets, including a $ 300 million investment round, from prominent investors including Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, and Richard Li, among others. In July, just two months after its launch, Bullish announced plans to go public through the SPAC merger with a valuation of $ 9 billion.
Paxos: $ 300 million
- Contract date: April 29, 2021
- VC round: EASY series
- Notable Investors: Oak HC / FT, PayPal Ventures, Declaration Partners, Liberty City Ventures, Bank of America
- Post-deal valuation: $ 2.4 billion
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
Paxos’ technology powers PayPal and Venmo-owned crypto brokerage services, enabling millions of users to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin and several other major cryptocurrencies. The company’s other products and services include the US dollar-backed stablecoin Paxos Standard (PAX), the itBit exchange, and a securities settlement service used by Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and Instinet, their arm of Nomura Holdings.
Blockchain.com: $ 300 million
- Agreement date: March 24, 2021
- Round VC: OVER series
- Notable Investors: Partners of DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital
- Post-deal valuation: $ 5.2 billion
- Pre-deal valuation: $ 3 billion
Blockchain.com offers a variety of cryptocurrency services to retail and institutional clients. Unlike their counterparts, which are controlled by third parties, these wallets give users full control over their private keys, which are the ownership of crypto assets. The London-based company claims to have processed 28% of all Bitcoin transactions since 2012.
Bakkt: $ 300 million
- Agreement date: March 16, 2020
- Round VC: RED series
- Notable Investors: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), BCG Digital Ventures, PayU
- Post-Deal Rating: N / A
- Pre-Deal Prices: N / A
In February 2020, ICE (the owner of the New York Stock Exchange) crypto venture acquired Bridge2 Solutions, a loyalty program provider, to bolster Bakkt’s platform. The service called Bakkt App enables users to combine various digital assets such as loyalty points, reward programs, game assets and cryptocurrencies in a single wallet.
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