Q3 Crypto Fundraising Trends

A recent report by Dove Metrics revealed some insightful trends in the land of crypto fundraising. Total Q3 crypto company fundraising surpassed over 300 funding rounds accounting for $8.2 billion dollars. CeFi companies raised 50% of the Q3 capital while Infrastructure and NFTs also raised a significant amount. Surprisingly, DeFi protocols and companies raised the least amount of funds throughout Q3.

Zooming in, several individual companies raised massive rounds including:

• FTX – $900 million
• Revolut – $800 million
• Fireblocks – $443 million across two rounds in Q3
• Sorare – $680 million
• Dapper Labs – $250 million
• OpenSea – $100 million

These six firms collectively raised just over $3.1 billion in funding, showing the rapidly maturing market of CeFi and continued demand for NFT exposure. Moreover, the subcategorization of these sectors shows some revealing trends.

First, NFT gaming including Dapper and Sorare collectible raised over $1 billion while NFT marketplaces raised ~$250 million. The promise of gaming and crypto's eventual symbiotic relationship has produced a sizable appetite for fundraising in this sub-category of NFTs.

Further, as CeFi infrastructure enters a more mature life cycle, the top players are raising significant capital in order to scale and dominant their respective categories. Meanwhile, FTX still marches on in its quest to dominate every facet of crypto.

Web3 continues to gain traction, however, Q3 witnessed a focus on Web3 infra and Web3 analytics (which Messari’s $21 million Series A was included in). The focus on analytics and infrastructure shows that Web3 still has a ways to go before reaching broader adoption. Still, notable Web3 companies, like Helium and MobileCoin completed $111 million and $66 million funding rounds, respectively.

The year and a half crypto bull market has brought traditional venture funds into the space. U.S early-stage venture capital fundraising surpassed $15 billion across nearly 1,600 deals. Additionally, existing crypto funds like Multicoin, Paradigm, 1Confirmation, Variant, a16z, et al have collectively amassed new funds with deeper pockets.

With the absorbent amount of capital sloshing around and the ever-expanding crypto market, crypto companies are raising money in one of the most opportune times imaginable. The size of the crypto market will continue to grow across all the above categories as well as within new emergent cateogries including DAOs, the Metaverse, social networks, and more. The only question remaining is will Q4 crypto fundraising outpace the previous quarter.

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