Top crypto funding stories of 2022

2022 is a pivotal year for crypto venture capital, as investors pour tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite a very bearish trend in asset prices. Is the VC-dominated crypto funding model good for the industry? Only time will tell.

Cointelegraph Research is still in the process of calculating all the funding figures for the year, but 2022 easily surpassed all other years in terms of the amount of capital raised and deals completed. VC inflows were more than $14 billion in each of the first two quarters before decreasing to just under $5 billion in the third quarter – still an impressive tally given the contagion in the industry caused by the sudden collapse of Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, Genesis, BlockFi and FTX , among others.

Against this background, we have compiled a list of some of the biggest funding stories of 2022.

Haun Ventures: raised $1.5B

In March, crypto investor and Coinbase board member Katie Haun raised $1.5 billion for two investment funds focused on Web3. Newly launched Haun Ventures is raising $500 million in early stage funding and $1 billion in acceleration funding to invest in “every layer of the Web3 technology stack.” When launching the new fund, Katie Haun recruited former executives from Airbnb, Coinbase and Google’s tech incubator Jigsaw.

Web3 has been a major focal point for venture capital over the past 12 months. Although the company Web3 is said to be working on the next version of the decentralized internet, the concept remains vague and the industry behind it still exists.

related: Investors are chasing Web3 as the blockchain industry builds despite bear markets

Huobi Global: Open $1B in funding

In June, crypto exchange Huobi Global launched a $1 billion investment fund focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 projects. Dubbed Ivy Blocks, the new fund is designed to identify and invest in “promising blockchain projects” across several crypto sub-sectors. In particular, Huobi Global will focus on providing “liquidity investment” to help DeFi projects get up and running.

The DeFi sector deflated with the rest of the cryptocurrency market in 2022, but unlike centralized exchanges, this sector is generally resistant to contagion.

From more than $180 billion to $39 billion, the total value of locked DeFi has been saved during the bear market. Source: DeFi Llama.

NBA Top Shot creator: $725M in funding

Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, launched a $725 million fund to support the development of the Flow blockchain. The funds were received from several investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Spartan Group and CoinFund. In addition to supporting the development community already built on Flow, the funds are used to lure developers from other blockchains such as Ethereum.

Although Dapper Labs has produced some of the largest collections of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in recent years, sales have lagged behind other layer-1 ecosystems due to weaker network effects and smaller collections of decentralized applications.

Dragonfly Capital: Open $650M fund

Crypto VC Dragonfly Capital closed its third funding round in April, raising $650 million to surpass the previous two rounds of $100 million and $200 million. The funding initiative, backed by Tiger Global, Sequoia China, KKR and Invesco, is higher than the $500 million the company first announced as part of its Form D filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Dragonfly said the funds will be used to invest in DeFi, metaverse and blockchain gaming startups.

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Fireblocks: raising $550M

Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks saw its valuation rise in January after closing a $550 million Series E funding round. The latest round brings Fireblocks’ cumulative funding to $799 million through 2019, as VCs continue to support institutional infrastructure solutions. Some of Fireblocks’ most notable clients include Bank of New York Melon, Galaxy Digital and CoinShares. It also served BlockFi and the now-defunct Three Arrows Capital.

Binance Labs: Earmarks $500M for Web3 development

Blockchain incubation and late-stage growth is featured in Binance Labs’ $500 million fund, which launched in June. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the fund will support project founders aiming for Web3 adoption in all DeFi, NFT, gaming, metaverse and social subsectors. At launch, the Binance Labs fund has already supported 14 projects in the DeFi and social finance subsectors.

Yuga Labs: $450M

Although the NFT market will peak in 2021, VCs are banking on the continued growth of digital collections. In March, Bosen Ape Yacht Club founder Yuga Labs closed a $450 million funding round at a $4 billion valuation. Its backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Animoca Brands, MoonPay and, you guessed it, FTX.

Few sub-sectors mooned as hard or fast as NFTs during the previous bull market. While this success earned Yuga Labs a sizable investment round in March, the NFT-focused company will struggle to maintain its valuation going forward. As ConsenSys reported, NFT prices have fallen harder than many other crypto assets, perhaps indicating that new use cases must emerge to keep the industry from disappearing.

related: Fidelity plans to market NFTs and financial services in the metaverse

Polygon: $450M investment round

Sequoia Capital India and more than 40 other venture funds invested $450 million into Polygon’s scale 2 solution. The company said it will use the funds to expand its scale solution to accommodate the adoption of Web3 applications. According to Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ethereum will not provide enough scalability to support the future of Web3, even after the highly anticipated Merger.

Polygon’s funding round closed in February, a few months before the implosion of the Terra ecosystem triggered the first sector contagion in crypto. The Layer-2 protocol still has a bright future as the crypto sector has passed the scandalous 2022 and attention returns to development.

Multicoin Capital: $430M in new seed funding

With crypto contagion in full swing, Multicoin Capital in July announced it had launched a $430 million fund to support early-stage companies. The company said it will allocate between $500,000 and $25 million to crypto startups and is ready to invest up to $100 million in larger projects. Multicoin indicated that its latest funding initiative will prioritize projects with “physical proof of work,” or protocols that create real incentives for decentralization.

Framework Ventures: $400M raised

In April, crypto VC Framework Ventures launched “FVIII,” a $400 million fund dedicated to Web3, blockchain games and DeFi. Half of the funding will go to blockchain gaming projects, Framework Ventures said.

The focus on gaming may have been catalyzed by the success of Axie Infinite, a popular play-to-win game with millions of unique users. The growth of metaverse and NFT technology can also be a positive driver for the blockchain gaming industry.

related: Pantera plans to raise $1.25B for second blockchain fund: Report

Ava Labs: $350M in new funding

Ava Labs, developer of the Avalanche blockchain, raised $350 million in April at a valuation of $5.25 billion. At the time of the raise, Avalanche was one of the most popular blocks in terms of TVL, or total locked value. Of course, no more after crypto and DeFi entered a deep bear market.

TVL Avalanche is currently under $800 million after climbing north of $12.2 billion in December 2021, according to DeFi Llama.

Close to Protocol: $350M funding round

In April, Tiger Global and FTX Ventures led Near Protocol’s $350 million funding round. At that time, it was one of the largest capital raising for a decentralized application platform. The proceeds are allocated to support the growth of the Near ecosystem, including increasing the number of regional hubs around the globe. By the end of 2022 it was the 35th largest crypto project by market capitalization.

Binance.US: $200M seed round

American crypto exchange Binance.US attracted high-profile investors, including VanEck and Circle Ventures, raising $200 million at a pre-market valuation of $4.5 billion. Binance.US said the funding will expand its product features and operations across the United States. The company appears to have made some progress, as it recently started paying mobile payments to US-based customers. The exchange also plans to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital for just over $1 billion.