Crypto fundraising already outpacing all of 2021: Report

Despite the ongoing market slump, the crypto sector has already raised $30.3 billion in funds, outpacing an entire year of fundraising in 2021, a new report shows.

In a report on Aug. 2 by crypto analytics firm Messari and Dove Metrics, the data shows that the $30.3 billion raised in centralized finance (CeFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and infrastructure was achieved through 1199 funding rounds in H1 2022.

The total amount of raised funds in the six-month period has already outpaced the $30.2 billion raised in 1313 rounds across the entire of 2021.

More than a third of the total funds raised went into the CeFi sector, which saw $10.2 billion in funding. The infrastructure and NFT sector also saw high amounts of investment, however, DeFi investments appear to have trailed with only $1.8 billion in funding in the period.

CeFI--> exchanges led the way here as well. CeFi brought in in $10.3B in the first six months of the year, with almost half of all funding rounds totaling more than $10M pic.twitter.com/i5nIENyMdD
— Dunleavy (@dunleavy89) August 2, 2022

Most of the investment in CeFi was targeted at crypto exchanges, which raised $3.2 billion in total funding. Payment services, market makers, and savings/banking accounts businesses were near tied for second place.

The Web3 and NFT sector, which raised $8.6 billion in funds during the half-year, saw gaming-related NFTs capture the lion’s share of investment, raising more than four times as much as any other NFT vertical.

Some of the currently popular NFT-based crypto games include Axie Infinity, Aavegotchi, CryptoKitties, Galaxy Fight Club, and Gods Unchained.

Related: NFT volume sees yearly low in June, but first-time buyers remain consistent

According to PWC’s latest hedge fund report in June, 38% of hedge funds are now investing in digital assets, up from 21% in 2021.

PWC Global financial services leader John Garvey said crypto is increasingly being used by hedge fund managers to get an edge on competitors:

“It’s the search for alpha. Everyone is always looking for an angle in… so how are you going to beat the benchmarks? You have to try something different and new and unorthodox.”