Crypto venture capital investment reached $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2024, according to data on PitchBook.
PitchBook, a company that provides data on venture capital and the capital markets in general, reports that the $2.4 billion figure is a 40.3% increase from the last quarter of 2023, with 518 projects receiving funding.
Crypto Venture Capital Investment is Picking Up
While there has been a massive surge since last year, reports still show that global venture capital investment has been at its lowest in the previous five years. In the first three months of 2022, investment funding was over $10 billion. However, economic factors and major VC companies leaving the space caused the figure to drop drastically.
Concerning the fall, PitchBook analyst Robert Le said, “The recovery in publicly traded tokens and continued rise in institutional adoption will drive increased VC funding.”
The expectations of lower interest rates and launching the first US Bitcoin ETF caused a significant upswing.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved a Bitcoin ETF in the States in January, granting the long-standing desire of U.S. Crypto investors.
However, a few days before the approval, an unknown threat actor attacked the U.S. SEC official X account and posted the alleged approval of Bitcoin ETF, which the authorities later debunked.
Together AI Secures $106 Million Deal
According to the PitchBook report, Startups intentional about providing infrastructure for crypto and blockchain technology dominated funding during the quarter. Notable among them are the Ethereum-based protocol EigenLayer and the open-source cryptography company Zama.
Out of the startups that participated in the VC funding, decentralized cloud platform Together AI secured the highest funding, at $106 million, in an early-stage round led by Salesforce Ventures, with a value of $1.1 billion.
Commenting on the funding’s result, PitchBook’s Le said, “The investment rounds have become highly competitive, especially at the early stages.”
He continued, “This is compounded by the fact that early-stage deals are earning higher valuations than late-stage deals, but.. we will see if this trend holds in the coming quarters.”
As many investors cannot sell out their stakes through an acquisition, merger, or initial public offering (IPO), PitchBook anticipates a surge in M&A, especially among crypto exchanges, custodians, and infrastructure providers, as the market enters its next phase of growth.
