Crypto Sector Bagged Over $14 Billion from Venture Capital Firms in First Half of 2022: KPMG

The crypto sector saw the successful completion of 725 deals in the first half of this year. So far in 2022, the industry has bagged investments of $14.2 billion (roughly Rs. 1,13,500 crore), a new report by KPMG has claimed. The organisation is among India's renowned providers of risk, financial, and business advisory. As part of its new findings, Germany's crypto trading platform Trade Republic emerged as the biggest crypto investor that poured $1.1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,800 crore).

Among the top four investors in crypto projects, Fireblocks digital asset custody platform contributed $550 million (roughly Rs. 4,400 crore) and secured the second spot on the index of largest investors in digital assets.

FTX crypto exchange and Ethereum software firm ConsenSys scored the third and fourth spots with the investments of $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,000 crore) and $450 million (roughly Rs. 3,600 crore), as per KPMG findings.

The report has highlighted that crypto-centric investment figures for the first half of 2022 alone has doubled all years prior to 2021.

“(This) highlights the growing maturity of the space and the breadth of technologies and solutions attracting investment,” the report said.

KPMG's report comes at a time when Mike Kondoulis, an intellectual property lawyer from the US, has claimed that the blockchain sectors have swelled majorly. He said that over 3,600 trademark applications around the sectors of cryptocurrency, Web3, metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been filed so far this year in the US as of August 31. The number of trademarks filed around these industries stood at 3,516 in all of 2021.

Despite the progess, however, KPMG has warned of an approaching downturn in the crypto industry.

Looming political recession, economic climate of inflation, and hikes in interest rates are named as reasons why the crypto sector will suffer negative impacts in the coming times.

Even presently, the total market cap of the crypto sector is below the trillion-dollar mark. As per CoinMarketCap, the total crypto valuation stands at $939 billion (roughly Rs. 75,03,800 crore), which had exceeded the mark of $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,39,72,100 crore) last year.

KPMG, meanwhile, expects crypto-centric investment efforts to pick pace in underdeveloped fintech markets, particularly in Africa.

Binance crypto exchange is already in talks with Nigerian authorities to establish a crypto-focussed special economic zone that would incubate related startups and businesses in the region.