Crypto Sector Raises Over $30 Billion in Fundings, CeFi Bags Maximum

The crypto sector, that slipped down from its trillion-dollar market cap earlier this year, has continued to tickle the fancies of venture capitalists despite the slump. Web3-related firms have already roped-in $30.3 billion (roughly Rs. 240 crore) in fundings between January and June this year, analytics firms Messari and Dove Metrics said in a recent report. This collection has already outpaced the funds raised by the crypto sector last year. In 2021, a total of $30.2 billion was raised by Web3 firms in 1,313 rounds.

So far, companies working around centralised finance (CeFi), decentralised finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have garnered the aforementioned amount in 1,199 funding rounds.

Over a third of the total funds raised went into the CeFi sector, making up $10.2 billion (roughly Rs. 80,781 crore) in investment. CeFi allows people to route all the crypto trading orders through centralised exchanges.

A total of $3.2 billion (roughly Rs. 25,355 crore) were poured on crypto exchanges. Among other CeFi services, payment services, market makers, and savings/banking accounts businesses also received investments.

Further, $8.6 billion (roughly Rs. 68,131 crore) were raised by players in the core Web3 and NFT arenas. Gaming-related NFTs grabbed the majority share of investment in NFTs.

As per the report Axie Infinity, Aavegotchi, CryptoKitties, Galaxy Fight Club, and Gods Unchained are among the top crypto-based games.

Adoption of crypto as an investment tool mushroomed last year, with the use of blockchain also gaining ground - even if the revolutionary changes from the technology promised to industries such as finance and commodities remain elusive, a Reuters report had claimed in July.

Among the mega US crypto deals in 2022: $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,171 crore) was raised by the US arm of crypto exchange FTX in January; a $450 million (roughly Rs. 3,600 crore) fundraising round by blockchain developer ConsenSys in March; and $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,171 crore) raised by stablecoin issuer Circle a month later.

Lisbon-based Fedi, an app designed to help people receive, hold and spend Bitcoin, said this month it had raised $4.2 million (roughly Rs. 30 crore) in seed financing.