In this article, I share my insights on analyzing 680 crypto fundraisings. The findings show current trends and allow conclusions to be drawn about future developments.
The Dataset
All data comes from DefiLlama. Their complete set covers data from the last 5 years. To limit my workload I only analyzed the available data for 2022.
Overview of all Crypto Funding Rounds 2022
The following chart shows all crypto fundraisings this year.
The yellow bars visualize individual crypto funding rounds while the blue line shows the total funds raised per month. As the chart clearly shows, crypto projects raised much more money in the first half of 2022.
The following chart shows the stages in which the respective projects received funding.
It turns out that a large proportion of the projects raised funds in the early phases (Pre-Seed, Seed). This contrasts with a relatively small number who received money in later stages (Series A and Series B).
Next, let’s look at the individual categories and use cases.
Over the year as a whole, the following three categories were the most popular with investors:
- DeFi
- Infrastructure (for Web3)
- NFT & Related
Let’s see what we can learn when looking at the amount of investment in $$ in the individual areas.
The following areas saw the highest investments in 2022:
- Infrastructure
- DeFi
- CeFi
Crypto Fundraising: Analysis of Categories
The analysis of the individual categories leads me to the following conclusions:
- The numerous Infrastructure projects and the large amount of funding flowing into this area can only mean that there is still a great need to lay the foundations. Many projects are designed to improve the integration of crypto applications into existing solutions and processes. This seems to me to be an indication of healthy growth for the industry as a whole.
- The success of DeFi will continue. Decentralized financial solutions have become one of the main uses for crypto. Investors still seem to see great potential here.
- Despite LUNA, FTX and other disasters — centralized solutions will remain an important part of Crypto for the foreseeable future. At least that is what the high fundraising figures in the CeFi and CEX areas suggest.
- In the second half of the year 2022, the areas of Gaming, NFT & Related, and Security recorded the most significant growth in terms of the number crypto projects that have raised funds. These areas also showed relatively high total amounts raised. An indication that these sectors will see high growth in the future perhaps?
In the next step, we examine the top investors who led the crypto funding rounds in 2022.
The chart above shows the number of projects (turquoise dots) and the amount of $$ (yellow bars) top investors have invested in crypto projects.
Two comments on this:
- The investors stated are lead investors, normally there are a group of investors participating in the funding rounds. The funding amount refers to the total amount invested by the group of investors, including the lead investor. For projects which a lead investor was not stated, the funding rounds were not included in the chart.
- Funding data on Binance Labs is incomplete. The actual total amount is much higher. This is also because some projects did not state the total amount raised.
It is also interesting to see in which categories the top investors have invested most frequently:
- DeFi (31)
- Infrastructure (24)
- NFT & Related (13)
- Wallet (9)
- Security (7)
- DEX (7)
Final Words on This Crypto Funding Round Analysis
Compared to the previous year, significantly less money flowed into crypto funding in 2022. This is mainly due to the ongoing bear market, with the general economic downturn also likely to play a role.
Even if the golden days for crypto fundraising are over for the time being, this analysis shows that the industry as a whole is still growing strongly.
Outlook
In 2023 and onwards, we will see
- better Web3 infrastructure, this includes scaling solutions, a more developer-friendly environment, improved user experience, and efficiency in dApps;
- more cross-chain, security, and privacy solutions;
- more diversified ecosystem;
- more integration of Web3 in existing technology and daily life;
- there will also be more institutions onboard.
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