Despite bear market, crypto fundraising hits $30 billion in H1 2022, topping all of 2021

Messari’s latest report indicates that the market pullback in the year’s first half did not shake investors’ confidence in the growing crypto industry. As per the report, the overall amount of money raised in the first six months already exceeds the $30.2 billion that was raised in 1313 rounds throughout the entire year of 2021.

As Messari’s H1 2022 Fundraising Report said, investments into the crypto industry reached $30.3 billion in H1 of 2022, exceeding the whole of 2021. The market downturn in the first 6 months did not disrupt investors’ interest in blockchain and crypto technology.

Despite the notorious crashes of a group of CeFi projects in Q2, the sector has remained robust in attracting investments totaling $10.2 billion, leading ahead of three other areas, such as infrastructure, DeFi, and Web3/NFT.

According to the report conducted by Messari’s newly acquired fundraising database Dove Metrics, the upward trend of betting on crypto projects has demonstrated steady growth in the first half of the year compared to the previous 6 months. Crypto and traditional funds raised a total of $35.9 billion in the same period, surpassing the whole-year volume of $19 billion in 2021.

Investments are heavily tilted towards early-stage projects across the major sectors, suggesting that investors view crypto as a burgeoning industry with huge potential.

This trend was reflected in Ethereum losing the lead on NFTs in H1 2022 as other upcoming ecosystems continued to win funding. Ethereum-based projects only gained $1.1 billion via investments, far lower than projects based on other networks combined at $2.9 billion. It’s worth noting that Solana-based NFTs have grabbed attention lately due to low network fees. That is especially shown in the rising popularity of the marketplace Magic Eden, which raised $130 million in June 2022.

Meanwhile, Ethereum-based DeFi protocols continued to dominate fundraising in the same period, with 56% and 82% of the DeFi funding capital going to Ethereum in Q1 and Q2, respectively. DEX’s and Asset Management products were the most popular among investors, the report added.

On the other hand, centralized exchanges attracted $3.2 billion in H1, far ahead of the payment companies obtaining $1.58 billion in funding, despite the collapses of multiple high-profile brokerages and lending firms.

Showing relative maturity, the CeFi sector had half its funding rounds amounting above $10 million from January to June, with the total investment reaching $10.2 billion, down 5.6% from the second half of 2021. Furthermore, 40% of the funding rounds for infrastructure were directed to Series A or late-stage projects, with smart contract platforms taking the largest share out of the funding.

In conclusion, the report resumed that the staggering market crash in May and June did not impact investors’ confidence in the crypto industry as no sharp declines in volume were seen across diverse sectors.