Inventory of the top 5 most active cryptocurrency investment firms in 2022: investment frequency, coverage, and scale.

2022-12-09 11:29

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After the market turns bearish, which institutions are still maintaining their investment enthusiasm? What are the tracks they are focusing on?

Original Title: "The Top 5 Most Active Cryptocurrency Investment Firms in 2022"

Original Author: wesely

Throughout the year 2022, the field of cryptocurrency investment and financing completed a 180-degree turn from frenzy to winter.

In Q1 2022, the crypto investment market reached a total financing amount of over 10 billion USD, breaking the single-season investment record since the birth of Bitcoin. It also set a record of continuous growth for 7 months, with a capital increment of more than 26 billion USD during this period, achieving an unprecedented golden age of crypto investment.

After the collapse of Luna and the continued interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the Crypto capital market began to turn downward from the second quarter, with both the frequency of institutional transactions and the amount of speculative investment significantly decreasing.

After the market turned bearish, which institutions are still actively investing? What tracks are they focusing on? According to CB Insight's statistics and public market data, we have compiled the top 5 most active cryptocurrency investment institutions and their investment maps this year. This information may provide reference for us to make future trend judgments.

Quarterly investment and financing data in the encryption field. Data source: CB insights

1、Coinbase Ventures

As a US-based CVC (Corporate Venture Capital) firm, Coinbase Ventures leverages the brand advantage of its trading platform and has launched a massive attack throughout 2022, making it the most active investment firm. In the first three quarters, it invested 30 times, 17 times, and 23 times respectively. According to public information, in the fourth quarter, it has already recorded 11 investment transactions, totaling 81 times.

In addition, according to crypto-fundraising data, the cumulative number of investment companies by Coinbase Ventures is only 157. This means that Coinbase Ventures, which was established in 2018, has invested in more projects this year than in the past three years combined, maintaining a relatively high frequency of investments even in a bear market.

Regarding Coinbase Ventures' investment landscape, the focus is mainly on infrastructure and DeFi, especially the former. Many of the emerging public chains can find Coinbase's shadow. If we look at the amount of project financing, this year it has only participated in four projects with funding exceeding $100 million, namely Yuga Labs, Sui, Aptos, and Layer Zero.

Coinbase Ventures Q4 Investment Project Information. Data source: crypto-fundraising

2、Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 as a mobile game development company based in Hong Kong. It later transformed into a digital asset enterprise, rapidly growing into a top player in the blockchain gaming industry by providing NFT digital asset services to gamers, riding the wave of NFT development in 2021. It has gradually developed into a professional investment company in the blockchain gaming industry. Compared to other investment institutions, Animoca Brands invests mostly in chain games, NFTs, or derivative projects related to blockchain games due to its own attributes, but its influence is also expanding into other fields.

Within its investment portfolio, games have always been the core of Animoca Brands. In terms of quantity, games account for over 60% of all investment projects this year, with only three projects raising over $100 million: Yuga Labs, Polygon, and Ronin. In the first three quarters, Animoca Brands made 34, 23, and 8 investments respectively. The investment records for Q4 that have been announced so far include five deals: Liqiwid, a lending agreement; Foragers and Fighters, a game; Wanderers, an NFT project; VCORE, a metaverse project; and Thirdwave, a game data engine.

Animoca Brands invested in nearly 70 companies throughout the year, second only to Coinbase Ventures in terms of activity. However, looking at the changes in investment numbers from Q1-Q4, Animoca's investment front has significantly shrunk. Although the entire investment market is also shrinking, compared to institutions such as Coinbase and a16z, Animoca Brands' contraction is more pronounced, which also reflects that the impact of the market environment on the cryptocurrency gaming industry may be greater.

Animoca Brands participated in financing projects with a total amount exceeding 40 million US dollars this year.

3、Andreessen Horowitz（a16z）

a16z, as a top VC firm in the United States, has great influence in the Crypto field. In the first three quarters, a16z invested 13, 22, and 8 times respectively. As for the fourth quarter, the currently public records show that they have invested in 6 projects, including MMO game foragers and fighters, zkSync development company Matter Labs, Web3 developer platform buildspace, Uniswap, Web3 e-commerce platform Ray, and encrypted data protocol company Golden.

This year, a16z has invested in more than 50 companies, mainly in the fields of blockchain service applications, public chains, and games. Among them, there are 17 projects with investment amounts exceeding 100 million US dollars, which is more than Coinbase Ventures and Animoca Brands mentioned earlier. Generally speaking, projects with financing exceeding 100 million US dollars have developed certain competitive barriers and passed the earliest development stage. This indicates that a16z is more inclined towards relatively mature crypto startups and is betting heavily on them, which further demonstrates a16z's strong financial strength.

Among these billion-dollar financing projects, in addition to well-known projects such as Sui, Aptos, Aleo, and zkSync, there are also relatively less-discussed projects such as Nova Labs, Autograph, and Alecemy. Moreover, a16z deeply participated in these projects as a leading investor.

2022年a16z参投的项目融资金额排名-前20

Translation:

2022 a16z invested project financing amount ranking - top 20

4、Shima Capital

Shima Capital is an investment fund headquartered in San Francisco. In the four quarters of 2022, it invested in 16, 10, 8, and 7 projects respectively. Its two largest investments this year were in the blockchain game GunZ and L2 network boba, but the financing amounts for these projects did not exceed 100 million dollars. In fact, there were not many projects with financing amounts exceeding 10 million dollars, and those with financing amounts below 10 million dollars accounted for nearly 69% of the total for the year. Therefore, in terms of funding size, Shima Capital cannot be compared with the aforementioned institutions.

2022年Shima Capital参投的项目融资金额排名

Translation:

2022 Shima Capital's project financing ranking for investments

5、Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital, a venture capital fund, was founded by Dan Morehad in the United States in 2003. In 2013, it transformed into a cryptocurrency investment firm and launched the first Bitcoin-focused investment fund in the United States. Since then, it has raised multiple cryptocurrency investment funds. As of the time of writing in 2022, Pantera Capital has invested in a total of 40 companies, with 16, 13, 8, and 3 companies invested in each quarter, respectively, ranking fifth in terms of activity.

In the distribution of investment tracks, DeFi and gaming dominate, with only one project, the We3 developer platform Alchemy, raising more than 100 million yuan among the participating projects. The funding amounts of most other projects are mostly at or below 10 million US dollars, and the number of projects at this level accounts for nearly 70% of the total investment for the year.

Worth paying attention to, compared to the aforementioned institutions, Pantera Capital is relatively more inclined towards early-stage projects and is rarely seen in some blue-chip billion-dollar financing projects. Therefore, for those who are interested in exploring early-stage projects, paying more attention to such investment institutions is a good choice.

2022年Pantera Capital参投的项目融资金额排名

Translation:

Ranking of financing amounts for projects invested by Pantera Capital in 2022

Summary

Except for the aforementioned five investment institutions, companies such as Jump Crypto, Multicoin Capital, Dragonfly, and even the late Alameda remained active during the bear market phase. Moreover, in terms of capital size and investment amount, they are larger than Shima Capital and Pantera Capital mentioned earlier. However, overall, the momentum of each institution is significantly weaker than last year. In addition to this:

The entire encryption investment and financing market is still shrinking, whether it is from the financing amount, quantity, or project valuation, it is all shrinking. Currently, it is still under the big channel of the Fed's interest rate hike, and the investment and financing market in 2023 may be even more bleak. However, for capital with strong financial strength, this is also an excellent opportunity to "pick up bargains", especially institutions that remain active in the bear market, which deserve our attention.

Currently, the main active cryptocurrency investment institutions are mainly based in the United States. Among the top five most active investment institutions mentioned above, four are headquartered in the United States.

Game and infrastructure (public chain/DeFi) are still favored by many investment institutions. Although the current blockchain game industry is bleak, it is still an excellent track to attract external user increments, and it is also the most acceptable way for blockchain technology to be widely used in the future. The future is bright, but the process is tortuous.

Different institutions have their own investment preferences and strengths, and we may choose to primarily track the investment trends of certain investment institutions based on our research areas.

Investment institutions are often the icing on the cake, and we should not overly mythologize the role of well-known institutions while neglecting the research of basic asset security and project fundamentals.