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To get an idea of how big everything crypto has become, you can, of course, just take a look at the prices of coins and tokens. And then you can check back five minutes later to see if the notorious space volatility has significantly altered the first observation.
But for a more stable measure of industry growth, consider this: Venture capital funds have already paid out $ 17 billion this year to companies that operate in the space, according to data provider PitchBook. This is by far the highest in a single year and almost equal to the total amount raised in all previous years combined.
Certainly, much of this largesse came in one deal. In May, Block.one, a blockchain software company whose long-time backers include billionaires Peter Thiel, Alan Howard, and Louis Bacon injected $ 10 billion in digital assets and money into Bullish Global, a new crypto exchange. The company also raised $ 300 million as part of an additional funding round at that time.
That investment alone would have made 2021 the most important year for venture capital investment in the space on record.
But even ignoring this capitalization of a new exchange, the remaining $ 7.2 billion would already be on par with the previous record of $ 7.4 billion raised in 2018 with still six months into the year.
Ledger SAS, the maker of hardware wallets for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, had the second biggest win so far this year when it raised $ 380 million from backers led by 10T Holdings.
“I’m of the opinion that everyone will own the crypto, it’s just a matter of the price they get,” said Ian Rogers, Ledger’s director of experience. “We’re still in the protocol phase, we know there’s something here, you just can’t imagine what it will look like exactly. For Ledger, we are certainly not yet selling an iPod at the target time.
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