Top crypto funding stories of 2022

2022 was a watershed year for crypto venture capital, as investors poured tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite the overwhelmingly bearish trend in asset prices. Is the

Polygon: $450M investment round

Sequoia Capital India and over 40 other venture funds invested $450 million into layer-2 scaling solution Polygon. The company said it would use the funds to expand its scaling solutions to accommodate eventual mainstream adoption of Web3 applications. According to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ethereum won’t provide enough scalability to support a Web3 future, even after its highly anticipated Merge took place.

Polygon’s funding round closed in February, a few months before the Terra ecosystem implosion triggered the first sector-wide contagion in crypto. Layer-2 protocols still have a bright future as the crypto sector moves past its scandal-ridden 2022 and attention shifts back to development.

Multicoin Capital: $430M for new startup fund

With crypto contagion in full swing, Multicoin Capital in July announced it had launched a $430 million fund to support early-stage companies. The company said it would allocate between $500,000 and $25 million to crypto startups and is prepared to invest up to $100 million in larger projects. Multicoin indicated that its latest funding iniaitive would prioritize projects with “proof of physical work,” or protocols that have created real incentives for decentralization.

Framework Ventures: $400M raised

In April, crypto VC Framework Ventures launched “FVIII,” a $400 million fund devoted to Web3, blockchain gaming and DeFi. Half of the funding will go toward blockchain gaming projects, Framework Ventures said.

The focus on gaming may have been catalyzed by the success of Axie Infinity, a popular play-to-earn game with millions of unique users. The growth of metaverse and NFT technology could also be positive drivers for the blockchain gaming industry.

Ava Labs: $350M in new funding

Ava Labs, the developer of the Avalanche blockchain, raised $350 million in April at a valuation of $5.25 billion. At the time of the raise, Avalanche was one of the most popular blockchains in terms of TVL, or total value locked. Of course, that’s no longer the case after crypto and DeFi entered a deep bear market.

Avalanche’s TVL currently sits below $800 million after peaking north of $12.2 billion in December 2021, according to DeFi Llama.

Near Protocol: $350M funding round

In April, Tiger Global and FTX Ventures led Near Protocol’s $350 million funding round. At the time, it was one of the largest capital raisesfor any decentralized application platform. Proceeds were earmarked for supporting Near ecosystem growth, including increasing the number of regional hubs across the globe. Near ended 2022 as the 35th largest crypto project by market capitalization.

Blockchain VC Investor Insights for August 2022 by @Cointelegraph Research

101 individual deals totaling $1.36 billion
The largest investment sector was #Web3
The average investment was $14.3 million

Read Full Report ?? https://t.co/te8FNp1OMr pic.twitter.com/gGazWdZ7CT

— Cointelegraph Research (@CointelegraphCS) September 12, 2022

Binance.US: $200M seed round

American crypto exchange Binance.US attracted notable investors, including VanEck and Circle Ventures, in raising $200 million at a pre-market valuation of $4.5 billion. Binance.US said the funding would go toward expanding its product features and operations across the United States. The company appears to have made some progress, having recently rolled out mobile payments to U.S.-based customers. The exchange also plans to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital for just over $1 billion.