‘Rebound’ in crypto venture capital suggests focus on ‘established’ teams: PitchBook
The fourth quarter saw deal values jump 13.6% but total number of deals declined
Roman Sigaev/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
Crypto venture capital spending continued to stay on the lower end throughout the end of 2024, PitchBook found in a new report.
Breaking it down by the numbers: deal values jumped to $2.4 billion in the final quarter of 2024 — a 13.6% increase from the third quarter but the number of deals declined to 351 from 411.
A look at where the capital’s going
“While the rebound in funding suggests that investors remain willing to back established teams and differentiated technologies, the continued pullback in deal count highlights growing investor selectivity — a dynamic that first became evident in Q3,” PitchBook’s Robert Le wrote.
If you’re an optimist looking for the silver lining, this could mean that we’re seeing a concentration in fewer projects that show more promise. If you’re a pessimist, then the data plays into the narrative that we’re still not back to pre-crypto winter levels.
If we look at 2023 and 2024, the data is not so different.
Last year, crypto VC spending topped out at $10 billion across 1,940 deals. In 2023, investors deployed $10.3 billion via 1,936 deals.
Values, however, were on the rise in 2024 — another point to the optimists.
Still nowhere near the 2021 and 2022 cycles
Let’s break it down a bit more: The median check cut in the seed stage jumped 20% to $3 million last year from $2.5 million. Then you have early-stage funding, which rose 26% to $4.8 million.
Late-stage, however, saw a slight drop from $6.4 million to $6.3 million, suggesting that “founders at more mature companies are raising smaller but strategically focused rounds rather than pursuing the larger checks seen in previous cycles” Le wrote.
We can pick apart the data to fit whatever narratives we want to see. But there’s no doubt that there are both positives and negatives. Don’t be surprised that crypto VC spending isn’t back to 2021 levels, and don’t expect that kind of comeback to happen overnight either.
On the other hand, the data perhaps shows some maturity happening in the crypto VC space.
That is, perhaps, a nice little break from the jailstool narrative.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
