More than $100 billion has been raised for cryptocurrency startups since the end of May 2014.
Looking back, there have been ups and downs amid regulatory uncertainty and market volatility. But over the past four years, both the ceiling and the floor have risen despite continued ups and downs.
According to TVL data provider DefiLlama, as of June 16, 2024, the total funds recorded for the cryptocurrency industry stood at $101.35 billion. In May 2014, just five years after the creation of Bitcoin (and still a year after the launch of Ethereum), the first recorded month of cryptocurrency startup funding was a relatively insignificant $17.14 million.
The crypto industry is building on it every day
Fast forward 10 years to May 2024, and sector financing reached $280.25 million for the month, considerably higher than a decade ago but well below the previous month's figure of $777.11 million.
Cryptocurrency startup funding peaked in October 2021 with more than $7 billion raised. No other month comes close as February 2022's $3.67 billion reached the second highest on record.
As recently as 2023, a recent study shows that almost half of all cryptocurrency funds came from investors in the US. The rest is split between a number of countries, with the United Kingdom (7.7 percent) and Singapore (5.7 percent) coming in second and third place, according to figures for the second quarter of 2023.
As Cointelegraph recently reported, a number of high-profile funding deals emerged in the period between the end of 2023 and the first half of 2024. Both Together.AI and cross-chain protocol Wormhole raised $225 million in late 2023, while open-source cloud storage company Totter and Eigenlayer received $101 million and $100 million in investments, respectively.
Additional high-value raises included Swan Bitcoin's $165 million raise and Blockchain.com's $110 million raise.