Several big deals drove almost half of web3 venture capital activity in Q3 this year, according to research from Galaxy Digital published this week.
VCs invested $4.65 billion into crypto-focused startups and private companies across 415 deals during the period, a 290% jump from Q2, though activity is still below 2021-2022 levels, the report notes. The growth was mainly driven by later-stage companies, showing that capital continues to consolidate around established companies rather than early startups.
Just seven deals made up roughly 50% of all capital deployed into crypto firms, and included a $1 billion round for European fintech giant Revolut, the valuation of which soared to $75 billion. Another $500 million was invested in Kraken, which valued the U.S. exchange at $15 billion.
It’s worth noting that this quarter, the exchange raised another $800 million, raising its valuation to $20 billion.
Other big checks went to blockchain infrastructure platform Erebor, crypto treasury management firm Treasury, tokenized payments network Fnality, Mesh Connect, which links financial institutions to blockchains, and ZeroHash, a crypto custody platform.
Together, these seven deals raised more than $2.26 billion in Q3, accounting for 48.7% of all venture capital deployed to crypto and blockchain-related firms during the period. Even though sentiment is improving and activity is rising, Galaxy Digital suggests that the “golden era of pre-seed crypto venture investing has passed.”
A separate Q3 report from Galaxy showed that crypto lending surged last quarter, setting a new all-time high, led by DeFi lending.