SBF Comes to the Rescue
- This week was an interesting one in funding from both venture capital and debt financing. After the insolvency of the high-profile hedge fund, 3 Arrows Capital, several crypto lending giants, including BlockFi and Voyager who lent money to 3AC, were left with potential losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. This caused the widespread panic of contagion risks until FTX and Alameda Research (each of which are companies founded by Sam Bankman-Fried or “SBF”) stepped in to provide capital. FTX signed a term sheet this week with BlockFi for a $250M revolving line of credit, and Alameda entered into a $500M loan with Voyager consisting of $350M USDC and 15,250 BTC. These credit facilities are presumably to help the lending platforms stay afloat and have ample liquidity among customers withdrawing their funds. FTX also made moves on the M&A front, acquiring Canadian trading platform, Bitvo, and Embed Financial technologies, a stock clearing business. This demonstrates just how well-capitalized FTX and Alameda Research are in an industry where many companies are currently facing liquidity issues.
Reports you may have missed
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly funding increased 67% from $100 million to $167 million, while the deal count rose a modest 8% from 26 to 28. Infrastructure was the clear winner this week, raising $110 million across 14 deals, representing two-thirds of total funding and half of the total deal count. There were two CeFi deals totaling $9 million in funding, which remains a laggard category, tallying only 55 deals so far...
WEEKLY RECAP Funding activity bounced back from last week’s muted totals, with total funding rising 44% from $67 million to $96 million and deal count increasing 56% from 16 to 25. DeFi was the leading category from both a fundraising and deal count perspective, raising $44 million across 11 deals. This week's largest deal was a DeFi investment – Huma Finance raised $28 million in a Series A round to...
WEEKLY RECAP Funding totals were low in a short week following the Labor Day holiday. Total funding fell by 66% from $193 million to $67 million, while total deal count fell 47% from 30 to 16. Only three categories tallied disclosed funding this week, with Gaming being the leader at $39 million. Infrastructure was the leader from a deal count perspective, with five deals comprising 31% of the total. There...
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly totals in fundraising and deal count showed slight decreases week over week. Total funding fell 7% from $199 million to $185 million, and deal count dropped 11% from 27 to 24. Infrastructure has dominated the month of August, making up 65% of the month’s funding and comprising 70% of this week’s total. Gaming and DeFi made up the majority of the remaining funding, representing 14% and 11%...