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 Despite liquid crypto prices rising, private market funding remains lackluster thus far in Q4. Aggregate funding fell 29% week-over-week, decreasing from $155 million to $109 million, while deal count fell by over 31% from 22 to 15. Infrastructure was the leading category from both a financing and deal count perspective and included our Deal of the Week, Noble. The largest deal was Monkey Tilt, which raised $30 million...
WEEKLY RECAP Total funding has rebounded from last week’s abnormally low amount, increasing 251% from $44 million to $154 million. Infrastructure was the leading category, raising $99 million across 13 deals. This week’s largest deal fell into the Infrastructure bucket; 0G Labs, a former Deal of The Week, raised $40 million in a Seed round, bringing its total funding to $75 million. From a deal stage perspective, funding was concentrated...
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly funding sharply declined, falling 81% from $181 million to $35 million, with total deal count dropping 31% from 26 to 18. The decreases can potentially be attributed to projects foregoing announcements in light of a week filled with U.S. election headlines. 77% of funding fell into the Infrastructure bucket, totaling $27 million across seven deals. Similarly, funding was concentrated in Pre-Seed and Seed deal stages, collectively comprising...
WEEKLY RECAP Weekly funding increased 65% from $103 million to $170 million despite the deal count falling 15% from 26 to 22. Eight companies raised $10 million or more this week, in contrast to just 10 companies combined in the last two weeks. The bulk of funding was concentrated in the Infrastructure category, with projects raising $112 million across 12 deals. DeFi was the second most funded category, with $48...
