Crypto Research

Compared to last week, funding has decreased $159 million from $474 million to $315 million, representing a 33% weekly decrease. Infrastructure continues to be a highlight of fundraising, accounting for almost a third of the total amount raised this week. Web3 was also a strong category this week, raising $51 million across four deals. Space and Time is tied for the largest web3 deal this week, raising $20 million in...

FED RAISED RATES ABOVE FUTURES This week, the Fed went ahead and raised interest rates another 75 bps in its attempt to stimy demand and bring down the prices of consumer goods. While the rate hike was already priced in by the market, the Fed’s revised dot plot was not. The Federal Reserve’s forecast for rates (green line below) was well above the futures market expectations. Thus, asset prices continued...

Funding increased from a slow week last week from $260M to $422M. As we’ve seen all month, crypto infrastructure remains the leading interest for VCs. Infrastructure accounted for nearly half of all funding at $208M and comprised 11 of the 24 deals this week. The largest of these infrastructure deals was Sardine, a platform that provides real-time fraud prevention services for web3 and fintech companies. Sardine raised $51.5M in a Series...

Funding was down this week, dropping from $607M to $241M, as total deals fell from 26 to 18. While infrastructure remained the highest funded sector at $158M, it declined nearly 68% from last week's huge week. The only sector that saw an increase from last week was NFTs. This was due entirely to a $54M raise for Doodles, which puts the Web3/NFT company at a whopping $704M valuation. We discuss this...

THE GOOD In what was undoubtedly one of the greatest instances of long-term collaboration and a celebration of human ingenuity, the Ethereum network finally converted from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in the early morning hours on Thursday. Contrary to most of the Testnet Merges, there were essentially no hiccups, as the execution layer seamlessly merged with the Beacon Chain and miners powered down their GPUs for the final time (or migrated...

FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS Just like that, we are less than a week away from one of the most consequential events in crypto history. If you are tired of hearing us talk about the Merge, trust us when we say we are also somewhat fatigued and are excited for what lies ahead for crypto in the post-Merge era. As of writing, the Merge is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September...

Funding had one of its best weeks of the past couple of months, with funding increasing 81% from last week to $574M. This increase was almost entirely due to an outstanding week from infrastructure – which accounted for $482M of funding and consisted of 8 deals. The largest of these deals was a raise for Mysten Lab’s Sui Blockchain, which we delve deeper into in the Deal of the Week section. This...

SO LONG SUMMER As the sun sets on a tumultuous summer, we bring you a note filled with resolve as we continue to discuss the opportunity that remains on the table for those positioning ahead of the Merge. For those wishing to review a comprehensive summary on the matter, we invite you to check out the report we released this week. Despite the recent selling pressure across risk assets, we...

Funding dropping slightly this week from $331M to $311M. The largest deal of the week was Limit Break, in a gaming deal that raised $200M and accounted for nearly two-thirds of all funding. We dive deep into Limit Break in our Deal of the Week segment below. After Metaverse/Gaming, Web3 was the next highest funded sector with three deals totaling $63M. This is the third week in a row in...

READ OUR COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF ONE OF THE MORE CONSEQUENTIAL EVENTS IN CRYPTO HISTORY