Venture capital investments in cryptocurrency start-ups and projects totaled $4.22 billion U.S. in May, down 38% from $6.83 billion U.S. in April of this year, according to data from Dove Metrics.
However, while capital deployed into cryptocurrencies is lower on a monthly basis, levels of investment are significantly higher than last year. The amount of venture capital invested in the space in May of this year was 89% higher than the $2.23 billion U.S. deployed in May 2021.
In terms of where the seed money is being directed, blockchain infrastructure is seeing the most capital at 21%, followed by decentralized finance (DeFi), centralized finance, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Web 3.0, Dove Metrics data showed.
Analysts say that the amount of venture capital money directed to cryptocurrencies likely fell in May from April of this year due to the ongoing stock market selloff and sharp declines in the prices of leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), each of which is down more than 30% this year.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) received the least amount of venture capital investments in May at just 2% of total outlays, according to Dove Metrics, which is a database that tracks investments in the cryptocurrency space.
