January crypto VC roundup: A record-breaking month with nearly $5 billion in investments

This article is part of a monthly series from The Block that takes a closer look at where the most recent venture capital investments have been flowing.

Venture capital money continued to flood into the crypto industry in January. In fact, the nearly $5 billion in new funding broke a monthly record.

Around 200 crypto startups secured cash in January despite the broader crypto market slowdown.

 The price of bitcoin has dropped from around $60,000 in early December to about $40,000 currently. Nonetheless, funding rounds kept getting bigger, especially for later-stage companies. There were 15 mega-rounds of at least $100 million, with the biggest one coming from Fireblocks, which raised $550 million.

Overall, the crypto trading, custody, and financial services categories received the most funding. The NFT and gaming vertical also secured ample cash, but it has cooled off relative to the past few months. The crypto infrastructure category was also very popular among VCs. 

Below is the January roundup — organized by category — of all the VC fundraises worth more than $10 million announced during the month.

Exchanges, custodians and banks 

There were 11 raises larger than $10 million by firms specifically focused on crypto trading, custody, and banking. 

Institutional crypto custodian Fireblocks raised $550 million in a mega Series E round and is now valued at $8 billion. D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital co-led the round, with General Atlantic, CapitalG (Alphabet's independent growth fund), Altimeter, and ParaFi Capital also participating.

Crypto exchange FTX raised $400 million in a Series C funding round and is now valued at $32 billion. Temasek, Paradigm, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global backed the round.

FTX's American affiliate, FTX US, also raised $400 million in a Series A round valuing the company at $8 billion. This was FTX US's first funding round, which saw backing from Paradigm, Temasek, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

iTrustCapital, a platform that allows users to buy crypto through their individual retirement accounts, raised $125 million in a Series A round. Left Lane Capital led the round. iTrustCapital capital did not disclose participating investors. 

SEBA, the Swiss crypto bank founded by former UBS employees, raised around $120 million in a Series C funding round. A consortium of three investment firms — Altive, Ordway Selections, and Summer Capital — and DeFi Technologies co-led the round. Other participants included Alameda Research and Julius Baer.

Bahrain-based crypto exchange Rain raised $110 million in a Series B round co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Paradigm. Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Cadenza Ventures, and CMT Digital.

Swiss crypto bank Sygnum raised $90 million in a Series B funding round at a $800 million post-money valuation. Sun Hung Kai & Co. led the round, with additional participants including Animoca Brands, SBI Holdings and SCB 10X. 

Alto, an retirement investment platform that helps invest in alternative assets, including crypto, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round. Advance Venture Partners led the round, with Unusual Ventures, Acrew Capital, Foundation Capital and Coinbase Ventures also participating.

Domain Money, a new crypto and stocks investment platform launched by former Marcus (a Goldman Sachs company) executive Adam Dell raised $33 million. Investors included Bessemer Ventures and Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff.  

Eaglebrook Advisors, which helps financial advisors invest in crypto on behalf of their clients, raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. Castle Island Ventures and Brewer Lane Ventures co-led the round, with Gemini Frontier Fund, Jump Capital, Ric Edelman, and several others participating.

French crypto trading platform Coinhouse raised $17 million in Series B funding. True Global Ventures led the round. ConsenSys was a participant. 

NFTs, and gaming and the metaverse

January saw 12 raises larger than $10 million for firms explicitly focused on NFTs or blockchain gaming.

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming company and an investor in NFT-related startups, raised $358.88 million in new funding and is now valued at over $5 billion. Liberty City Ventures led Animoca's funding, with Soros Fund Management, Sequoia China 10T Holdings also participating.

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea raised $300 million in a Series C funding round at a $13.3 billion post-money valuation. Paradigm and Coatue led the round with participation from several new and existing investors. 

Autograph, an NFT platform by American football champion Tom Brady, raised $170 million in Series B funding co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins. Lightspeed partner Nicole Quinn and Katie Haun’s firm also invested. 

NFT venture studio Metaversal raised $50 million in a Series A round. CoinFund and Foxhaven Asset Management co-led the round. Additional participants included Dapper Labs, Digital Currency Group, Franklin Templeton and Rarible.

Metaplex Foundation, the developer of the Solana-based NFT protocol Metaplex, raised $46 million. Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto co-led the funding, with Solana Ventures, Alameda Research and Animoca Brands participating. 

Fan Controlled Football (FCF), an NFT-based sports fan engagement platform, raised $40 million in a Series A round led by Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital. Other investors include Gemini Frontier Fund, Jump Crypto, Spartan Capital and NGC Ventures. 

Koji, an app store for content creators, raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Jump Capital. Koji's Link in Bio product gives creators on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms new ways to engage audiences, connect with supporters, and monetize, including through NFTs.

Digital Entertainment Asset, a Singapore-based play-to-earn game developer, raised $12 million in seed funding. Among the investors were JAFCO Investment Ltd. and Spartan Group. 

NFT startup Unblocked raised $10 million in seed funding. Investors included Tiger Global, Penske Media Corp. (which owns media properties including Billboard and Rolling Stone), Dapper Labs and Jay-Z's Marcy Venture Partners. Unblocked uses NFTs to connect fan communities with music and entertainment brands.

BreederDAO, a play-to-earn gaming-focused DAO which helps create NFTs and other in-game assets, raised $10 million in seed funding. Delphi Digital and a16z co-led the round, and participating investors included Hashed, Mechanism Capital, Sfermion and The LAO.

POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol), raised $10 million in seed funding led by Archetype and Sapphire Sport. Other investors included Collab Currency, 1KX, 6th Man Ventures, and Delphi Digital. POAP is an Ethereum-based platform that event organizers can use to give out attendance badges in the form of NFTs.

Indian video game developer nCore Games raised $10 million in a new funding round led by Animoca Brands and Galaxy Interactive. Polygon and Hyperedge Capital also participated in the round. nCore's now plans to release its own NFT-focused games.

Don't forget DeFi and Web3 

There were 13 raises that surpassed $10 million for DeFi projects in January, with NEAR and Phantom raising the biggest rounds. 

The NEAR Foundation raised $150 million in a new funding round. Three-Arrows Capital led the round. Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, Alameda Research and Circle Ventures also participated.

Solana wallet Phantom raised $109 million in a Series B funding round and is now valued at $1.2 billion. Paradigm led the round, with a16z, Variant Fund, Jump Capital, DeFi Alliance and Solana Ventures also participating.

Serum's community foundation raised $75 million in a token round. Tiger Global, Commonwealth Asset Management, Tagus Capital, and several other investors backed the round. Serum is a Solana-based decentralized exchange and liquidity infrastructure provider. 

The Graph Foundation, which operates a protocol for indexing and querying blockchain data, raised $50 million in a token round. Tiger Global led the round. FinTech Collective and Fenbushi Capital also invested.

Crypto incubator and accelerator DeFi Alliance rebranded itself as Alliance DAO and raised $50 million from over 300 contributors. These include Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong, and OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer.

Goldfinch, a decentralized credit protocol for crypto loans without collateral, raised $25 million in funding led by a16z. Goldfinch says crypto lending today is overcollateralized, meaning for every $1 someone borrows, they must first put up around $1.50 of another asset they already own. Removing this collateral requirement will help crypto break out into global debt markets, according to Goldfinch. 

Astar Network (formerly Plasm Network), a multichain smart contract platform, raised $22 million from several investors, including Polychain Capital, Alameda Research, Alchemy Ventures, GSR, and Polkadot creator Gavin Wood. Astar connects multiple Layer 1 blockchains such as Ethereum and Cosmos to Polkadot. 

Livepeer, a decentralized video streaming platform built on Ethereum, raised $20 million in a Series B extension round. Investors included Alan Howard, Tiger Global, Digital Currency Group, Northzone, and Warburg Serres.  

Chingari, an Indian short-video platform akin to TikTok, raised $15 million in a funding round from Republic Capital, OKX and others. Chingari is building a Solana-based network and its native GARI token to reward its creators and users. 

Proof of Learn, a "learn-to-earn” platform, raised $15 million in a funding round led by New Enterprise Associates. Other investors in the round included Animoca Brands, gumi Cryptos Capital, and Infinity Ventures Crypto.

WOO Network, a liquidity provider to exchanges and DeFi protocols, raised $12 million from Binance Labs. 

LinksDAO, founded by The Block's founder Mike Dudas, raised $11.7 million by selling NFT memberships. LinksDAO is creating a golf and leisure club and aims to buy a golf course. 

Solana-based DeFi project Hubble Protocol raised $10 million. Investors included Three Arrows Capital, Digital Currency Group, ParaFi Capital, Jump Capital, and CMS Holdings.

Tools of the trade

The remaining 17 fundraises from January above $10 million don't fit neatly into a category. That said, they tend to involve firms developing various sorts of tools — tools for traders, companies and blockchain developers.

Crypto staking services provider Blockdaemon raised $207 million in a Series C round and is now valued at $3.25 billion. The round was co-led by Sapphire and Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors, including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Boldstart Ventures and Matrix Capital Management.

Lukka, a crypto data services and enterprise software tools provider, raised $110 million in a Series E funding round and is now valued at $1.3 billion. Marshall Wace led the round, with additional investment from Miami International Holdings, Soros Fund Management, Liberty City Ventures and S&P Global. 

Zero Hash, an infrastructure firm that helps companies integrate crypto products into their platforms, raised $105 million in a Series D funding round. Its investors include Bain Capital, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures and NYCA Partners. 

CoinTracker, a crypto startup that helps users report and file taxes, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Accel led the round. Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Intuit Ventures, Y Combinator Continuity and Seven Seven Six Ventures also participated.

BCB Group, a crypto-dedicated payments services provider, raised $60 million in a Series A funding round. Investors included Foundation Capital, PayU, Digital Currency Group, Wintermute and Pantera Capital.  

BlockFills, a crypto startup that provides institutional trading services such as price discovery, electronic order matching, order routing, and trade reconciliation, raised $37 million in Series A funding. Investors included Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, CME Ventures, Simplex Ventures and Nexo. 

Australian blockchain software company Chrono.Tech raised $30 million in a funding round led by venture capitalist Mark Carnegie and an unknown European family office. Chrono.Tech provides blockchain-based tools for the recruitment industry. Its flagship product LaborX, for instance, helps freelancers receive payments in cryptocurrencies. 

Xage, an enterprise blockchain firm, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Piva led the round, with Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Momenta and Valor Equity Partners also participating.

DeFi API startup Conduit raised $17 million in a funding round led by Portage Ventures. FinVC, Gemini Frontier Fund, and ex-a16z partner Rex Salisbury also participated in the round. Conduit creates APIs that it says allow traditional financial institutions to easily integrate high-yield DeFi accounts into their existing product offerings. 

Web3Auth (formerly Torus Labs), a crypto infrastructure provider focused on authentication services, raised a $13 million round led by Sequoia Capital India. Other investors in the round included Union Square Ventures, Multicoin Capital, FTX and Decentralab.

Crypto staking infrastructure provider Stader Labs raised $12.5 million in a new funding round led byThree Arrows Capital. Accel, Blockchain.com, Accomplice, GoldenTree Asset Management, Amber and Figment  also joined the round.

Cion Digital, a crypto infrastructure startup building tools for traditional financial institutions, raised $12 million in a seed funding round. Green Visor Capital and 645 Ventures co-led the round, with Cota Capital, Epic Ventures, Hourglass Capital Partners, BAT Ventures, Greycroft and Ulu Ventures also participating.

Israeli blockchain security startup Redefine raised $11 million in a seed round. Ribbit Capital led the round, with Jump Capital and ParaFi Capital also participating.  

Superdao, a DAO infrastructure provider, raised $10.5 million in a seed funding round led by SignalFire. Other investors included AllianceDAO, Pear VC and One Block Capital. 

RAILGUN, a privacy-focused protocol, raised $10 million from Digital Currency Group. RAILGUN uses zero-knowledge proof technology to let users privately trade across blockchain networks. 

Aleph.im, a decentralized storage and computing network, raised $10 million in a round led by Stratos Technologies. It provides decentralized application developers access to database solutions. Its services can be compared with centralized cloud computing services providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

ChromaWay, a Sweden-based blockchain infrastructure startup that helps developers build decentralized applications, raised $10 million in a funding round led by True Global Ventures. One of ChromaWay's main focuses is blockchain gaming applications. 

Pocket Network, a crypto infrastructure firm that helps integrate blockchains into applications, raised $10 million. Investors included Republic Capital, RockTree Capital, Arrington Capital and C2 Ventures.

New crypto VC funds

Venture capital firms have to raise funds, too. The largest round in January came from FTX, Ribbit Capital, and Pantera Capital. Overall, the month saw nearly 14 new fund launches by both existing and new firms. 

Crypto exchange FTX launched a $2 billion venture fund, one of the largest to date in the crypto space. Amy Wu, a former partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, will lead FTX's fund, along with the firm's mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and gaming initiatives. 

Ribbit Capital, an active crypto investor, raised $1.1 billion for its seventh flagship fund. Its portfolio companies include Coinbase, FTX and Robinhood.

Pantera Capital has received over $1 billion in total commitments for its new fund. That's nearly double the amount from its initial target of $600 million for the fund.

​​South Korean conglomerate SK Group said its three entities — SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SK Square — will create an $833 million fund to invest in various tech startups, including blockchain and the metaverse.

London-based Blossom Capital raised a new $432 million fund. It plans to allocate a full third of the fund to crypto-powered firms.

Crypto.com Capital expanded the size of its fund to $500 million, from the $200 million it announced in March 2021. The firm, which recently hired former TechCrunch journalist Jon Russell as its general partner, looks to continue investing in DeFi, NFT and blockchain gaming startups.

Singapore-based VC firm Blockchain Founders Fund, founded by Aly Madhavji, a former partner at Draper Goren Holm, raised $75 million for its second fund. The fund plans to invest in various crypto, blockchain and metaverse projects.

Early-stage venture firm Inflection raised $40.7 million for its new fund called Mercury. The fund's limited partners include a16z's Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, ShapShift's Erik Voorhees, and Galaxy Digital. Inflection Mercury plans to invest in "open economy" such as DeFi, NFTs, DAOs and web3. 

Mechanism Capital launched a $100 million fund dedicated to the play-to-earn gaming sector. The Mechanism Play fund is led by Steve Cho, a former Apple App Store games business manager. 

Decentral Park Capital announced the launch of a $75 million fund to invest in DeFi projects focused on a multi-chain approach.

Crypto exchange BitMart launched a $50 million fund to invest in and incubate NFT and gaming-related startups. 

A new VC firm named Lightshift Capital debuted with a $30 million early-stage fund to invest in DeFi startups. The fund’s limited partners include Polkadot creator Gavin Wood, a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Digital Currency Group. 

Thailand-listed Country Group Holdings entered the crypto sector through its new subsidiary Pi Ventures, which plans to invest up to 500 million baht (over $15 million) in crypto projects and digital technology companies. 

Vietnam-based mobile game publisher Funtap launched a $10 million investment fund for blockchain-focused tech startups.

Andreessen Horowitz reportedly plans to raise up to $4.5 billion for two new crypto funds. 

Katie Haun, a former partner at a16z, is reportedly looking to raise $900 million for a pair of crypto investment funds for his new VC firm KRH Partners.  

Dragonfly Capital is raising $500 million for a new fund, according to a regulatory filing.

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