Web3 investments fall 76%

In the second quarter Web3-startups attracted about $1.8 billion in venture funding — down 76% from a year earlier. Data from Crunchbase show.

The total number of deals also fell by 51% — from 659 to 322. This is the lowest level since the end of 2020.

Experts highlighted the three largest deals of the second quarter:

• Swiss project Islamic Coin raised $200 million under ABO Digital;
• Omnichain protocol LayerZero closed a funding round for $120 million led by Sequoia;
• Sam Altman
  9s Worldcoin raised $115 million under the leadership of Blockchain Capital.

In the first six months of 2023, projects attracted only $3.6 billion in funding. Last year, venture deals in the same period totalled $16 billion.

According to analysts, the decline is linked to large investors shifting to the artificial intelligence sector, which in the first half of this year attracted $25 billion.

“Perhaps we have found the bottom of the market for investor interest in Web3,” Crunchbase suggested.

The company also noted that the decline in venture funding occurred amid rising Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, analysts say the current market differs from the 2021 bull phase when “everyone had money”.

In June 2023, Binance’s venture arm invested in five “most effective projects” as part of the fifth season of its incubation program.

In July, the music Web3 project Sound raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by the crypto arm of venture-capital firm a16z.