Alphabet leads all public companies in crypto startup investments with $1.56 billion

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(Kitco News) – At a time when the majority of public-facing conversations about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies revolve around price and the latest government regulation, some of the world’s largest companies are investing billions of dollars to develop future use cases.

Data published in a recent report by blockchain intelligence firm Blockdata shows that 40 companies invested in blockchain-related companies between September 2021 and June 2022.

Google’s parent company Alphabet topped the list in terms of amount invested, with $1.56 billion invested in blockchain companies during the specified time period. BlackRock and Morgan Stanley rounded out the top three with $1.17 billion and $1.1 million respectively invested.

Public companies that are most active in investing in blockchain companies. Source: Block data

Samsung was the most active investor during this period, investing $979 million in a total of 13 companies, followed by UOB with seven investments worth a total of $204 million. Financial giant Citigroup invested in six blockchain-related companies, while Goldman Sachs took a stake in five.

Overall, the top 40 listed companies invested a total of $6 billion in 61 blockchain/crypto startups in 71 investment rounds between September 2021 and June 2022.

Notably absent from the list above is MasterCard, which was among the top three active investors based on the number of deals it participated in before September 2021. Since then, the company has “primarily conducted incubator and accelerator programs for four blockchain startups.” according to Blockdata, along with the acquisition of crypto intelligence company CipherTrace in September 2021 as a way to strengthen its cybersecurity solutions.

Areas of interest for investment

There were more than 20 industries and 65 use cases represented by the blockchain startups covered in this report.

Nonfungible token (NFT) solutions were the most prominent, with a total of 19 companies from this sector represented, and many of these projects belong to the fields of gaming, art and entertainment, and distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Twelve of the companies are marketplaces, some of which support the buying and selling of NFTs, and 11 of the organizations provide gaming services. According to Blockdata, “There is significant overlap between use cases for the companies offering NFT solutions, marketplaces and games.”

“The popularity of NFTs can mainly be seen as an opportunistic move by companies looking to capitalize on trends to meet where their customers transact. The startups raising capital enable trading in decentralized worlds by developing platforms where users can buy and sell NFTs, including virtual land, apparel and other brands,” Blockdata said.

Some of the other prominent use cases that are popular investments include blockchain services, infrastructure, development platforms, scaling solutions, and custody solutions.

Custody solutions were some of the top-grossing startups. Fireblocks signed a $550 million deal involving Alphabet, while Circle raised $550 million in an investment round with participation from BlackRock, and Anchorage Digital raised $350 million in a deal that included PayPal and BlackRock.

Samsung demonstrated the most comprehensive investment strategy, investing in a total of 15 different use cases across some of the most popular sectors, including blockchain services, development platforms, NFT and social networks.