Venture Funding for Blockchain and Crypto Companies Reaches $900 Million in Q3 2020

Venture funding into blockchain and crypto companies totaled $897.7 million in Q3 2020. The funds went into 212 startups in the industry.

According to the research data analyzed and published by Comprar Acciones, August was the peak month during the quarter, with a total of $367.48 million in funding.

Moreover, based on a report by Outlier Ventures, crypto funding reached $280 million in August. It thus accounted for more than two-thirds of the total funding. Of the total number of deals in August, DeFi & Fintech was the leading vertical, accounting for 62%.

$9 Billion Flows into Ethereum Thanks to DeFi, Highest Inflow Ever

As a result of the yield farming movement and decentralized finance (DeFi) hype, CoinGecko revealed that $9.15 billion flowed into Ethereum during Q3 2020. This was the largest capital inflow into the blockchain since its inception.

Tether, one of the most popular stablecoins, grew its market cap by $5.9 billion during the quarter, a 61% rise quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). US Digital Coin (USDC) market cap grew by $1.5 billion, a 157% QoQ. For Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), the growth was an impressive 1,766% following a $946 million increase.

For the top 10 decentralized exchanges (DEX), there was a 700% increase in trading volume, from $3.8 billion in July to $30.4 billion in September. While DEX trading volume grew by an average of 197% month-on-month in the quarter, CEX volume grew by 35%.

Uniswap and Curve were the dominant crypto exchanges accounting for 80% of trading volume during Q3 2020. Overall trading volumes for CEX and DEX platforms shot up by $155 billion or 88%.

On the other hand, DeFi tokens outperformed the crypto market from Q1 to Q3 2020. Among the top performers was LEND, which grew by 3,177% year-to-date (YTD) around the end of September. YFI, on the other hand, grew by 2,908% while UMA soared by 2,819%. Comparatively, Bitcoin and Ethereum posted 50% YTD gains in the same duration, while Ripple grew by 25%.