Crypto Funding: DeFi Replaces CeFi as VC Favorite

https://blockworks.co/news/defi-new-favorite-vc-funding

It’s been a quiet week in crypto funding.

A little under $91 million was handed to cryptocurrency startups — down significantly from the $254 million the week prior. 

The majority of this week’s cash haul went to decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain infrastructure and NFT companies, a trend that has been consistent over the past year, according to a recent CoinGecko report.

The report highlights that in 2022, DeFi companies received more than three times the amount of money raised in 2021 — and 41 times more than the amount the sector secured in 2020. 

Centralized finance (CeFi) funding, on the contrary, had dipped to less than one-third of the capital it locked down in 2021. 

Bear market conditions had not stopped DeFi funding into DeFi. The opposite was actually true. 

“This potentially points to DeFi as the new high growth area for the crypto industry in the next few years, with the industry maturing and an increasing number of on-chain participants,” Lim Yu Qian, a growth associate at CoinGecko, wrote. “In comparison, the decrease in CeFi funding likely reflects the sector reaching a degree of saturation.”

So, who were some of the companies that landed fresh funding this week?

Few and Far

Few and Far — a digital collectibles platform based in the British Virgin Islands — secured $10.5 million from Pantera Capital, the established crypto investment manager that led the round. 

Other investors include Cypher Capital, Huobi Ventures, Hypersphere, Metaweb, Mantis Partners and K5 Global.

Pantera General Partner Paul Veradittakit said in a blog post that he and his firm are “proud investors in Few and Far and support their mission to bring NFTs to the mainstream.”

“The market has recently seen a systemic shift in royalties. Few and Far’s technologies solve this and protect IP holders’ revenue models,” Veradittakit said. “This is gaining interest from the world’s leading brands that can no longer work with the likes of OpenSea.”

The startup’s latest funding has been designated for additional hires, as well as product improvements and related initiatives.