Across the Block from Coinbase Ventures sheds mild on key traits in crypto. Written by Connor Dempsey, Ryan Yi & Justin Mart.
2021 was a historic yr for each crypto markets and enterprise capital funding. Pushed partially by institutional inflows, Bitcoin soared to new highs to start out the yr, all the market adopted go well with nearing a file $3T market cap in November. In the meantime, $30B in enterprise funding poured into the area: greater than all prior years of crypto’s historical past mixed.
2021 was additionally a file yr for Coinbase Ventures, with just below 150 offers, averaging a brand new deal each 2.5 days. On a cumulative foundation, greater than 90% of the capital Coinbase Ventures has deployed since inception was deployed in 2021, reflecting an accelerated tempo of exercise in our fourth yr of operation.
Coinbase Ventures is among the many most lively company enterprise funds in operation, with the mandate of accelerating financial freedom world wide by supporting the main entrepreneurs and tasks within the ecosystem. In the end, we see crypto and Web3 as a rising tide that lifts all boats, Coinbase included, and Coinbase Ventures is devoted to creating investments which are essential to the area’s total progress.
On this version of Round The Block, we’ll peer into the long run by way of the lens of Coinbase Ventures’ 2021 exercise. (Find out how Ventures aligns with Coinbase and its prospects right here).
Coinbase Enterprise’s portfolio now consists of over 250 corporations, and broadly breaks down throughout the next verticals.
Let’s break down the pie, slice by slice.
Protocols & Web3 infrastructure
2021 noticed crypto attain new heights by way of utility, notably within the nascent “Web3” area, which we typically consider as a trustless, permissionless, and decentralized web that leverages blockchain expertise: basically, the plumbing that underpins the whole lot from DeFi, NFTs, metaverses, and DAOs. On the backside of the Web3 stack sit Layer 1 protocols, led by Ethereum, however 2021 noticed Web3 start to develop to different Layer 1s like Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Terra, Movement, amongst dozens of others.
To assist scale current Layer 1s and allow greater throughput, we supported Layer 2 options together with Matter Labs, Optimism, and Arbitrum. As a number of Layer 1s have proliferated, so has the demand to securely and simply transfer funds throughout blockchains. As such, Ventures’ was lively in investing in tasks working to facilitate this cross-chain motion, together with Biconomy, Movr, LayerZero, Chainflip, and extra. We additionally noticed and funded new protocols working to convey higher privateness to Web3 by way of numerous zero-knowledge options (Aleo, MobileCoin, and a 3rd TBA).
We had been additionally lively throughout the infrastructure layer of the Web3 stack: primitives that type the spine of person purposes. Particularly, applied sciences that introduce requirements to Web3 for information storage (Arweave), messaging (XMTP), and id (Spruce). Provided that 2021 was a nice yr for DAOs, we had been lively throughout infrastructure tasks centered on enabling DAO creation/incorporation (Syndicate, Utopia), discovery/participation (Snapshot/Consensys’ Metamask), payroll/operations (Diagonal), and coordination (Orca).
Given investments revamped the yr, in 2022 we anticipate to see Web3 mature throughout a number of Layer 1 and Layer 2 ecosystems with UX that extra carefully resembles Web2 purposes. Moreover, we anticipate to see the continued flourishing of DAOs within the yr forward, in addition to higher privateness options for Web3 purposes.
DeFi
Whereas 2021 hinted at a future the place Web3 exercise takes place throughout a number of Layer 1 and Layer 2 platforms, DeFi exercise already started its migration over the course of the yr. A lot of this exercise happened inside EVM appropriate chains (Avalanche, Polygon, BSC and so on.) and Layer 2 environments (Arbitrum, Optimism). In the meantime, non-EVM chains (Solana, Terra, Cosmos, Polkadot and so on.) additionally noticed spectacular progress.
We’re believers within the multichain future, and though we remained most lively inside Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem, we additionally invested throughout Solana (Orca, Solend), Cosmos (Umee), Algorand (People), Polkadot (Acala, Moonbeam), NEAR, Polygon and Bitcoin. The multichain way forward for France seems vibrant, with nearly each monetary primitive one might think about in growth.
Whereas DeFi made nice strides in 2021, exploits of those nascent monetary protocols hampered the ecosystem, amounting to over $10B. Higher person safety stays paramount, which is why Coinbase Ventures supported DeFi insurance coverage monetary protocols together with Neptune Mutual, Threat Harbor, Cozy Finance, and Nayms.
In 2022, the good contract wars will rage on as Layer 1s and Layer 2s combat for person and developer mindshare. Hacking dangers will persist however we’ll see elevated maturity in DeFi insurance coverage options. Lastly, it’s shaping as much as be the yr we see establishments enter the fray by way of “permissioned DeFi”, full with KYC’d person swimming pools and on-chain attestations.
NFT / Metaverse
2021 was additionally a yr that noticed the speedy rise of NFTs and renewed curiosity in “the metaverse.” Tasks like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Membership took NFT gross sales from $200M in 2020 to a staggering $25B in 2021. In the meantime, NFT based mostly sport Axie Infinity put play-to-earn gaming on the map as folks within the Philippines had been capable of flip the sport right into a full time job. And elsewhere, Fb’s rebrand to “Meta” catalyzed pleasure across the metaverse.
Largely, NFTs spent 2021 of their “V0” section, with most exercise centered round easy shopping for and promoting on marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible. 2021 additionally noticed NFTs emerge throughout L1/L2 ecosystems resembling Movement (MomentRanks, Everlasting GG) and Solana (Magic Eden, Solanalysis).
Ventures has now invested closely within the NFT “utility” section — one during which NFT property develop to new kinds of mediums resembling audio (Royal, Mint Songs, Sturdy), avatars (Genies, OFF), AR (Anima, Jambo), and gaming/GameFi (Ancient8, GuildFi). This may enable fascinating social options to be layered on high of the programmatic recognition of NFTs (Gallery).
These NFT and gaming investments can broadly be bucketed with the metaverse, as they inch us nearer to a potential future the place we’ve got a sequence of decentralized, interconnected digital worlds with absolutely functioning economies. In 2022, search for a number of recent gaming titles and purposes, together with these launched by conventional gaming studios. Additionally anticipate metaverse purposes to develop from each decentralized initiatives like Decentraland and the Sandbox and incumbent Web2 corporations like Microsoft/Activision and Meta.
Platform & Developer Instruments
With out builders, there can be no crypto or Web3 purposes for anybody to make use of. As such, assist for the tooling that builders have to make crypto and Web3 thrive is a vital a part of advancing the ecosystem.
Over the yr, we adopted the “developer journey” from staging (Tenderly), collaboration (Radicle), question (Covalent), audit (Certik, OpenZeppelin, Certora) and real-time simulation/monitoring (Chaos Labs, Gauntlet). We additionally invested in developer toolkits like API suppliers (Alchemy, Consensys’ Infura).
We anticipate the trade’s collective funding made in dev tooling to pay dividends within the years to return. With the entire builders pouring into Web3 from Web2, they’re sorely wanted.
CeFi
A lot of the worth that finds its method into crypto initially does so by way of centralized platforms, and as such, centralized finance (CeFi) stays an lively class. We consider that crypto is inherently international and there’s a want for localized platforms that function onramps throughout distinct regulatory, banking, and infrastructure regimes. This is the reason in 2021, we had been lively traders in crypto monetary service suppliers in all places from LatAm, Pan-Africa, MENA, South Asia, Europe, and North America.
The yr additionally noticed a transfer in direction of conventional automobiles for crypto publicity — IRAs, IAs, ETFs, Trusts, and so on. — punctuated by the approval of the BTC Futures ETF within the US. Coinbase Ventures actively invested in asset managers and brokers together with AltoIRA, Onramp, Valkyrie, ForUsAll, Ledn, and One River Digital. We had been additionally traders in numerous CeFi “picks and shovels”, with follow-on investments in TaxBit and CoinTracker, which automate crypto tax reporting throughout platforms. As well as, we supported tasks serving to startups combine crypto with conventional fintech choices, together with Paxos, Tribal Credit score, and Meow.
2021 set the stage for extra regulated and compliant methods for institutional and particular person investor capital to realize crypto publicity by way of centralized exchanges and conventional funding automobiles and fintech platforms in each the US and overseas. We anticipate this to be an ongoing theme in 2022.
2022 & past
Macro uncertainty has costs falling sharply into the brand new yr, however one factor is for certain: this isn’t the crypto ecosystem of 2018. Between the perfect performing asset class of the final decade being far more accessible to traders world wide, the maturation of the Web3 stack, and an explosion of thrilling new use circumstances throughout DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, gaming, and the metaverse, this trade seems to be hitting escape velocity.
Simply because the increase of 2017 fueled investments that laid the groundwork for the purposes which are thriving at this time, what do you suppose the file $30B funneled into crypto and Web3 in 2021 will yield? The market seems unsure within the close to time period, however the future seems brighter then it’s ever been.
