It hasn’t been a kind year for blockchain-based startup activity. In addition to an asset-price correction during a general venture capital slowdown, web3-focused tech upstarts have also had to deal with a series of intra-industry crises that have, at times, dominated technology headlines.
The Terra/Luna mess comes to mind. As does the meltdown of Three Arrows Capital. That’s not to mention the rapid fall of FTX and its related entities.
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Amid all of the above, many folks building or investing in blockchain-based assets and protocols have kept their chins up. Evidence of that abounds — startups are still being founded and scaled in the web3 space and venture investors are still writing checks. Business as usual then, right?
Perhaps.
It’s worth recalling that in 2022, the pace at which venture capital dollars were disbursed into web3-focused companies — a broad term; I am not trying to weigh in on the crypto-versus-bitcoin argument — has declined this year. Crunchbase data examined by my alma mater Crunchbase News noted recently, for example, that after a Q4 2021 peak, capital raised by companies dealing with cryptocurrency or blockchains fell in each successive quarter through Q3 2022.