Crypto.com’s venture arm scales back activity amid dubious market valuations

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The investment arm of Crypto.com has reduced its spending on new projects in the crypto industry, as doubts emerge about whether rising values can be sustained.

According to a Bloomberg report, the investment wing of Crypto.com, known as Crypto.com Capital, which had approximately $500 million at its disposal for funding startups in the industry as of early 2022, has recently decreased its involvement in making new investments over the past year and a half.

According to Dealroom’s analysts, crypto.com has seen a significant drop in investments so far in 2023. In contrast to the 35 deals they made in the two years leading up to this year, crypto.com has only completed four deals as of now.

In a conversation with Bloomberg, crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek acknowledged a decrease in investment initiatives. He stated that currently, “project teams are proposing rather high valuations,” and crypto.com is working to keep things “reasonable.” Marszalek added that the company has invested around 70 times but didn’t specify an exact number.

Although there is generally caution in the industry, venture capital investments in this sector have recently resulted in large amounts being raised, according to Bloomberg. Notably, crypto.com Capital took part in Berachain’s funding round, which raised $100 million with a valuation of at least $1 billion for the pseudonymous founders’ blockchain network.

Other cryptocurrency firms besides Crypto.com have hit the brakes on investing, just like Andreessen Horowitz did and shifted their resources towards artificial intelligence instead.

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2024-04-17 16:20