"This looks like a job for Su… KPMG". Photo: Getty Images
‘Exploding globally’: This year’s crypto investments have doubled 2020’s, says accountancy giant KPMG
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Crypto and blockchain investments are booming this year, according to a new report from global accounting firm KPMG.
As if you couldn’t already tell from reading this section, or maybe from looking at your FTX Blockfolio app every five minutes if you already have skin in the game. But, we guess it’s nice to hear it from an official, traditional source, as well as moon-shooting dudes on YouTube and Reddit.
The report, titled Pulse of Fintech H1 2021, covers various global investment activity and highlights the exponential investor interest in crypto and blockchain as one of the top fintech trends for 2021 .
“Cryptocurrency and blockchain are exploding globally,” said KPMG Global Fintech co-leader Anton Ruddenklau, adding: “There’s so much happening in the space right now, between the eCNY project running in China, Facebook’s Diem, a number of ecosystem initiatives — not to mention all the different trading platforms raising money.
“Digital currencies and virtual assets are a big, big topic of conversation. I think for the rest of this year at least, crypto will be a very hot ticket for investors.”
That’s bearing in mind that there are close to 9000 different cryptos listed on CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, most of which are simply not worth the time of day, but we definitely get his point.
Some of the key findings from the KPMG report include:
• The first six months of 2021 saw 548 major investment activities within crypto/blockchain, including venture capitals, private equities, and mergers and acquisitions. In 2020, there were 580 in total.
• The total value of those H1 2021 investments is US$8.7 billion, doubling the total value of 2020’s investment deals, worth US$4.3 billion.
• VC action has been particularly hot. Companies that raised more than US$100 million in funding rounds in 2021 include BlockFi, Paxos, Blockchain.com and Bitso.
• Rising investor awareness is a key driver for the growth. Investors now have “a much better understanding not only about crypto assets, but also the operational and procedural side of crypto.”
• KPMG predicts the crypto space will continue to mature, and that there will be “stronger separation between cryptocurrencies and the use of blockchain technologies”.
• Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will contribute to the “evolution of crypto exchanges”.
• There will be further focus on regulatory frameworks, particularly in India, which could regulate cryptocurrencies as an asset class in the second half of 2021.
