That’s not shocking. As TechCrunch+ reported in August, when crypto fundraising numbers surpassed most people’s expectations:
August’s good numbers might not be able to stem the bleeding, though. To put an optimistic spin on it, maybe Q3 2023 will break the trend since a few investment vehicles like Vessel Capital’s $55 million fund and MoonPay’s venture arm were launched in recent weeks and will start deploying capital soon. But it’s anybody’s guess whether investors will move quickly — or sign bigger checks.
Crunchbase’s data indicates that web3 startups raised $1.3 billion in the third quarter, down from around $2 billion in both Q1 and Q2.
Compared to the past few years, those numbers are vanishingly small. On average, web3 startups raised more than $8 billion in every quarter between Q3 2021 and Q2 2022. And then things fell off a cliff: The $4.5 billion that crypto startups raised in Q3 2022 was about half the amount raised in Q2, for reference.