Coinbase Ventures Leads the Power Players in Crypto Investments Through Its Exchange

• Messari CEO Ryan Selkis highlights 33 investors active in crypto deals this year.
• Coinbase Ventures tops the list with 329 investments in crypto startups.
• Animoca Brands ranks 2nd with a focus on gaming, while NGC Ventures ranks 3rd with a focus on smart contract platform.

Ryan Selkis, Founder and CEO of crypto data and research firm Messari, recently shared on Twitter (X) that 33 investors have been actively involved in multiple crypto deals throughout this year. Among these investors, Selkis highlighted the “top 20 Chad deployers” in the cryptocurrency space.

On top of the list is Coinbase Ventures, the corporate venture capital (VC) arm of Coinbase, a leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange that aims to invest in seed-stage cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. So far, Coinbase Ventures have made an impressive 329 investments in over 295 companies within the crypto sector. Notably, their primary focus has been on supporting exchanges and providing seed funding, with a fund round amounting to $8 million.

At the second spot is Animoca Brands, a metaverse and gaming VC firm that focuses on driving digital property rights to gamers and internet users through NFTs. Animoca Brands has invested a substantial fund round amount of $5.5 million across 240 entities, with a particular emphasis on the gaming sector.

On the top 3 is NGC Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm that seeks to invest in web 3.0 infrastructure startups and projects. NGC Ventures has made a total of 200 rounds of investments in over 166 companies. This amounted to $3 million worth of fund round, with the smart contract platform as the most funded sector.

Completing the list are several other well-known VC firms in the crypto world, including Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Shima Capital, and Polygon, which have engaged in a notable 180, 176, 169, and 97 investments, respectively.

Selkis recently shared that he doesn’t believe the prolonged cryptocurrency market downturn is ending soon. He thinks it could get worse and has warned crypto participants to expect more challenges. In his Twitter post, he said:

We’re approaching max pain. Bear markets last longer and go deeper than we want them to. Need a couple of capitulations, then chop, then rebirth.

Selkis believes the current situation is even worse than what was observed in 2019. Despite some improvements in investor sentiment towards Bitcoin in 2023 compared to the previous year, Selkis still sees the overall crypto sentiment as the worst he’s ever seen, resembling feelings from 2015.