PwC Report: Crypto fundraising shifts to Asia and Europe from the US

• According to a recent PwC report, fundraising in the crypto space has shifted from the US to Asia, Europe and Africa.
• PwC states that the crypto industry continued to mature in 2019 as funds started moving to later-stage companies.

According to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC, there has been a shift in crypto fundraising from the US to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC). During 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto industry obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%, as per the report.

The report indicates that APAC and EMEA regions accounted for a total of 51% of crypto fundraising and M&A deals in 2019. Notably, in 2018, the share of both these regions was 44%. On the other hand, the share of the US has reduced to 48% from 55% a year ago. This reveals that the drop in the number of funds in the crypto space was more pronounced in the US than in other regions.

According to PwC experts, the shift from the US to the regions mentioned above will continue throughout 2020.

2019 saw APAC and EMEA play a bigger role in the global crypto M&A and fundraising space. We expect to see this trend to continue in 2020. In particular, we expect to see more activity from APAC and EMEA based family offices looking at the market turbulence as a good time to enter the market.

The auditing firm concluded that the crypto industry has matured in the last year as funds started moving to later-stage firms. Back in 2018, 71% of funds were raised by seed-stage firms and in 2019, seed-stage companies received 59% of total funds.