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The State of European Crypto Startups – 2023

A first-of-its-kind look at the start of the European crypto startup ecosystem and venture capital trends, in partnership with RockawayX.

European crypto startups raise record levels of funding in 2022

European VC investment in crypto startups reached an all-time high of  $5.7B in 2022, while global and US venture funding in the space contracted last year. 

European companies accounted for 20% of total global early-stage crypto startup funding. While Europe holds its weight in early-stage company funding, US companies dominated funding rounds of $100M+.

Europe has the largest number of crypto startups

Europe has the largest number of startups working on blockchain and crypto solutions – more than the US or Asia.

However, along the startup funding journey, the proportion of European startups decreases. As a result, US still leads the number of unicorns created.

Financial Services has received the largest share of VC funding in 2022.

More than half of the total investment in European crypto companies went to projects offering financial products and services, with Centralized Finance (CeFi) attracting $1.7B and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) accounting for $1.2B.

The second-most funded segment was blockchain infrastructure at $1.8B, with Layer1s ($440M) and developer tools ($364M) attracting large sums of capital.

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