(Bloomberg) — Coinbase Global Inc. said its venture- capital arm dramatically increased its investments last year, pouring money into nearly 150 deals that focused in large part on supporting Web3 projects and services.
About 90% of the capital Coinbase Ventures allocated since its inception four year ago was deployed last year, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange said in a blog. The company didn’t give a total amount. Web3 has been described as a decentralized environment built on crypto technology in which swarms of collaborators take back control of the internet from giant tech companies.
The investments revved up right before the crypto economy was beset by a plunge in token prices after they reached record highs in November. Coinbase’s shares are down about 30% so far this year and trading at a record low since the company’s initial public offering in April 2021.
“The market appears uncertain in the near term, but the future appears brighter than it’s ever been,” Coinbase said in the blog.
Here are some other highlights:
- Coinbase Ventures has been investing in DeFi projects on a variety of blockchains, including Solana, Cosmos, Algorand, Polkadot, NEAR and Bitcoin.
- It’s also “heavily” invested in nonfungible tokens, just as Coinbase readies to launch its own NFT marketplace. It’s invested in startups focused on avatars and gaming, for example.
- “In 2022, look for a host of new gaming titles and applications, including those launched by traditional gaming studios,” the blog post said — including from the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Meta.
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