Digital Asset Investment Firms Increase DeFi Funding while CeFi Investment Decreases

Investments in DeFi increased almost three times in 2022 and was an impressive 65 times more than the investments made in 2020

By Shashank Bhardwaj

2 min read

Published: Mar 9, 2023 07:26:41 PM IST

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Investment firms specialising in digital assets directed $2.7 billion towards decentralised finance (DeFi) projects in 2022, which was a 190 percent increase from the previous year.

At the same time, investments in centralised finance (CeFi) projects decreased by 73 percent to $4.3 billion over the same period.

Although the overall crypto funding figures dropped from $31.92 billion in 2021 to $18.25 billion in 2022 due to the market transitioning from a bullish to bearish trend, the amount invested in DeFi projects showed a remarkable growth.

Data from DefiLlama, as reported on March 1, suggests that DeFi may be the new area of high growth in the crypto industry. The report also indicates that the decline in funding for CeFi could be a sign of saturation in the sector.

Investments in DeFi projects increased almost three times in 2022 compared to the previous year and was an impressive 65 times more than the investments made in 2020, which marked the beginning of the last bull run.

The biggest DeFi funding of 2022 was LFG's $1 billion sale of LUNA tokens in February. However, three months after the sale, Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) and TerraClassicUSD (USTC) suffered a catastrophic collapse in May.

Uniswap, a decentralised exchange on Ethereum, raised $164 million, while Lido Finance, an Ethereum staking protocol, raised $94 million.

FTX and FTX US received the most significant CeFi funding in 2022, raising $800 million in January, which accounted for 18.6 percent of the total funding in this sector for that year.

However, the crypto exchanges collapsed only ten months after the fundraising and filed for bankruptcy.

Other investment areas included blockchain infrastructure and technology companies that raised $2.8 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively. This trend has been consistent over the last five years.

Shashank is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash