PwC Report Points to Banner Year for Crypto M&A and Fundraising Deals

The value of acquisitions in the first half of 2020 has already surpassed that of full-year 2019, according to a new report by PwC.

Oct 15, 2020 at 1:00 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:09 a.m. UTC

COVID-19 has not slowed crypto M&A. To wit, the value of industry acquisitions in the first half of 2020 has already surpassed that of full-year 2019, according to a report released Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Around $597 million was spent in 60 deals in the first half of 2020, compared to $481 million spent in all of 2019 for 125 deals, according to data that PwC aggregated from M&A data firms MergerMarket, Capital IQ, Crunchbase and Pitchbook.

That said, the acquisition of CoinMarketCap by Binance for a reported $400 million was one of the largest buys ever recorded in the industry.

This year is on track to rival 2018’s $1.9 billion total spent on acquisitions in the crypto space. The average size of a deal in 2019 was $19.2 million compared to $45.9 million in 2020.

The acquisitions for the first half of this year were driven by an increase in transactions involving crypto exchanges and trading infrastructure, and native crypto companies continue to be the most active purchasers in the space.

Funding rounds

The average amount of fundraising deals has also increased from $4.8 million in 2019 to $6.4 million in the first half of 2020, with a heavy emphasis on trading firms.

Most notably, crypto derivatives exchange Bakkt raked in a $300 million Series B in March.

Seed rounds still heavily dominate fundraising deals in the industry, making up 57% of 2019’s deals and half of H1 2020’s deals.

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