Data from research firm PitchBook shows that in the fourth quarter of 2023, total venture capital investment in cryptocurrency-related companies was US$1.9 billion, an increase of 2.5% from the previous quarter. This marks the first increase in venture capital funding for crypto startups since the third quarter of 2022.

PitchBook highlighted that the main crypto businesses that received funding mainly revolved around financial and technology solutions. These include tokenizing real-world assets, such as real estate and stocks on the blockchain, and building decentralized computing infrastructure. Some significant funding activity during the quarter involved crypto exchanges Swan Bitcoin and Blockchain.com, which secured $165 million and $100 million respectively. The most significant deal of the quarter also involved a $225 million investment in open-source blockchain development platform Wormhole.

Financial institutions’ growing interest in cryptocurrencies can be traced back to the launch of the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States late last year, according to PitchBook’s fourth-quarter report.